INFORMER. I assume the title, when it serves me.[793]
CHREMYLUS. Do you ply any trade?
INFORMER. No, most assuredly not!
CHREMYLUS. Then how do you live, if you do nothing?
INFORMER. I superintend public and private business.
CHREMYLUS. You! And by what right, pray?
INFORMER. Because it pleases me to do so.
CHREMYLUS. Like a thief you sneak yourself in where you have no business. You are hated by all and you claim to be an honest man?
INFORMER. What, you fool? I have not the right to dedicate myself entirely to my country's service?
CHREMYLUS. Is the country served by vile intrigue?
INFORMER. It is served by watching that the established law is observed--by allowing no one to violate it.
[793] The merchants engaged in maritime commerce were absolved from military service; the Scholiast even declares, though it seems highly unlikely, that all merchants were exempt from imposts on their possessions. When it was a question of escaping taxes and military service the informer passed as a merchant.
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