The Pirates Who Thought Caesar Was Joking
Julius Caesar in 75 BC was not yet famous. The scion of an ancient but not particularly powerful patrician family, his gens, the Julii, had roots that stretched back to before Rome had even been founded. That year, he sailed across the Aegean Sea to the island of Rhodes to study oratory – a common practice for ambitious young Romans who sought to enter politics. Unfortunately, a band of pirates from Cilicia – a region of southern Asia Minor notorious at the time for piracy – captured his ship and held him for ransom. That was unfortunate for Caesar, whose voyage and the start of his oratorical studies was delayed. It was even more unfortunate for the pirates.
The young Caesar differed from other captives previously encountered by the pirates. Rather than quake in fear, he became familiar with them. Not familiar enough, though, to abandon the air of superiority that was part and parcel of Roman aristocrats. When the pirates told him that they wanted a ransom of twenty silver talents – roughly 1400 pounds of silver, he scoffed at their ignorance. Instead, he suggested that fifty talents – about 3500 pounds of silver – was more appropriate for a nobleman of his pedigree. The pirates thought it was funny that their hostage negotiated for a higher ransom, and went along with it. As seen below, he continued to amaze them with his sublime confidence as they awaited the ransom.