Quick questions on Julius Caesar's background and early career: HSC Ancient History

Lucius Cornelius Sulla's victory in the civil war and his proscriptions from 82 BC threatened everyone tied to the Marian-Cinnan regime. Sulla ordered the young Caesar to divorce Cornelia. Caesar refused, an extraordinary act of defiance from someone with no independent power base.

Once pardoned, Caesar left Rome for military service, serving under the propraetor Marcus Minucius Thermus in the province of Asia. At the siege of Mytilene on Lesbos, one of the last cities resisting Rome after the First Mithridatic War (81-80 BC), Caesar saved the life of a fellow soldier in battle and was awarded the corona civica, the civic crown of oak leaves, one of Rome's highest individual military honours. He went on to serve under Publius Servilius Isauricus in Cilicia before returning to Rome on hearing of Sulla's death in 78 BC.

On the voyage to Rhodes, Cilician pirates captured Caesar near the island of Pharmacusa. When the pirates set his ransom at 20 talents, Caesar reportedly mocked the low figure and insisted they demand 50. He spent around 38 days in captivity, composing speeches and poems that he read aloud to his captors and jokingly promising to have them all crucified.

Caesar's debts had grown so large that his creditors reportedly tried to prevent him leaving Rome for his province; Crassus again intervened, standing surety for a further portion, said to total around 830 talents. In Hispania Ulterior (Further Spain), Caesar campaigned militarily against the Lusitanian and Callaici (Gallaeci) tribes, extending Roman control to the Atlantic coast and being acclaimed imperator by his troops, which qualified him for a triumph. He also reformed provincial debt law, allowing debtors to pay creditors two-thirds of their income annually until debts were cleared, an early instance of pragmatic, populares-flavoured governance balancing debtor and creditor interests.