Ancient history

How Julius Caesar killed the pirates who kidnapped him when he was on his way to study with Apolonio Molón in Rhodes

Apolonio Molón, also known as Molón de Rodas, was certainly cool . In the first decades of the 1st century B.C. there was no more famous orator in the entire Mediterranean. He was born in Alabanda, a Greek city in Caria (today present-day Doganyurt on the southwestern coast of Turkey). He studied under Menecles, whom he soon surpassed, and settled on the island of Rhodes, where he founded a school of rhetoric that became so famous that students flocked to it from all over the ancient world.

In addition, Apollonius performed diplomatic functions for the Rhodians, and as their ambassador he visited Rome on two occasions. We know this from the testimony of Cicero, who claims to have received his teachings in Rome in 88 BC. and again in 81 BC, when Sulla was already dictator.

His reputation in Rome was held in such high esteem that he was even allowed to address the Senate in the Greek language, an unusual honor accorded a foreign ambassador. Ancient sources state that he was also a great writer, dealing mainly with rhetoric and studies of the Homeric poems. Unfortunately, none of his works have been preserved.

In 77 BC Cicero stopped for a while in Rhodes on his return from Athens, where he had studied with Antiochus of Ascalon and Posidonius of Apamea, to continue his training with Apollonius, whom he was able to see in action as a lawyer in court, and as a teacher in his school. .

A year earlier, in 78 B.C. Julius Caesar began his career as a lawyer in the Roman Forum, where he soon stood out for the quality of his oratory. Successes and failures followed one another and he understood that he needed to improve, study rhetoric and philosophy. So he decided to get down to work, and what better teacher than the famous Apolonio Molón.

Thus, in the year 74 B.C. According to Suetonius (although Plutarch's version places the event earlier, on his return from his stay in Bithynia with Nicomedes IV), Caesar was on his way to Rhodes with his retinue when his galley was intercepted by pirates off the island of Farmacousa, the present-day Farmakonisi halfway between the Dodecanese and the west coast of Turkey. According to Plutarch's account:

For 38 days he remained captive together with two assistants and one of his doctors, during which he dedicated himself to composing speeches and reading them to the pirates, whom he used to call ignorant and barbarians when they did not applaud him, confident that the prospect of profit would It prevented him from doing any harm. At the same time he politely warned them that, once released, he would crucify them or hang them, which they used to take as a joke, unaware of who they were dealing with.

At the end of that time, the ransom money arrived, contributed by the allied cities of the Asian province, and César and his people were released. Then they went to Miletus, where they assembled a squad and returned to the island, to see with surprise that the innocent pirates were still there:

Taken to Pergamon before June, the ruler of Asia, he chose to leave to Caesar the decision about the punishment that was to be applied to them. As he had warned them, he had them crucified, yes, ordering that they beheaded first out of compassion , and in view of how well they had treated him in his captivity.

Neither Plutarch nor Suetonius nor other sources tell us what happened next, whether Caesar finally came to visit Apollonius in Rhodes and study with him or not. Plutarch gives us a clue, and let each one interpret it to his liking: