Chapter 2

HEG. _Now_, give attention you, if you please. Those two captives whom I purchased yesterday of the Quaestors out of the spoil, put upon them chains of light weight [1]; take of those greater ones with which they are bound. Permit them to walk, if they wish, out of doors, _or_ if in-doors, but so that they are watched with the greatest care. A captive at liberty is like a bird that's wild; if opportunity is once given for escaping, 'tis enough; after that, you can never catch him.

SLAVE. Doubtless we all are free men more willingly than we live the life of slaves.

HEG. You, indeed, don't seem _to think_ so [2].

SLAVE. If I have nothing to give, should you like me to give myself to flight [3]?

HEG. If you do so give _yourself_, I shall at once have something to be giving to you.

SLAVE. I'll make myself just like the wild bird you were telling of.

HEG. 'Tis just as you say; for if you do so, I'll be giving you to the cage [4] But enough of prating; take you care of what I've ordered, and be off. (_The_ SLAVE _goes into the house._) I'll away to my brother's, to my other captives; I'll go see whether they've been making any disturbance last night. From there I shall forthwith betake myself home again.

ERG. (_apart_). It grieves me that this unhappy old man is following the trade of a slave-dealer, by reason of the misfortune of his son. But, if by any means he can be brought back here, I could even endure for him to become an executioner.

HEG. (_overhearing him_). Who is it that's speaking?

ERG. 'Tis I, who am pining at your affliction, growing thin, waxing old, and shockingly wasting away. Wretched man that I am, I'm _but_ skin and bone through leanness; nor does anything ever do me good that I eat at home; even that ever so little which I taste out of doors, the same refreshes me.

HEG. Ergasilus, save you! ERG. (_crying_). May the Gods kindly bless you, Hegio!

HEG. Don't weep. ERG. Must I not weep for him? Must I not weep for such a young man?

HEG. I've always known you to be a friend to my son, and I have understood him _to be so_ to you.

ERG. Then at last do we men know our blessings, when we have lost those things which we _once_ had in our power. I, since your son fell into the power of the enemy, knowing by experience of what value he was, now feel his loss.

HEG. Since you, who are no relation, bear his misfortune so much amiss, what is it likely that I, a father, should do, whose only _son_ he is?

ERG. I, no relation _to him_? He, no relation _to me_? Oh, Hegio! never do say that, nor come to such a belief. To you he is an only _child_, but to me he is even more only than an only one.

HEG. I commend you, in that you consider the affliction of your friend your own affliction. Now be of good heart.

ERG. (_crying_). O dear! HEG. (_half-aside_). 'Tis this afflicts him, that the army for guttling is now disbanded. Meanwhile, have you found no one to command for you the army that you mentioned as disbanded?

ERG. What do you think? All to whom it used to fall are in the habit of declining that province since your son Philopolemus was taken prisoner.

HEG. I' faith, 'tisn't to be wondered at, that they are in the habit of declining that province. You have necessity for numerous troops, and those of numerous kinds. Well, first you have need of the Bakerians [5]. Of these Bakerians there are several kinds. You have need of Roll-makerians, you hare need too of Confectionerians, you have need of Poultererians, you have need of Beccaficorians; besides all the maritime forces are necessary for you.

ERG. How the greatest geniuses do frequently lie concealed! How great a general now is _this_ private individual!

HEG. Only have good courage; for I trust that in a few days I shall bring him back home. For see _now_; there's a captive here, a young man of Elis, born of a very high family, and of very great wealth; I trust that it will come to pass that I shall get my son in exchange for him.

ERG. May the Gods and Goddesses grant it so!

HEG. But are you invited out anywhere to dinner?

ERG. Nowhere that I know of. But, pray, why do you ask me?

HEG. Because this is my birthday; for that reason I'd like you to be invited to dinner at my house.

ERG. 'Tis kindly said. HEG. But if you can be content to eat a very little--

ERG. Aye, even ever so little; for on such fare as that do, I enjoy myself every day at home.

HEG. Come, _then_, please, set yourself up for sale.

ERG. I'll put myself up for purchase, just like a landed estate, unless any one shall _privately_ make a better offer that pleases myself and my friends more, _and_ to my own conditions will I bind myself.

HEG. You are surely selling me a bottomless pit [6], _and_ not a landed estate. But if you are coming, _do so_ in time.

ERG. Why, for that matter. I'm at leisure even now.

HEG. Go then, _and_ hunt for a hare; at present, _in me_ you have but a ferret [7], for my fare is in the way of frequenting a rugged road.

ERG. You'll never repulse me by that, Hegio, so don't attempt it. I'll come, in spite of it, with teeth well shod.

HEG. Really, my viands are _but_ of a rough sort [8]. ERG. Are you in the habit of eating brambles?

HEG. _Mine_ is an earthy dinner. ERG. A pig is an earthy animal.

HEG. _Earthy_ from its plenty of vegetables.

ERG. Treat your sick people [9] at home _with that fare?_ Do you wish anything else?

HEG. Come in good time. ERG. You are putting in mind one who remembers quite well. (_Exit._

HEG. I'll go in-doors, and in the house I'll make the calculation how little money I have at my banker's; afterwards I'll go to my brother's, whither I was saying I would go. (_Goes into his house._)

[Footnote 1: _Chains of light weight_)--Ver. 112. "Singularias" This word may admit of three interpretations, and it is impossible to decide which is the right one. It may mean chains weighting a single "libra," or pound; it may signify chains for the captives singly, in contradistiniction to those by which they were fastened to each other; or it may mean single chains, in opposition to double ones. In the Acts of the Apostles, ch. 12, v. 6, we read that St. Peter was bound with two chains; and in ch. 13, v. 33, the chief captain orders St. Paul to be bound with two chains.]

[Footnote 2: _Don't seem to think so_)--Ver. 120. Hegio means to say that the slave does not seem to think liberty so very desirable, or he would try more to please his master and do his duty, which might probably be the right method for gaining his liberty. As the slave could generally ransom himself out of his "peculium," or "savings," if they were sufficient, the slave here either thinks, or pretends to think, that Hegio is censuring him for not taking those means, and answer, accordingly, that he has nothing to offer]

[Footnote 3: _Give myself to flight_)--Ver. 121. "Dem in pedes." Literally, "give myself to my feet," meaning thereby "to run away." He puns upon this meaning of "dare," and its common signification of "to give" or "to offer to give."]

[Footnote 4: _Giving you to the cage_)--Ver. 124. "In cavears." He plays on the word "cavea," which meaning "a cage" for a bird, might also mean confinement for a prisoner.]

[Footnote 5: _The Bakerians_)--Ver. 162. This and the following appellations are expressive both of the several trades that contributed to furnishing entertainments, and, in the Latin, also denoted the names of inhabitants of several places in Italy or elsewhere. As this meaning could not be expressed in a literal translation of them, the original words are here subjoined. In the word "Pistorienses," he alludes to the bakers, and the natives of Pistorium, a town of Etruria; in the "Panicei," to the bread or roll bakers, and the natives of Pana, a little town of the Samnites, mentioned by Strabo; in the "Placentini," to the "confectioners" or "cake-makers," and the people of Placentia, a city in the North of Italy; in the "Turdetani," to the "poulterers" or "sellers of thrushes," and the people of Turdentania, a district of Spain; and in the "Fiendulae," to the "sellers of beccaficos," a delicate bird, and the inhabitants of Ficculae, a town near Rome. Of course, these appellations, as relating to the trades, are only comical words coined for the occasion.]

[Footnote 6: _A bottomless pit_)--Ver. 183. He plays upon the resemblance in sound of the word "fundum," "landed property," to "profundum," "a deep cavity," to which he compares the Parasite's stomach. "You sell me landed property, indeed; say rather a bottomless pit."]

[Footnote 7: _Have but a ferret_)--Ver. 185. This passage has much puzzled the Commentators; but allowing for some very far-fetched wit, which is not uncommon with Plautus, it may admit of some explanation. He tells the Parasite that he had better look for a nicer dinner, a hare, in fact; for that in dining with him, he will only get the ferret (with which the hare was hunted) for his dinner. Then, inasmuch as the ferret was and for following the bare or rabbit into "scruposae viae," "impervious" or "rocky places" where they had burrowed, he adds: "For my dinner, ferret-like, frequents ragged places;" by which he probably means that it is nothing but a meagre repast of vegetables, of which possibly capers formed a part, which grow plentifully in Italy, in old ruins and craggy spots. Some suggest that it was a custom with the huntsmen, if they failed to catch the hurt, to kill and eat the ferret.]

[Footnote 8: _Are but of a rough sort_)--Ver. 189. The word "asper" means either "unsavoury" or "prickly," according to the context. Hegio means to use it in the former sense, but the Parasite, for the sake of repartee, chooses to take it in the latter.]

[Footnote 9: _Treat your sick people_)--Ver. 191. He means that such a dinner may suit sick people, but will not be to his taste.]