Perde 3
[Textpart 5]
Seek, then, thanks from him for that. (To the SLAVES.) Take him where he may receive weighty and thick fetters, thence, after that, you shall go to the quarries for cutting stone. There, while the others are digging out eight stones, unless
HEGIO
you daily do half as much work again, you shall have the name of the six-hundred-stripe manSix-hundred- stripe man: Sexcentoplago. This is a compound word, coined by the author..
725
ARISTOPHONTES
By Gods and men, I do entreat you, Hegio, not to destroy this man.
HEGIO
He shall be taken all care ofHe shall be taken all care of: Struck with admiration at his fidelity, Aristophontes begs Hegio not to destroy Tyndarus. As the verb perduis might also mean lose him, Hegio ironically takes it in the latter sense, and says that there is no fear of that, for he shall be well taken care of; or, in other words, strictly watched. For at night, fastened with chains, he shall be watched;
in the daytime, beneath the ground, he shall be getting out stone. For many a day will I torture him; I’ll not respite him for a single day.
730
ARISTOPHONTES
Is that settled by you?
HEGIO
Not more settled that I shall die. (To the SLAVES.) Take him away this instant to Hippolytus, the blacksmith; bid thick fetters to be rivetted on him.
From there let him be led outside the gate to my freedman, Cordalus, at the stone-quarries. And tell him that I desire this man so to be treated, that he mayn’t be in any respect worse off than he who is the most severely treated.
735
TYNDARUS
Why, since you are unwilling, do I desire myself to survive?
At your own hazard is the risk of my life. After death, no evil have I to apprehend in death. Though I should live even to extreme age, still, short is the space for enduring what you threaten me with. Farewell and prosper although you are deserving for me to say otherwise.
740
You, Aristophontes, as you have deserved of me, so fare you; for on your account has this befallen me.
745
TYNDARUS
But this one thing I beg, that, if Philocrates should come back here, you will give me an opportunity of meeting him.
HEGIO
At your peril, if you don’t this instant remove him from my sight.
TYNDARUS
I’ troth, this really is violenceThis really is violence: According to Suetonius, Julius Caesar used an exactly similar expression when first attacked by his murderers in the senate-house. On Tullius Cimber seizing hold of his garments he exclaimed, Ita quidem vis est! Why, really, this is violence!, to be both dragged and pushed at the same time. (He is borne off by the SLAVES.)
750
HEGIO
He has been led off straight to prisonTo prison: Phylacam. This is a Greek word Latinized, meaning prison or confinement. as he deserves. Let no one presume to attempt such an enterprise. Had it not been for you who discovered this to me,
still would they have been leading me by the bridle with their tricks. Now am I resolved henceforth never to trust any person in anything. This once I have been deceived enough; I did hope, to my sorrow, that I had rescued my son from slavery. That hope has forsaken me. I lost one son,
755
whom, a child in his fourth year, a slave stole from me; and, indeed, never since have I found either slave or son; the elder one has fallen in the hands of the enemy. What guilt is this of mine? As though I had become the father of children for the purpose of being childless. (To AISTOPHONTES.) Follow this way. I’ll conduct you back where you were.
760
I’m determined to have pity upon no one, since no one has pity upon me.
765
ARISTOPHONTES
Forth from my chains with evil omen did I come; now I perceive that with like ill omen to my bonds I must return.
