“_Mil._ I’ll go; but only on one condition: just let me entreat you, let me seize you by the ears, let me give you a kiss. By Hercules, I shall make him lament, if I don’t make you merciful. And I fear he will thrash me soundly, that will he, unless I win you to him. I know the bad habits of the cross-tempered fellow. Wherefore, my delight, I do beg you, be prevailed on.” Agorastocles turns to Milphio in a rage:-- “I am not worth a farthing if I don’t kick that rascal’s eyes and teeth out. Hem! there is a pleasure for you [gives him a blow]! there’s honey! there’s a heart for you! there’s a little lip for you! there’s health for you! there is a kiss! “_Mil._ Oh, master; you are committing sacrilege in beating your ambassador. “_Ag._ There’s some more for you then [lays into him]. I’ll give you also your little eye, and your little lip, and your tongue to the bargain. “_Mil._ What in the world are you going to do? “_Ag._ Did I not order you to entreat her? “_Mil._ How then should I do it? “_Ag._ Why, you scoundrel, you should have said, ‘The delight of this man, I entreat you, his honey, his heart, his little lip, his tongue, his kiss, his sweet new milk, his pleasant health, his merriness, his sweet little cheese,’ you whip-dog; ‘his heart, his desire, his kiss,’ you whip-dog. All that you said were yours you should have called mine.” Milphio acts at once on his instructions, and addresses the slave-girl:-- “By Hercules, I beseech you, his pleasure and my hatred, his most dearly beloved friend, my enemy and ill-wisher--his eye, my blear eye, his honey, my vinegar. Don’t be angry with him; or if that can’t be----” The girl stops him and says:-- “Take a rope and hang yourself with your master and fellow-slaves. “_Mil._ It is no go. I’ll have to live on gruel, and now bear a back streaked like an oyster, with marks of the lash, all on account of your love.” And so poor Milphio gives love-making up as a bad job. CHAPTER III. WOMEN IN THE ROMAN PERIOD. (1) WOMEN IN ASIA MINOR.