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The third friendship of which I shall tell you, Mnesippus, is that of Macentes, Lonchates, and Arsacomas. This Arsacomas fell in love with Mazaea, the daughter of Leucanor, who had become king in Bosporus,History knows no king of Bosporus named Leucanor, nor any Eubiotus, set down below as his illegitimate brother and successor (§ 51). In a fragment of a Greek romance, however, of which the plot is laid in Scythia (Papiri della Societa Italiana, VIII, 981) there is a character, evidently a ruler, named Eubiotus, and Rostovtzeff points to this as evidence that Lucian’s tale, itself a miniature romance, is drawn. from some historical novel (Skythien und der Bosporus, p. 98). I have noted in it several passages which seem to be abridgements of a more detailed story. when he was there on a mission regarding the tribute which is regularly paid us by the people of Bosporus but at that time was more than two months overdue. Well, at the banquet he caught sight of Mazaea, a tall and beautiful girl, instantly fell in love with her and was hard hit. The matter of the contributions had been settled already, and the king was giving him audience and entertaining him in connection with his dismissal. It is customary, however, in Bosporus for suitors to bespeak brides at dinner and tell who they are that they should think themselves worthy of acceptance, and at this time it chanced that many of them were at the banquet, kings and the sons of kings; Tigrapates the dynast of the Lazi was there, and Adyrmachus, the ruler of Machlyene, and many others. Each of the suitors, after announcing that he has come to propose, must then take dinner, lying in his place among the others, in silence; but when they have finished dinner, he must call for a goblet of wine, pour a drink-offering upon the table, and sue for the girl’s hand, commending himself freely according to his standing in family or wealth or power.
