Before Actæon deigned to answer, he hastened to add with melancholy pride: "I have not always been a slave. I have been in this condition but a short time, and before I lost my freedom my fervent desire was to visit your country. O Athens! The city where poets are gods!" He recited in Greek some verses from the Prometheus of Æschylus, astonishing Actæon by the purity of his accent and by the expression which he communicated to his words. "Can it be that here in Rome your masters dedicate you to poesy?" asked the Athenian, laughing. "I was a poet before I became a slave. My name is Plautus." Glancing around as if fearing to be surprised by some member of his master's family he continued talking, happy at being able to free himself from the torment of the mill. "I have written comedies. I tried to establish the theatre in Rome, which is almost a cult among your people. The Romans have little sensibility to poetry. They love farces; a tragedy that would move the Hellenes to tears, leaves them cold; one of Aristophanes' comedies would put them to sleep. They, Athenian, enjoy only the Etruscan buffoons, those grotesque comedians of the farces which they call Atellanæ, and the hideous maskers with sharp teeth and deformed heads who stalk in the triumphal processions growling their obscenities. They would stone the heroes of your tragedies, while on the other hand, they howl with enthusiasm at the entry of a victorious consul when the soldiers pass disguised in rams' skins, wearing tufts of bristling horsehair, and they laugh at seeing them avenge themselves for their humble condition by insulting the conqueror behind his triumphal car. I wrote comedies for these people, and I write them still in moments when my master ceases beating me to make me turn the mill. The patricians, the free citizens, do not enjoy seeing themselves personated in the scene. Here they would rend Aristophanes to pieces, he who represented upon the stage the most prominent men of Athens. My heroes are slaves, foreigners, and mercenaries, and they make the audience laugh. I have finished a comedy there within that den, ridiculing the fanfare of the warriors. I would recite it if I did not fear that my master might return at any moment." "But how have you fallen into such a wretched situation after having been the entertainer of your people?"