Lucian Navigium 14

Well, my noble sir, arrest me and take me off to the general as a pirate or a rogue who tipped you overboard and made such a wreck of her—and that on shore on the road from Piraeus to town. But look, I’ll make amends for my mistake: take here and now, if you will, five ships better and bigger than the Egyptian and, best of all, unsinkable. Let them bring perhaps five times the cargo of corn from Egypt every year, even if, most glorious of shipowners, you then become unbearable to us, as you clearly will. When you still owned this one ship you couldn’t hear our shouts, and if you get five more, all three-masters and indestructible too, you’ll obviously not even see your friends. A good voyage to you, good friend! We shall sit in Piraeus and ask new arrivals from Egypt or Italy if anyone has seen Adimantus’s big ship the “Isis” anywhere.

Well, you are a man of spirit: lay hands on me, and away with me to the governor, for the buccaneer that I am. A flagrant case of piracy; on the high roads, too, between Athens and Piraeus. Stay, though; perhaps we can compound the matter. What do you say to five ships, larger and finer ones than your Egyptian; above all, warranted not to sink?—each to bring you, shall we say, five cargoes of corn per annum? Though I foresee that you will be the most unbearable of shipowners when you have got them. The possession of this one made you deaf to our salutations; give you five more—threemasters all of them, and imperishable—and the result is obvious: you will not know your friends when you see them. And so, good voyage to your worship; we will establish ourselves at Piraeus, and question all who land from Egypt or Italy, as to whether they came across Adimantus’s great ship, the Isis, anywhere.