king with one eye, and glances with the other at the money in
the hand of the accuser or the accused. My poor father was of course
condemned and thrown into prison, where he was beginning to doubt the
justice of the gods, when for his sake the greatest wonder happened,
ever seen in this land of wonders since first the Greeks ruled in
Alexandria. An honorable man undertook without fear of persons the
lost cause of the poor condemned wretch, and never rested till he
had restored him to honor and liberty. But imprisonment, disgrace and
indignation had consumed the strength of the ill-used man as a worm eats
into cedar wood, and he fell into a decline and died. His preserver,
Klea's father, as the reward of his courageous action fared even worse;
for here by the Nile virtues are punished in this world, as crimes are
with you. Where injustice holds sway frightful things occur, for the
gods seem to take the side of the wicked. Those who do not hope for
a reward in the next world, if they are neither fools nor
philosophers--which often comes to the same thing--try to guard
themselves against any change in this.

"Philotas, the father of the two girls, whose parents were natives of
Syracuse, was an adherent of the doctrines of Zeno--which have many
supporters among you at Rome too--and he was highly placed as an
official, for he was president of the Chrematistoi, a college of judges
which probably has no parallel out of Egypt, and which has been kept
up better than any other. It travels about from province to province
stopping in the chief towns to administer justice. When an appeal is
brought against the judgment of the court of justice belonging to any
place--over which the Epistates of the district presides--the case is
brought before the Chrematistoi, who are generally strangers alike to
the accuser and accused; by them it is tried over again, and thus
the inhabitants of the provinces are spared the journey to Alexandria
or--since the country has been divided--to Memphis, where, besides, the
supreme court is overburdened with cases.

"No former president of the Chrematistoi had ever enjoyed a higher
reputation than Philotas. Corruption no more dared approach him than a
sparrow dare go near a falcon, and he was as wise as he was just, for
he was no less deeply versed in the ancient Egyptian law than in that of
the Greeks, and many a corrupt judge reconsidered matters as soon as it
became known that he was travelling with t