Perde 2
[Textpart 4]
Did you not receive forty minae from Callicles, and did he not receive from you the house in possession?
420
PHILTO
Troth, I think our neighbour has sold his house Has sold his house: He feels satisfied now that Lysiteles has been correctly informed, and that Lesbonicus really is in difficulties.. When his father shall come from abroad, his place is in the beggar’s gate The beggar’s gate: He probably alludes to the Porta Trigemina at Rome, which was upon the road to Ostia. It received its name from the three twin-born brothers, the Horatii, who passed beneath it when going to fight the Curiatii. This, being one of the largest and most frequented roads in Rome, was especially the resort of mendicants; among whom, in the opinion of Philto, the father of Lesbonicus will have to take his place. Some Commentators would read ponte instead of portâ, and they think that the allusion is to the Sublician bridge at Rome, where we learn from Seneca and Juvenal that the beggars used to sit and ask alms., unless, perchance, he should creep into his son’s stomach His son’s stomach: He satirically alludes to the reckless conduct of Lesbonicus, who has spent everything to satisfy his love for eating, drinking, and debauchery..
STASIMUS
There were a thousand Olympic drachmae Olympic drachmae: As already mentioned, the drachma was about ninepence three-farthings in value. As one hundred made a mina, one fourth of the price received for the house would go to satisfy the banker’s claim. paid to the banker To the banker: The Trapezitae were the same as the Argentarii at Rome, who were bankers and money-changers on their own account, while the Mensarii transacted business on behalf of the state. Their shops, or offices, were situate around the Forum, and were public property. Their principal business was the exchange of Roman for foreign coin, and the keeping of sums of money for other persons, which were deposited with or without interest, according to agreement. They acted as agents for the sale of estates, and a part of their duty was to test the genuineness of coin, and, in later times, to circulate it from the mint among the people. Lending money at a profit was also part of their business. It is supposed that among the Romans there was a higher and a lower class of argentarii. The more respectable of them probably held the position of the banker of modern times; while those who did business on a paltry scale, or degraded themselves by usury, were not held in any esteem. Their shops, being public property, were built under the inspection of the Censors, and by them were let to the argentarii. Trapezitae, as they are here called, was properly the Greek name for these persons, who were so styled from the τραπεσα, or table, at which they sat. All will remember the tables of the money-changers mentioned in the New Testament. The mensarii were employed to lend out the public money to borrowers at interest., which you were owing upon account.
425
LESBONICUS
Those, I suppose, that I was security for I was security for: Spondeo, I promise, was a term used on many occasions among the Romans, derived from the Greek σπενδόμαι, pour out a libation; the usual mode of ratifying a treaty. Among others, it was pronounced by a person when he became security that another should repay money, as Lesbonicus, to his misfortune, had done in the present instance.?
STASIMUS
Say, rather Say, rather: Stasimus will not allow his master to mince the matter in the slightest degree. Don’t say I was security for it, but I paid it down., Those that I paid down—for that young man whom you used to say You used to say: He probably alludes to some former occasion, on which his master, having been duped into the belief, was telling him of the extraordinary wealth of his new acquaintance. was so rich.
LESBONICUS
It was so done.
STASIMUS
Yes, just to be squandered away.
LESBONICUS
That was done as well.
But I saw him in a pitiable state, and I did have pity on him.
430
STASIMUS
You have pity on others, and you have neither pity nor shame for yourself.
PHILTO
’Tis time to accost him.
LESBONICUS
Is this Philto that is coming here? Troth, ’tis he himself.
STASIMUS
I’ faith, I could wish he was my slave, together with his savings With his savings: Peculium was the property amassed by a slave out of his savings, which he was permitted to keep as his own. According to the strictness of the law, the peculium was the property of the master. Sometimes it was agreed that the slave should purchase his freedom with his peculium when it amounted to a certain sum..
PHILTO
Philto right heartily wishes health to both master and servant, Lesbonicus and Stasimus.
435
LESBONICUS
May the Gods give you, Philto, whatever you may wish for. How is your son?
PHILTO
He wishes well to you.
LESBONICUS
In good sooth, he does for me what I do for him in return!
STASIMUS
That phrase, He wishes well, is worthless, unless a person does well too.
I, too, wish to be a free man; I wish in vain. He, perhaps, might wish to become frugal; he would wish to no purpose.
440
