Come, now, let us do something of this sort, if
it takes your fancy. Let us leave the friends of
old whom you or I could count out of the question; for under that head you would be rich in
them, summoning many credible poets to testify
to the friendship of Achilles and Patroklos, and
the camaraderie of Theseus and Peirithoos and
the others, singing them in metre with the most
beautiful language. But let us select a few from
our contemporaries and tell their exploits-I for
Scythia, you for Greece-and he who is victorious and able to produce the best friends will be
openly the better man, and will proclaim his the
better country, because he has won in a very noble

 

and beautiful contest. For my part, I should
vastly prefer losing my right hand for having
been worsted in single combat-that is the Scythian forfeit to being judged inferior to another
man in respect of friendship, and that, too, though
I am a Greek Scythian myself.