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Enter STROBILUS, with the pot of money.
STROBILUS
I, by myself, exceed the riches of the Griffins1, who inhabit the golden mountains, For I'm unwilling to make mention of those other kings, beggarly fellows--I am the king Philip. O charming day! for when I went from here, just now, I arrived there much the first, and, long before, I placed myself in a tree, and thence observed where the old fellow hid the gold. When he departed thence, I let myself down from the tree, and dug up the pot full of gold. Thence, from that spot, I saw the old fellow betaking himself back again; he didn't see me, for I turned a little on one side, out of the path. Heyday! here he comes himself. I'll go and hide this away, at home. Goes into the house of MEGADORUS.
1 Riches of the Griffins: Pici. "Picis" would be a better reading here, and ought to be adopted unless we agree with some of the Commentators, who think that Strobilus begins a sentence, and then, in the exuberance of his joy, breaks out into an expression of a different construction from that originally intended. It may, however, possibly be, as Hildyard suggests, the "nominativus pendens," which is not unfrequently used by Plautus. The Pici here alluded to, were Griffins, or fabulous monsters, who were said to watch the treasures of the Arimaspi, a people of the north of Scythia, mentioned by Herodotus, who were said to possess mountains of gold; in which story, no doubt, the Uralian mountians were alluded to.
The Comedies of Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley. London. G. Bell and Sons. 1912.
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