By Rolf Lindgren – Source: Plutarch’s Lives
It was 75 BC on the Mediterranean Sea, Julius Caesar was just 25 years old, and he was captured by pirates.
The pirates knew Caesar was a young nobleman and could be ransomed off for a lot of money. The pirates decided to charge 20 talents for his release. 20 talents were worth a massive amount of money, basically around 1400 pounds of gold. But when Julius Caesar heard this, he said, “20 talents? That’s it? Just 20 talents? I am worth 50 talents!”
Mind you that 50 talents is worth 3500 pounds of gold.
The deal was made and Caesar sent messengers to fetch 50 talents. After waiting about a month, the gold was delivered, and Caesar was released.
Caesar being Caesar, what did Caesar do next? He rounded up a fleet, went back to the pirates’ cove, recovered his gold and captured all the pirates.
Then Julius Caesar crucified all the pirates on wooden crosses. Because Caesar was considered a nice guy in ancient times, he did the pirates one last favor. He slit their throats while on the cross so they would die sooner and reduce their pain.
Julius Caesar later became one most fabled military leaders of all time, and his further exploits will be covered in a future edition of the Wisconsin Conservative Digest.
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