Strep. I do. Come, what would you say, pray, if I were to take this, when the clerk was entering the suit, and were to stand at a distance, in the direction of the sun, thus, and melt out the letters of my suit?
Soc. Cleverly done, by the Graces!
Strep. Oh! how I am delighted, that a suit of five talents has been cancelled!
Soc. Come now, quickly seize upon this.
Strep. What?
Soc. How, when engaged in a lawsuit,[1] you could overturn the suit, when you were about to be cast, because you had no witnesses.
Strep. Most readily and easily.
Soc. Tell me, pray.
Strep. Well now, I tell you. If, while one suit was still pending, before mine was called on, I were to run away and hang myself.
Soc. You talk nonsense.
Strep. By the gods would I! for no one will bring an action against me when I am dead.[2]
Soc. You talk nonsense. Begone; I can't teach you any longer.
Strep. Why so?[3] Yea, by the gods, O Socrates!
Soc. You straightway forget whatever you learn, For, what now was the first thing you were taught? Tell me.
Strep. Come, let me see: nay, what was the first?[4] What
- ↑ ἀντιδικῶν. Dindorf. I would prefer ἀντιδίκων.
"Wie wahrst im Process du dich gegen Klägers Forderung,
Wenn du weisst, du musst verlieren, da aller Beweis dir fehlt?" Droysen. - ↑ "Something appears to have been omitted after this verse." Droysen.
- ↑ "ὅτι τι is merely τί, ὅτι; and something must be repeated from the foregoing sentence. Here ὁτιὴ τί = τί, ὁτιὴ οὐκ ἄν με διδάξαις; quid est, quod me docere amplius nolis?" Hermann. Cf. Krüger, Gr. Gr. § 61, 17, obs. 8.
- ↑ "Say'st thou the first? The very first—what was it?
Why, let me see; 'twas something, was it not,
About the meal.—Out on it! I have forgotten it." Cumberland.
certainly known among the ancients, perhaps as early as the time of Aristophanes. 'We find mention or burning-glasses as early as the time of Socrates; and a number of lenses, more powerful than those employed by our own engravers, have been found among the ruins of Herculaneum.' St. John's Ancient Greece." Felton.
