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PHILOCRATES
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Philocrates, as up to this moment I have done, I will take all due care to endeavour that which may especially conduce to your interest, and to pursue the same with heart and soul, and with my ears.
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TYNDARUS
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You act just as you ought to act; now I wish you to give attention. In the first place of all, carry my respects to my mother and my father,
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and to my relations, and if any one else you see well-disposed towards me: say that I am in health here, and that I am a slave, in servitude to this most worthy man, who has ever honored me more and more with his respect, and does so still.
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PHILOCRATES
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Don’t you be instructing me as to that; I can, still, easily bear that in mind.
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TYNDARUS
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For, indeed, except that I have a keeper, I deem myself to be a free man.
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Tell my father on what terms I have agreed with this party about his son.
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PHILOCRATES
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What I remember, it is sheer delay to be putting me in mind of.
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TYNDARUS
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To redeem him, and to send him back here in exchange for both of us.
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PHILOCRATES
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I’ll remember it.
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HEGIO
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But as soon as he can that is especially to the interest of us both.
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PHILOCRATES
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You are not more anxious to see your son, than he is to see his.
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HEGIO
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My son is dear to myself, and his own to every man.
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PHILOCRATES
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Do you wish any other message to be carried to your father?
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TYNDARUS
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Say that I am well here; and do you boldly tell him, Tyndarus, that we have been of dispositions for uninterrupted harmony between ourselves, and that you have neither been deserving of censure, nor that I have proved your enemy; and that still, amid miseries so great, you have shown implicit obedience to your master,
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and that you have never abandoned me, either in deed or in fidelity, amid my wavering, unprosperous fortunes. When my father shall know this, Tyndarus, how well-disposed you have proved towards his son and himself, he will never be so avaricious but that he’ll give you your liberty for nothing. And by my own endeavours, if I return hence, I’ll make him do so the more readily.
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For by your aid and kindness, and good disposition and prudence, you have caused me to be allowed to return to my parents once again, inasmuch as to Hegio you have confessed both my rank and my wealth; by means of which, through your wisdom, you have liberated your master from his chains.
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PHILOCRATES
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The things which you mention I have done, and I am pleased that you remember this.
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Deservedly have they been done for you by me; for now, Philocrates, if I, too, were to mention the things that you have kindly done for me, the night would cut short the day. For, had you been my slave even, no otherwise were you always obliging to me.
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HEGIO
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Ye Gods, by our trust in you! behold the kindly disposition of these persons! How they draw the very tears from me!
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See how cordially they love each other, and with what praises the servant has commended his master.
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PHILOCRATES
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I’ troth, he hasn’t commended me the one hundredth part of what he himself deserves to be commended in my praises.
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HEGIO
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Since, then, you have acted most becomingly, now there’s an opportunity to add to your good deeds in managing this matter with fidelity towards him.
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PHILOCRATES
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I am not able more to wish it done, than by my endeavours to try to bring it about. That you may know this, Hegio, with praises do I call supreme Jove to witness that I will not prove unfaithful to PhilocratesUnfaithful to Philocrates: Philocrates might very safely take an oath to Hegio, that he would not prove unfaithful to himself.—
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HEGIO
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You are a worthy fellow.
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PHILOCRATES
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And that I will never in anything act otherwise towards him than towards my own self.
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TYNDARUS
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I wish you to put these speeches to the test, both by your deeds and your actions;
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and inasmuch as I have said the less about you than I had wished, I wish you the more to give me your attention, and take you care not to be angry with me by reason of these words. But, I beseech you, reflect that you are sent hence home with a price set upon you at my risk, and that my life is here left as a pledge for you. Do not you forget me the very moment that you have left my presence,
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since you will have left me here behind a captive in captivity for yourself, and don’t consider yourself as free, and forsake your pledgeForsake your pledge: Alluding to himself being left behind, and a surety for his speedy return., and not use your endeavours for you to bring his son home again, in return for me. Understand that you are sent hence valued at twenty minae. Take care to prove scrupulously faithful; take care that you show not a wavering fidelity.
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For my father, I am sure, will do everything that he ought to do. Preserve me as a constant friend to you, and find outAnd find out: Atque hunc inventum inveni. Some would render this, And find this person still as you have found him, making it allude to Hegio; it seems, however, rather to apply to the son of Hegio, and to mean, Do you seek out this person whom we have found out to be in the possession of the physician, Menarchus. this person so lately discovered. These things, by your right hand, holding you with my own right hand, do I beg of you; do not prove less true to me than I have proved to you. This matter do you attend to; you are now my master, you my patron, you my father;
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to you do I commend my hopes and my fortunes.
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PHILOCRATES
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You have given injunctions enough. Are you satisfied if I bring back accomplished what you have enjoined?
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TYNDARUS
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Satisfied.
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PHILOCRATES
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According to your wishes, and (to TYNDARUS) according to yours, will I return hither provided. Is there anything else?
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TYNDARUS
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For you to return back as soon as ever you can.
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PHILOCRATES
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The business itself reminds me of that.
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HEGIO
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Follow me, that I may give you your expenses for the journey at my banker’s;
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on the same occasion I’ll get a passport from the Praetor.
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TYNDARUS
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What passportWhat passport?: Being conscious of the trick which they are playing on the worthy old man, Tyndarus shows some alarm on hearing a passport, or syngraphus, mentioned. Commentators are at a loss to know why he should express such alarm. It is difficult to say, but, probably, as there was in the passport a description of the bearer, who would be Philocrates under the name of Tyndarus, it suddenly comes to the recollection of Tyndarus that they were originally made prisoners under their proper names, and that possibly Philocrates may be recognized as attempting to pass under an assumed name.?
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HEGIO
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For him to take with him hence to the army, that he may be allowed to go home from here. (To TYNDARUS.) You go in-doors.
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TYNDARUS
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Speed you well.
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PHILOCRATES
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Right heartily, farewell.
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HEGIO
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I’ faith, I compassed my design, when I purchased these men of the Quaestors out of the spoil. I have released my son from slavery, if so it pleases the Gods;
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and yet I hesitated a long time whether I should purchase or should not purchase these persons. Watch that man indoors, if you please, you servants, that he may nowhere move a foot without a guard. I shall soon make my appearance at home; now I’m going to my brother’s, to see my other captives; at the same time I’ll enquire whether any one knows this young man.
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(To PHILOCRATES.) Do you follow, that I may despatch you. I wish attention first to be paid to that matter.
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ERGASILUS
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Wretched is that man who is in search of something to eat, and finds that with difficulty; but more wretched is he who both seeks with difficulty, and finds nothing at all; most wretched is he, who, when he desires to eat, has not that which he may eat. But, by my faith, if I only could, I’d willingly tear out the eyes of this day;
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—with such enmity has it filled all people towards me. One more starved out I never did see, nor one more filled with hungerFilled with hunger: This paradoxical expression is similar to the one used in the Aulularia, l. 45, inaniis oppletae, filled with emptiness., nor one who prospers less in whatever he begins to do. So much do my stomach and my throat take rest on these fasting holidaysFasting holidays: He means to say, that as on feast days and holidays people abstain from work, so at present his teeth and stomach have no employment.. Away with the profession of a Parasite to very utter and extreme perdition!
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so much in these days do the young men drive away from them the needy drolls. They care nothing now-a-days for these Laconian menThese Laconian men: The Parasites, when there was not room for them on the triclinia, or couches at table, were forced to sit on subsellia, or benches, at the bottom of the table. This was like the custom of the Spartans, or Laconians, who, eschewing the luxury of reclining, always persisted in sitting at meals. The Spartans, also, endured pain with the greatest firmness; a virtue much required by Parasites, in order to put up with the indignities which they had to endure from the guests, who daubed their faces, broke pots about their heads, and boxed their ears. of the lowest benches—these whipping-posts, who have their clever sayings without provision and without money. They now-a-days seek those who, when they’ve eaten at their pleasure, may give them a return at their own houses. They go themselves to market, which formerly was the province of the Parasites.
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They go themselves from the Forum to the procurers with face as exposedWith face as exposed: People, with any sense of decency, would resort to these places either in masks, or with a hood thrown over the face. as the magistrates in courtIn court: In tribu. He alludes to the trials which took place before the Roman people in the Comitia Tributa, or assemblies of the tribes, where the Tribunes and Aediles acted as the accusers. The offences for which persons were summoned before the tribes, were, bad conduct of a magistrate in performance of his duties, neglect of duty, mismanagement of a war, embezzlement of the public money, breaches of the peace, usury, adultery, and some other crimes. The Comitia Tributa were used as courts of appeal, when a person protested against a fine imposed by a magistrate., with face exposed, condemn those who are found guilty; nor do they now value buffoons at one farthingAt one farthing: Literally, at a teruncius, which was a small coin among the Romans, containing three unciae, twelfth parts or one quarter of the as, which we generally take as equivalent to a penny.; all are so much in love with themselves. For, when, just now, I went away from here, I came to some young men in the Forum: Good morrow, said I; whither are we going together to breakfast? On this, they were silent.
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Who says, ‘here, at my house,’ or who makes an offer? said I. Just like dumb men, they were silent, and didn’t smile at me. Where do we dine? said I. On this they declined. I said one funny saying out of my best bon mots, by which I formerly used to get feasting for a month; not an individual smiled; at once I knew that the matter was arranged by concert.
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Not even one was willing to imitate a dog when provoked; if they didn’t laugh, they might, at least, have grinned with their teethGrinned with their teeth: That is, by showing their teeth and grinning. This is not unlike the expression used in the Psalms (according to the translation in our Liturgy) —Ps. lix., ver. 6—They grin like a dog and run about through the city.. From them I went away, after I saw that I was thus made sport of. I went to some others; then to some others I came; then to some others—the same the result. All treat the matter in confederacy, just like the oil-merchants in the VelabrumIn the Velabrum: The Via Nova, or New Street, at Rome, led from the interior of the city to the Velabra. The greater and the less Velabrum lay between the Palatine and the Capitoline Hills, where fruits and other commodities were sold in booths, or under awnings, from which (vela) the streets probably derived their name. Varro, however, says that they were so called from the verb veho, to carry; because in early times those spots were traversed in boats, which mode of carriage was called velatura. From the present passage, it appears that the oil-merchants in the Velabra acted in confederacy not to sell their oils under a certain price..
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Now, I’ve returned thence, since I see myself made sport of there. In like manner do other Parasites walk to and fro, to no purpose, in the Forum. Now, after the foreign fashionAfter the foreign fashion: Some suppose that barbaricâ lege here means the foreign or Roman law, and that he refers to the Lex Vinnia, introduced at Rome by Quintus Vinnius, which was said to have been passed against those persons who confederated for the purpose of keeping up the high prices of provisions. It is, however, somewhat doubtful if there really was such a law; and the better opinion seems to be that the word lege means fashion or custom; and that he refers to the Roman method of trial. He will accuse his former entertainers of a conspiracy to starve him. He will name a day for trial, diem dicet; he will demand damages or a penalty. irrogabit mulctam; and thus will he proceed at law against them, sic egerit. Rost has written at great length on the meaning of this passage., I’m determined to enforce all my rights. Those who have entered into a confederacy, by which to deprive us of food and life,—for them I’ll name a day. I’ll demand, as the damages, that they shall give me ten dinners
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at my own option, when provisions are dear: thus will I do. Now I’ll go hence to the harbour. There, is my only hope of a dinner; if that shall fail me, I’ll return here to the old gentleman, to his unsavoury dinner.
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HEGIO
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What is there more delightful than to manage one’s own interests well for the public goodFor the public good: It is possible that he may here refer to his purchase of Philocrates, whose high position among the Eleans would probably tend, on his return to his native country, to promote peace between it and the people of Aetolia., just as I did yesterday,
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when I purchased these men. Every person, as they see me, comes to meet me, and congratulates me on this matter. By thus stopping and detaining unlucky me, they’ve made me quite tired. With much ado have I survivedWith much ado have I survived: Vix eminebam. Literally, I hardly kept myself above water. He means that he was almost overpowered by the crowds of people congratulating him. from being congratulated, to my misfortune.
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At last, to the Praetor did I get. There, scarcely did I rest myself. I asked for a passport; it was given me: at once I delivered it to Tyndarus. He started for home. Thence, straightway, after that was done, I passed by my house; and I went at once to my brother’s, where my other captives are. I asked about Philocrates from Elis, whether any one of them all knew the person.
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This man (pointing to ARISTOPHONTES) called out that he had been his intimate friend; I told him that he was at my house. At once he besought and entreated me that I would permit him to see him. Forthwith I ordered him to be released from chains. Thence have I come. (To ARISTOPHONTES.) Now, do you follow me,
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that you may obtain what you have besought of me, the opportunity of meeting with this person.
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TYNDARUS
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Now stands the matter so, that I would much rather that I had once existed, than that I still exist; now do my hopes, my resources, and my succour, desert me and spurn themselves. This is that day, when, for my life, no safety can be hoped; nor yet is death my end; nor hope is there, in fact, to dispel this fear for me;
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nor cloak have I anywhere for my deceitful stratagems; nor for my devices or my subterfuges is there anywhere a screen presented to me. No deprecating is there for my perfidy; no means of flight for my offences. No refuge is there anywhere for my trusting; and no escape for my cunning schemes. What was concealed is now exposed; my plans are now divulged.
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The whole matter is now laid open; nor is there any ado about this matter, but that I must perish outright, and meet with destruction, both on behalf of my master and myself. This Aristophontes has proved my ruin, who has just now come into the house. He knows me. He is the intimate friend and kinsman of Philocrates. Not Salvation herselfNot Salvation herself: This was a proverbial expression among the Romans. Salus, Safety or Salvation, was worshipped as a Goddess at Rome. It is well observed, in Thornton’s translation, that the word Salus may, without irreverence, be translated Salvation, on no less authority than that of Archbishop Tillotson. If, says he, men will continue in their sins, the redemption brought by Christ will be of no advantage to them; such as obstinately persist in an impenitent course, ipsa si velit Salus, servare non potest, Salvation itself cannot save them. can save me now, even if she wishes; nor have I any means of escape,
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unless, perchance, I devise some artifice in my mind. (He meditates.) Plague on it!-how? What can I contrive?—what can I think of? Some very great folly and trifling I shall have to begin with. I’m quite at a loss.
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HEGIO
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Whither am I to say, now, that this man has betaken himself from the house out of doors?
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TYNDARUS
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Now, for a very certainty, I’m done for; the enemies are coming to you, Tyndarus!
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What shall I say?—what shall I talk of? What shall I deny, or what confess? All matters are reduced to uncertainty. How shall I place confidence in my resources? I wish the Gods had destroyed you, before you were lost to your own country, Aristophontes, who, from a plot well concerted, are making it disconcerted. This plan is ruined outright, unless I find out for myself some extremely bold device.
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HEGIO
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Follow me. See, there is the man; go to him and address him.
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TYNDARUS
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What mortal among mortals is there more wretched than myself?
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ARISTOPHONTES
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Why’s this, that I’m to say that you are avoiding my gaze, Tyndarus? And why that you are slighting me as a stranger, as though you had never known me? Why, I’m as much a slave as yourself; although at home I was a free man, you, even from your childhood, have always served in slavery in Elis.
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HEGIO
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I’ faith, I’m very little surprised, if either he does avoid your gaze, or if he does shun you, who are calling him Tyndarus, instead of Philocrates.
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TYNDARUS
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Hegio, this person was accounted a madman in Elis. Don’t you give ear to what he prates about; for at home he has pursued his father and mother with spears,
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and that malady sometimes comes upon him which is spit outWhich is spit out: Some would render the words qui sputatur which is spit upon, and fancy that they find authorities in the ancient writers for thinking that epilepsy was treated by spitting upon the patient. However, it seems much more probable, that the notion was that epilepsy was cured by the patient himself spitting out the noxious saliva; and that the word sputatur means, is spit out, i. e. is cured by spitting. Celsus thus describes the comitialis morbus, epilepsy, or falling sickness: The person seized, suddenly falls down; foam drops from the mouth; then, after a little time, he comes to himself, and gets up again without any assistance. Pliny, in his Natural History, B. 38, c. 4, says: Despuimus comitiales morbos, hoc est, contagia regerimus, We spit out the epilepsy, that is, we avert the contagion. This is said, probably, in reference to a belief, that on seeing an epileptic person, if we spit, we shall avoid the contagion; but it by no means follows that the person so doing must spit upon the epileptic person. We read in the first Book of Samuel, ch. xxi., ver. 12: And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish, the King of Gath. And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard. He probably pretended to be attacked with epileptic fits. In fact, after due examination, there seems little doubt that it was a common notion with the ancients that the distemper was discharged with the saliva. Do you this instant stand away at a distance from him.
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HEGIO
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Away with him further off from me.
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ARISTOPHONTES
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Do you say, you whipp’d knave, that I am mad, and do you declare that I have followed my own father with spears? And that I have that malady, that it’s necessary for me to be spit uponTo be spit upon: Aristophontes has understood the words, qui sputatur, in the sense of which is spit upon, and asks Tyndarus if he affirms that he is afflicted with a disease which requires such treatment. Hegio, to pacify him, and to show off his medical knowledge, tells him that it has proved beneficial in some diseases to be so treated; but he does not go so far as to say what those diseases were. One malady, called herpes, or spreading ulcer, was said to be highly contagious, but capable of being cured by applications of saliva. Some Commentators here quote the method which our Saviour adopted in curing the blind man at Bethsaida: And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town: and when he had spat on his eyes and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw aught. St. Mark, ch. viii., ver. 23. And again, the account given in the ninth chapter of St. John, ver. 6: When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. It may be possible that our Saviour thought fit to adopt these forms, in imitation of some of the methods of treating diseases in those times; though, of course, his transcendant power did not require their agency Rost, in his Commentaries on Plautus, has a very learned disquisition on the meaning of the present passage.?
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HEGIO
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Don’t be dismayed; that malady afflicts many a person
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to whom it has proved wholesome to be spit upon, and has been of service to them.
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ARISTOPHONTES
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Why, what do you say? Do you, too, credit him?
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HEGIO
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Credit him in what?
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ARISTOPHONTES
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That I am mad?
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TYNDARUS
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Do you see him, with what a furious aspect he’s looking at you? ’Twere best to retire, Hegio; it is as I said, his frenzy grows apace; have a care for yourself.
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HEGIO
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I thought that he was mad, the moment that he called you Tyndarus.
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TYNDARUS
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Why, he’s sometimes ignorant of his own name, and doesn’t know what it is.
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HEGIO
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But he even said that you were his intimate friend.
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TYNDARUS
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So far from that, I never saw him. Why, really, Alcmaeon, and Orestes, and LycurgusAlcmaeon, and Orestes, and Lycurgus: He alludes to these three persons as being three of the most celebrated men of antiquity that were attacked with frenzy. Orestes slew his mother, Clytemnestra; Alcmaeon killed his mother, Eriphyle; and Lycurgus, King of Thrace, on slighting the worship of Bacchus, was afflicted with madness, in a fit of which he hewed off his own legs with a hatchet. besides, are my friends on the same principle that he is.
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ARISTOPHONTES
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Villain, and do you dare speak ill of me, as well? Do I not know you?
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HEGIO
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I’ faith, it really is very clear
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that you don’t know him, who are calling him Tyndarus, instead of Philocrates. Him whom you see, you don’t know; you are addressing him as the person whom you don’t see.
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ARISTOPHONTES
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On the contrary this fellow’s saying that he is the person who he is not; and he says that he is not the person who he really is.
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TYNDARUS
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You’ve been found, of course, to excel Philocrates in truthfulness.
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ARISTOPHONTES
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By my troth, as I understand the matter, you’ve been found to brazen out the truth by lying. But i’ faith, prithee, come then, look at me.
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TYNDARUS
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Well!
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ARISTOPHONTES
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Say, now; do you deny that you are Tyndarus?
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TYNDARUS
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I do deny it, I say.
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ARISTOPHONTES
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Do you say that you are Philocrates?
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TYNDARUS
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I do say so, I say.
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ARISTOPHONTES
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And do you believe him?
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HEGIO
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More, indeed, than either you or myself. For he, in fact, who you say that he is (pointing to TYNDARUS), has set out hence to-day for Elis, to this person’s father.
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ARISTOPHONTES
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What father, when he’s a slaveWhen he’s a slave: Slaves were not considered to have any legal existence; and, therefore, to have neither parents or relations..
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TYNDARUS
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And so are
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you a slave, and yet you were a free man; and I trust that so I shall be, if I restore his son here to liberty.
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ARISTOPHONTES
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How say you, villain? Do you say that you were born a free man [liber]?
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TYNDARUS
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I really do not say that I am LiberThat I am Liber: Aristophontes asks him if he means to assert that he was born a free man, liber. As Liber was also a name of Bacchus, Tyndarus quibbles, and says, I did not assert that I am Liber, but that I am Philocrates. In consequence of the idiom of the Latin language, his answer (non equidem me Liberum, sed Philocratem esse aio) will admit of another quibble, and may be read as meaning, I did not say that I am a free man, but that Philocrates is. This maybe readily seen by the Latin scholar, but is not so easily explained to the English reader., but that I am Philocrates.