Davus.—That if my master should require me to swear that I did not do it, I may take the oath with a safe conscience.
The Greeks paid very great regard to oaths. They divided them into two classes. The first kind was the μέγας ὅρκος, or great oath, when the swearer called the gods to witness his truth; the second was the μικρὸς ὅρκος, when the swearer called on other creatures. They usually, when falsely accused of any crime, took an oath to clear themselves. This oath was sometimes administered in a very singular manner: the oath of exculpation was written on a tablet, and hung round the neck, and rested on the breast of the accused, who was then compelled to wade into the sea about knee-deep: if the oath was true, the water remained stationary; but, if false, it instantly rose up, and covered the tablet, that so dreadful a sight as a false oath might be concealed from the view of mankind. The Athenians were proverbial for their sincere regard for truth. Vide Velleius Paterculus, B. 1. C. 4., also, in B. 2. C. 23: we are told
“Adeò enim certa Atheniensum in Romanos fides fuit, ut semper et in omni re, quicquid sincerâ fide generetur, id Romani Atticâ fieri, prædicarent.”—Marcus Velleius Paterculus, B. 2. C. 23. L. 18.
The Athenians behaved with so much good faith and inviolable honour in all their treaties with the Romans, that it became a custom at Rome, when a person was affirmed to be just and honourable, to say, he is as faithful as an Athenian.
Davus. (to himself.) The father of the bride is coming this way; I abandon my first design.
Mysis.—I don’t understand this.
Davus’s first design was (we are to suppose) to go to Simo as soon as Mysis had placed the child at the door, and acquaint him that Glycera had sent him Pamphilus’s child. This would have compelled Simo to suspend the marriage until he had ascertained the real nature of Glycera’s claims on his son. Though Davus’s speech is not usually read aside, we cannot suppose that Mysis heard him say, that Chremes, the bride’s father, approached, because, in the ninth scene of the same act, (vide [p. 78, l. preantepen],) he tells her, “that was the bride’s father,” and she replies, “you should have given me notice then.”