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, though vigorously opposed at first, eventually was carried.
The person to whom this new office was to be entrusted, was to have
maritime power, without control or restriction, over all the seas, from the
Pillars of Hercules to the Thracian Bosphorus, and the countries lying on
these seas, for fifty miles inland: he was to be empowered to raise as many
seamen and troops as he deemed necessary, and to take, out of the public
treasury, money sufficient to pay the expence of paying them, equipping the
ships, and executing the objects of the law. The proconsulate of the
seas was to be vested in the same person for three years.

As Gabinius was the known friend of Pompey, all Pompey's enemies
strenuously opposed this law, as evidently intended to confer authority on
him; but the people not only passed it, but granted Pompey, who was chosen
to fill the office, even more than Gabinius had desired, for they allowed
him to equip 500 ships, to raise 120,000 foot, and to select out of the
senate twenty senators to act as his lieutenants.

As soon as Pompey was vested with the authority conferred by this law, he
put to sea; and, by his prudent and wise measures, not less than by his
activity and vigour, within four months (instead of the three years which
were allowed him) he freed the seas from pirates, having beaten their fleet
in an engagement near the coast of Cilicia, and taken or sunk nearly 1000