Woe be to you! ERGASILUS Because that you don’t believe me at all in what I say in sober earnestness. But of what country was Stalagmus, at the time when ne departed hence?HEGIO A Sicilian. ERGASILUS But now he is not a Sicilian—he is a Boian; he has got a Boian woman.Got a Boian woman: There is an indelicate meaning in the expression Boiam terere. The whole line is intended as a play upon words. Boia means either a collar, which was placed round a prisoner’s neck, or a female of the nation of the Boii in Gaul. Boiam terere may mean either to have the prisoner’s collar on, or, paraphrastically, to be coupled with a Boian woman. Ergasilus having seen Stalagmus in the packet-boat with this collar on, declares that Stalagmus is a Sicilian no longer, for he has turned Boian having a Boian helpmate. A wife, I suppose, has been given to him for the sake of obtaining children.HEGIO Tell me, have you said these words to me in good earnest?ERGASILUS In good earnest.