TIMON 
What do you mean by that? I wasn’t even posted
on the muster-roll because I had no arms.
 DEMEAS 
You are modest in talking about yourself, but we
should be ungrateful if we failed to remember.
— “and furthermore has been of great service to
the city by drawing up resolutions and serving on
the council and acting as general ;

 

“On all these grounds be it resolved by the
council, the assembly, the panel of jurors, the tribes
and the demes, both severally and in common, to erect
a golden statue of Timon beside Athena on the
Acropolis with a thunderbolt in his hand and a halo Literally, “rays,” the attribute of Helius. The colossal statue of Nero had these rays. 
upon his head, and to crown him with seven crowns
of gold, said crowns to be awarded by proclamation
to-day at the Dionysia when the new tragedies
are performed ; for the Dionysia must be held to-day
on his account. Moved by the orator Demeas, his
next of kin and his pupil; for Timon is an excellent
orator and anything else that he wants to be.”

 

There you have the resolution. I wish I had
brought my son to see you; I have called him Timon
after you.
 TIMON 
How can that be, Demeas, when you aren't even
married, as far as I know?
 DEMEAS 
No, but I am going to marry next year, Zeus
willing, and havea child ; and I now name it Timon,
for it will be a boy.
 TIMON 
Perhaps you don’t care to marry now, sirrah, on
getting such a clout from me.
 DEMEAS 
Oh! Oh! What does this mean? Timon, you
are trying to make yourself tyrant and you are
beating free men when you yourself have not a clear
title to your freedom. You shall soon pay for this,
and for burning the Acropolis too.


 

 TIMON 
But the Acropolis has not been burned, you
scoundrel, so it is plain that you are a blackmailer.
 DEMEAS 
Well, you got your money by breaking into the
treasury.
 TIMON 
That has not been broken into, so you can’t make
good with that charge either. -
 DEMEAS 
The breaking in will be done later, but you have
all the contents now.
 TIMON 
Well then, take that !
 DEMEAS 
Oh, my back !
 TIMON 
Don’t shriek or I will give you a third. It would
be too ridiculous if I had cut up two divisions of
Spartans unarmed and then couldn’t thrash a single
filthy little creature like you. My victory at Olympia
in boxing and wrestling would be all for nothing !

 

But what have we here? Isn’t this Thrasyc yeles ?
No other! With his beard spread out and his eyebrows uplifted, he marches along deep in haughty
meditation, his eyes glaring like a Titan’s and his
hair tossed back from his forehead, a typical Boreas
or Triton such as Zeuxis used to paint. Correct in
his demeanour, gentlemanly in his gait, and inconspicuous in his dress, in the morning hours he discourses forever about virtue, arraigns s the votaries of
pleasure and praises contentment with little; but
when he comes to dinner after his bath and the

 

waiter hands him a large cup (and the stiffer it is, the
better he likes it) then it is as if he had drunk the
water of Lethe, for his practice is directly opposed to
his preaching of the morning. He snatches the
meat away from others like a kite, elbows his neighbour, covers his beard with gravy, bolts his food like
a dog, bends over his plate as if he expected to find
virtue in it, carefully wipes out the dishes with his
forefinger so as not to leave a particle of the sauce,
and grumbles continually, even if he gets the whole
cake or the whole boar to himself.

 

He is the height
of gluttony and insatiability, and he gets so drunken
and riotous that he not only sings and dances, but
even abuses people and flies into a passion. Besides
he has much to say over his cup—more then than at
any other time, in fact!—about temperance and
decorum, and he says all this when he is already in a
bad way from taking his wine without water and
stammers ridiculously. Then a vomit follows, and at
last he is picked up and carried out of the diningroom, catching at the flute girl with both hands as he
goes. But even when sober, he won’t yield the
palm to anyone in lying and impudence and covetousness ; on the contrary, he is a peerless toady and
he perjures himself with the greatest facility ; humbug is his guide and shamelessness his follower, and
to sum it up, he is a wonderfully clever piece of
work, correct in every detail and perfect in a world
of ways. Therefore he shall soon smart for ;his
superiority. (To Thrasycles): Well, well! I say,
Thrasycles, you are late.