Non ego omnino lucrum omne esse utile homini existimo (325) scio ego, multos iam lucrum lutulentos homines reddidit, est etiam ubi profecto damnum praestet facere quam lucrum. odi ego aurum:  multa multis saepe suasit perperam.

I am not a man who regards each and every acquisition of money as a blessing:  plenty of people have been tainted before now by this money getting, I know that.  There are even times when it certainly is more profitable to lose money than to make it.  Gold!  I despise it:  it has led many a man into many a wrong course.

nunc hoc animum advorte, ut ea quae sentio pariter scias. filius meus illic apud vos servit captus Alide:  330 eum si reddis mihi, praeterea unum nummum ne duis; et te et hunc amittam hinc. alio pacto abire non potes.

Now give me your attention.  I want you to understand thoroughly what I have in mind. (slowly and emphatically) My son is a prisoner in Elis, a slave there among your countrymen:  get him back to me, and without your giving me a single penny in addition, I will let you go home, and your servant, too.  On no other terms can you get off.

Tynd

  Optumum atque aequissumum oras optumusque hominum es homo.
  sed is privatam servitutem servit illi an publicam?

      A very fair and reasonable proposition, sir, and you are the
      very fairest of men.  Does he belong to some private person,
      though, or to the state?

Hegio

  Privatam medici Menarchi.

      To a private person, a doctor named Menarchus.

Tynd

  Pol is quidem huius est cliens.
  tam hoc quidem tibi in proclivi quam amber est quando pluit.

      (aside) Jove! why, he’s a client of master’s! (aloud)
      Why, this will be just as easy for you as rain when it pours.

Hegio

  Fac is homo ut redimatur.

      Have him ransomed.

Tynd

  Faciam. sed te id oro, Hegio—­

      I will.  But thus much I beg of you Hegio,—­

Hegio

  Quid vis, dum ab re ne quid ores, faciam.

      (eagerly) Anything you please, provided my interests don’t
      suffer by it.

Tynd.

Ausculta, tum scies. ego me amitti, donicum ille huc redierit, non postulo verum quaeso ut aestumatum bunc mihi des, quem mittam ad patrem 340 ut is homo redimatur illi.

Listen, and you can see if they will.  I don’t ask to be released myself until my servant gets back.  But I do urge you to let me have him under a forfeit, to send to father so that your son there can be ransomed.

Hegio

  Immo alium potius misero
  hunc, ubi erant indutiae, illuc, tuom qui conveniat patrem,
  qui tua quae tu iusseris mandata ita ut velis perferat.