Julius Caesar knew how to deal with pirates...

"In 75 BC, Caesar left Rome to study in Rhodes under the great teacher Apollonius Molon. While en route, however, he was waylaid by Cilician pirates and taken hostage. A Roman patrician was a good prize to catch and the pirates demanded for 20 talents (nearly 5,000 gold coins) for his release. Caesar, showing his arrogance, mocked the pirates by insisting that a rising patrician such as himself was worth no less than 50 talents (12,000 gold coins). In all he was held for 38 days and used the time to write speeches and practice his rhetoric on his captors. Though apparently treated quite well, Caesar vowed, and told them often, that when he was released he would come back to capture and crucify the lot of them. After his release, he did just that, mustering his own small fleet to accomplish the task. Good to his word, the pirates were hunted down and crucified. Though as a sign of his apparent aversion to cruelty, it's been suggested that the men were killed quickly to prevent the horrible death of crucifixion."