5–2
PHILOSTRATUS
You talk to us, mercenary, as though we were babes in arms whom you wish to scare with your idle threats. When did you ever kill so much as a cock or see fighting? You may have been a corporal guarding a few yards of wall, and that’s giving you the benefit of the doubt.
POLEMO
You’ll soon know all about it, when you see us advancing against your unguarded flank with our armour glittering in the sun.
PHILOSTRATUS
Just prepare for the march and come on. Tibius here—he’s my only retainer—and I will pelt you with stones and potsherds and scatter you in such panic that you won’t know where you’ve gone.
CHELIDONIUM
Has young Clinias given up visiting you, Drosis? It’s a long time since I’ve seen him at your house.
DROSIS
Yes, Chelidonium. His tutor has stopped him from coming to see me any more.
CHELIDONIUM
Who’s he? Surely not Diotimus, the gymnastics master? He’s a friend of mine.
DROSIS
No, but that most accursed of Philosophers, Aristaenetus.
CHELIDONIUM
Do you mean the grim-looking fellow, with the shaggy hair and bushy beard, who’s always walking with his boys in the Painted Porch?
5
DROSIS
That’s the hypocrite I mean. I’d like to see him come to a bad end, with the hangman dragging him along by that beard.
CHELIDONIUM
Why ever did he induce Clinias to act like this?
