Chapter 1

_Enter_ ERGASILUS.

ERG. The young men have given me the name of "the mistress," for this reason, because invocated [1] I am wont to attend at the banquet. I know that buffoons [2] say that this is absurdly said, but I affirm that it is rightly _said_. For at the banquet the lover, when he throws the dice, invokes his mistress.[3] Is she _then_ invocated, or _is she_ not? She is, most clearly. But, i' faith, we Parasites with better reason _are so called_, whom no person ever either invites or invokes, _and who_, like mice, are always eating the victuals of another person. When business is laid aside [4], when people repair to the country, at that same moment is business laid aside for our teeth. Just as, when it is hot weather, snails lie hidden in secret, _and_ live upon their own juices, if the dew doesn't fall; so, when business is laid aside, do Parasites lie hidden in retirement, _and_ miserably live upon their own juices, while in the country the persons are rusticating whom they sponge upon. When business is laid aside, we Parasites are greyhounds; when business recommences, _like_ mastiffs [5], we are annoying-like and very troublesome-like [6].

And here, indeed, unless, i'faith, any Parasite is able to endure cuffs with the fist, and pots to be broken [7] about his head, why he may e'en go with his wallet outside the Trigeminian Gate [8]. That this may prove my lot, there is some danger. For since my patron [9] has fallen into the hands of the enemy--(such warfare are the Aetolians now waging with the Eleans; for this is Aetolia; this Philopolemus has been made captive in Elis, the son of this old man Hegio who lives here (_pointing to the house_)--a house which to me is _a house_ of woe, _and_ which so oft as I look upon, I weep). Now, for the sake of his son, has he commenced this dishonorable traffic, very much against his own inclination. He buys up men that have been made captives, if _perchance_ he may be able to find some one for whom to gain his son in exchange. An object which I really do much desire that he may gain, for unless he finds him, there's nowhere for me to find myself. I have no hopes in the young men; they are all _too_ fond of themselves. He, in fine, is a youth with the old-fashioned manners, whose countenance I never rendered cheerful without a return. His father is worthily matched, as endowed with like manners. Now I'll go to him;--but his door is opening, _the door_ from which full oft I've sallied forth drunk with excess of cheer (_He stands aside._)

[Footnote 1: _Because invocated_)--Ver. 70. "Invocatus." The following Note is extracted from Thornton's Translation of this Play:-- "The reader's indulgence for the coinage of a new term (and perhaps not quite so much out of character from the mouth of a Parasite) is here requested in the use of the word 'invocated' in a sense, which it is owned, there is no authority for, but without it no way occurs to explain the poet's meaning--which, such as it is, and involved in such a pun, is all that can be aimed at. The word 'invocatus' means both 'called upon' and 'not called upon.' Ergasilus here quibbles upon it; for, though at entertainments be attends, as it is the common character of Parasites to do, without invitation, that is 'not called upon;' and as mistresses are 'called upon' that their names so invoked may make their lovers throw the dice with success; still, according to the double sense of the word, they may be compared to each other, as they are both, according to the Latin idiom, 'invocati.'"]

[Footnote 2: _That buffoons_)--Ver. 71. "Derisores," "buffoons." By this word he means that particular class of Parasites who earned their dinners by their repartees and bon-mots.]

[Footnote 3: _Invokes his mistress_)--Ver. 73. It was the Grecian custom, when they threw dice at an entertainment, for the thrower to call his mistress by name, which invocation was considered to bring good luck.]

[Footnote 4: _When business is laid aside_)--Ver. 78. "Ubi res prolatae sunt." Meaning thereby "in vacation-time." In the heat of summer the courts of justice were closed, and the more wealthy portion of the Romans retired into the country or to the seaside. Cicero mentions this vacation as "rerum proliatio." The allusion in the previous line is probably derived from a saying of the Cynic Diogenes: when he saw mice creeping under the table, he used to say, "See the Parasites of Diogenes."]

[Footnote 5: _Like mastiffs_)--Ver. 86. "Molossici." Literally, "dogs of Molossus," a country of Epirus.]

[Footnote 6: _Annoying-like and very troublesome-like_)--Ver. 87. "Odiosici--incommodestici." These are two extravagant forms of the words "odiosi" and "incommodi," coined by the author for the occasion.]

[Footnote 7: _Pots to be broken_)--Ver. 89. By Meursius we are informed that these practical jokes were played upon the unfortunate Parasites with pots filled with cinders, which were sometimes scattered over their clothes, to the great amusement of their fellow-guests.]

[Footnote 8: _The Trigeminian Gate_)--Ver. 90. The Ostian Gate was so called because the Horatii left the city by that gate to fight the Curiatii. The brothers being born at one birth were "trigemini," whence the gate received its name. The beggars with their wallets were seated there. See the Trinummus, 1.423, and the Note to the passage.]

[Footnote 9: _Since my patron_)--Ver. 92. Rex; literally, "king." The Parasites were in the habit of so calling their entertainers.]