Then when you had returned home from the track and field, all neat and trim you would sit on your chair before your teacher with your book: and while you were reading, if you had missed a single syllable, your hide would be made as spotted as a nurse’s gown. _Mnes._ Propter me haec nunc meo sodali dici discrucior miser; innocens suspicionem hanc sustinet causa mea. (_aside_) It’s torment, hang it, to have my chum coming in for all this on my account; it’s for my sake he’s shouldering this suspicion, poor innocent. _Phil._ Alii, Lyde, nunc sunt mores. (_soothingly_) The customs of to-day are different, Lydus. _Lydus_ Id equidem ego certo scio. nam olim populi prius honorem capiebat suffragio, quam magistro desinebat esse dicto oboediens; at nunc, prius quam septuennis est, si attingas eum manu, 440 extemplo puer paedagogo tabula disrumpit caput. Indeed they are! I realize the truth of that. Why, in the old days a young man would be holding office, by popular vote, before he had ceased to hearken to his teacher’s precepts. But nowadays, before a youngster is seven years old, if you lay a finger on him, he promptly takes his writing tablet and smashes his tutor’s head with it. cum patrem adeas postulatum, puero sic dicit pater: “noster esto, dum te poteris defensare iniuria.” provocatur paedagogus: “eho senex minimi preti, ne attigas puerum istac causa, quando fecit strenue.”[14] (445) itur illinc iure dicto. hocine hic pacto potest (447) inhibere imperium magister, si ipsus primus vapulet? When you go to his father with a protest, he talks to the youngster in this strain: (_mimicking_) “You’re father’s own boy so long as you can defend yourself against abuse.” Then the tutor is summoned: “Hey, you worthless old baggage, don’t you touch my boy merely for acting like a lad of spirit!“ Judgment pronounced, the court adjourns. Can a teacher exert authority here under such conditions, if he is beaten first himself? _Mnes._ Acris postulatio haec est. cum huius dicta intellego, mira sunt ni Pistoclerus Lydum pugnis contudit. 450 (_aside_) Here’s a warm protest! Judging from his remarks, it’s a wonder if Pistoclerus hasn’t been punching Lydus’s head. _Lydus_ Sed quis hic est, quem astantem video ante ostium? o Philoxene, deos propitios me videre quam illum haud mavellem mihi. (_looking in the direction of Mnesilochus_) But who is this I see standing in front of the door? (_recognizing him_) Ah, Philoxenus, that is a man whose support I should value no less than that of the gods! _Phil._ Quis illic est? Who is it? _Lydus_