Plain words with a plain meaning
in them no longer carried weight with a people who expected an orator to
delight as well as instruct them. The use of the tongue had become a
special branch of a statesman's education, and Caesar, feeling his
deficiency, used his leisure to put himself in training and to go to
school at Rhodes with the then celebrated Apollonius Molo. He had
recovered his property and his priesthood, and was evidently in no want of
money. He travelled with the retinue of a man of rank, and on his way to
Rhodes he fell in with an adventure which may be something more than
legend. When he was crossing the Aegean his vessel is said to have been
taken by pirates. They carried him to Pharmacusa,[3] an island off the
Carian coast, which was then in their possession, and there he was
detained for six weeks with three of his attendants, while the rest of his
servants were sent to the nearest Roman station to raise his ransom. The
pirates treated him with politeness. He joined in their sports, played
games with them, looked into their habits, and amused himself with them as
well as he could, frankly telling them at the same time that they would
all be hanged.
The ransom, a very large one, about L10,000, was brought and paid. Caesar
was set upon the mainland near Miletus, where, without a moment's delay,
he collected some armed vessels, returned to the island, seized the whole
crew while they were dividing their plunder, and took them away to
Pergamus, the seat of government in the Asiatic province, where they were
convicted and crucified.
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