Toxaris, or Friendship (61-63)

As the fifth, I shall tell you the deed of Abauchas, and then I shall stop. Once upon a time this man Abauchas came to the city of the Borysthenites,[*] bringing his wife, of whom he was exceptionally fond, and two children, one of whom, a boy, was a child in arms, while the other, a girl, was seven years old. There came with him also a companion of his, Gyndanes, who was ill of a wound which he had received on the way from robbers who had attacked them. In fighting with them he had got a thrust in the thigh, so that he could not even stand for the pain of it. During the night, as they slept— they chanced to be living in an upper story—a great fire broke out, every avenue of escape was being cut off, and the flames were encompassing the house on all sides. At that juncture Abauchas woke up; abandoning his crying children, shaking off his wife

as she hung upon him and urging her to save herself, he carried his comrade down and managed to burst through at a place which the fire had not yet completely burned away. His wife, carrying the baby, followed, telling the girl too to come along. Halfburned, she let the child fall from her arms and barely leaped through the flames, and with her the little girl, who also came very near losing her life. When someone afterwards rebuked Abauchas for abandoning his wife and children but bringing out Gyndanes, he said: “Why, I can easily have other children, and it was uncertain whether these would be good for anything but I could not in a long time find another friend like Gyndanes, who has given me abundant proof of his devotion.”[*]

I have finished, Mnesippus, the story of these five, whom I have selected out of many. And now it is perhaps time to decide which of us is to have either his tongue or his right hand cut off, as the case may be. Who, then, will be our judge?

MNESIPPUS No one at all; for we did not appoint any judge of the debate. “But do you know what we ought to do? Since this time we have shot into the void, let us some other day choose an umpire and in his presence tell of other friends; then, whichever of us

gets beaten shall at that time have his tongue cut off if it be I, or his right hand if it be you. Or, if that is crude, inasmuch as you have resolved to extol friendship and I myself think that men have no other possession better or nobler than this, why should not we ourselves make an agreement with each other to be friends from this instant and remain so for ever, content that both have won and thereby have obtained magnificent prizes, since instead of a single tongue or a single right hand each of us will get two, and what is more, two pairs of eyes and of feet; in a word, everything multiplied by two? For the union of two or three friends is like the pictures of Geryon that artists exhibit—a man with six hands and three heads. Indeed, to my mind Geryon was three persons acting together in all things, as is right if they are really friends.

TOXARIS Good! let us do so.

MNESIPPUS But let us not feel the need of blood, Toxaris, or any sword to confirm our friendship. This conversation of ours just now and the similarity of our ideals are far more dependable sureties than that cup which your people drink, since achievements like these require resolution rather than compulsion, it seems to me.

TOXARIS I approve all this; so let us now be friends and each the other’s host, you mine here in Hellas and I yours if ever you should come to Scythia.

MNESIPPUS Truly you may be very sure that I shall not hesitate to go even farther if I am to meet such friends as you, Toxaris, have clearly shown me that you are, by what you have said.