35
TOXARIS Well done, Mnesippus! You are giving me - encouragement for my speech, as if it did not matter at all to you whether you get the worst of it in our dispute and have your tongue docked. However, I shall begin at once, without any display of fine words such as you have made; for that is not a Scythian habit, especially when the deeds speak louder than the words. And do not expect from us anything like what you told of when you commended a man if he married an ugly wife without a dowry, or if he gave money to the amount of two talents to the daughter of 'a friend on her marriage, or even, by Zeus, if he allowed himself to be imprisoned when it was obvious that he would soon be released; for those are very paltry matters, and there is nothing of greatness or bravery in them.
36
I shall tell you of many deeds of blood and battles and deaths for the sake of friends, that you may know the achievements of your people to be child’s play in comparison with those of the Scythians.
36
Yet it is not unaccountable that this is so with you Greeks, but natural for you to praise these trivial matters; for you lack, you entirely lack momentous occasions for the display, of friendship, living as you do in profound peace. Just so in calm weather a man cannot tell whether his sailing-master is good; hé will need a storm to determine that. With us, however, wars are continuous, and we are always either invading the territory of others, or withdrawing before invaders, or meeting in battle over pasturage or stolen cattle, where need for good friends is greatest; and for that reason we cement our friendships as strongly as we can, thinking this to be the only irresistible and unconquerable weapon of war.
