9
Meantime, after lavation, came rollicking in to us, self-invited, Megalonymus the pettifogger, Chaereas the goldworker, he with the back of many colours, and Eudemus the broken-ear.”Chaereas’ back bore the stripes of the lash; Eudemus wa a pugilist with "cauliflower" ears. I asked them what possessed them to come late. Quoth Chaereas: “I was forging trumpery for my daughter, balls and chains, and that is why I have come in on top of your dinner.” “For my part,” quoth Megalonymus, “I was about other matters. The day was incapable of justice,For ἄδικος ("unjust") as applied to a day in the sense that court was not held on it, cf. Athen. 98 B (Pompeianus). as ye wit, and incompetent for pleading; wherefore, as there was a truce of the tongue, I was unable either to palaver or, as is my diurnal habit, to solicit.Both the verbs of the original (rendered “palaver and “solicit”) refer to pleading in court and carry allusions to the custom of timing pleas by the water-clock. One of them (ῥησιμετρεῖν) is ridiculed in the Mistaken Critic, 24 (p.400). , Learning that the magistrate was being grilled in public,Lexiphanes would be understood to mean “roasted,” but what he really meant was “visible.” Cf. Athen., 98 a (Pompeianus). I took an unvaluedFor ἄχρηστα, usually "useless,” in the sense "unused,” cf. Athen., 98A (Pompeianus), 97E (Ulpian). cloak, of sheer tissue, and pricelessIn the Greek, ἀφόρητα (“unbearable”) in the sense “unworn,” cf. Athen., 98A (Pompeianus). boots, and emitted myself.
