DICAEOPOLIS
No, by Apollo, I will not, unless you are going to discuss the
question of peace.

HERALD
The ambassadors, who are returned from the Court of the King!

DICAEOPOLIS
Of what King? I am sick of all those fine birds, the peacock
ambassadors and their swagger.

HERALD
Silence!

DICAEOPOLIS
Oh! oh! by Ecbatana,[1] what a costume!

f[1] The summer residence of the Great King.

AN AMBASSADOR
During the archonship of Euthymenes, you sent us to the Great King
on a salary of two drachmae per diem.

DICAEOPOLIS
Ah! those poor drachmae!

AMBASSADOR
We suffered horribly on the plains of the Cayster, sleeping under a tent,
stretched deliciously on fine chariots, half dead with weariness.