As a young man, Julius Caesar was kidnapped by pirates and told them their ransom was too low.
Captured in the Aegean around 75 BC, Caesar reportedly laughed at the pirates' demand and insisted they ask for more than double. While waiting for the ransom he joked that he would return and crucify them all.
Why is this true?
After his release he raised a fleet, captured the pirates and had them executed, exactly as promised. The story comes from ancient biographers and was told to show the confidence he had from the start.
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More about famous people
Famous people accumulate stories, and only some of them are true. The entries in this category stick to documented episodes: the patents, the letters, the odd habits recorded by people who were actually there. Where a story is commonly retold in an exaggerated form, the explanation says so, which makes these facts safer to repeat than the version that usually circulates online.