Chremylus: Greetings, you men of the people.
Chremylus: to call [it] already ancient and rotten;
Chremylus: I greet you, since you have come eagerly.
Chremylus: And in an orderly fashion, not in a lazy manner.
325
Chremylus: And how may he also stand by me in everything else?
Chremylus: You will indeed be saviors of the god.
Chorus: Have courage; for you will think that you see me face to face with Ares.
Chorus: for it is terrible, indeed, if for the sake of a drachma
Chorus: We are constantly being beaten in the assembly,
330
Chorus: but may I himself take Plutus.
Chremylus: And indeed, I see even this Blepsidemus.
Chremylus: He is approaching; and it is clear that he is of the affair
Chremylus: He has heard something about the slowness and the speed.
BLEPSIDEMUS: So what might the matter be? And from where and in what way?
335
Blepsidemus: Has Chremylus suddenly become rich? I do not believe it.
Blepsidemus: And yet there was a long speech, by Heracles!
Blepsidemus: at the barbers' of those sitting down,
Blepsidemus: How suddenly the man has become rich.
Blepsydemus: But this very thing is wonderful to me, how
340
Blepsidemus: he is summoning his friends when doing some good deed.
Blepsydemus: Then he is not doing a local business.
Chremylus: But I will say nothing hidden; by the gods
Chremylus: O Blepsidemus, we are doing better than yesterday.
Chremylus: So it is possible to participate; for you are one of my friends.
345
Blepsydemus: Have you really become rich, as they say?
Chremylus: I shall indeed be there immediately, if the god wills.
Chremylus: For there is some danger in the matter.
Blepsydemus: Say it, having finished what you are always saying.
Chremylus: If we succeed, [we shall] prosper forever;
350
Chremylus: But if we make a mistake, we will be utterly ruined.
Blepsydemus: This load looks wicked.
Blepsydemus: And he does not please me. For the fact that it is all at once too much
Blepsidemus: So it is to be exceedingly wealthy, and yet again to be afraid.
Blepsydemus: nothing is sound in a man who has been ruined.
355
Chremylus: How is nothing sound?
Blepsydemus: if I have somehow stolen it, by Zeus
Blepsidemus: Have you come from there with silver or gold?
Blepsidemus: from the god, and then perhaps you are sorry.
Chremylus: Apollo the averter, by Zeus, I certainly will not.
Blepsydemus: Stop talking nonsense, good man; for I know clearly.
360
Chremylus: You must not suppose anything like this of me.
Blepsidemus: 'Indeed, nothing is truly healthy for anyone,'
Blepsidemus: But all are less than the profit.
Chremylus: No, by Demeter, you don't seem to be well.
Blepsidemus: How far he has departed from his former ways.
365
Chremylus: You are melancholy, man, by heaven.
Blepsidemus: But not even the look itself is in the right place,
Blepsidemus: But it is quite obvious to someone who has been cheated.
Chremylus: You certainly know what you are cawing about; as if I had stolen something from me.
Chremylus: You are seeking to share.
370
Blepsydemus: Do you seek to share in it? In what?
Chremylus: But that is not so, but rather it is otherwise.
Blepsidemus: Have you not stolen it, but rather seized it by force?
Chremylus: You are unlucky.
Blepsydemus: But you have not deprived anyone, have you?
Chremylus: Indeed, I certainly do.
Blepsidemus: O Heracles, bring us somewhere!
Blepsidemus: "Would that it were so? For the truth is unwilling to be revealed."
375
Chremylus: For you accuse before you have learned my affair.
