Toxaris vel amicitia

Lucian of Samosata

Lucian, Vol. 5. Harmon, A. M., editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936.

“When he was lamenting these misfortunes to Zenothemis, the latter said: ‘ Never fear, Menecrates; you shall not lack what you need, and your daughter will find a husband worthy of her lineage.’ As he spoke, he grasped him by the hand, took him home, and shared his great wealth with him. Also, he ordered a dinner prepared and invited his friends, including Menecrates, to a wedding-feast, pretending to have persuaded one of his comrades to promise to marry the girl. When their dinner was over and

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they had poured the libation to the gods, at that moment Zenothemis held out to him his cup, full of wine, and said: ‘ Accept, Menecrates, the lovingcup from your son-in-law, for I shall this day wed your daughter Cydimache; her dowry I received long ago, amounting to twenty-five talents.’ The other said: ‘No, no, Zenothemis, do not! May I never be so mad as to suffer you, who are young and handsome, to make a match with an ugly, disfigured girl!’ But while he was saying this, Zenothemis picked up the girl bodily and went into his chamber, from which he returned presently, after having made her his wife.

“From that time on he has lived with her, cherishing her beyond measure and taking her about with him everywhere, as you see.

Not only is he unashamed of his marriage, but indeed seems to be proud of it, offering it as proof that he thinks little of physical beauty or ugliness and of wealth and glory, but has. high regard for his friend, for Menecrates, and does not believe that the latter’s worth, as regards friendship, was lessened by the vote of the Six Hundred.

Already, however, Fortune has requited him for this conduct. He has had a beautiful boy by this ugly woman; and besides, only recently, when the father took the child in his arms and brought him into the Senate-house wreathed with leaves of olive and dressed in black, in order that he might excite greater pity on behalf of his grandfather, the baby burst into laughter before the senators and clapped his two hands, whereupon the senate, softened by him, set the condemnation aside in favour of Menecrates, so that he is now in full possession of his rights

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and privileges through employing so tiny an. advocate to present his case to the members in session.”

Such are the deeds which, according to the Massaliote, Zenothemis performed for his friend ; as you see, they are not trivial, or likely to have been done by many Scythians, who even in the matter of concubines are said to be careful to select the most beautiful.

We have the fifth remaining, and I do not purpose to forget Demetrius of Sunium and tell of anyone else. Demetrius sailed to Egypt with Antiphilus of Alopece, his friend from boyhood and comrade in their military training. There they lived and studied together; he himself followed the Cynic school of philosophy under that sophist from Rhodes,[*](It has been suggested that this may have been Agathobulus (cf. p. 19, n. 3), but with little to go on except that Agathobulus must have been teaching Cynicism in Alexandria at about the time which this tale presupposes for the Rhodian sophist. It is hardly safe to assume that he cannot have had any rivals. ) while Antiphilus for his part studied medicine. Well, one time Demetrius happened to have gone into Egypt to see the pyramids and the statue of Memnon, for he had heard that the pyramids, though high, cast no shadow, and that Memnon utters a cry to the rising sun. Eager, therefore, to see the pyramids and tohear Memnon, Demetrius had cruised off up the Nile six months before, leaving behind him Antiphilus, who feared the journey and the heat.