Here Philostratus lowered his voice, for the phrase “sticking fast” had drawn a laugh from some of his hearers; but Dion, whose father had really amassed, in the high position of a receiver of taxes, the handsome fortune which his son possessed, did not delay his reply.

“Yes, yes,” he retorted scornfully, “yonder Syrian babbler hit the mark this time.  He stands before me, and who does not easily stick fast when marsh and mire are so near?  As for the hyacinthine purple cloak, I wear it because I like it.  His crocus-yellow one is less to my taste, though he certainly looks fine enough in it in the sunlight.  It shines like a buttercup in the grass.  You know the plant.  When it fades—­and I ask whether you think Philostratus looks like a bud—­when it fades, it leaves a hollow spiral ball which a child’s breath could blow away.  Suppose in future we should call the round buttercup seed-vessels ’Philostratus heads’?  You like the suggestion?  I am glad, fellow-citizens, and I thank you.  It proves your good taste.  Then we will stick to the comparison.  Every head contains a tongue, and Philostratus says that his is the tool which supports him.”

“Hear the money-bag, the despiser of the people!” interrupted Philostratus furiously.  “The honest toil by which a citizen earns a livelihood is a disgrace in his eyes.”

“Honest toil, my good friend,” replied Dion, “is scarcely in question here.  I spoke only of your tongue.—­You understand me, fellow-citizens.  Or, if any of you are not yet acquainted with this worthy man, I will show him to you, for I know him well.  He is my foe, yet I can sincerely recommend him to many of you.  If any one has a very bad, shamefully corrupt cause to bring before the courts, I most earnestly counsel him to apply to the buttercup man perched on yonder fountain.  He will thank me for it.  Believe me, Didymus’s cause is just, precisely because this advocate so eagerly assails it.  I told you just now the matter under discussion.  Which of you who owns a garden can say in future, ’It is mine,’ if, during the absence of the Queen, it is allowable to take it away to be used for any other purpose?  But this is what threatens Didymus.  If this is to be the custom here, let every one beware of sowing a radish or planting a bush or a tree, for should the wife of some great noble desire to dry her linen there, he may be deprived of it ere the former can ripen or the latter give shade.”

Loud applause followed this sentence, but Philostratus shouted in a voice that echoed far and wide:  “Hear me, fellow-citizens; do not allow your selves to be deceived!  No one is to be robbed here.  The project is to purchase, at a high price, the spot which the city needs for her adornment, and to honour and please the Queen.  Are the Regent and the citizens to lose this opportunity of expressing the gratitude of years, and the rejoicing over the greatest of victories, of which we shall soon hear, because an evil-disposed person—­the word must be uttered—­a foe to his country, opposes it?”