for the inhabitants of these cities,
having neither a place of retreat, nor the means of subsistence, naturally
turned their thoughts to piracy, having been accustomed to sea affairs, and
to commerce. In this they were encouraged by Mithridates, and assisted by
some persons of considerable rank and wealth. The inability of the Romans
to attend to them, and the success and encouragement they obtained, induced
them to conduct their piracies on a regular, systematic, and extensive
plan. Their ships were constantly at sea: all commerce was interrupted;
with their 1000 galleys--for so numerous were they--they exercised a
complete sovereignty over all the coasts of the Mediterranean. They formed
themselves into a kind of commonwealth, selected magistrates and officers,
who appointed each fleet its respective station and object, and built
watch-towers, arsenals, and magazines. They depended chiefly on Cilicia for
the necessary supplies for their fleets. Emboldened by their success, and
by the occupation afforded to the Romans by Mithridates, they ravaged the
whole line of the Italian coast; sacked the towns and temples, from which
they expected a considerable booty; plundered the country seats on the
sea-shore; carried off the inhabitants for slaves; blocked up all the ports
of the republic; ventured as far as the entrance of the Tiber; sunk part of
the Roman fleet at Ostia, and even threatened Rome itself, which they more
than once deprived of its ordinary and necessary subsistence. The scarcity
of provisions was, indeed, not confined to Rome; but no vessel venturing to
sea in the Mediterranean without being captured, it extended to those parts
of Asia and Africa which lie on that sea. Their inveteracy, however, was
principally directed against the Roman commerce, and the Romans themselves.
If any of their captives declared himself to be a Roman, they threw
themselves in derision at his feet, begging his pardon, and imploring his
protection; but after they had insolently sported with their prisoner, they
often dressed him in a toga, and then, casting out a ship's ladder, desired
him to return home, and wished him a good journey. If he refused to leap
into the sea, they threw him overboard, saying, "that they would not by any
means keep a free-born Roman in captivity!"

In order to root out this dreadful evil, Gabinius, the tribune of the
people, proposed a law, to form, what he called, the proconsulate of the
seas. This law, th