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Pompey clears the Mediterranean of pirates
What happened then
Pirates based largely in Cilicia, on the southern coast of modern Turkey, raided coasts across the Mediterranean, kidnapped travelers (the young Julius Caesar among them), and choked the grain ships that fed Rome. Grain prices in the city climbed.
What caused it
Rome had destroyed or weakened the eastern naval powers that once policed the seas but did not keep a standing fleet of its own, and the gap let piracy grow into a sea-wide business.
How it was resolved
The Lex Gabinia gave Pompey an extraordinary command over the whole sea and the coasts around it, with a large fleet. He divided the Mediterranean into districts, swept each one, and by Plutarch's account finished the job in about three months. Many pirates who surrendered were resettled as farmers.
How it turned out
Grain prices in Rome fell, and the seas stayed safer for generations. But handing one man such sweeping power set a precedent, and historians often see these extraordinary commands as a step toward the end of the Republic.
Sources: Plutarch, Life of Pompey (LacusCurtius) · Plutarch, Life of Caesar (LacusCurtius)
Further reading: Rubicon by Tom Holland