GNATHONIDES 
Didn’t I say that the gods would not neglect an
upright man like Timon? Good day to you, Timon,
first in good looks, first in good manners and first in
good fellowship.
 TIMON 
The same to you, Gnathonides, first of all vultures
in voracity and first of all mankind in rascality.
 GNATHONIDES 
You are always fond of your joke. But where
are we to dine? I have brought you a new song
from one of the plays Literally : “From one of the dithyrambs.” The allusion is anachronistic, for in Timon’s day the dithyramb was not dramatic in character. Cf. Bywater, Aristotle on the Art of Poetry, p. 99. that have just been put on.
 TIMON 
I assure you, it will be a very mournful dirge that
you will sing, with this pick of mine to prompt you.

 

 GNATHONIDES 
What’s this? A blow, Timon? I appeal to the
witnesses. O Heracles! Oh! Oh! I summon you
before the Areopagus for assault and battery.
 TIMON 
If you will only linger one moment more, the
summons will be for murder.
 GNATHONIDES 
No, no! Do heal my wound, at least, by putting
alittle gold on it. That is a wonderful specific for
staunching blood.
 TIMON 
What, are you still bent on staying ?
 GNATHONIDES 
I am going; but you shall be sorry that you left
off being a gentleman and became such a boor.

 TIMON 
Who is this coming up, with the bald pate?
Philiades, the most nauseous toady of them all.
He received from me a whole farm and a dower of
two talents for his daughter in payment for praising
me once, when I had sung a song and everybody else
kept still, but he lauded me to the skies, vowing on
his word of honour that I was a better singer than a
swan. Yet when he saw me ill the other day and I
went up to him and begged for alms, the generous
fellow bestowed a thrashing on me.

 PHILIADES 
Oh, what effrontery! So you all recognize Timon
now? So Gnathonides is his friend and booncompanion now? Then he has had just what he
deserved for being so thankless. But we, who are
old acquaintances and schoolmates and neighbours,

 

go slow in spite of that, in order not to appear too
forward. Good day, sir; be on your guard against
these despicable toadies who are only concerned
with your table and otherwise are no better than
ravens. You can’t trust anybody nowadays; everyone is thankless and wicked. For my part, I was
just bringing you a talent so that you might have
something to use for your pressing needs when I
heard on the way, not far from here, that you were
tremendously rich. So I have come to give you this
advice. But as you are so wise, perhaps you will
have no need of suggestions from me, for you could
even tell Nestor what to do in an emergency.
 TIMON 
No doubt, Philiades. But come here, so that I
may give you a friendly greeting with my pick !
 PHILIADES 
Help! The ingrate has broken my head because I
gave him good advice.

 TIMON 
Lo and behold! here comes a third, the orator
Demeas, holding a resolution in his hand and saying
that he is a relative of mine. That fellow paid the
city treasury sixteen talents within a single day,
getting his money from me, for he had been condemned to a fine and put in jail while it was unpaid.
And yet when it became his duty recently to
distribute the show-money to the Erechtheis tribe, A slip on Lucian’s part, for Collytus belonged to Aegeis. The show-money (theoric fund) was at first given only to cover the cost of admission to state spectacles, but later became a distribution per capita of the surplus funds. 
and I went up and asked for my share, he said he
did not recognize me as a citizen !

 

 DEMEAS 
Good day, Timon, great benefactor of your kin,
bulwark of Athens, shield of Greece! ‘The assembly
and both the councils are in session and awaiting
your pleasure this long time. But before you go,
listen to the resolution that I drew up in your
behalf.
“Whereas Timon of Collytus, the son of Echecratides, a man who is not only upright but wise beyond
any other in Greece, labours always in the best
interests of the city, and has won the boxing match,
the wrestling match, and the foot-race at Olympia in
a single day, as well as the horse-races, both with
the regular chariot and with the span of colts””— -
 TIMON 
But I never was even a delegate An official representative of the state. Cf. Aristophanes, Wasps 1188 ff. to the games at
Olympia !
 DEMEAS 
What of that? You will be, later. It is best to
put in plenty of that sort of thing.
— "and fought bravely for the city at Acharnae vee
and cut to pieces two divisions of Spartans"—