This I am doing for this reason, because you persuade my son to live like a Greek with you, you thrice-dotted villain. CHRYSALUS (aside.) O fool, fool, you know not that you are at this moment on sale; and that you are standing on the very stone On the very stone : He alludes to the stone upon which the praeco , or auctioneer, stood with the slaves, when he sold them by auction. Only the cheapest and the least desirable of them were sold in this way. as the auctioneer puts you up. NICOBULUS (overhearing him.) Answer me; who is selling me? CHRYSALUS He whom the Gods favour Whom the Gods favour : Menander has a sentence to the effect— He whom the Gods love, dies young. Chrysalus tells Nicobulus that he is clearly no favorite of the Gods, or he would have died long since. dies in youth, while he is in his health, has his senses and judgment sound. This person (pointing to NICOBULUS) , if any God had favoured him, ought to have been dead more than ten years—aye, more than twenty years ago. ’Tis for long, he has walked, a nuisance, on the earth; so devoid is he of either judgment or sense. He is of as much value as a rotten mushroom is. NICOBULUS Do you think that I am a nuisance to the earth? Away with him in-doors, and tie him tightly to the post. You shall never take away any gold from here. CHRYSALUS No, but you’ll soon be giving it me. NICOBULUS I, give it you? CHRYSALUS You’ll be entreating me, too, of your own accord to receive it, when you shall come to know this accuser of mine, in how great danger and in what a dreadful situation he is. Then will you be offering his liberty to Chrysalus; but I certainly shan’t accept it. NICOBULUS Tell me, source of mischief, tell me, in what danger is my son Mnesilochus.