Julius Caesar took an unorthodox attitude towards piracy. Captured
in 75BC, he argued his ransom was insultingly low. His captors hit the jackpot – otherwise known as 50 talents back then – but paid for it with their lives, according to Plutarch. Today’s bands of pirates plaguing the Gulf of Aden are also driven by the lure of ransom money. So far, they have largely gotten away with it, but the latest outrage – the hijacking of a vast oil tanker – will surely galvanise the international community into further action.

The costs of piracy quickly add up. There is the human cost as crew members are taken hostage. An estimated $100m has already been paid in ransoms this year. There is also a growing economic cost. Most obviously insurance rates will go up, and with that surcharges on ships that use the Gulf of Aden en route to the Suez Canal, which accounts for about 10 per cent of world trade. The greater economic impact, though, will come from ships opting for the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope, adding days or even weeks to a ship’s journey. Yet this is no guarantee of safety by itself: the capture of the super-tanker happened on just this route.