Читать книгу Greek and Roman Slaveries - Eftychia Bathrellou - Страница 71

Toxilus, a slave, has asked his good friend Sagaristio, another slave, for a loan. With the money, he wants to buy off from her master, a pimp, the slave girl he is in love with.

Literature: Segal 1968: 102–36; Parker 1989; McCarthy 2000: 122–66; Richlin 2014.

Sagaristio: To splendid and glorious Jupiter, the son of Ops, the highest, the strong, the powerful, who bestows wealth, good hopes, abundance *** I joyously bring a thank-offering. Deservedly so, because they give this abundance of convenience to my friend in a friendly manner, so that I can bring him plenty of money on loan when he needs it. What I couldn’t even dream of or think of or believe in, namely, that I would have this opportunity, has now fallen down from heaven, as it were. For my master (erus) sent me off to Eretria, to buy trained oxen for him. And he gave me money because, he said, there would be a market there in a week from now. He’s stupid; he gave this money to me, whose mind he did know. I will put all this money to another use: “There were no oxen which I could buy.” Now, I will both make my friend happy and bring much good to myself. What will be of benefit for a long time, I will use up in a single day. There will be whipping on my back. I don’t care. Now I will lavish from my purse these trained oxen upon a friend. This is indeed a charming thing to do, to get a good bite out of super-stingy old men, greedy ones, tight-fisted ones, who seal up the salt-cellar with the salt, so that the slave might not get it. It is a virtue to see clearly when occasion suggests so. What will he do to me? He will order that I be beaten with whips, that I be chained in shackles. He can go hang! He shouldn’t think that I will entreat him! To hell with him! He can’t do anything new anymore to me, anything that I haven’t experienced.

 How does Sagaristio treat his master’s orders?

 How will Sagaristio use his master’s money? Why?

 What punishment does Sagaristio expect? Does he fear it?

 Can we use this comic passage to understand slave mentality?