"There was a cunning rogue named Theron who followed a life of crime upon the sea. He associated with freebooters whose craft rode at anchor in the harbors ostensibly for ferrying: but Theron led them as a pirate crew. Chancing to be present at the funeral he ogled the gold and when he had gone to bed that night, he could not sleep. “Am I to risk my life,” he said to himself, “in fighting the sea and murdering the living for paltry gains when I can become rich from one dead girl? Let the die be cast! I will not miss this chance of profit. But whom shall I recruit for the operation? Think carefully, Theron. Who of those you know is fit for the job? Zenophanes of Thurii? He is intelligent, but cowardly. Menon of Messene? He is brave, but untrustworthy.”In his mind he examined each one, like a money-changer testing coins, and rejected many; but some he considered suitable. At dawn he ran down to the harbor and sought them all out. Some he found in the brothels and some in the taverns, a suitable army for such a general."
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Book I, 7 (tr. G. P. Goold); cp. Suetonius, Caesar, 32:
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Callirhoe (novel)
Callirhoe (or Chaereas and Callirhoe (Ancient Greek: Τῶν περὶ Χαιρέαν καὶ Καλλιρρόην), this being an alternate and slightly less well attested title in the manuscript tradition) is an Ancient Greek novel by Chariton, that exists in one somewhat unreliable manuscript from the 13th century. It was not published until the 18th century and remained dismissed until the twentieth. It nevertheless gives insight into the development of ancient prose fiction and Hellenic culture within the Roman Empire.
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