42 ARISTOPHANES.

I have come with good news, for I was resolved that
none should hear them before you. Never since the
war broke upon us, no, never have I seen anchovies
cheaper.’. Their faces changed in a moment; it
was like a calm after a storm. Then I moved that
they should lay hands on all the bowls in the town,
and go to buy the anchovies before the price went
up. At that they shouted and clapped their hands.
Then Bluster, seeing what a hit I had made, and
knowing of old how to deal with them, said, ‘I pro-
pose, gentlemen, that in consideration of the happy
event that has been reported to the Senate, we have
a good-news sacrifice to the goddess of a hundred
oxen.’ That took the Senate, you may be sure.
Well, I wasn’t going to be outdone with his oxen;
so I bid over him. ‘I propose,’ I said, ‘that the
sacrifice be of two hundred oxen! And furthermore,
that we sacrifice a thousand goats to Artemis, if
sprats should be fifty a penny.’ That brought the
Senate round to me again. And when he saw it he
lost his head, and began to stammer out some non-
sense, till the archers dragged him away. And what
did he, when the Senators were just off after their
anchovies, but try to keep them. ‘Stop a moment,
gentlemen,’ he said, ‘to hear what the herald from
Sparta has got to say; he has come about peace.’
‘Peace!’ they all cried with one voice (that’s be-
cause they knew that anchovies were cheap), ‘we
don’t want peace; let the war go on.’ Then they