Is the obligation thus ungratefully returned by you to me, who have deserved so well of you? BALLIO What do you want now? CALIDORUS That you will only wait these six days of the Feast, and will not sell her or prove the death of the person who loves her. BALLIO Be of good courage; I’ll wait six months even. CALIDORUS Capital—most delightful man! BALLIO Aye; and do you wish, too, that from joyful I should make you even more joyous? CALIDORUS How so? BALLIO Why, because I’ve got no Phœnicium to sell. CALIDORUS Not got her? BALLIO I’ faith, not I, indeed. CALIDORUS Pseudolus, go fetch the sacrifice, the victims, the sacrificers The sacrificers : Lanios. Literally, butchers. These were the popae, or servants of the priests, who slaughtered the cattle which were offered in sacrifice. , that I may make offering to this supreme Jove. For this Jupiter is now much more mighty to me than is Jupiter himself. BALLIO I want no victims; with the entrails of minae Entrails of minœ : Mininis extis. He intends a pun by the use of the word mininis, Mina, as has been already observed, meant a kind of sheep without wool on its belly, and also the sum of money composed of a hundred drachmae. He does not want victims, he wants the entrails of the money for his propitiation. I wish to be appeased. CALIDORUS (to PSEUDOLUS.) Make haste. Why do you hesitate? Go fetch the lambs; do you hear what Jupiter says? PSEUDOLUS I’ll be here this moment; but first I must run as far as beyond the gate Beyond the gate : The Metian Gate at Rome is supposed to be here referred to, where the butchers kept their slaughter-houses, and where the lanii were likely to be found. It is not improbable that the priests and sacrificers wore bells on their dress, to which reference is probably made in the next line. Perhaps they were employed for the purpose of drowning the cries of the victims. The ephod of the Jewish high priest was adorned with bells. . CALIDORUS Why thither? PSEUDOLUS I’ll fetch two sacrificers thence, with their bells; at the same time I’ll fetch thence two bundles of elm twigs, that this day a sufficiency may be provided for the sacrifice to this Jove. BALLIO Away to utter perdition To utter perdition : In malam crucem. Literally, go to the dreadful cross, which answers to our expression, go to perdition; or, in unpolite parlance, go to the devil. It alludes to the cross, as the instrument of punishment for slaves and malefactors of the lower order. . PSEUDOLUS Thither shall the pimping Jupiter go. BALLIO It isn’t for your interest that I should die. PSEUDOLUS How so? BALLIO This way; because, if I’m dead, there will be no one worse than yourself in Athens. For your interest (to CALIDORUS) it is that I should die. CALIDORUS How so? BALLIO I’ll tell you; because, i’ faith, so long as I shall be alive, you’ll never be a man well to do. CALIDORUS Troth now, prithee, in serious truth, tell me this that I ask you—have you not got my mistress, Phœnicium, on sale? BALLIO By my faith, I really have not; for I’ve now sold her already. CALIDORUS In what way? BALLIO Without her trappings, with all her inwards With all her inwards : Cum intestinis omnibus. By this unfeeling expression, the fellow means, stark naked, just as she stands. However, we will do him the justice to suppose that when, in the sequel, she is led away by Simmia, a toga is thrown over her for decency’s sake. . CALIDORUS What? Have you sold my mistress? BALLIO Decidedly; for twenty minae. CALIDORUS For twenty minae?