Cataplus

MEGAPENTHES Listen, Clotho, to something that I have to say to you in private, with nobody else listening. (Yo the others.) You people stand aside a moment. (Yo ctoruo) If you let me run away, I promise to give you a thousand talents of coined gold to-day.

CLOTHO What, you ridiculous creature, have you gold and talents still on the brain ?

MEGAPENTHES And I'll give you also, if you wish, the two winebowls that I got when I put Cleocritus to death ; they are of refined gold and weigh a hundred talents each.

CLOTHO Hale him off: it seems that he won’t go aboard willingly.

MEGAPENTHES I call you all to witness, the town wall and the docks remain unfinished. I could have finished them if I had lived only five days longer.

CLOTHO Never mind ; someone else will build the wall.

MEGAPENTHES But this request at all events is reasonable.

CLOTHO What request ?

MEGAPENTHES To live only long enough to subdue the Pisidians and subject the Lydians to tribute, and to build myself a huge mausoleum and inscribe on it all the great military exploits of my life.

CLOTHO Why, man, you are no longer asking for this one day, but for a stay of nearly twenty years !

MEGAPENTHES But I tell you I am ready to give bail for my speedy return. If you wish, I’ll even surrender you my beloved as a substitute for myself.

CLOTHO Vile wretch! Have not you often prayed that he night outlast you on earth?

MEGAPENTHES That was long ago, but now I perceive whawi is for the best.

CLOTHO He too will soon be here, you'll find, slain by the new ruler.

MEGAPENTHES Well, at all events don't refuse me this, Lady of Destiny. ,

CLOTHO What ?

MEGAPENTHES I want to know how things will turn out after my death.

CLOTHO Listen, for it will vex you all the more to know. Midas, your slave, will have your wife ; indeed, he has been her lover a long time.

MEGAPENTHES Curse him, I set him free at her request !

CLOTHO Your daughter will be enrolled among the concubines of the present tyrant, and the busts and statues which the city long ago set up in your honour will all be pulled down and will make everyone who looks at them laugh.

MEGAPENTHES Tell meé, will none of my friends get angry at these doings ?

CLOTHO Why, what friend did you have, and how did you make him? Don’t you know that all those who bowed the knee and praised your every word and deed did so either from hope or from fear, being

friends of your power, not of you, and keeping their eyes on the main chance?

MEGAPENTHES But as they poured their libations at our drinking parties they used to pray at the top of their voices that many blessings might descend upon me, saying every one of them that he was ready to die for me if so might be ; in a word, they swore by me.

CLOTHO Consequently, you died after dining with one of them yesterday : it was that last drink he gave you that sent you down here.

MEGAPENTHES Then that is why I noticed a bitter taste. But what was his object in doing it?

CLOTHO You are asking me many questions when you ought to get aboard.

MEGAPENTHES There is one thing that sticks in my throat above all, Clotho, and on account of it I longed to slip back again to the light of day, if only for a moment.

CLOTHO What is that? It must be something tremendous.

MEGAPENTHES As soon as Cario, my valet, saw that I was dead, toward evening he came into the room where I lay, having nothing to do, for nobody was doing anything, not even guarding me, and brought in my mistress Glycerium; they had been on good terms a long time,

Isuppose. Shutting the door, he began to make free with her as though nobody was in the room, and then, when he had enough of it, he gazed at me and said: “You wretched little shrimp, you often gave me beatings when I was not at fault.” With that he pulled my hair and hit me in the face, and finally, after clearing his throat raucously and spitting on me, went away saying: “Off with you to the place of the wicked!” I was aflame with rage, but could not do a thing to him, for I was already stiff and cold. And as for the wretched wench, when she heard people approaching she smeared her eyes with spittle as if she had been crying over me and went away weeping and calling my name. If I should catch them—