A thing for you to rejoice at.PHANOSTRATA What’s that?LAMPADISCUS(pointing to the house of SILENIUM.) A little while ago, I saw a woman coming out of that house there.PHANOSTRATA Her that took up my daughter?LAMPADISCUS You have the matter rgiht.PHANOSTRATA What after that? LAMPADISCUS I told her in what way I had seen her take up the daughter of my mistress from the Hippodrome. Then she was in a fright.MELAENIS(apart.) Now my body’s in a shudder, my heart is throbbing; for I recollect that from the Hippodrome the little female infant was brought to me, and that I brought it up as my own.PHANOSTRATA Come, prithee, do go on; my soul’s longing to hear how the matter proceeded.MELAENIS(apart.) I only wish you couldn’t hear.LAMPADISCUS I proceed sayingSaying: We are to suppose that on following the Procuress to her own house, he says this to Gymnasium, taking her for the young woman whom he is in search of. Probably a large portion of the Play is lost here., This old woman calls you her daughter wrongfully. For this woman here is your foster-mother, so don’t think she is your mother. I’m to take you back and invite you to opulence, where you may be settled in a noble family, where your father may present you with twenty great talents for a portion. For this is not a place where after the Etrurian modeThe Etrurian mode: The Tuscans or Etrurians, who were said to have been originally a colony from Lydia, are by some writers stated to have forced their young women to gain their marriage-portions by prostitution. Herodotus alludes to this custom of the Lydians. you are disgracefully to earn a dowry for yourself by prostitution of your person.PHANOSTRATA Is she, pray, a Courtesan, who took it up?LAMPADISCUS Yes, she was a Courtesan. But how it happened, I’ll tell you about that matter. I was now winning her over to me by my persuasion. The old woman embraced her knees, weeping and entreating that she would not forsake her; saying that she was her own daughter; and she took a solemn oath to me that she herself had borne her.