Idyll IV, also titled Νομεῖς ('The Herdsmen'), is a bucolic poem by the 3rd-century BC Greek poet Theocritus.
[a][1] Corydon's temporary rise in rank gives occasion for some friendly banter, varied with bitter references to Milon's having supplanted Battus in the favours of Amaryllis.
[1] Battus and Corydon, two rustics, meeting in a glade, gossip about their neighbour, Aegon, who has gone to try his fortune at the Olympic games.
[2] After some banter, the talk turns on the death of Amaryllis, and the grief of Battus is disturbed by the roaming of his cattle.
[2] Corydon removes a thorn that has run into his friend's foot, and the conversation comes back to matters of rural scandal.