1/4) In 75 BC, a band of pirates captured a young Roman nobleman who was on his way to study in Rhodes. From the start the 25-year-old Julius Caesar refused to behave like a captive. When the pirates told him that they had set his ransom at the sum of 20 talents of silver...

2/4) ..he laughed at them for not knowing who it was they had captured and demanded they raise his ransom to 50 talents! Settling in to wait for the ransom to arrive, Caesar bossed the pirates around, made them listen to his speeches and shushed them whenever he wanted to sleep..

3/4) ..always addressing the pirates as if he were their commander and they were his subordinates. In the 38 days it took for the ransom to arrive, Caesar would often tell his captors that after his release he would return and crucify them all - at which they would merely laugh..

4/4) ..When he was finally released, Caesar went to Miletus and quickly raised his own naval force despite holding no formal office of any kind. He soon caught the pirates and brought them back to land as his captives, where he fulfilled his promise and had them all crucified.

The brilliant story of young Julius Caesar's capture by Cilician pirates is told by Plutarch in his "Life of Julius Caesar" (2): http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Caesar*.html

#roman #history #courage #bravery #confidence #audacity #chutzpah