This paper deals with the issue of piracy of indigenous peoples who lived on the eastern coast of the Adriatic in antiquity. By analyzing the news from ancient historiography, which are traditionally used as confirmation of piracy in the Adriatic, an attempt will be made to reexamine the reasons why Histri, Liburnians and Illyrians were characterized as pirates. The traditional point of view about unbridled and dangerous piracy, which was suppressed by the Roman state, will be opposed by the opinion that the Roman goal was actually to stop the growth and expansion of the power of other nations in an area that was of strategic importance to them. It will consider the possibility that labeling the people as pirates was part of a Roman political strategy to discredit political enemies and their activities and find justification for starting a war. It will be shown that in that period, in which there were no comprehensive legal systems, it is not easy to draw a clear line between illegal piracy and legal warfare when the constituent elements of violence and robbery are the same. It will be shown how the campaigns of the Illyrian rulers in certain periods took on such proportions that a conclusion can be drawn about the possibility that many of their decisions were motivated by political goals.