57
When I was going away from home to Athens by reason of my desire for Greek culture, I put in at Amastris, on the Black Sea; the city is a port of call for those sailing this way from Scythia, not far distant from Carambis. I was accompanied by Sisinnes, who had been my companion from childhood. After looking out a lodging near the port and transferring our effects to it from the vessel, we went shopping, without suspecting any mischief. In the meantime thieves pried the door open and carried off everything, so as not to leave even enough to suffice for that day.
57
When we returned home and found out what had happened, we did not think it best to proceed against the neighbours, who were numerous, or against our host, fearing that we should be accounted blackmailers in public opinion if we said that someone had robbed us of four hundred darics, a great deal of clothing, some rugs, and all the other things that we had.
58
So we discussed the situation to see what we should do, now that we had become absolutely penniless in a strange country. My own thought was to plunge my sword into my side forthwith, and make my exit from life before enduring any unseemly experience under the pressure of hunger or thirst, but Sisinnes encouraged me and begged me not to do anything of that sort, for he himself would discover a means of our having enough to live on.
58
That day, therefore, he carried lumber in from the port and came back with supplies for us which he had procured with his wages. But the next morning, while going about in the market-place he saw a sort of procession, as he put it, of high-spirited, handsome young men. These had been enrolled to fight duels for hire and were to settle their combats on the next day but one. Well, he found out all about them, and then came to me, saying: “Toxaris, you need not call yourself a poor man any longer; on the day after to-morrow I shall make you rich.”
