Yes, but Jefferson's nephew in South America, let's say, post-Civil war hardly can be called well known or powerful. It is no given that every Roman noble had nothing to fear from pirates. Caesar's contemporary Claudius fared much worse when he fell into pirates' hand, even though he actually came from a great patrician clan and was related to a man no less than the prominent Sullan general Lucullus. This episode, if true, delineated a subtle, bold, and decisive nobleman who did not shirk from the responsibility of his rank. It is no accident he was called the last patrician.

Yeah, but he hadn't really had any impact on public life. From memory he'd just taken a senate seat but hadn't really done anything.