dren, and my wife was not a little proud
of two such boys; and she daily wishing to return home, I unwillingly
agreed, and in an evil hour we got on shipboard; for we had not sailed
above a league from Epidamnum before a dreadful storm arose, which
continued with such violence that the sailors, seeing no chance of
saving the ship, crowded into the boat to save their own lives,
leaving us alone in the ship, which we every moment expected would be
destroyed by the fury of the storm.

"The incessant weeping of my wife, and the piteous complaints of the
pretty babes, who not knowing what to fear, wept for fashion, because
they saw their mother weep, filled me with terror for them, though I
did not for myself fear death; and all my thoughts were bent to
contrive means for their safety. I tied my younger son to the end of a
small spare mast, such as seafaring men provide against storms; at the
other end I bound the younger of the twin slaves, and at the same time
I directed my wife how to fasten the other children in like manner to
another mast. She thus having the care of the two elder children, and
I of the two younger, we bound ourselves separately to these masts
with the children; and but for this contrivance we had all been lost,
for the ship split on a mighty rock, and was dashed in pieces; and we,
clinging to these slender masts, were supported above the water, where
I, having the care of two children, was unable to assist my wife, who
with the other children was soon separated from me; but while they
were yet in my sight, they were taken up by a boat of fishermen, from
Corinth (as I supposed), and seeing them in safety, I had no care but
to struggle with the wild sea waves, to preserve my dear son and the
younger slave. At length we in our turn were taken up by a ship, and
the sailors, knowing me, gave us kind welcome and assistance, and
landed us in safety at Syracuse; but from that sad hour I have never
known what became of my wife and elder child.

"My younger son, and now my only care, when he was eighteen years of
age, began to be inquisitive after his mother and his brother, and
often importuned me that he might take his attendant, the young slave,
who had also lost his brother, and go in search of them; at length I
unwillingly gave consent, for though I anxiously desired to hear
tidings of my wife and elder son, yet in sending my younger one to
find them, I hazarded the loss of him also. It is now seven years