DER PIRATENSCHILD 925 SS

Heraldic Pirate symbol, 29 x 40 mm, 925 sterling silver-plated, double-sided design

In antiquity, pirates were usually not distinguished from warring leaders, and their employment was often considered honorable. Accordingly, they were combated or paid in on the basis of opportunity. From about 1400-1200 BC, international maritime law existed in the Mediterranean, but it was not until around the time of the Attic-Delian Maritime League in the 5th century that the pirate's view of the enemy to the criminal changed. In the first century BC, Cicero described the pirates as enemies of humanity, to whom no promise or oath could be kept. After a period of relative insignificance of the law of the sea, this view was consolidated in the High Middle Ages in the blanket declaration of peacelessness by the pirate, who was supposedly outside the Christian community. This continued until the 19th century in the right to kill pirates at sea at any time without further ado. While the Jolly Roger symbol (crossed bones with skull) stood more for the honorable pirates, The Pitenschild united the lower scum of the free-robbers among themselves. Those who did not plunder on behalf of the government, but plundered for their "own hunger".