POLYSTRATUS 
Don’t keep evoking fancies of miraculous loveliness, Lycinus, but tell me who the woman is.
 LYCINUS 
Why, do you suppose that I am exaggerating?
No, I am afraid that when you have seen her you
will take me to be a poor hand at turning compliments, so far superior will she prove to be.
Anyhow, I can’t say who she is, but she received
mich attention, kept splendid state in every way,
had a number of eunuchs and a great many maids,
and, in general, the thing seemed to be on a greater
scale than accords with private station.
 POLYSTRATUS 
You didn’t learn even the name they gave her?
 LYCINUS 
No; only that she comes from Ionia, for one of
the onlookers glanced at his neighbour after she had
passed and said: “Well, that is what Smiyrna’s
beauties are like, and it is no wonder that the fairest

 

of Ionian cities has produced the fairest of women!”
It seemed to me that the speaker himself was of
Smyrna because he was so set up over her.