don't know these good people, and they won't thank me for thrusting
myself on them."

"Certainly, certainly," exclaimed the landlord, all condescension.
"There is a gentleman from Rome drinking by himself at that table over
there. Perhaps he will not object."

Now was the crisis. Agias had seen Phaon many times with Lucius
Ahenobarbus; but he was reasonably certain that the freedman had never
degraded himself by taking any notice of the numerous slaves of
Lentulus's household. Without waiting for the host to continue, he
hastened over to the farther table, and exclaimed with all the
effrontery at his command:--

"_Hem!_ Phaon; don't you remember an old friend?"

The freedman for once was completely off his guard. He started up,
stared at Agias, and began to mutter excuses for a very short memory.

"Well, well," cried Agias. "You _have_ a poor recollection of faces!
Don't you remember how Pratinas took you to the Big Eagle restaurant,
down on the Vicus Jugarius, on the last Calends, and how you met me
there, and what good Lesbian and Chian wine there was? None of your
weak, sickening Italian stuff! Surely you remember Cleombrotus, from
whom you won four hundred sesterces."

Phaon, who remembered the tavern, a visit, and winning four hundred
sesterces at one time or another, tried to make himself believe that
he won them from a young man, like the one before him, and that his
name was Cleombrotus.