The Scythian or Consul (11)

“To excite your wonder still more, they belong to one and the same household. They are in fact father and son. The father you may imagine to be a Solon, a Pericles, or an Aristides, while the son will win your heart as soon as you see him, so tall is he and handsome with his manly grace; and let him but speak and he will leave you with your ears enchained, such charm is there in the young man’s tongue. Whenever he comes forward to speak in public the entire city listen to him open-mouthed—it is the story of the Athenians and the son of Clinias over again with this difference: the Athenians quite soon repented of their affection for Alcibiades, while here there is not only love for the young man but a ready reverence already and in short the well-being and happiness of our state are summed up in this one man. If he and his father were to take you in and make you their friend, then the whole city is yours. Let them but lift a finger and any doubts you may have will be no more.” This by Zeus (if I must

swear to it) is what all told me, and by my experience already it is clear that they told me but a fraction of the truth. “Then sit no more and brook no more delay,” as the Ceian [*] says. No, I must pull every rope, do and say everything to make such men my friends; if that is once attained, then ahead there is nothing but calm weather, a fair wind, a sea barely rippling, and a harbour near at hand.