A Friend Pleading for Phormio (45-46)

I am surprised that you do not of yourself make this reflection, that Archestratus, to whom your father formerly belonged, has a son here, Antimachus, who fares not at all as he deserves, and who does not go to law with you and say that he is outrageously treated, because you wear a soft mantle, and have redeemed one mistress, and have given another in marriage (all this, while you have a wife of your own), and take three attendant slaves about with you, and live so licentiously that even those who meet you on the street perceive it, while he himself is in great destitution.

Nor does he fail to see Phormio’s condition. And yet if on this ground you think you have a claim on Phormio’s property, because he once belonged to your father, Antimachus has a stronger claim than you have. For your father in his turn belonged to those men, so that both you and Phormio by this argument belong to Antimachus. But you are so lost to all proper feeling, that you yourself compel people to say things which you ought to hate anyone for saying.