sometimes too perhaps in council when the risk is great, or when there is
something vast and portentous to be done from which my brother and you
others, all of you, would shrink--nay perhaps even the Roman. Aye! so
it is--and you will learn to know it."

Euergetes had roared rather than spoken the last words; his cheeks were
flushed, his eyes rolled, while he took from his head both the garland of
flowers and the golden fillet, and once more pushed his fingers through
his hair.

His sister covered her ears with her hands, and said: "You positively
hurt me! As no one is contradicting you, and you, as a man of culture,
are not accustomed to add force to your assertions, like the Scythians,
by speaking in a loud tone, you would do well to save your metallic voice
for the further speech with which it is to be hoped you will presently
favor us. We have had to bow more than once already to the strength of
which you boast--but now, at a merry feast, we will not think of that,
but rather continue the conversation which entertained us, and which had
begun so well. This eager defence of the interests which most delight
the best of the Hellenes in Alexandria may perhaps result in infusing
into the mind of our friend Publius Scipio--and through him into that of
many young Romans--a proper esteem for a line of intellectual effort
which he could not have condemned had he not failed to understand it
perfectly.

"Very often some striking poetical turn given to a subject makes it,
all at once, clear to our comprehension, even when long and learned
disquisitions have failed; and I am acquainted with such an one, written
by an anonymous author, and which may please you--and you too,
Aristarchus. It epitomizes very happily the subject of our discussion.