While a number of Roman naval expeditions were sent to the coast of Asia Minor over the course of several decades to deal with Cilician piracy, most of them either failed completely or served only to temporarily push the pirates into hiding. In 67 B.C., Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, known as Pompey, had risen to powerful heights in the Roman military. Although he was greatly feared and distrusted by the Roman Senate, Pompey was given virtually unlimited power and funding to destroy Cilician piracy in the eastern Mediterranean. With this power, Pompey led an enormous armada of warships into the sea and swept the pirate fleets onto the coast of Cilicia.

After a short siege of the last pirate holdout in the port of Coracesium, Pompey arranged a peaceful solution for the pirates and gave them the opportunity to either quit seafaring and move inland or face his wrath. Completely overwhelmed, the pirates capitulated and accepted Pompey's mercy. During Pompey's campaign many thousands of pirates were killed, hundreds of ships destroyed, and scores of ports and harbors destroyed. The campaign lasted only forty days, and piracy in the Mediterranean was reduced to isolated incidents for the next 400 years.