§218copia est † ea facitis nos compotes.
There is an opportunity, since you make us masters of it.
§219Sécede huc núnciam, sí videtúr, procul, §220ne arbitri dicta nostra arbitrari queant §221neu permanet palam haec nostra fallacia.
Now withdraw hither, if you please, to a distance, lest the guards be able to overhear our words, and lest this deception of ours leak out into the open.
For tricks are no tricks unless you cultivate them with craft, but they become a very great evil if they turn out in public.
§224nam sí erus mihi es tu átque ego me túom esse servom assímulo, §225tamen víso opust, cauto est opus, ut hoc sóbrie sineque árbitris §226accúrate agátur, docte ét diligénter; §227tanta íncepta rés est: haud sómniculóse hoc §228agéndum est.
For if you are my master and I pretend to be your slave, yet there is need of vigilance, there is need of caution, so that this may be carried out soberly, without witnesses, carefully, skillfully, and diligently; so great an enterprise is begun: this must not be carried out in a sleepy manner.
§228bEro út me volés esse.
Philocrates: I will be as you wish me to be.
§228cSpéro.
Tyndarus: I hope so.
For you see now that for your dear life, I am offering my own dear life to danger.
§231Scio.
Philocrates: I know.
§231bAt scíre memento, quándo id quód voles habébis; §232nam fére maxima pars mórem hunc hominés habent: quod síbi volunt, §233dum id ímpetrant, boní sunt; §234sed íd ubi iam penes sése habent, §235éx bonis péssimi et fraúdulentíssimi §235afíunt: nunc út mihi té volo esse aútumo.
Tyndarus: But remember to know it when you have what you want; for almost the greatest part of men have this habit: what they want for themselves, while they are obtaining it, they are good; but when they already have it in their possession, from good they become the worst and most fraudulent; now I tell you how I want you to be to me.
By Pollux, if I might dare, I would call you my father; for next to my father, you are my nearest father.
§240Aúdio.
Philocrates: I hear.
§240bEt proptérea saepiús te uti memíneris moneo: §241non ego erus tibi, sed servos sum; nunc obsecro te hoc unum— §242quoniam nobis di immortales animum ostenderunt suom, §243ut qui erum me tibi fuisse atque esse conservom velint, §244quom antehac pro iure imperitabam meo, nunc te oro per precem— §245per fortunam incertam et per mei te erga bonitatem patris, §246perque consérvitium commune, quód hostica evenit manu, §247ne me secus honore honestes quam quom servibas mihi, §248atque ut qui fueris et qui nunc sis meminisse ut memineris.
Tyndarus: And therefore I warn you the more often to remember: I am not your master, but your slave; now I entreat you this one thing— since the immortal gods have shown us their mind, in willing that I, who was your master, should now be your fellow-slave, whereas before I ruled by my own right, now I ask you with a prayer— by uncertain fortune and by my father's goodness toward you, and by our common fellow-slavery, which has come about by an enemy's hand, not to honor me with any other respect than when you used to serve me, and that you remember to remember who you were and who you are now.
§249Scio quidem me te esse nunc et te esse me.
Philocrates: I know indeed that I am now you, and you are I.
Tyndarus: Lo, if you can remember that mindfully, there is hope for us in this cunning.
§251Iam ego revertar intro, si ex his quae volo exquisivero.
Hegio: Now I shall return inside, once I have searched out from them what I want.
§252ubi sunt isti quos ante aedis iussi huc produci foras?
Where are those whom I ordered to be brought out here before the house?
§253Edepol tibi ne in quaestione essemus cautum intellego, §254ita vinclis custodiisque circum moeniti sumus.
Philocrates: By Pollux, I understand that precautions have been taken by you lest we should be to seek, so fenced in are we with chains and guards.
§255Qui cavet ne decipiatur, vix cavet, cum etiam cavet; §256etiam cum cavisse ratus est, saepe is cautor captus est.
Hegio: He who takes care lest he be deceived, hardly takes care even when he is taking care; even when he thinks he has taken care, often that very cautioner is caught.
§257an vero non iusta causa est, ut vos servem sedulo, §258quos tam grandi sim mercatus praesenti pecunia?
Is there indeed not a just cause for me to guard you diligently, whom I bought with so large a sum of ready money?
§259Neque pol tibi nos, quia nos servas, aequomst vitio vortere, §260neque te nobis, sí abeamus hinc, si fuat occasio.
Philocrates: By Pollux, it is not fair for us to blame you because you guard us, nor for you to blame us if we should go away from here, if there should be an opportunity.
§261Vt vos hic, itidem illic apud vos meus servatur filius.
Hegio: As you are guarded here, likewise there among your people is my son guarded.
§262Captus est?
Philocrates: Was he captured?
§262bIta.
Hegio: Yes.
§262cNon igitur nos soli ignavi fuimus.
Philocrates: Then we were not the only cowards.
Hegio: Step aside hither; for there are things I want to ask you alone, about which things I do not wish you to be a speaker of falsehood to me.
si quid nescibo, id nescium tradam tibi.
If there is anything I do not know, I will deliver it to you as unknown.
§266Nunc senex est in tostrina, nunc iam cultros attinet.
Tyndarus: (Aside) Now the old man is in the barber's shop; now the barber already holds the shears.
§267ne id quidem, involucrum inicere, voluit, vestem ut ne inquinet.
He didn't even want to put on a wrapper, lest he should soil his clothes.
§268sed utrum strictimne adtonsurum dicam esse an per pectinem, §269nescio; verum, si frugist, usque admutilabit probe.
But whether I should say he is going to shave him close to the skin or through a comb, I don't know; but if he is a good one, he will crop him thoroughly and well.
§270Quid tu? servosne esse an liber mavelis, memora mihi.
Hegio: What about you? Tell me, would you rather be a slave or a free man?
§271Proxumum quod sit bono quodque a malo longissume, §272id volo; quamquam non multum fuit molesta servitus, §273nec mihi secus erat quam si essem familiaris filius.
Philocrates: That which is nearest to the good and farthest from the bad, that is what I want; though my slavery was not very troublesome, nor was it otherwise to me than if I were a son of the family.
§274Eugepae, Thalem talento non emam Milesium,
Hegio: (To himself) Excellent!
§275nam ad sapientiam huius nimius nugator fuit.
I wouldn't buy Thales of Miletus for a talent, for compared to the wisdom of this man, he was too much of a trifler.