I.[435] When Sulla got possession of the supreme power, he confiscated the marriage portion of Cornelia[436] the daughter of Cinna[437] who had once enjoyed the supremacy in Rome, because he could not either by promises or threats induce Caesar to part with her.  The cause of the enmity between Caesar and Sulla was Caesar’s relationship to Marius; for the elder Marius was the husband of Julia the sister of Caesar’s father, and Julia was the mother of the younger Marius, who was consequently Caesar’s cousin.  Caesar was not content with being let alone by Sulla, who was at first fully occupied with the proscriptions and other matters, but he presented himself to the people as a candidate for a priesthood,[438] though he had hardly arrived at man’s estate.  But Sulla by his opposition contrived to exclude him from this office, and even thought of putting him to death; and when some observed that there was no reason in putting to death such a youth, Sulla observed, that they had no sense if they did not see many Marii in this boy.  These words were conveyed to Caesar, who thereupon concealed himself by wandering about for some time in the Sabine country.  On one occasion when he was changing his place of abode on account of sickness, he fell in by night with the soldiers of Sulla who were scouring those parts and seizing on those who were concealed.  But Caesar got away by giving Cornelius,[439] who was in command of the soldiers, two talents, and going straightway down to the coast he took ship and sailed to Bithynia to King Nicomedes,[440] with whom he stayed no long time.  On his voyage from Bithynia, he was captured near the island Pharmacusa[441] by pirates,[442] who at that time were in possession of the seas with a powerful force and numerous ships.

II.  The pirates asked Caesar twenty talents for his ransom, on which he laughed at them for not knowing who their prize was, and he promised to give them fifty talents.  While he dispatched those about him to various cities to raise the money, he was left with one friend and two attendants among these Cilician pirates, who were notorious for their cruelty, yet he treated them with such contempt that whenever he was lying down to rest, he would send to them and order them to be quiet.  He spent eight and thirty days among them, not so much like a prisoner as a prince surrounded by his guards, and he joined in their sports and exercises with perfect unconcern.  He also wrote poems and some speeches which he read to them, and those who did not approve of his compositions he would call to their faces illiterate fellows and barbarians, and he would often tell them with a laugh that he would hang them all.  The pirates were pleased with his manners, and attributed this freedom of speech to simplicity and a mirthful disposition.  As soon as the ransom came from Miletus and Caesar had paid it and was set at liberty, he manned some vessels in the port of Miletus and went after the pirates, whom he found still on the island, and he