Toxaris; Or, Friendship (22)

After these, who are not bad specimens in my opinion, hear of a third man no whit worse than they. Eudamidas of Corinth, himself a very poor

man, had two rich friends, Aretaios of Corinth and Charixenes of Sikyon. When he died he left a will, which perhaps may seem absurd to others, but I am not at all sure that such things do to you, a man of virtue, who honor friendship, and are competing for the first prize in it. The will read: "I bequeath to Aretaios my mother to support and tend in her old age, and to Charixenes my daughter to give in marriage, with as large a dowry as he can afford,”—for he had an aged mother and a young daughter just of marriageable age -"and if, in the mean time, anything happens to either of the legatees, let the other," said the will, "take his share." When this will was read, those who knew the poverty of Eudamidas but were not aware of the friendship between him and the legatees, turned the matter to a jest, and every one of them went off laughing and saying that Aretaios and Charixenes had come into a joyful inheritance if they were to make payment to Eudamidas, and if they who were living were to leave their property to a dead man.