Julius Caesar was captured by pirates
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🔗 via britannica.com.
Highlights
In 75 BCE a band of Cilician pirates in the Aegean Sea captured a 25-year-old Roman nobleman named Julius Caesar, who had been on his way to study oratory in Rhodes
From the start, Caesar simply refused to behave like a captive. When the pirates told him that they had set his ransom at the sum of 20 talents, he laughed at them for not knowing who it was they had captured and suggested that 50 talents would be a more appropriate amount. He then sent his entourage out to gather the money and settled in for a period of captivity. The pirates must have been dumbfounded. It’s not every day that a hostage negotiates his ransom up.
Caesar made himself at home among the pirates, bossing them around and shushing them when he wanted to sleep. He made them listen to the speeches and poems that he was composing in his unanticipated downtime and berated them as illiterates if they weren’t sufficiently impressed. He would participate in the pirates’ games and exercises, but he always addressed them as if he were the commander and they were his subordinates. From time to time he would threaten to have them all crucified. They took it as a joke from their overconfident, slightly nutty captive.
After 38 days, the ransom was delivered and Caesar went free. Astonishingly, Caesar managed to raise a naval force in Miletus—despite holding no public or military office—and he set out in pursuit of the pirates. He found them still camped at the island where he had been held, and he brought them back as his captives. When the governor of Asia seemed to vacillate about punishing them, Caesar went to the prison where they were being held and had them all crucified
- In 75 BCE, Cilician pirates captured the Roman nobleman Julius Caesar, demanding a ransom of 20 talents, which Caesar insisted be raised to 50 talents, recognising his own value.
- While in captivity, Caesar adopted a superior attitude, giving orders to the pirates, expecting them to listen to his writings, and jokingly threatening to crucify them.
- Once his ransom was paid after 38 days, Caesar, although not in a military role, raised a naval force in Miletus and pursued the pirates, capturing them.
- Caesar had the pirates crucified after the governor of Asia hesitated to punish them.