How did the Roman navy protect Mediterranean trade routes from piracy?

To protect Mediterranean trade routes from piracy, Rome transitioned from using large, heavy warships to deploying a specialized, lighter vessel known as the liburnian.1

Originally developed by pirates themselves, the liburnian was a fast, agile unireme to which the Romans added a second bank of oars, making it the ideal man-of-war for patrolling and escorting merchant vessels. Beyond these tactical naval adjustments, Rome also addressed the systemic threat of piracy through decisive political and military action. In 67 BCE, the Roman assembly granted Pompey the Great extraordinary powers to eliminate the pirate problem. Pompey successfully cleared the seas and resettled former pirates as peaceful farmers, an effort that contributed to his broader reorganization of the Roman East and the establishment of a stable defensive frontier system.12