T. Maccius Plautus Bacchides 3.1

LYDUS

Open and throw back straightway this gate of hell ¹ , I do entreat. For, really, I do deem it nothing else; inasmuch as no one comes here

but he whon all hopes have deserted, that he may yet be a decent person. Bacchis—no, not Bacchis is their name, but they are most determined Bacchanals. Avaunt from me, you sisters, who suck the blood of men. Richly and elegantly furnished is this house—for destruction. Soon as I beheld all this, at once I straight-way way betook myself to my heels.

370

And ought I to carry these things concealed in secrecy? Ought I, Pistoclerus, to conceal from your father your excesses, or your misdeeds, or your places of resort? by which you are aiming to drive your father and myself, and your own self and all your friends, to disgrace, and shame, and ruin altogether, and to destroy us all. Within yourself you entertain no awe of either me or your own self on account of the deeds which you are doing

375

by which you have made your own father and myself as well, your friends and your connexions, to be abettors ² in the disgrace of your excesses. Now, before you add this mischief to the rest, I am resolved at once to tell your parent. This instant from myself will I remove this blame, and shall disclose the matter to the old gentleman, that he may forthwith draw forth his son out from this loathsome pollution.

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(Exit.)