Toxaris vel amicitia

“Now then, Adyrmachus,” said he, “I am ready to ride with you to Bosporus, if you wish, or to remain, if necessary, and conduct the girl.” “That,” said Adyrmachus, “is what I should like better—that as you are of her blood, you should conduct Mazaea. For if you go with us to Bosporus, we should gain

but a single horseman; but if you should conduct my wife, you would be as good as many.”

That was put into effect, and he rode off, leaving it to Macentes to conduct Mazaea, who was still a maid. And he did indeed escort her upon her wagon during the day; but when night overtook them, he set her upon his horse—he had seen to it that only one other horseman should attend them[*](Macentes comes alone; this single horseman is therefore presumably a Machlyan, and hostile. What, then, becomes of him? Only implications enlighten us. For some reason Macentes does not do the obvious thing—kill him at night and take his horse. Either he eludes them, or they elude him; and instead of following them, he posts ahead to overtake Adyrmachus with the news (§ 54). )— himself leaped to his seat, and instead of continuing to ride along the shore of Lake Maecotis, turned off into the interior, taking on his right the mountains of the Mitraeans. Stopping only at intervals to allow the girl to rest, on the third day he succeeded in reaching Scythia from Machlyene; his horse, on ceasing to run, stood still for a moment and fell dead,

while Macentes, delivering Mazaea to Arsacomas, said: “Accept from me also the fulfilment of my promise!”

Arsacomas was amazed at the unexpectedness of that sight, and tried to express his gratitude, but Macentes said: “Stop making me a different person from yourself! To express gratitude to me for what I have done in this is just as if my left hand should be grateful to my right for ministering to it when it had been wounded and taking care of it fondly while it was weak. So with us—it would be ridiculous if, after having fused ourselves together long ago and united, as far as we could, into a single person, we should continue to think it a great thing if this or that part of us has done something useful in behalf of the whole body; for it

was working in its own behalf as a part of the whole organism to which the good was being done.”

This, then, was the reply of Macentes to Arsacomas when he expressed his gratitude.

But when Adyrmachus heard of the stratagem, instead of going on to Bosporus, inasmuch as Eubiotus had been summoned from the Sauromatae, with whom he was living, and was already on the throne, he returned to his own country, and after assembling a great army, advanced through the hill-country into Scythia. Eubiotus, too, presently made an incursion with his Greeks in full force and allied levies of Alans and Sauromatae numbering twenty thousand from each. After Eubiotus and Adyrmachus had combined their armies, they amounted in all to ninety thousand, a third of them mounted archers.

For our part (and I say our, because I myself took part in their expedition, having offered on the hide at that time a hundred self-supporting horsemen) we had raised not much less than thirty thousand, including the horsemen, and were awaiting their onset; our commander was Arsacomas. When we saw them coming on, we marched forward to meet them, sending our horsemen out in advance. After a long and hard-fought battle, our side in time began to give ground, the phalanx began to break, and at last the entire Scythian force was cut in two. One part began to withdraw, but it was not at all certain that they were beaten; indeed, their flight was considered a retreat, for even the Alans did not venture to pursue them any distance. The other, smaller part was surrounded by the Alans and Machlyans, who were hammering it from all sides, loosing arrows and javelins without stint; so that

those of us who had been surrounded were suffering severely, and the rank and file were already throwing away their arms.