Really, both of you do. AMPHITRYON O supreme Jupiter! when this day didst thou take from me my form? I’ll proceed to make enquiry of him; are you Amphitryon? JUPITER Do you deny it? AMPHITRYON Downright do I deny it, inasmuch as in Thebes there is no other Amphitryon besides myself. JUPITER On the contrary, no other besides myself; and, in fact, do you, Blepharo, be the judge. BLEPHARO I’ll make this matter clear by proofs, if I can. (To AMPHITRYON.) Do you answer first. AMPHITRYON With pleasure. BLEPHARO Before the battle with the Taphians was begun by you, what orders did you give me? AMPHITRYON The ship being in readiness, for you carefully to keep close to the rudder. JUPITER That if our people should take to flight, I might betake myself in safety thither. BLEPHARO Anything else as well? AMPHITRYON That the bag loaded with treasure should be carefully guarded. JUPITER Because the money— BLEPHARO Hold your tongue, you, if you please; it’s my place to ask. Did you know the amount? JUPITER Fifty Attic talents. BLEPHARO He tells the truth to a nicety. And you (to AMPHITRYON) , how many Philippeans? AMPHITRYON Two thousand. JUPITER And obols And obols : The obolus was the smallest of the Greek coins. It was of silver, and was worth in value rather more than three-halfpence of our money; six of them made a drachma. Plautus has not escaped censure for his anachronism, in talking here of the coins of Philip, King of Macedon. twice as many. BLEPHARO Each of you states the matter correctly. Inside the bag one of you must have been shut up. JUPITER Attend, please. With this right hand, as you know, I slew king Pterelas; his spoils I seized, and the goblet from which he had been used to drink I brought away in a casket; I made a present of it to my wife, with whom this day at home I bathed, I sacrificed, and slept. AMPHITRYON Ah me! what do I hear? I scarcely am myself. For, awake, I am asleep; awake, I am in a dream; alive and well, I come to destruction. I am that same Amphitryon, the descendant of Descendant of : Nepos cannot here mean grandson, as Gorgophone was not a lineal ancestor of Amphitryon, being the sister of his father Alcaeus. Gorgophone, the general of the Thebans, and the sole combatant for Creon against the Teleboans; I, who have subdued by my might the Acarnanians and the Taphians, and, by my consummate warlike prowess, their king. Over these have I appointed Cephalus, the son of the great Deioneus. JUPITER I am he who by warfare and my valour crushed the hostile ravagers. They had destroyed Electryon and the brothers of my wife. Wandering through the Ionian, the Aegean, and the Cretan seas, with piratical violence they laid waste Achaia, Aetolia, and Phocis. AMPHITRYON Immortal Gods! I cannot trust my own self, so exactly does he relate all the things that happened there. Consider, Blepharo. BLEPHARO One thing only remains; if so it is, do you be Amphitryons both of you. JUPITER I knew what you would say. The scar that I have on the muscle of my right arm, from the wound which Pterelas gave me— BLEPHARO Well, that. AMPHITRYON Quite to the purpose. JUPITER See you! look, behold! BLEPHARO Uncover, and I’ll look. JUPITER We have uncovered. Look!