“Be it resolved and enacted into law, to be binding for the rest of my life, that I shall associate with no one, recognize no one and scorn everyone. Friends, guests, comrades and Altars of MercyThere was such an altar in Athens; cf. Demonax 57. shall be matter for boundless mockery. To pity one who weeps, to help one who is in need shall be a misdemeanour and an infringement of the constitution. My life shall be solitary, like that of wolves; Timon shall be my only friend,
and all others shall be enemies and conspirators. To talk to any of them shall be pollution, and if I simply see one of them, that day shall be under a curse. In short, they shall be no more than statues of stone or bronze in my sight. I shall receive no ambassadors from them and make no treaties with them, and the desert shall sunder me from them. Tribe, clan, deme and native land itself shall be inane and useless names, and objects of the zeal of fools. Timon shall keep his wealth to himself, scorn everyone and live in luxury all by himself, remote from flattery and tiresome praise. He shall sacrifice to the gods and celebrate his feast-days by himsclf, his own sole neighbour and crony, shaking free of all others. Be it once for all resolved that he shall give himself the farewell hand-clasp when he comes to die, and shall set the funeral wreath upon his own brow.
