Book 4
1
Bacchis, do you know any old woman of the kind called Thessalians? i.e. witches, cf. p. 359. There are said to be a lot of them around. They use incantations and can make a woman to be loved, no matter how much she is hated before. My blessings on you, if you can bring one of them to me. I would gladly give up these dresses and all this gold, if I could only see Charinus returning to me, and hating Simiche as he now hates me.
1
What’s that? Don’t you live together any more? Has Charinus gone off to Simiche, and left you, Melitta, you for whose sake he had to face all that parental fury, when he refused to marry that rich girl who, they said, brought a dowry of five talents? I heard that from your own mouth.
1
That’s all over now, Bacchis, and for five days now I haven’t so much as set eyes on him, while the gentleman in question and Simiche have been carousing with Pammenes, his companion.
2
That is rotten for you, Melitta. But what parted you? It must have been something serious.
2
I can’t tell you the whole story. But the other day, when he came back from the Piraeus—his father had sent him there to recover some debt, I believe—he didn’t look at me when he came in, or take me in his arms when I ran over to him in my usual way, but he pushed me away when I tried to embrace him, and he said, “Go off with you to Hermotimus, the shipowner, or read what’s written on the walls at the Ceramicus, The Potters’ Quarter and the burial area of Athens. where your names are scribbled on a tombstone.” “What Hermotimus?” I said, “Who’s he? What tombstone do you mean?” He wouldn’t answer or take anything to eat, and then went to bed with his back turned to me. You can imagine all the tricks I tried in this situation. I tried to hug him, and to turn him to me, and kissed his back, though he kept turned away from me. He didn’t soften a bit, but said, “If you bother me any more, I’ll leave this instant, even though it is midnight.”
3
Did you know Hermotimus, though?
