The Scythian or Consul (7)

He is one of our Scythian nobility, but that hasn’t prevented him from leaving all his possessions there to visit you men of Greece and to see the fairest things that Greece can offer, I’ve discovered a short way of enabling him to see everything easily in person and to become known to the cream of your nation: this was to bring him to you. If I know Solon, you’ll do this and look after him and make him a true son of Greece. Anacharsis, as I told you just now, having seen Solon you have seen everything: here is Athens, here is Greece; you’re no longer a stranger, everybody knows you, everybody

loves you. Such is the quality of this old man. In his company you will forget everything you left in Scythia. Here is the reward of your voyaging abroad, the end of your passionate longing. Here for you is the measure of Greece, here a specimen of Attic philosophy. Just realise how blessed you are to meet Solon, and to meet him as a friend.”