Toxaris; Or, Friendship (12)

Mnesippos Then let Zeus, the God of Friendship, witness that all I shall tell you I speak either of my own knowledge or having learned from others, with all the exactitude in my power, and adding nothing of my own to the story.

[His first story celebrates the friendship of Agathokles of Samos for Deinias of Ephesos. Deinias was a very rich young man, who was surrounded by evil companions, and soon wasted his whole substance in riotous living. Thereupon Agathokles, a man of moderate means and his friend from childhood, whose good advice had made him insupportable in the heyday of Deinias's prosperity, sold the house of his fathers and handed over the proceeds to his friend. Deinias finally killed two persons in a disgraceful

embroglio, and was sentenced to transportation for life to one of the Cyclades. Agathokles accompanied him into exile, tended him through a long illness, and after his death continued to live in the island to be near the grave of his friend.]