§443opsecro, infidelior mihi ne fuas quam ego sum tibi.
I entreat you, do not be more unfaithful to me than I am to you.
§444tu hóc age.
You attend to this.
tu mihí erus nunc es, tu patronus, tu pater, §445tibi commendo spes opesque meas.
You are my master now, my protector, my father; to you I commit my hopes and my resources.
§445bMandavisti satis.
Philocrates: You have entrusted enough.
§446satin habes, mandata quae sunt facta si refero?
Are you satisfied if I return with your commissions fulfilled?
§446bSatis.
Tyndarus: Satisfied.
§447Et tua et tua huc ornatus reveniam ex sententia.
Philocrates: And I will return here, successful, to your satisfaction and to yours.
§448numquid aliud?
Anything else?
§448bVt quam primum possis redeas.
Tyndarus: That you return as soon as you can.
§448cRes monet.
Philocrates: The situation itself prompts it.
Hegio: Follow me, so that I may give you travel money from the banker, and at the same time I will obtain a passport from the praetor.
§450bQuem syngraphum?
Philocrates: What passport?
§451Quem hic ferat secum ad legionem, hinc ire huic ut liceat domum.
Hegio: One that he may carry with him to the army, so that he may be allowed to go home from here.
§452tu intro abi.
You go inside.
§452dEdepol rem meam §453constabilivi, quom illos emi de praeda a quaestoribus; §454expedivi ex servitute filium, si dis placet.
Hegio: By Pollux, I have firmly established my business, when I bought those men from the quaestors out of the booty; I have rescued my son from slavery, if it pleases the gods.
§455at etiam dubitavi, hos homines emerem an non emerem, diu.
Yet for a long time I even hesitated whether to buy these men or not.
Servants, please guard that man inside, lest he move a foot anywhere without a guard.
iam ego apparebo domi; §458ad fratrem modo captivos alios inviso meos, §459eadem percontabor, ecquis hunc ádulescentem noverit.
I shall return home presently; I will just go visit my other captives at my brother's, and at the same time I will ask if anyone knows this young man.
§460sequere tu, te ut amittam; ei rei primum praevorti volo. — §461Míser homo est, qui ipse sibi quod edit quaerit et id aegre invenit, §462sed ille est miserior, qui et aegre quaerit et nihil invenit; §463ille miserrimust, qui cum esse cupit, tum quod edit non habet.
You, follow me, so that I may dismiss you; I want to attend to this matter first.— Ergasilus: A wretched man is he who seeks what he may eat for himself and finds it with difficulty, but more wretched is he who both seeks with difficulty and finds nothing; most wretched of all is he who, when he desires to eat, then has nothing to eat.
§464nam hercle ego huic die, si liceat, oculos effodiam libens, §465ita malignitate oneravit omnis mortalis mihi; §466neque ieiuniosiorem neque magis ecfertum fame §467vidi nec quoi minus procedat quidquid facere occeperit, §468ita venter gutturque resident esurialis ferias.
For, by Hercules, if it were allowed, I would gladly dig out the eyes of this day, so much has it filled all mortals with stinginess toward me; I have never seen a day more starving, nor one more stuffed with hunger, nor one in which whatever a man begins to do progresses less, so completely do my belly and throat keep a fast-day of hunger.
§469ilicet parasiticae arti maximam malam crucem, §470ita iuventus iam ridiculos inopesque ab se segregat.
Go to the greatest gallows, O parasitic art, so completely do the young men now banish witty and needy men from themselves.
§471nil morantur iam Lacones unisubselli viros, §472plagipatidas, quibus sunt verba sine penu et pecunia:
They care nothing now for the "men of a single bench," the "blow-bearers," who have words without provision or money.
§473eos requirunt, qui libenter, quom ederint, reddant domi; §474ipsi obsonant, quae parasitorum ante erat provincia, §475ipsi de foro tam aperto capite ad lenones eunt §476quam in tribú aperto capite sontes condemnant reos; §477neque ridiculos iam terrunci faciunt, sese omnes amant.
They seek those who will gladly return the favor at home when they have eaten; they themselves buy the provisions, which was once the province of parasites; they themselves go from the forum to the pimps as openly as they condemn guilty defendants with open heads in the assembly; and they do not value witty men at a farthing, they all love themselves.
§478nám uti dudum hinc abii, accessi ad adulescentes in foro.
For when I went away from here a little while ago, I approached some young men in the forum.
§479salvete
inquam.
"Hello," I said.
quo imus una
ínquam
ad prandium?
atque illi tacent.
"Where are we going together," I said, "for lunch?" And they were silent.
§480quis ait
hoc
aut quis profitetur?
inquam.
"Who says 'here' or who volunteers?" I said.
quasi muti silent, §481neque me rident.
They were silent as if they were mute, nor did they smile at me.
ubi cenamus?
inquam.
"Where are we dining?" I said.
átque illi abnuont.
And they shook their heads.
§482dico unum ridiculum dictum de dictis melioribus, §483quibus solebam menstruales epulas ante adipiscier: §484nemo ridet; scivi extemplo rem de compecto geri; §485ne canem quidem irritatam voluit quisquam imitarier, §486saltem, si non arriderent, dentes ut restringerent.
I told one witty joke of my better sayings, with which I used to obtain month-long feasts before: nobody laughed; I knew immediately that the business was being conducted by agreement; no one even wanted to imitate an angry dog, at least, if they would not smile, to show their teeth.
§487abeo ab illis, postquam video me sic ludificarier; §488pergo ad alios, venio ad alios, deinde ad alios: una res.
I went away from them, after I saw that I was being mocked in this way; I went on to others, I came to others, then to others: it was one and the same thing.
§489omnes de compecto rém agunt, quasi in Velabro olearii.
Everyone acted by agreement, just like the oil-merchants in the Velabrum.
§490nunc redeo inde, quoniam mé ibi video ludificarier.
Now I return from there, since I see that I am mocked there.
§491item alii parasiti frustra obambulabant in foro.
Other parasites likewise were walking about the forum in vain.
§492nunc barbarica lege certumst ius meum omne persequi: §493qui consilium iniere, quo nos victu et vita prohibeant, §494is diem dicam, irrogabo multam, ut mihi cenas decem §495meo arbitratu dent, cum cara annona sit.
Now it is determined to pursue all my rights by the foreign law: against those who have entered into a conspiracy to exclude us from food and life, I will appoint a day, I will demand a fine, so that they may give me ten dinners at my own choice, when provisions are dear.
sic egero.
Thus I will have done.
§496nunc ibo ad portum hinc: est illic mi una spes cenatica; §497si éa decolabit, redibo huc ad senem ad cenam asperam. — §498Quid est suávius, quam bene rém gerere, §499bonó publicó, sic ut égo feci herí,
Now I will go from here to the harbor: there lies my single hope of a dinner; if that fails, I will return here to the old man to a rough dinner.— Hegio: What is more pleasant than to manage one's business well, for the public good, just as I did yesterday, when I bought these men?
§500cum emi hósce homines: ubi quísque vident,
Wherever people see me,