_Enter_ SINNATUS _followed by_ SYNORIX. SINNATUS (_angrily_). I tell thee, my good fellow, My arrow struck the stag. SYNORIX. But was it so? Nay, you were further off: besides the wind Went with _my_ arrow. SINNATUS. I am sure _I_ struck him. SYNORIX. And I am just as sure, my lord, _I_ struck him. (_Aside_.) And I may strike your game when you are gone. CAMMA. Come, come, we will not quarrel about the stag. I have had a weary day in watching you. Yours must have been a wearier. Sit and eat, And take a hunter's vengeance on the meats. SINNATUS. No, no--we have eaten--we are heated. Wine! CAMMA. Who is our guest? SINNATUS. Strato he calls himself. [CAMMA _offers wine to_ SYNORIX, _while_ SINNATUS _helps himself_. SINNATUS. I pledge you, Strato. [_Drinks_. SYNORIX. And I you, my lord. [_Drinks_. SINNATUS (_seeing the cup sent to_ CAMMA). What's here? CAMMA. A strange gift sent to me to-day. A sacred cup saved from a blazing shrine Of our great Goddess, in some city where Antonius past. I had believed that Rome Made war upon the peoples not the Gods. SYNORIX. Most like the city rose against Antonius, Whereon he fired it, and the sacred shrine By chance was burnt along with it. SINNATUS. Had you then No message with the cup? CAMMA. Why, yes, see here. [_Gives him the scroll_. SINNATUS (_reads_). 'To the admired Camma,--beheld you afar off--loved you--sends you this cup--the cup we use in our marriages--cannot at present write himself other than 'A GALATIAN SERVING BY FORCE IN THE ROMAN LEGION.' Serving by force! Were there no boughs to hang on, Rivers to drown in? Serve by force? No force Could make me serve by force. SYNORIX. How then, my lord? The Roman is encampt without your city-- The force of Rome a thousand-fold our own. Must all Galatia hang or drown herself? And you a Prince and Tetrarch in this province-- SINNATUS. Province! SYNORIX. Well, well, they call it so in Rome. SINNATUS (_angrily_). Province! SYNORIX. A noble anger! but Antonius To-morrow will demand your tribute--you, Can you make war? Have you alliances? Bithynia, Pontus, Paphlagonia? We have had our leagues of old with Eastern kings. There is my hand--if such a league there be. What will you do? SINNATUS. Not set myself abroach And run my mind out to a random guest Who join'd me in the hunt. You saw my hounds True to the scent; and we have two-legg'd dogs Among us who can smell a true occasion, And when to bark and how.