r in rising to
public office in Rome, as is described in the third chapter of this
volume, the Cilician pirates, of whose desperate character and bold
exploits something has already been said, had become so powerful, and
were increasing so rapidly in the extent of their depredations, that the
Roman people felt compelled to adopt some very vigorous measures for
suppressing them. The pirates had increased in numbers during the wars
between Marius and Sylla in a very alarming degree. They had built,
equipped, and organized whole fleets. They had various fortresses,
arsenals, ports, and watch-towers all along the coasts of the
Mediterranean. They had also extensive warehouses, built in secure and
secluded places, where they stored their plunder. Their fleets were well
manned, and provided with skillful pilots, and with ample supplies of
every kind; and they were so well constructed, both for speed and
safety, that no other ships could be made to surpass them. Many of them,
too, were adorned and decorated in the most sumptuous manner, with
gilded sterns, purple awnings, and silver-mounted oars. The number of
their galleys was said to be a thousand. With this force they made
themselves almost complete masters of the sea. They attacked not only
separate ships, but whole fleets of merchantmen sailing under convoy;
and they increased the difficulty and expense of bringing grain to Rome
so much, by intercepting the supplies, as very materially to enhance the
price and to threaten a scarcity. They made themselves masters of many
islands and of various maritime towns along the coast, until they had
four hundred ports and cities in their possession. In fact, they had
gone so far toward forming themselves into a regular maritime power,
under a systematic and legitimate government, that very respectable
young men from other countries began to enter their service, as one
opening honorable avenues to wealth and fame.

[Sidenote: Plan for destroying the pirates.]
[Sidenote: Its magnitude.]

Under these circumstances, it was obvious that something decisive must
be done. A friend of Pompey's brought forward a plan for commissioning
some one, he did not say whom, but every one understood that Pompey was
intended, to be sent forth against the pirates, with extraordinary
powers, such as should be amply sufficient to enable him to bring their
dominion to an end. He was to have supreme command upon the sea, and
also upon the land for fifty mi