No sooner had I flapped the
wing than a great light broke upon me and all that
was formerly invisible was revealed. Bending down
toward earth, I clearly saw the cities, the people and
all that they* were doing, not only abroad but at
home, when they thought they were unobserved. I
saw Ptolemy lying with his sister, Lysimachus’ son
conspiring against his father, Seleucus’ son Antiochus
flirting surreptitiously with his stepmother, Alexander
of ‘Thessaly getting killed by his wife, Antigonus
committing adultery with the wife of his son, and
the son of Attalus pouring out the poison for him.
In another quarter I saw Arsaces killing the woman,
the eunuch Arbaces drawing his sword on Arsaces,
and Spatinus the Mede in the hands of the guards,
being dragged out of the dining-room by the leg
after having had his head broken with a golden
cup.These events, in so far as they are historical, are not synchronous. For some of them (Antigonus, Attalus, and the Parthian incidents) Lucian is our only sponsor. Similar things were to be seen going on in
Libya and among the Thracians and Scythians in the
palaces of kings—men committing adultery, murdering, conspiring, plundering, forswearing, fearing
and falling victims to the treason of their closest kin.
Although the doings of the kings afforded me such
rare amusement, those of the common people were
far more ridiculous, for I could see them too—
Hermodorus the Epicurean perjuring himself for a
thousand drachmas, the Stoie Agathocles going to
law with his disciple about a fee, the orator Clinias
stealing a cup out of the Temple of Asclepius and the
Cynic Herophilus asleep in the brothel. Why mention
the rest of them—the burglars, the bribe-takers, the
money-lenders, the beggars? In brief, it was a motley
and manifold spectacle.
Really, you might as well tell about that too,
Menippus, for it scems to have given you unusual
pleasure.
To tell it all from first to last, my friend, would be
impossible in such a case, where even to see it all
was hard work. However, the principal features
were like what Homer says was on the shield.Iliad 18, 478 ff. In
one place there were banquets and weddings, elsewhere there were sessions of court and assemblics ;
in a different direction a man was offering sacrifice,
and close at hand another was mourning a death.
Whenever I looked at the country of the Getae I
saw them fighting ; whenever I transferred my gaze to
the Seythians, they could be seen roving about on their
wagons: and when I turned my eyes aside slightly,
I beheld the Egyptians working the land. The Phoenicians were on trading-ventures, the Cilicians were
engaged in piracy, the Spartans were whipping themselves and the Athenians were attending court.