3
Whom, when the tyrant beheld, encircling their mother as in a dance, he was pleased at them; and being struck with their becoming and ingenuous mien, smiled upon them, and calling them near, said:
4
O youths, with favourable feelings, I admire the beauty of each of you; and greatly honouring so numerous a band of brethren, I not only counsel you not to share the madness of the old man who has been tortured before,
5
but I do beg you to yield, and to enjoy my friendship; for I possess the power, not only of punishing those who disobey my commands, but of doing good to those who obey them.
6
Put confidence in me, then, and you shall receive places of authority in my government, if you forsake your national ordinance,
7
and, conforming to the Greek mode of life, alter your rule, and revel in youth's delights.
8
For if you provoke me by your disobedience, you will compel me to destroy you, every one, with terrible punishments by tortures.
9
Have mercy, then, upon your own selves, whom I, although an enemy, compassionate for your age and comeliness.
10
Will you not reason upon this—that if you disobey, there will be nothing left for you but to die in tortures?
11
Thus speaking, he ordered the instruments of torture to be brought forward, that very fear might prevail upon them to eat unclean meat.
12
And when the spearman brought forward the wheels, and the racks, and the hooks, and catapeltae, and caldrons, pans, and finger-racks, and iron hands and wedges, and bellows, the tyrant continue:
13
Fear, young men, and the righteousness which ye worship will be merciful to you if you err from compulsion.