Probably one of the first cases of terrorist attacks upon a major state were those by what were termed, for want of a better word, 'The Sea Peoples', believed by some to have inherited their sailing and ship building skills from the Minoans and the Mycenae civilizations. The roots of these nomadic tribes have been traced to central European Caucasus region. A birds head motif common to the region used in religious ceremonies has been discovered to have been carried upon the foremost part of their ships in much the same way as did the Romans place a swan upon the after part of their ships. In the eyes of the Egyptians these were people were a ghost like phenomena coming from unknown regions; ethereal, intransient, flickering images; more spirit than human.

They have been compared to a combination of Hun and Viking, only worse. They had developed the Minoan single banked sailing galley, the forerunner of the Pentekoster. These ships were fast under both sail and oar, had no decking at the rowing positions, vertical stanchions holding out the side planking thereby allowing the rowers to duck under cover in the midst of battle. Mass migrations of these peoples ,( not raids or invasions), began in 1220 bce consisting of the Luka from Asia Minor, the Achaeans from either mainland Greece or Crete, and the Skeklesh, the Sherdon, and the Turksha; the latter three reappearing 500 years later as the Sikels, the Sardinians and the Tyrseanoi (Etruscans).

A catastrophe was know to have occurred to both Mycenae and Minoan states as there has been discovered a systematic destruction of temples and palaces in coastal areas in the 13th century BC to which no logical explanation can be attributed outside of natural disaster which seems to be an unlikely one when taking in the systematic destruction within such a short period of time. It was at this time that the culture of Mycenae fell into decline, the art of writing lost not to be revived until the introduction of the Phonecian Alpha bet via Syria before it succumbed to barbarians.

There is archeological evidence suggesting that in 1200 BC and again in 1150 Mycenae was destroyed. There is no evidence that a similar fate pertained to the palaces and temples of Crete,Thesally,Eastern Attica, the Aegean Island or the north western Peloponnesian region .After this date all evidence of culture and writing ended as did that pertaining to the basic skills in the manufacturing of masonry and vases. Whole populations were decimated or removed to Cyprus and the Aegean Islands. This corresponds with the Egyptian account of the origin of the Sea Peoples as coming from Greece who then went on to decimate Cyprus before invading Egypt.

There exists an account of a communications between King of Ugarit and his prefect of Ulaisha establishing the fact that the sea peoples organized their fleets into squadrons of between 7 and 20 ships. Strategy at sea during the Bronze Age consisted of the obtaining of information from ones allies regarding enemy fleet movement in order to mount sieges on the land bases supporting these fleets. The sea people�s method of attack was to approach an isolated settlement, put it to the torch, and to then disappear before the arrival of a military or naval force. That they were so good at picking the most opportune moment must be put down to the fact that they were good oarsmen as in order to reach there target at the correct time they could not rely upon wind alone.

King Ramses III of Egypt in his seventh reginal year (1176) had fought a battle with them on the coast of Egypt. On his temple mausoleum at Medna Habu (Luxor) is a depiction of that battle. The ships of the sea peoples are shown sails furled, oars stowed and at anchor .It can be but theorized that Ramses had obtained prior knowledge of the arrival of the fleet of the Sea Peoples and caught them in a bay, at anchor and unawares. The Egyptians method of attack would be to rain arrows indirectly upon the ships of the Sea People and when weakened to approach and use the only specialized ship-to-ship weapon available at the time, the grapple hook, a four pronged device used to ensnare the masts and the rigging of enemy ships. Ships during this period were constructed without a keel, a vertical double truss employed so as to stiffen the hull. This bipod also served as the mast. The idea was to catch the truss with the grapple, the ship then towed until reaching an angle which would cause it to capsize.

During the 12th century the Sea Peoples had put such pressure upon the Hittites with attacks from the Caspian they bought about their collapse causing them to scatter to the four corners of the then known world, the Hittites taking with them the secret of making iron. Iron was no better or harder than copper but one advantage it had over it was the fact that the components needed to make it, namely iron ore, were always close at hand, unlike those needed in order to work copper, copper deposits confined to local areas. With this knowledge came a widening of the shipping lanes and even a reversal of the clockwise sailing directions, albeit for only limited stretches, the ability to place a thin metal chain shroud over the square sail allowing the ships to sail closer to the wind and subsequently bringing about an increase in trade.

Egyptian interest in the Mediterranean centered on the Syrian-Canaanite coast where she endeavored to gain economic and political domination. King Tutmose III during the era of the New Kingdom in order to extend his power eastwards was able to, due to the invention of a pro keel (canted double masts stiffened from bow to stern with thick chords),was able to construct ships in the Nile which were then sailed from the Alexandria coastal region to be disassembled at the Levant, and then transported across the western desert to be again reassembled on the shore of the Red Sea. This Egyptian expansion however was only transitory as the depredations of the Sea Peoples had placed Egypt in a political and economic isolation from which she never fully recovered. Along with fighting off the Sea Peoples Egypt was under attack by barbarian tribes stationed in Libya.

During the Roman era -following his victory at Actium Augustus based the fleet at Frejus in Gallic Narbonesses in order to form a barrier against barbarians coming into Italy and as a supply point for troops stationed upon the right bank of the Danube. The greatest threat to the empire was the German, Dacian and the Bohemian barbarians, and from the nomads coming from the Steppes of Russia. Under the Emperor Tiberius 15 legions had been stationed at Illyricum and Macedonia while under Claudius there were 18-20 legions, 200,000 men in all, including auxiliaries and the sailors and marines of the fleet. A linear defence system, a continuation of what was know by the legionaries as the devils wall, ran along the Rhine for 166 km then following the course of the Danube to reach the eastern provinces . Under Augustus there had been five legions on the Rhine, during the reign of Vespasian the number of legions stationed in this region had been increased to 7.Egypt was much calmer than the northern frontier having during the reign of Augustus only three legions and only two during the reign of Vespasian. During the reign of Antonius Pius the number dropped to just one, this number of legions constant right up the reign of Aurelian.

All along the Black Sea were isolated military posts facing north wards facing an independent kingdom. In the east alliances were formed and even with the revolts in Palmyra under Zenobia the army never approached the size of that stationed in Germany. In the south an average of two legions sufficed backed up by the ships of Classis Alexandria, the barbarian threat almost non -existent.. This fact is even more poignant when considering the fact that Egypt was the original breadbasket of Rome to be eventually replaced by Cyrenaica, present day western Libya .

Mauritania Caesars formed the southern border , a coastal strip guarded by detachments of legionary axillaries and detachment from the Alexandrian and Syrian fleets. Roads separated the Roman portions from the independent Mauritania to the south. The extreme western portion of the empires border in Africa ended at Tingilana adjacent present day Gibraltar, a very compact area adjacent the Maghreb desert. Little military activity was under taken here. In the west as the tribes had been subdued by Julius Cesar and had little desire to revolt, the barbarian threat again non -existent.

In 267AD the emergence of Goths from the river Euxine into the Mediterranean signaled the beginning of the barbarian invasions. Stationed at Misenium in the west at Ravenna in the east, with detachments at Naples and at various ports scattered throughout the Mediterranean the Roman Navy ,now an anti pirate force, was unable to stop them signaling the beginning of the end of the African colonies ,which were eventually over run by Vandals of Gaiseric .

Rome itself was overwhelmed by Teutonic and Iranian speaking barbarians, in 410AD the Visigoths sacking Rome , the Vandals repeating this action in 455.The last Roman Emperor Romulus Magnuflux was dismissed by the barbarian Odovacar effectively bringing the western empire to an end leaving Zeno in the east ,the co emperor, as the sole emperor of the Roman world.

This dismissal had been bought about by the fact that the barbarian tribes had ,over the years ,throughout the empire, built up an ever increasing presence; becoming incorporated into the army and then ,as they gained citizenship, working their way upwards into the ranks of the governing classes. They eventually became landlords and were not adverse to selling land to newly arriving barbarians whose first loyalty was to their tribe. The eastern portion of the empire was also wracked by the same civil wars as those occurring in the west. Unlike the west however they had not allowed the barbarian into government .Instead they had filled the administration with professionals who were Roman citizens and who, if not honest, at least knew which side their bread was buttered on instinctively keeping the system going.

North west Africa was re conquered form the Vandals and their Kingdoms destroyed by the emperor Justinian I Thracian general Belisuarus.In Italy he went on to defeat the Ostrogothic successor states which took 26 years to do and in to the bargain causing a crushing tax burden on the Rome's Levantine colonies.Justinain then went on to attack the Visigoths in Spain giving the East Romans command of the Mediterranean .Seven years later the Lombard's poured down into Italy to fill the vacuum who were much more ferocious than were the Visigoths and their cousins the Ostrogoths and, for the first time since the founding the empire in 264 BC ,shattering it into a multitude of barbarian states. Justinian was a nephew of the emperor Justin, a Valck peasant who had worked his way up the chain of military command, a proud Latin speaker in a country now composed of primarily Greek speakers. It is understood that Justinian was Justin's mentor and in effect the ruler of the Roman world, both during Justin's stewardship ,and with his own succession.

In 455 the empire began to suffer barbarian invasions the most serious that of the Vandals in 455 and that of the Alan�s and Suevi in 406 -8 .Britain did not suffer as much as did the rest of western empire as the attacks there were gradual and did not encompass the whole of the island .The barbarian king Theodoric the Ostrogoth set up an empire in Italy, Clovis set up a contemporary empire in Gaul; the Merovingian empire .These barbarians had been previously converted to Catholicism but as the invaders distinguished themselves by adopting the Arian form of Chiristianity.King Reccored conversion to Catholicism bought a substantial portion of the barbarian population over to Catholicism. In 567 Clovis had defeated the Visigoths and confined them to a coastal strip between the eastern end of the Pyrenees and the mouth of the river Rhone. By the time of his death he had united all of Gaul with the exception of Provence which had been taken from the Visigoths by the Ostogoths.This Merovingian Empire might have replaced the Western Roman Empire had not the descendants of Clovis treated it as private property.

During the 3rd century invasions by trans Danubian barbarians caused the northern Balkans to be occupied by Slavs who went on to occupy the greater portion of the Peloponnesus ,the Latin speaking Vlacks (Sheppard�s) the sole survivors along with the East Romans in the cities of Thessalonica and Constantinople. These Slav people were really no match for the East Romans as they were disunited and easily controlled; however, with the arrival of the Bulgars on their northern borders, there was a race to see who could gain control of them first. v By 773AD Charlemagne had united the Frankish kingdoms and those of the Lombards in Italy .The Frankish empire of Charlemagne, although a neighbor of the East Romans, did not harass the Romans as much as did the Bulgars. The Roman emperor Niciphorus I lost his life to them as he planted Arian Greek and Turkish settlements between the Aegean and the Adriatic in order to keep them out .The frontier was finally stabilized in 904 with the building of a wall enclosing the two cities , this wall at places skirting Thessalonica by 22 kilo meters. In 864 Bulgaria became less of a threat as it converted to the Eastern Roman version of Christianity.

During the 7th century the capital ,Constantinople, came under constant assault from the sea. The capital managed to hold out; defeating fleet after fleet of would be Moslem invaders. Constantinople was in a good defensive position as the east Romans were able to station their fleet within the confines of the Golden Horn, a large bay to the north of the city, the entrance guarded by a chain link. At one time a Saracen fleet was allowed to enter in to this harbor, the chain across the mouth then pulled up, the Romans ships then igniting the sails and the rigging of the Saracens with what was called at the time Greek Fire, a mixture of Naphtha and other chemicals combusting upon contact. This device, invented by the Syrian refugee Callinicus, was one of the most important pieces technologies of the Byzantine period.

Alp Arsalan took the east Roman Emperor prisoner at the battle of Manzikertca thus allowing the Suljeq Turks to occupy Asia Minor .Slavs were now ,(with the loss of this territory containing the majority of the European population) , the majority. Their culture was to flow into the Russian interior founded by Turkish speaking Huns and Teutonic speaking Swedes The empire held back the forces of Islam long enough to allow the western part of the Western Roman Empire, now the present day Europe, enough time to gain sufficient strength to defend themselves, in the fifteenth century Constantinople finally falling to the Turks, the Eastern Roman Empire now extinguished.

In the land of the old western empire Charlemagne had gained territory of the east Romans in Italy and had defeated the Saxons on their northern border; however the counter attacks were deadly. In all it took him 28 years to conquer and to prevail against them .He was during this time attacked by Basques tribesmen from Spain, and by Bretons from what is now coastal France. Charlemagne went on to conquer territory of the Saxons between the Rhine and the Elba as had Augustus over half a century earlier. With the extension of his border to the south to the territory of the Danes he incurred what was to be a continuing source of terror, the invasions of the Vikings into the whole of Europe. The Saxon king of the East Francia (France) defeated the Magyars in 955and was now crowned Otto I, King of Rome.

In 1071 the Normans completed the conquest of the East Roman territory of Apulia and Calabria in Italy by taking first Bari. In 1066 they conquered Britain.

Scandinavia had been in touch with the Western Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus with his drive on the Elbe and for three centuries afterwards. The successor Saxon states isolated the Scandinavian peoples from the outside world. With the invasion of the Franks into their domain they again came in touch with a superior civilization causing a catastrophic western expansion as far as Greenland to the shores of North America, and in the east to the Caspian Sea region. In addition they expanded to the outlaying islands of the Carolingian Empire and to Britain and its outlaying islands. Settlements followed upon the heels of the raiding party�s .In Greenland they displaced the local population, in Iceland there was no opposition as it was uninhabited. In England the locals came to an agreement by paying a tax known as Dan law in return for being left alone .However despite this raids sometimes occurred.

Settlements were also founded in Normandy and most importantly in Russia by the Rhos tribe who gave the country its name and who were eventually assimilated by the indigenous Slavic population.

The Christian policy towards these invaders was to tame them over a period of sometimes one hundred years. When they invaded the Carolingian Empire the response was to ,with the aid of Louis the Pious, convert them to Roman Catholicism, thus bringing the country under the domain of the Pope.Similiarly when they attacked Constantinople the East Romans installed their own Arch Bishop and Bishop in Kiev ,the Viking center of operation for invading the Dnieper and the Don river thus placing them under their own suzerainty .

King Harald Gormasson ,king of Denmark was converted to Roman Catholicism in 974 as part of the price paid to Otto II of the Carolingian Empire for invading his domain . Olaf Tryggvoson imposed Roman Catholicism upon Norway .The resistance in both instances was violent but in the end the Catholic religion prevailed.

Barbarian, they come, cause great havoc during their stay, and then go leaving nothing behind to indicate that they were even alive but for the changes wrought in the ongoing direction of the great civiliazations.They are in effect a catalyst which after causing the major players to veer from their established course disappear from the record and even from memory, their only legacy one of subconscious, undefined fear.