You  know  he  had  to  have  the  lion's  share."

'*  Yes,  we  know  that  Roman  help  must  be  costly,
especially  that  of  a  proconsul,"  growled  the  first
voice,  "  and  I  suppose  we  shall  have  to  pay  roundly
to  be  let  alone  in  this  case."

"  By  no  means,"  said  the  other.  "  He  hates  the
youngster  and  his  whole  stock  almost  as  much  as  I
do,  for  reasons  I  could  explain ;  and  you  may  be
sure  that  whatever  show  of  search  he  may  feel  com-
pelled to  make  will  have  very  little  of  the  reality.
And  as  for  the  people  of  Athens,  you  know  that,
between  us,  we  have  managed  to  give  them  such  a
twist  against  the  aristocrats — such  a  Diophobia —
as  iEsculapius  himself  would  find  it  hard  to  cure.
Depend  upon  it,  they  will  not  crowd  Aulus  very
hard  for  what  is  called  justice,  but  will  rather  mur-
mur at  such  an  affectation  of  it  as  he  may  put  on."
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296  Dio  THE  Athenian.
**  Yes — *  aristocrats/  '  friends  of  the  Romans,'  *  en-
emies of  the  gods/  and,  in  the  case  of  the  young
man,  *  personal  cowardice  and  dishonor  * — these  in-
ventions do  you  credit.  Just  the  cues  for  the  fools
of  the  Agora !  But  the  last  goes  down  the  hardest,
-^schylus,  in  the  play  yesterday,  lied  when  he  said
that  *it  is  an  easy  thing  to  speak  slander.'*  *Tis
the  hardest  work  I  ever  did,  and  the  meanest.
