More, indeed, than either you or myself. For he, in fact, who you say that he is (pointing to TYNDARUS) , has set out hence to-day for Elis, to this person’s father. ARISTOPHONTES What father, when he’s a slave When he’s a slave : Slaves were not considered to have any legal existence; and, therefore, to have neither parents or relations. . TYNDARUS And so are you a slave, and yet you were a free man; and I trust that so I shall be, if I restore his son here to liberty. ARISTOPHONTES How say you, villain? Do you say that you were born a free man [liber]? TYNDARUS I really do not say that I am Liber That I am Liber : Aristophontes asks him if he means to assert that he was born a free man, liber. As Liber was also a name of Bacchus, Tyndarus quibbles, and says, I did not assert that I am Liber, but that I am Philocrates. In consequence of the idiom of the Latin language, his answer (non equidem me Liberum, sed Philocratem esse aio) will admit of another quibble, and may be read as meaning, I did not say that I am a free man, but that Philocrates is. This maybe readily seen by the Latin scholar, but is not so easily explained to the English reader. , but that I am Philocrates.