Toxaris, or Friendship (46-50)

But Arsacomas returned home and informed his friends how he had been dishonoured by the king and laughed at in the banquet because he was considered poor. “And yet,” said he, “I told him what riches I possess in you two, Lonchates and Macentes, and that your devotion was better and more lasting than sovereignty over the people of Bosporus. But in spite of my saying this, he ridiculed and contemned us, and gave the maiden to Adyrmachus the Machlyan to take away, because he was said to own ten golden goblets, eighty four-bunk wagons, and many sheep and cattle. So far above brave men did he value great flocks and herds, artistic drinking-cups, and heavy wagons.

“Now for my part, my friends, I am doubly distressed, for not only do I love Mazaea but this insult in the presence of so many men has affected me deeply. And I think that you also have been equally injured, for a third of the disgrace belonged to each of us, since we live in the understanding that from the time when we came together we have been but as one man, distressed by the same things, pleased by the same things.” “Not only that,” Lonchates added, “but each of us is completely disgraced in your suffering such treatment.”

“How, then, shall we handle the situation?” said Macentes. “Let us divide the task between

Our custom in the matter of the hide is as follows. When a man who has been wronged by another wishes to avenge himself but sees that by himself he is not strong enough, he sacrifices a bull, cuts up and cooks the meat, spreads the hide out on the ground, and sits on it, with his hands held behind his back like a man bound by the elbows. That is our strongest appeal for aid. The meat of the bull is served up, and as the man’s kinsmen and all else who wish approach, each takes a portion of it, and then, setting his right foot upon the hide, makes a pledge according to his ability, one that he will furnish five horsemen to serve without rations or pay, another ten, another still more, another foot-soldiers, heavy-

Arsacomas, then, was thus engaged; and he raised some five thousand horse and twenty thousand foot, heavy-armed and light-armed together.

Lonchates in the meantime entered Bosporus unrecognised, approached the king while he was attending to a matter of government, and said that he came with a message from the Scythian commonwealth, but also in his private capacity brought him important news. When he was bidden to speak, he said: ‘The Scythians make one of their ordinary, every-da’ requests, that your herdsmen shall not encroac upon the plain but shall graze only as far as the stony ground; and they say that the cattle-lifters whom you charge with overrunning your country are not sent out by order of the state but steal for profit, each on his own account; if any one of them should be captured, you have full authority to punish him. That is their message.

But on my own part, I give you notice that a great attack upon you is about to be made by Arsacomas, the son of

“I myself,” said Leucanor, “had heard that a force was being raised on the hide, but did not know that it is being formed against us or that Arsacomas is the organiser of it.” “Why,” said Lonchates, “the preparations are directed at youin person. But Arsacomas is no friend of mine, bearing a grudge against me because I am held in higher regard by our dignitaries and considered in all respects a better man. If you will promise me your other daughter, Barcetis, since even on other grounds I am not unworthy of alliance with you, before lon I will come and bring you his head.” “I promise,” said the king, who had become thoroughly alarmed because he recognised the just ground for the anger of Arsacomas in connection with his proposal of marriage; and besides, he stood in perpetual dread of the Scythians.

Lonchates replied: “Swear that you will keep the agreement, and will not go back on your word then, when the thing is done.”” When the king lifted his hands toward Heaven and was in purpose to swear, the other said: “Not here, for fear that some onlooker may suspect the reason of our oath. No, let us enter the sanctuary of Ares yonder and lock the doors before we swear; and let nobody hear us!

When they had entered and the guardsmen had withdrawn, Lonchates drew his sword, clapped one hand over the king’s mouth, that he might not cry out, and stabbed him in the breast. Then he cut off his head and carried it out (ith him under his cloak, keeping up, as he did so, a pretended conversation with him and saying that he would return speedily, as if he had been sent by the king to fetch something. Getting in this way to the place where he had left his horse tied, he mounted and rode off to Scythia. There was no pursuit of him, since the Bosporans remained long in ignorance of what had happened, and when they did find out about it, they fell to squabbling over the throne.