Let him say that he is bringing some gold as a marriage-portion from her father for the girl, and that his father has requested him to deliver it to you. Do you understand me now? CALLICLES Pretty nearly; and I listen with great satisfaction. MEGARONIDES Then, in consequence, you will finally give the gold to the young man when the girl shall be given in marriage. CALLICLES Troth, ’tis very cleverly contrived. MEGARONIDES By this means, when you have dug up the treasure, you will have removed all cause for suspicion from the young man. He will think that the gold has been brought to you from his father; whereas, you will be taking it from the treasure. CALLICLES Very cleverly and fairly contrived; although I am ashamed, at this time of life, for me to be playing a double part. But when he shall bring the letters sealed, don’t you suppose that the young man will then recollect the impression of his father’s signet His father’s signet : The custom of wearing rings among the Romans was said to have been derived from the Sabines. The stones set in them were generally engraved with some design, and they were universally used by both Greeks and Romans for the purpose of a seal. So common was the practice among the Greeks, that Solon made a very wholesome law which forbade engravers to keep the form of a seal which they had sold. In some rings the seal was cut in the metal itself. The designs engraved on rings were various; sometimes portraits of ancestors or friends, and sometimes subjects connected with the mythology or the worship of the Gods. The onyx was the stone most frequently used in rings. The genuineness of a letter was tested, not by the signature, but by the seal appended to it; hence the anxiety of Callicles on the present occasion. ? MEGARONIDES Will you be silent now? Reasons innumerable may be found for that circumstance. That which he used to have he has lost, and he has since had another new one made. Then, if he should bring them not sealed at all, this might be said,—that they had been unsealed for him by the custom-house officers The custom-house officers : The portitores were the officers who collected the portorium, or import duty, on goods brought from foreign countries. These portitores, to whom it was frequently farmed, greatly annoyed the merchants by their unfair conduct and arbitrary proceedings. At Rome, all commodities, including slaves, which were imported for the purpose of selling again, were subject to the portorium. The present instance is an illustration of the license of their proceedings, for we can hardly suppose that they were entitled as of right to break open the seals of letters from foreign countries. , and had been examined. On matters of this kind, however, ’tis mere idleness to spend the day in talk; although a long discussion might be spun out. Go now, at once, privately to the treasure; send to a distance the men-servants and the maids; and—do you hear? CALLICLES What is it? MEGARONIDES Take care that you conceal this matter from that same wife of yours as well; for, i’ faith, there is never any subject which they can be silent upon. Why are you standing now? Why don’t you take yourself off hence, and bestir yourself? Open the treasure, take thence as much gold as is requisite for this purpose; at once close it up again, but secretly, as I have enjoined you; turn all out of the house. CALLICLES I will do so. MEGARONIDES But, really, we are continuing too long a discourse; we are wasting the day, whereas there is need now of all expedition. There is nothing for you to fear about the seal; trust me for that. This is a clever excuse to give, as I mentioned, that they have been looked at by the officers. In fine, don’t you see the time of day? What do you think of him being of such a nature and disposition? He is drunk already; anything you like may be proved for him. Besides, what is the greatest point of all, this person will say that he brings, and not that he applies for, money. CALLICLES Now, that’s enough. MEGARONIDES I am now going to hire a sharper A sharper : Sycophanta. At an early period there was a law at Athens against the exportation of figs. In spite, however, of prohibitions and penalties; the fig-growers persisted in exporting the fruit. To inform the authorities against the practice was deemed mean and vexatious, so the statute came in time to be looked upon as obsolete. Hence, the term δυκοφαντεῖν, to inform relative to the exportation of figs, came to be applied to all mean and dishonest accusations. In time, the word sycophant came to be applied to a man who was a cunning and villanous character, and who, as it has been justly observed, in Dr Smith’s Dictionary, was a happy compound of the common barretor, informer, pettifogger, busybody, rogue, liar, and slanderer. In fact, he was such a person as we mean by the epithet swindler or sharper. Information being encouraged by the policy of Athens, and the informer gaining half the reward, it was upon this honourable calling that the sycophantae in general thrived They were ready, however, for any other job, however dishonorable, and perjury would not be declined by them if they could obtain their price. They would, consequently be much in the neighbourhood of the Courts of justice; and the Forum, as in the present instance, would not be an unlikely place to meet with them. from the Forum, and then I will seal the two letters; and I’ll send him thither (pointing to the house of CHARMIDES) , well tutored in his part, to this young man. CALLICLES I am going in-doors then to my duty in consequence. Do you see about this matter. MEGARONIDES I’ll take care it’s done in the very cleverest style. (Exeunt.) (Enter CHARMIDES.) CHARMIDES To Neptune, potent o’er the deep and most powerful, the brother of aethereal Jove, joyously and sincerely do I proffer praise, and return my grateful thanks; to the salt waves, too, with whom lay supreme power over myself,—one, too, that existed over my property and my life, —inasmuch as from their realms they have returned me safe and sound even to my own native city. And, Neptune, before the other Deities, do I both give and return to you extreme thanks. For all people talk of you as being cruel and severe, of voracious habits, filthy, unsightly, unendurable, and outrageous; on the other hand, I have experienced your kindly aid. For, in good sooth, I have found you mild and merciful upon the deep, even to that degree that I wished. This commendation, too, I had already heard with these ears before of you among men,—that you were accustomed to spare the poor, and to depress and overawe the rich. Adieu! I commend you; you know how to treat men properly, according as is just. This is worthy of the Gods; they should ever prove benignant to the needy; to men of high station, quite otherwise. Trusty have you proved, though they are in the habit of saying that you cannot be trusted. For, without you, it would have happened, I am very sure, that on the deep your attendants would have shockingly torn in pieces and rent asunder wretched me, and, together with me, my property as well, in every direction throughout the azure surface of ocean. But just now, like raging dogs, and no otherwise, did the winds in hurricane beset the ship; storms and waves, and raging squalls were about to roar, to break the mast, to bear down the yards, to split the sails; had not your favouring kindness been nigh at hand. Have done with me, if you please; henceforth have I now determined to give myself up to ease; enough have I got. With what pains have I struggled, while I was acquiring riches for my son. But who is this But who is this : It seems at first sight rather absurd that Charmides, who has just returned from a voyage, should wait in the street to gossip with a stranger who is coming towards him; but we must remember that he sees that the fellow is making straight for his house, and his curiosity is excited by that fact, combined with the very extraordinary dress which Megaronides has hired for him from the playhouse, and has thereby probably much overdone the character which he is intended to represent. that is coming up the street with his new-fangled garb and appearance? I’ faith, though I wish to be at home, I’ll wait awhile; at the same time, I will give my attention to see what business this fellow is about. (He retires aside.) (Enter the SHARPER.) A SHARPER. To this day I give the name of The Festival of the Three Pieces (Trinummus); for, on this day, have I let out my services in a cheating scheme for three pieces of money. I am just arrived from Seleucia, Macedonia, Asia, and Arabia,—places which I never visited either with my eye or with my foot. See now, what business poverty brings upon the man that is wretchedly destitute; inasmuch as I am now obliged, for the sake of three pieces of money, to say that I received these letters from a certain person, about whom I don’t know, nor have I ever known, who the man is, nor do I know this for certain, whether he was ever born or not. CHARMIDES (behind.) Faith, this fellow’s surely of the mushroom genus; he covers himself entirely with his top. With his top : The Sharper, as personating a foreigner, has on a petasus, or hat with very wide brims, extending straight out on each side. For this reason Charmides wittily compares him to a mushroom—all head. The causia was a similar hat worn by the Macedonians, with the brims turned up at the sides. The countenance of the fellow appears to be Illyrian; he comes, too, in that garb.