During what centuries were there pirates?

Define "pirate." If it includes a people who plundered other peoples property by boat, I guess you would need to say it started with the Norsemen and containued to the present day.

If you're talking about pirates as on the bounding main, then they've been around as long as man has traveled the waterways.

Pirates have been around for pretty much ever. Pirates are people who steal things basicly.

My parents ran into pirates (I just noticed how much those two words look alike!) when sailing the gulf of Mexico a few years back. We have always hada pirates, as long as men have sailed the seas, rivers, lakes. THey are the highwaymen of the waters.

Every century that boats existed, there have been pirates.

NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They STILL exist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Welcome to the real world!

Piracy has been around since man first took the sea in ships. They were chronicled by the ancient Greeks. The Vikings were pirates and there still are pirates operating on the Somali Coast and in the Malacca Straits near Singapore...among other places.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy

When people talk about pirates, most of the time they are refering to the "golden age" of piracy - the "Pirates of the Caribbean".

The era of piracy in the Caribbean Sea began in the 16th century and died out in the 1720s after the navies of the nations of Western Europe with colonies in the Caribbean began combating pirates. The period during which pirates were most successful was from the 1690s until the 1720s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_in_the_Caribbean

well this one is one.