The people of Cilicia were accordingly half sailors, half mountaineers.

They built swift galleys, and made excursions in great force over the Mediterranean Sea for conquest and plunder.

They would capture single ships, and sometimes even whole fleets of merchantmen.

They were even strong enough on many occasions to land and take possession of a harbor and a town, and hold it, often, for a considerable time, against all the efforts of the neighboring powers to dislodge them.

In case, however, their enemies became at any time too strong for them, they would retreat to their harbors, which were so defended by the fortresses which guarded them, and by the desperate bravery of the garrisons, that the pursuers generally did not dare to attempt to force their way in; and if, in any case, a town or a port was taken, the indomitable savages would continue their retreat to the fastnesses of the mountains, where it was utterly useless to attempt to follow them.
[Sidenote: The Cilicians wanting in poets and historians.] [Sidenote: Robbers and pirates.] But with all their prowess and skill as naval combatants, and their hardihood as mountaineers, the Cilicians lacked one thing which is very essential in every nation to an honorable military fame.