Julius Caesar, on a voyage to Rhodes, fell into the hands of pirates, with whom he remained prisoner nearly 40 days, attended only with one physician and two valets de chambre , for he had dismissed the rest of his retinue to raise money for his ransom. Fifty talents* were no sooner paid, and he set on shore, than he put to sea again in pursuit of the pirates, whom he took and executed, as he had often threatened them in raillery while he was yet their prisoner.
However, he was not of a revengeful temper. Indeed the oath he made to crucify the pirates obliged him to be as good as his word. To deaden their sense of the lingering pains of the cross he commanded them first to be strangled.
朱利葉斯．愷撒有一次赴羅德斯島，途中落在海盜手上，成為階下囚，前後將近四十天，陪伴在側的只有一個醫師、兩個男僕，其他隨從則奉命去取錢給他贖身。贖身錢是五十個泰蘭特*，支付之後，愷撒獲送回岸上。他馬上再度出海，追趕那些海盜，捉拿之後，全部處死：他被俘虜期間，就常以玩笑口吻警告那些海盜說，會把他們拘捕處決。
不過，愷撒報復之心並不強烈。他發過誓，要把那些海盜釘十字架，不能背棄誓言。為免他們在十字架上慢慢痛苦死去，他下令先把那些海盜絞死。
*泰蘭特是古代希臘和羅馬用的貨幣單位。