<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=358806" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Displeasure of Selefkidis</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Dimitrios Selefkidis was displeased<br>to learn that a Ptolemy<br>had reached Italy in such a squalid state:<br>poorly dressed and on foot,<br>only three or four slaves. This way<br>their dynasty will become a joke,<br>the laughter of Rome.<br>Selefkidis of course knows<br>that basically even now they've become something like<br> servants<br>to the Romans; he also knows<br>that the Romans give and take away<br>their thrones arbitrarily, as they please.<br>But they should maintain a certain dignity<br>at least in their appearance;<br>they shouldn't forget that they are still kings,<br>are still (alas) called kings.<br>This is why Dimitrios Selefkidis was displeased;<br>and right away he offered Ptolemy<br>purple robes, a magnificent diadem,<br>precious jewels, numerous servants and retainers,<br>his most expensive horses,<br>so that he might present himself at Rome as he should,<br>as an Alexandrian Greek monarch.<br>But Ptolemy, who'd come to beg,<br>knew his business and refused it all:<br>he didn't have the slightest need for these luxuries.<br>Shabbily dressed, humble, he entered Rome, <br>put himself up in the house of a minor artisan,<br>and then presented himself<br>as a poor, ill-fated creature to the Senate<br>in order to make his begging more effective.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Constantine+P.+Cavafy">Constantine P. Cavafy</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=358806" data-title="The Displeasure of Selefkidis de Constantine P. Cavafy" data-description="Dimitrios Selefkidis was displeased to learn that a Ptolemy had reached Italy in such a squalid state: poorly dressed and on foot, only three or four slaves. This way their dynasty will become a joke, the laughter of Rome. Selefkidis of course kno..."></div> </div> </div>

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