Excerpt from The Library of Historic Characters and Famous Events of All Nations, Vol. 3 of 10

On receiving news of the death of Sulla in 78 rc, Cesar returned to Rome, and, having employed the best rhetoricians of the time to fit him for public speaking, began to take open part in politics. He secured popularity with the plebeians by impeaching Dolabella, a distinguished noble, for extortion in his province of Macedonia. He next assailed another magnate, C. Antonius, who was protected by the Senate. Caesar now retired from Rome, and desiring to perfect himself in oratory, he resolved to study in Rhodes under Apollonius Molo. On his voyage thither he was captured by pirates and obliged to pay them fifty talents for ransom. While their prisoner, he had threatened them that he would crucify them when he obtained his liberty, and accordingly, at Miletus, he manned some vessels, sailed after the pirates, overpowered them, and executed his threats. After completing his studies under Apollonius, Caesar returned to Rome and devoted his energies more assiduously than ever to acquiring the favor of the common people. At the age of twenty-eight he was elected pontifex, the priestly Ofiice being part of the state administration. Though forced for some time to act a sub ordinate part, he kept steadily in view the grand Object which he had early proposed to himself, and used every means to increase his popularity. On the death of Julia, the widow of Marius, her nephew pronounced a funeral oration in her honor. It was of course a panegyric on the plebeian hero, whose image was now publicly exhibited in spite of the unrepealed decree of Sulla, forbidding it. From that day Caesar became to the excitable populace the representative of their lost Chieftain.

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