> The Caesar ref that Shane invokes I don't get. Pompey, Caesar's
>rival, cleared the Mediterranean of pirates.
The story, found in both Plutarch and Suetonius, is that the young Caesar, while on service in the Eastern Mediterranean, was captured by Cilician pirates and held for ransom. When they asked for a ransom of 20 talents Caesar was outraged and told them that this was a paltry sum to ask for a Caesar and insisted that the sum be 50. While awaiting the arrival of the ransom Caesar maintained a congenial relationship with his hosts even though he constantly reminded them that, once freed, he would return and hang them all. This he did, even though, once captured, they became subject to Roman judicial process and therefore escaped hanging--all were crucified.
Pompey's campaign against piracy in the Mediterranean took place shortly after this. At that time Caesar and Pompey were not yet rivals--Pompey's rival was Caesar's friend and bankroller Marcus Crassus, and Caesar's political objective was to reconcile the two men. His success in this led to the "first triumvirate" and to Pompey, though much older, becoming Caesar's son-in-law. It was only after the death of Julia that the break between Caesar and Pompey, which ultimately resulted in Pompey's serving as the optimates' front man in the first stage of the bellum civile, took place.
Shane Mage
"When we read on a printed page the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems mystical, mystifying, even downright silly.
When we read on a computer screen the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems self-evidently true." (N. Weiner)
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