Chremes makes answer in those famous words, which can only he inadequately given in any English translation; words at which, as St Augustine tells us, the whole audience, though many of them rude and ignorant, broke out into thunders of applause:—
"I am a man; nothing in human life
Can fail to have its interest for me."[1]
Menedemus then tells him that he had once (he almost fears he can no longer say he has) an only son, who had fallen in love with a young Corinthian stranger of humble fortunes, who had come to Athens (the "Maid of Andros," in fact, under another title), and had wished to marry her. The father's pride had refused to consent; almost any marriage with a foreigner was held, it must be remembered, to be a mésalliance for a citizen of Athens. He had spoken harshly to his son; and the young man, not choosing to be so dealt with, had entered upon that field of adventure which was open in those times to all young men of spirit: he had taken service with a body of mercenaries, and gone to seek his fortunes in the East. Distracted at the consequences of his own severity, and the loss of a son whom he deeply loved, Menedemus had sold his house in Athens, and retired into the country, determined to punish himself for what he considers his unnatural harshness by a life of rigid asceticism. He will live no life of ease after driving his son into exile and poverty; whatever he can save by self-denial shall
- ↑ "Homo sum; humani nihil a me alienum puto."
