That which I have, I wish for all my friends as well.CALLICLESHarkye, how does your wife do?MEGARONIDESShe is immortal; she lives, and is likely to live.CALLICLESI’ faith, you tell me good news; and I pray the Gods that, surviving you, she may last out your life.MEGARONIDESBy my troth! if indeed she were only married to yourself, I could wish it sincerely.CALLICLESDo you wish that we should exchange?—that I should take yours, and you mine?I’d be making you not to get a bit the better of the bargain of me.MEGARONIDESIndeed, I fancyIndeed I fancy: Neque, which implies a negative, seems to be more in accordance with the sense of the passage than the affirmative nempe, which is the reading of Ritschel; it has therefore been adopted. you would not be surprising me unawares.CALLICLESAye, faith, I should cause you not to be knowingNot to be knowing: That is, the risk you would run in taking her or your wife. the thing you were about.MEGARONIDESKeep what you’ve got; the evil that we know is the best. But if I were now to take one that I know not, I should not know what to do.CALLICLESIn good sooth, just as one livesJust as one lives: The meaning of this passage seems to be somewhat obscure, and many of the Editions give this line to Megaronides. It is probable however, that Callicles intends, as a consolation for them both, to say that life itself is a blessing, and that they ought not by unnecessary anxieties to shorten it, but rather to submit with patience to their domestic grievances. a long life, one lives a happy life.MEGARONIDESBut give your attention to this, and have done with your joking, for I am come hither to you for a given purpose. CALLICLESWhy have you come?MEGARONIDESThat I may rebuke you soundly with many harsh words. CALLICLESMe, do you say?MEGARONIDESIs there any one else here besides you and me?CALLICLES(looking about.)There is no one.MEGARONIDESWhy, then, do you ask if ’tis you I mean to rebuke? Unless, indeed, you think that I am about to reprove my own self. For if your former principles now flag in you, or if the manners of the age are working a change in your disposition, and if you preserve not those of the olden time, but are catching up these new ones, you will strike all your friends with a malady so direful, that they will turn sick at seeing and hearing you.CALLICLESHow comes it into your mind to utter these expressions?MEGARONIDESBecause it becomes all good men and all good women to have a care to keep suspicion and guilt away from themselves.CALLICLESBoth cannot be done. MEGARONIDESWhy so?CALLICLESDo you ask? I am the keeper of my own heart so as not to admit guilt there; suspicion is centred in the heart of another. For if now I should suspect that you had stolen the crown from the head of Jupiter in the CapitolIn the Capitol: Plautus does not much care about anachronism or dramatic precision; though the plot of the play is derived from the Greek, and the scene laid at Athens, he makes frequent reference to Roman localities and manners. It is probable that the expression here employed was proverbial at Rome, to signify a deed of daring and unscrupulous character. From ancient writers we learn that there was a statue of Jupiter seated in a chariot, placed on the roof of the Capitoline Temple. Tarquinius Priscus employed Etrurian artists to make a statue of pottery for this purpose; and the original chariot, with its four horses, was made of baked clay. In later and more opulent times, the crown placed on the statue was of great value, so much so as to act as a temptation to one Petilius, who attempted to steal it, and being caught in the fact, was afterwards nicknamed Capitolinus. Mention is again made of this status in the Menaechmi, act v, sc. b. l. 38.,the statue which stands on the highest summit of the temple; if you had not done so, and still it should please me to suspect you, how could you prevent me from suspecting you? But I am anxious to know what this matter is. MEGARONIDESHave you any friend or intimate acquaintance whose judgment is correct?CALLICLESTroth, I’ll tell you without reserve. There are some whom I know to be friends; there are some whom I suspect to be so, but whose dispositions and feelings I am unable to discover, whether they incline to the side of a friend or an enemy; but of my assured friends, you are the most assured. If you know that I have done anything unwittingly or wrongfully, and if you do not accuse me of it, then you yourself will be to blame.MEGARONIDESI know it; and if I had come hither to you for any other purpose, you request what is right.