Apuleius' Metamorphoses
Liber I: 24-26
[24]I, WITH THESE WORDS HAVING been heard, calculating the character and thrift of Milo and wishing to win myself closer to him, "I require," I say, "nothing of those things, which accompany me everywhere on my journeys. But also I will easily ask about the baths. Certainly, what is most important to me, is that you, Photis, buy hay and barley for my horse, who carried me strenuously, with this money having been received."
With these things done and with my things having been put into that room, myself proceeding to the baths, although first I looked out for something for eating for us, I seek the marketplace1 and in it I see splendid fish exhibited, and having asked for the price, he revealed that they were 100 sesterce2. I rejected and bargained twenty denarii3. Pythias, a schoolmate of mine at Athens in Attica, having just been recognized, is passed by me leaving just then, who seizes me lovingly after a rather great amount of time, and having embraced and politely showered me with kisses, "My Lucius," he said, "By Pollux! It has been quite a long time that I dropped in on you, but by Hercules! After that was when we separated from our teacher Clytius. Anyway, what is your reason for roaming here?" "You will know tomorrow," I said. "But what is this? I rejoice in prayers. For I see in fact followers and rods and the suitable dress of magistracy on you." "I attend to the price of grain," he said, "and I carry the aedile, and if you want to shop for anything I will be especially obliging." I refused, since I had spotted fish enough for dinner already. But certainly Pythias, with the little basket having been spotted and with the fish having been shaken into clearer sight, "But for how much did you buy these scraps?" "We hardly tortured a fisherman to take twenty denarii."
[25]With this heard, immediately with my right hand having been seized, leading me back into the forum, "And from whom of those men," he said, "did you purchase these junky things?" I point out the little old man--he was sitting in a corner--scolding whom suddenly with the harshest voice with the power of the aedile, "Now finally," he said, "indeed, you spare neither my friends nor wholly any visitors, why do you price your pitiful fish with such great prices and draw down the flower of the Thessalonian region to follow that of a desert and cliffs with the cost of eatables? But not unpunished. Indeed, now I will have made you know what evil men owe to be controlled in the time under my magistracy." With the little basket poured out in the middle, he ordered his official to climb up on top of the fish and to crush them all with his feet. Content with this severity of rules, my friend Pythias, urging me that I depart, "It is satisfying to me, Lucius," he says, "mistreatment so great as this of an old man."
With these things having been done, shocked and altogether astounded, I return myself to the baths, deprived at the same time both of money and dinner by the powerful council of my good-sensed schoolmate, and, bathed, I returned myself to Milo's hospitality and then to my room.
[26]And behold the maid Photis, "The host asks for you," she says. But already a witness then to Milo's abstinence, I politely refused, because I assumed getting rid of the distress of the trip not with food but with sleep. With that heard, he himself proceeds and, with hand having been laid on me, raises my gently. And while I hesitate, while I struggle modestly, "I should not depart before," he says, "you follow me." And he follows the word with swearing an oath. Now, he leads me, obedient to his stubbornness, unwilling to that little couch of his, and sitting down, "Is everything okay with our Demeas?" he says. "How is his wife? How are his children? How are his servants?" I answer each one. He questions more carefully still the reasons for my travelling. When I had endured these questions sufficiently to the end, now exploring most meticulously about my homeland and his from the beginning and then about the governor himself, when he sensed me, distressed after such a harsh journey, fatigued by too long a succession of tales, to give up mid-word and pointlessly, now worn-out, to babble with an uncertain jold of words, finally he allowed that I retire to the bedroom. Now at last I escaped the talkative and starved dinner party of the stinking old man, I, weighed down with sleep, not with food, having dined on stories alone, and having returned into the little bedroom, I returned myself to longed-for rest.
1 Literally "the forum of desired things" or "needed things" ...at least...as far as I can figure.
2 Silver coins. Interesting note: these are Roman coins he's using in Greece, but I suppose the fact that Greece was part of the empire explains that away.
3 Loeb tells me 100 sesterce is = 25 denarii. I can't find modern-day values that make any sense, but we're talking about dollars and cents.
[24]I, WITH THESE WORDS HAVING been heard, calculating the character and thrift of Milo and wishing to win myself closer to him, "I require," I say, "nothing of those things, which accompany me everywhere on my journeys. But also I will easily ask about the baths. Certainly, what is most important to me, is that you, Photis, buy hay and barley for my horse, who carried me strenuously, with this money having been received."
With these things done and with my things having been put into that room, myself proceeding to the baths, although first I looked out for something for eating for us, I seek the marketplace1 and in it I see splendid fish exhibited, and having asked for the price, he revealed that they were 100 sesterce2. I rejected and bargained twenty denarii3. Pythias, a schoolmate of mine at Athens in Attica, having just been recognized, is passed by me leaving just then, who seizes me lovingly after a rather great amount of time, and having embraced and politely showered me with kisses, "My Lucius," he said, "By Pollux! It has been quite a long time that I dropped in on you, but by Hercules! After that was when we separated from our teacher Clytius. Anyway, what is your reason for roaming here?" "You will know tomorrow," I said. "But what is this? I rejoice in prayers. For I see in fact followers and rods and the suitable dress of magistracy on you." "I attend to the price of grain," he said, "and I carry the aedile, and if you want to shop for anything I will be especially obliging." I refused, since I had spotted fish enough for dinner already. But certainly Pythias, with the little basket having been spotted and with the fish having been shaken into clearer sight, "But for how much did you buy these scraps?" "We hardly tortured a fisherman to take twenty denarii."
[25]With this heard, immediately with my right hand having been seized, leading me back into the forum, "And from whom of those men," he said, "did you purchase these junky things?" I point out the little old man--he was sitting in a corner--scolding whom suddenly with the harshest voice with the power of the aedile, "Now finally," he said, "indeed, you spare neither my friends nor wholly any visitors, why do you price your pitiful fish with such great prices and draw down the flower of the Thessalonian region to follow that of a desert and cliffs with the cost of eatables? But not unpunished. Indeed, now I will have made you know what evil men owe to be controlled in the time under my magistracy." With the little basket poured out in the middle, he ordered his official to climb up on top of the fish and to crush them all with his feet. Content with this severity of rules, my friend Pythias, urging me that I depart, "It is satisfying to me, Lucius," he says, "mistreatment so great as this of an old man."
With these things having been done, shocked and altogether astounded, I return myself to the baths, deprived at the same time both of money and dinner by the powerful council of my good-sensed schoolmate, and, bathed, I returned myself to Milo's hospitality and then to my room.
[26]And behold the maid Photis, "The host asks for you," she says. But already a witness then to Milo's abstinence, I politely refused, because I assumed getting rid of the distress of the trip not with food but with sleep. With that heard, he himself proceeds and, with hand having been laid on me, raises my gently. And while I hesitate, while I struggle modestly, "I should not depart before," he says, "you follow me." And he follows the word with swearing an oath. Now, he leads me, obedient to his stubbornness, unwilling to that little couch of his, and sitting down, "Is everything okay with our Demeas?" he says. "How is his wife? How are his children? How are his servants?" I answer each one. He questions more carefully still the reasons for my travelling. When I had endured these questions sufficiently to the end, now exploring most meticulously about my homeland and his from the beginning and then about the governor himself, when he sensed me, distressed after such a harsh journey, fatigued by too long a succession of tales, to give up mid-word and pointlessly, now worn-out, to babble with an uncertain jold of words, finally he allowed that I retire to the bedroom. Now at last I escaped the talkative and starved dinner party of the stinking old man, I, weighed down with sleep, not with food, having dined on stories alone, and having returned into the little bedroom, I returned myself to longed-for rest.
1 Literally "the forum of desired things" or "needed things" ...at least...as far as I can figure.
2 Silver coins. Interesting note: these are Roman coins he's using in Greece, but I suppose the fact that Greece was part of the empire explains that away.
3 Loeb tells me 100 sesterce is = 25 denarii. I can't find modern-day values that make any sense, but we're talking about dollars and cents.