The Carousal, or the Lapiths (4-6)

PHILO

That is all put on, Lycinus. But you needn’t have acted that way with me, for I know very well that

you are much more eager to talk than I to listen, and I have an idea that if you had nobody to listen to you, you would enjoy going up to a pillar or a statue and pouring it all out in a stream, without a pause. In fact, if I should wish to go away now, you would not let me go untold, but would hold me and follow me and entreat me. And now I am going to take my turn at putting on. (Turns to‘another friend.) If you like, let’s go and find out about it from someone else. (To Lyctnus.) You may keep your story to yourself!

LYCINUS

Don’t get angry! I will tell you, since you are so anxious, but don’t you tell a lot of people.

PHILO

If I have not forgotten all I know of you, Lycinus, you will do that better than I can, and you will lose no time in telling everybody, so that I shan’t be needed.

PHILO

But first tell me one thing—was it to celebrate the wedding of his son Zeno that Aristaenetus entertained you?

LYCINUS

No, he was marrying his daughter Cleanthis to the son of Eucritus the banker, the lad who is studying philosophy.

PHILO

A very good-looking lad, to be sure; still immature, though, and hardly old enough to be married.

LYCINUS

But he could not find anyone who suited him better, I suppose. As this boy seemed to be mannerly and had taken an interest in philosophy,

and also as he was the only son of Eucritus, who is rich, he preferred him to all the rest as a husband for his daughter.

PHILO

You give a very good reason in saying that Eucritus is rich. But come, Lycinus, who were the people at dinner?

LYCINUS

Why should I tell you all of them? The philosophers and literary men, whom, I suppose, you are most eager to hear about, were Zenothemis, the old man of the Porch, [*] and along with him Diphilus, whom they call “Labyrinth,” tutor of Aristaenetus’ boy Zeno. From the Walk [*] there was Cleodemus— you know him, the mouthy, argumentative fellow, whom his pupils call “Sword” and “Cleaver.” Hermon the Epicurean was there too, and as he came in the Stoics at once began to glower at him and turn their backs on him; it was clear that they loathed him as they would a parricide or a man under a curse. These men had been asked to dinner as Aristaenetus’ own friends and associates, and also the grammarian Histiaeus and the rhetorician Dionysodorus.