Negotiating With Pirates

It's an interesting economic analysis of the dynamics of hostages and pirates.

The typical instance of Somali piracy isn't that different from what a young Julius Caesar experienced when he was kidnapped by pirates and held for ransom on his way home from political exile in Asia Minor. One interesting detail in Plutarch's report is that, "When these men at first demanded of him twenty talents for his ransom, he laughed at them for not understanding the value of their prisoner, and voluntarily engaged to give them fifty." 

Read the whole article to find out how Caesar eventually dealt with the pirates.