DEMOSTHENES. Oh! miserable Paphlagonian! This then is why you have so long taken such precautions; your horoscope gave you qualms of terror.
NICIAS. What does it say?
DEMOSTHENES. It says here how he must end.
NICIAS. And how?
DEMOSTHENES. How? the oracle announces clearly that a dealer in oakum must first govern the city.[20]
NICIAS. First dealer. And after him, who?
DEMOSTHENES. After him, a sheep-dealer.[21]
NICIAS. Two dealers, eh? And what is this one's fate?
DEMOSTHENES. To reign until a greater scoundrel than he arises; then he perishes and in his place the leather-seller appears, the Paphlagonian robber, the bawler, who roars like a torrent.[22]
[19] Famous seer of Boeotia.
[20] Eucrates, who was the leading statesman at Athens after Pericles.
[21] Lysicles, who married the courtesan Aspasia.
[22] Literally, like Cycloborus, a torrent in Attica.
Studies
