Julius Caesar and the Cilician Pirates
Julius Caesar and the Cilician Pirates In 75 BC, on his way to Rhodes to study oratory, Caesar had the misfortune to be captured by Cilician pirates near the little island of Pharmacusa (Fermaco) off the coast of Asia Minor. These men at once demanded a ransom of twenty talents, but with great bravado their elegant young captive laughed at their ignorance of his social importance, and, telling them that he was worth at least fifty, dispatched his attendants to raise the larger sum at Miletus and other not distant cities where his family was known For five or six weeks he lived in the pirates' camp, treating his bloodthirsty captors with such a mixture of insolence and patronizing banter that it is a marvel his throat was not cut. He insisted upon joining in their sports and exercises, running races with them and jeering at them for not being able to beat him. Around the camp-fire at night he used to read them his own poetry, and when they did not applaud he smacked their heads and...