In 80 BC, C. Julius Caesar (b. 12/13 July 101/100 BC) was a young man rising up the cursus hono rum, the career ladder of official civil and military positions for which politically ambitious Romans competed. He was then serving on the staff of M. Minucius Thermus, praetor of Asia Minor, who sent Caesar to the court of Nicomedes IV Philopator of Bithynia (r. 94-74 BC) on a diplomatic mission to bring back a fleet of ships owned by the king.
Spending so much time at court, however, rumours circulated that the 20-year-old Roman had had a sexual affair with the much older ruler- M. Calpurnius Bibulus later joked that his consular colleague for 59 BC was the queen of Bithynia. It may have been just a made-up story; Caesar denied the rumour all his life.
Elsewhere, Caesar acquitted himself well when, in 81 BC, "During the rest of the campaign he enjoyed a better reputation, and at the storming of MytileneThermus awarded him the corona civica" (Suetonius, Divus Julius 2). This was a crown of oak leaves awarded to a soldier who had saved the lives of his fellow citizens by killing an enemy combatant at a location held by the opponent. Even at that early age, Caesar revealed a penchant for acts of derring-do.
Completing his assignment in 75 or 74 BC, he set sail for Rome. Just days from port, his ship was boarded by pirates. What happened next is recorded in several accounts of the
