Ferryman of the Styx

Venice was a maritime powerhouse, but its native population was not large. There were clearly not enough locals to crew all its ships, so paying foreigners to serve them was the simplest and most effective method.

Genoa lay on the northern shore of the Gulf of Genoa on the Ligurian Sea and was another center of shipbuilding in Italy. It rose to prominence even earlier than Venice. The Genoese had established navigation schools and libraries early on, as well as a navy. Through trade with the Arabs across the sea, they learned much about navigation, and from Arab pirates, they learned the art of plunder. Before long, they abandoned their teachers and joined forces with the nearby Republic of Pisa to drive the Arabs out of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

To understand Caesar, one did not necessarily have to become Caesar. The "kindhearted" Venetians would not become pirates like the Genoese; they simply paid pirates to work for them.

Besides the Normans, the Mediterranean during the Viking Age also had Saracen pirates. In the eighth and ninth centuries, the Saracen pirates mainly targeted southern Italy. Even after the Ottoman Empire began, its navy was made up of pirates. For example, the Ottoman Sultan appointed the pirate Kurtoglu as naval commander, while Redbeard, famous in pirate history, also became an Ottoman naval commander after offering North Africa to Suleiman.

Religions and philosophies taught people to do good, yet many times they had no choice but to live beside evil. Not far inland from Torcello Island's pier stood a small arched bridge—the Devil's Bridge, where legend said a witch had made a bargain with the devil.

It looked... utterly ordinary, with nothing special about it at all.

In the tale of the Deathly Hallows, three brothers used magic to build a bridge over