De sollertia animalium

SOCLARUS. Restrain yourself, Autobulus, and turn off the flow of these accusations.[*](Cf. Mor. 940 f supra. Possibly a reference to the water-clock used in the courts.) I see a good many gentlemen approaching who are all hunters; you will hardly convert them and you needn’t hurt their feelings.

AUTOBULUS. Thanks for the warning. Eubiotus, however, I know quite well and my cousin Ariston, and Aeacides and Aristotimus here, the sons of Dionysius of Delphi, and Nicander, the son of Euthydamus, all of them expert, as Homer[*](Odyssey, viii. 159.) expresses it, in the chase by land - and for this reason they will be on Aristotimus’ side. So too yonder comes Phaedimus with the islanders and coast-dwellers about him, Heracleon from Megara and the Euboean Philostratus,

Whose hearts are on deeds of the sea.[*](Cf. Homer, Iliad, ii. 614; Odyssey, v. 67.)

And here is my contemporary Optatus: like Diomedes, it is

Hard to tell the side on which he ranges,[*](Homer, Iliad, v. 85.)

for with many a trophy from the sea, many likewise from the chase on the mountain, he has glorified [*](Verses of an unknown poet, as recognized by Hubert.) the goddess[*](Artemis; on the combined cults see Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, ii, pp. 425 ff.) who is at once the Huntress and Dictynna. It is evident that he is coming to join us with no intention of attaching himself to either side. Or am I wrong, my dear Optatus, in supposing that you will be an impartial and neutral umpire between the young men ?

OPTATUS. It is just as you suppose, Autobulus. Solon’s[*](Life of Solon, xx. 1 (89 a-b); Mor. 550 c, 823 f; Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, viii. 5. A fairly well attested law, but the name of Solon is used as the collective term for the legislative activity of the past (Linforth, Solon the Athenian, p. 283). The penalty was disfranchisement. Lysias, xxxi. shows that this law was unknown in his time.) law, which used to punish those who adhered to neither side in a factious outbreak, has long since fallen into disuse.

AUTOBULUS. Come over here, then, and take your place beside us so that, if we need evidence, we shall not have to disturb the tomes of Aristotle,[*](The zoological works, such as the Natural History and the Generation of Animals, which once extended to fifty volumes (Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 44).) but may follow you as expert and return a true verdict on the arguments.

SOCLARUS. Well then, my young friends, have you reached any agreement on procedure ?

PHAEDIMUS. We have, Soclarus, though it occasioned considerable controversy; but at length, as Euripides[*](Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 678, frag. 989; cf. Mor. 644 d.) has it,

The lot, the child of chance,

made arbiter, admits into court the case of the land animals before that of creatures from the sea.

SOCLARUS. The time has come, then, Aristotimus, for you to speak and us to hear.