“I have found, in a copy of Terence’s plays, a marginal note, in my father’s hand-writing, to the following effect: Hunc locum non satis potest intelligere qui librum Xenophontis περὶ Ἀθηναίων πολιτείας non legerit. He who has not read the short treatise of Xenophon on the civil government of the Athenians, can never perfectly comprehend the full force of this passage. I profited by this information: I have read this short treatise, and have been extremely pleased with it: the trouble the perusal cost me has been amply repaid, as I have ascertained by reading this treatise, that the inhabitants of those cities and islands which were subject to the Athenian government were obliged, when they had a suit at law pending, to plead it in Athens, before the people: it could be decided no where else. Crito, therefore, could not have expected impartial judgment from that tribunal, which would certainly have favoured Glycera, the reputed sister of Chrysis, who had settled in Athens, in preference to a stranger like Crito. So much for the success of the affair: next the delays are to be considered, which, to a stranger, are so doubly annoying. For law-suits at Athens were protracted to an almost endless length: the Athenians were such a very litigious people, and had so many law-suits of their own, and celebrated so many festivals, that they had very few days to spare, and the suits of strangers were so lengthened out, and deferred from time to time, that they were almost endless. In addition, moreover, to the uncertainty, and the delay, there was a third inconvenience, still more disagreeable than either of the others, which was, that in a case of that kind, it became necessary to pay court to the people at a great expense. Crito, therefore, had sufficient reason to feel repugnant to engage in a process which might be so protracted and so expensive, the event of which (to say no worse) was extremely precarious. I hope I have rendered this passage perfectly clear.”――MADAME DACIER. NOTE 192. _Chremes.――Cease your entreaties, Simo; enough, and more than enough, have I already shewn my friendship towards you: enough have I risked for you._ Monsieur Baron, in his Andrienne, has given a literal translation of this scene between Simo and Chremes, which, from its serious cast, appears, perhaps, with more dignity in a poetical dress, than it would have received from prose. A learned translator of Terence, who was also an ingenious critic and a successful dramatist, speaks of Baron’s play in the following terms: “Its extreme elegance, and great superiority to the _prose_ translation of Dacier, is a strong _proof_ of the superior excellence and propriety of a poetical translation of this author:” (Terence.) COLMAN’S _Notes on Terence’s Plays_.