He had certainly scarcely become a master of this
art on board the Hydra, yet his slow performance did
all honour to the patience of his teacher Myrtilus.
He began with Daphne’s letter, but by the desire
of prudent Archias it communicated few facts.
But the protestations of love and expressions of
longing which filled it pierced the freedman’s
soul so deeply that his voice more than once failed
while reading them.
Myrtilus’s letter, on the contrary, gave a minute
description of his mode of life, and informed his
friend what he expected for him and himself in the
future. The contents of both relieved Hermon’s
sorely troubled heart, made life with those who were
dearest to him possible, and explained many things
which the reports of the slave had not rendered perfectly
clear.
Archias had gone with Daphne to the island of Lesbos,
his mother’s native city. The ships which
conveyed travellers to Pergamus, where Myrtilus was
living, touched at this port, and Bias, to whom Hermon
had confided the refuge of the father and daughter,
had sought them there, and found them in a beautiful
villa.
After being released from his oath, Myrtilus had put
himself into communication with his uncle, and just
before Bias’s departure the merchant had come
to Pergamus with his daughter. As he had the
most cordial reception from the Regent Philetaerus,
he seemed inclined to settle permanently there.
As for Myrtilus, he had cast anchor with Ledscha in
the little Mysian seaport town of Pitane, near the
mouth of the Caicus River, on which, farther inland,
was the rapidly growing city of Pergamus.
She had found a hospitable welcome in the family of
a seafarer who were relatives, while the Gaul continued
his voyage to obtain information about his tribe in
Syria. But he had already returned when Bias
reached Pitane with the two talents intended for him.
Myrtilus had availed himself of Ledscha’s permission
long before and gone to Pergamus, where he had lived
and worked in secrecy until, after the freedman’s
return from Ledscha, who at once left Pitane with
the Gaul, he was released from his oath.
During the absence of Bias he had modelled a large
relief, a triumphal procession of Dionysus, and as
the renown of his name had previously reached Pergamus,
the artists and the most distinguished men in the city
flocked to his studio to admire the work of the famous
Alexandrian.
Soon Philetoerus, who had founded the Pergamenian
kingdom seven years before, and governed it with great
wisdom, came to Myrtilus.
Like his nephew and heir Eumenes, he was a friend
to art, and induced the laurel-crowned Alexandrian
to execute the relief, modelled in clay, in marble
for the Temple of Dionysus at Pergamus.
The heir to the throne of Philetaerus, who was now
advancing in years, was especially friendly to Myrtilus,
and did everything in his power to bind him to Pergamus.
