[429] The district known to the ancients as Persis or Persia proper, corresponds roughly to the modern province of Fars. Its capital city was Persepolis, near the modern city of Schiraz.
[430] The capital of Macedonia, Alexander's native city.
[431] χοῦς a liquid measure containing 12 κοτύλαι of 5.46 pints apiece.
[432] The Greek word hero means a semi-divine personage, who was worshipped, though with less elaborate ritual than a god.
[433] £2,300,000. Grote, following Diodorus, raises the total even higher, to twelve thousand talents, or £2,760,000. "History of Greece," part ii. ch. xciv.
[434] The Greek text here is corrupt. I have endeavoured to give what appears to have been Plutarch's meaning.
LIFE OF C. CÆSAR.
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 Cæsar to part with her. The cause of the enmity between Cæsar and Sulla was Cæsar's relationship to Marius; for the elder Marius was the husband of Julia the sister of Cæsar's father, and Julia was the mother of the younger Marius, who was consequently Cæsar's cousin. Cæsar 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 Cæsar, 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 Cæsar 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 Cæsar 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 Cæsar 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 secured most of them. All their property he made his booty; but the pirates, he lodged in prison at Pergamum, and then went to Junius,[443] who, as governor of the provinces of Asia, was the proper person to punish the captives. But as the governor was casting a longing eye on the booty, which was valuable, and said he would take time to consider about the captives, Cæsar without more ado, left him and going straight to Pergamum took all the pirates out of prison and crucified them, as he had often told them he would do in the island when they thought he was merely jesting.