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CALLICLES
Do 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 Capitol In 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.,
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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.
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MEGARONIDES
Have you any friend or intimate acquaintance
whose judgment is correct?
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CALLICLES
Troth, 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.
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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.
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MEGARONIDES
I know it; and if I had come hither to you for any other purpose, you request what is right.
CALLICLES
If you have anything to say, I am waiting for it.
MEGARONIDES
Then, first of all, you are badly spoken of in general conversation by the public.
Your fellow-citizens are calling you greedy of grovelling gain Greedy of grovelling gain: Plautus makes this into one word turpilucricupidum. Probably it was used as a nickname for avaricious persons. It is here attempted to be expressed by an alliteration. Thornton renders it Gripeall.; and then, again, there are others who nickname you a vulture A vulture: Both on account of the sordid and greedy habits of that bird, and because, as is stated in the next line, it cares not which side supplies its maw when it follows the course of contending armies., and say that you care but little whether you devour enemies or fellow-citizens. Since I have heard these things said against you, I have, to my misery, been sadly agitated.
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CALLICLES
It is, and it is not, in my power, Megaronides:
as to their saying this, that is not in my power; as to their saying this deservedly, that is in my power.
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MEGARONIDES
Was this Charmides a friend of yours?
CALLICLES
He both is and he was. That you may believe it to be so, I will tell you a circumstance as a proof. For after this son of his had squandered away his fortune, and he saw himself being reduced to poverty,
and that his daughter was grown up a young woman, and that she who was both her mother and his own wife was dead; as he himself was about to go hence to Seleueia Hence to Seleucia : There were several cities of this name. The one in Syria, a maritime city on the Orontes, near Antioch, is probably here referred to. he committed to my charge the maiden his daughter, and all his property, and that profligate son.
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These, I think, he would not have entrusted to me if he had been unfriendly to me.
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MEGARONIDES
What say you as to the young man, who you see to be thus profligate, and who has been entrusted to your care and confidence? Why do you not reform him? Why do you not train him to frugal habits? It would have been somewhat more just for you to give attention to that matter,
if you could have somehow made him a better man, and not for you yourself to be a party to the same disreputable conduct, and share your dishonour with his disgrace?
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CALLICLES
What have I done?
