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diff --git a/26294.txt b/26294.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9fba245 --- /dev/null +++ b/26294.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6584 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Apologia and Florida of Apuleius of +Madaura, by Lucius Apuleius + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Apologia and Florida of Apuleius of Madaura + +Author: Lucius Apuleius + +Translator: H. E. Butler + +Release Date: August 13, 2008 [EBook #26294] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK APOLOGIA AND FLORIDA *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Linda Cantoni, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by Case Western Reserve University Preservation Department +Digital Library) + + + + + + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: Out-of-order entries in the endnotes have been +corrected.] + + + + +THE APOLOGIA AND FLORIDA +OF APULEIUS OF MADAURA + + +TRANSLATED + +BY H.E. BUTLER + +FELLOW OF NEW COLLEGE + + +OXFORD +AT THE CLARENDON PRESS + +1909 + +HENRY FROWDE, M.A. +PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD +LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK +TORONTO AND MELBOURNE + + + + +PREFACE + + +For the purposes of this translation I have used Helm's text of the +_Apologia_, and Van der Vliet's text of the _Florida_. Both texts are +published by the firm of Teubner, to whom I am indebted for permission +to use their publications as the basis of this work. Divergences from +the text are indicated in the footnotes, and I have made a few, +perhaps unnecessary, expurgations. For the elucidation of the magical +portions of the _Apologia_ I am specially indebted to Abt's commentary +(_Apologie des Apuleius_, Giessen, 1906). I also owe much to the +articles on Apuleius in Schanz's _Geschichte der roemischen +Litteratur_, and in Pauly-Wissowa's _Real-Encyclopaedie_, and to +Hildebrand's commentary on the works of Apuleius (Leipzig, 1842). + +H.E. BUTLER. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +INTRODUCTION 5 + +THE APOLOGIA 19 + +THE FLORIDA 159 + +NOTES ON THE APOLOGIA 219 + +NOTES ON THE FLORIDA 235 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Our authorities for the life of Apuleius are in the main the +_Apologia_, the _Florida_, and the last book of the _Metamorphoses_. +He has a passion for taking his audience into his confidence, and as a +result it is not hard to reconstruct a considerable portion of his +life. He was a native of Madaura, the modern Mdaurusch, a Numidian +town loftily situated above the valley of the Medjerda. The town was a +flourishing Roman colony (_Apol._ 24), and the family of Apuleius was +among the wealthiest and most important of the town. His father +attained to the position of _duumvir_, the highest municipal office +(_Apol._ loc. cit.), and left his son the considerable fortune of +2,000,000 sesterces (L20,000). As to the date of Apuleius' birth there +is some uncertainty. But as he was the fellow student (_Florida_ 16) +at Rome of Aemilianus Strabo (consul 156 A.D.), and was considerably +younger than his wife Pudentilla, whom he married about 155 A.D., when +she had 'barely passed the age of forty' (_Apol._ 89), the estimate +which places his birth about 125 A.D. cannot be far wrong. His name is +generally given as Lucius Apuleius, though the only authority for the +_praenomen_ is the evidence of late MSS., and it is not improbable +that the origin of the name is to be found in the curious +identification of himself with Lucius, the hero of the _Metamorphoses_ +(xi. 27). At an early age the young Apuleius was sent to school at +Carthage (_Florida_ 18), whence on attaining to manhood he proceeded +to complete his education at Athens (_Florida_ loc. cit.). There he +studied philosophy, rhetoric, geometry, music, and poetry (_Florida_ +20), and laid the foundations of that encyclopaedic, if superficial +knowledge, which in after years he so delighted to parade. On leaving +Athens he set forth on lengthy travels, in the course of which he +spent a large portion of his patrimony (_Apol._ 23). He speaks of the +temple of Hera at Samos as an eyewitness (_Florida_ 15), and elsewhere +mentions a visit to Hierapolis in Phrygia (_de mundo_ 17). Returning +from the East he came to Corinth, where--if we may accept his +identification of himself with the Lucius of the _Metamorphoses_--he +fell into the clutches of the priests of Isis, who played upon his +emotional and superstitious temperament to their hearts' content. He +was first initiated into the mysteries of Isis (_Metamorph._ xi. 23, +24). A few days after this auspicious event the goddess appeared to +him in a vision and bade him set forth homewards. He therefore took +ship for Rome, where for the space of a year he dwelt, a fervent +worshipper at the temple of Isis on the Campus Martius. Once more +visions of the night began to afflict him; he consulted the priests +and discovered the cause; he required yet to be initiated into the +mysteries of Osiris. The priests of Corinth had worked upon his +credulity to such good effect, that he found himself in serious +financial difficulties, but by practising as a lawyer he succeeded in +making a sufficient income to provide more than adequately for the +expenses of this fresh initiation (_Metamorph._ xi. 28, 30). While at +Rome he made the acquaintance of Aemilianus Strabo and Scipio Orfitus, +men of distinguished position, whom he was to meet again when their +official career brought them to Africa as proconsuls of that province +(_Florida_ 16, 17). + +At last he returned home, and it was probably at this period of his +career that he wrote his famous novel, the _Metamorphoses_ or _Golden +Ass_.[1] It is based on the lost work of a certain Lucius of Patras, +of which we have another version in the [Greek: Loukios e onos], +falsely attributed to Lucian. He enlarged the original by the free +insertion of sensational or humorous stories of the kind popularized +later by the _Decameron_ of Boccaccio, above all by the insertion of +the beautiful fairy-tale of Cupid and Psyche. And then at the end +comes the curious personal note, where Lucius, a Greek at the outset +of the romance, becomes strangely transformed into a native of +Madaura. + +[Footnote 1: See Introd. to my translation of _Metamorphoses_.] + +But he did not settle down in his native town. After a time he visited +Alexandria, and it was in the course of his return from the capital of +Egypt that the crisis in his life occurred, to which we owe that +remarkable human document, the _Apologia_. For on his homeward journey +he fell sick at Oea, the modern Tripoli.[2] In this town there dwelt a +wealthy lady, named Aemilia Pudentilla, the widow of Sicinius Amicus, +by whom she had two sons, Sicinius Pontianus and his younger brother, +Sicinius Pudens. Pontianus was already the friend of Apuleius; he had +made his acquaintance at Athens; an intimacy had sprung up between +them, and they had lived together in the same lodgings. Hearing, +therefore, of Apuleius' sickness, he called on him at the house of +their mutual friends the Appii, where he was lodging. The reasons for +Pontianus' visit were somewhat remarkable. His grandfather had been +anxious that Pudentilla should take a second husband in the person of +his son and her brother-in-law, Sicinius Clarus, and with this end in +view threatened to exclude her sons, whose guardian he was, from the +possession of any of their father's property, if she married +elsewhere. She therefore suffered herself to be betrothed to Sicinius +Clarus, 'a boorish and decrepit old man,' but put off the marriage, +until her father-in-law's death released her from all embarrassment. +Pontianus and Pudens succeeded to the property, and Pudentilla felt +herself free to take a husband of her own choice. She informed her +sons of her intentions. Pontianus approved, but since the property +left to himself and Pudens by their grandfather was small, and all his +expectations of wealth depended on the ultimate inheritance of his +mother's fortune (4,000,000 sesterces = L40,000), he was most anxious +that his mother should marry an honest man who might reasonably be +expected to treat his step-sons fairly. At this point, in the very +nick of time, Apuleius was detained at Oea. Pontianus saw in him a +heaven-sent step-father, and it was with this in his mind that he +called upon Apuleius. He did not declare his intentions at once. He +contented himself at first with dissuading Apuleius from pursuing his +journey homeward till the next winter came round, and persuaded him to +come and stay in his mother's house. Apuleius accepted his offer and +their old intimacy revived. At last a suitable occasion offered for +the declaration of Pontianus' wishes. Apuleius had given a public +lecture at Oea. His audience broke into frenzied applause and begged +Apuleius to become a citizen of their town. + +[Footnote 2: See _Apol._ 68 sqq.] + +When the audience were gone, Pontianus took Apuleius aside and, saying +that the popular enthusiasm was a sign from heaven, begged Apuleius to +marry Pudentilla. After much deliberation Apuleius consented, though +the lady was neither fair to view nor young. She had been a widow for +more than thirteen years, and was now over forty. Soon, however, he +began to love Pudentilla for her own sake; her virtues and +intelligence won his heart and overcame his desire for further travel. +The marriage was duly solemnized. But it brought Apuleius no peace. +Sicinius Aemilianus, another brother of her first husband, and +Herennius Rufinus, the disreputable father-in-law of Pontianus, were +both up in arms. Rufinus had hoped, through his son-in-law, to reap a +rich harvest from Pudentilla's fortune; Aemilianus resented the +treatment of his brother, Sicinius Clarus. They sought, therefore, +how they might have their revenge. Their first step was to win +Pontianus and Pudens to their side. This they succeeded in doing, in +spite of the generous treatment accorded by Apuleius to his step-sons. +Pontianus fell sick and died before they could carry out their +designs. He had, moreover, repented of his baseness to his former +friend, though death prevented him from showing what his repentance +was worth. Pudens, however, was completely under the thumb of +Aemilianus and Rufinus, and a number of more or less serious charges +were brought against Apuleius in his name. + +He was accused of having won the heart of Pudentilla by sorcery, of +being a man of immoral life, and of having married his elderly bride +solely for the sake of her money. The trial took place at Sabrata +(_Apol._ 59), the modern Zowara, lying on the coast some sixty miles +west of Oea. The case was tried by the proconsul himself, Claudius +Maximus. The date cannot be precisely fixed. But Claudius Maximus was +probably proconsul at some time between the years 155-158 A.D. (see +note on _Apol._ 1), at any rate not later than 161 A.D., since +Antoninus Pius is mentioned as the reigning princeps (died March 161 +A.D.). Apuleius had no difficulty in disposing of the charges brought +against him, and incidentally found an opportunity for a flamboyant +display of the learning of which he was so proud. He may well on +occasion have practised magic: his insatiable curiosity must assuredly +have led him to experiment in this direction, and his subsequent +reputation confirms these suspicions. But the specific charges of +magic on this occasion were frivolous and absurd. In the first portion +of the speech Apuleius plays with his accusers, mocking them from the +heights of his superior learning. In the second portion, where he +defends his marriage with Pudentilla and justifies his dealings with +his step-sons, he clears himself in good earnest, nay does more than +clear himself. For he unveils in the most merciless fashion the +villany of his accusers--the base ingratitude of Pudens, and the +unspeakable turpitude of Rufinus. + +That Apuleius was acquitted cannot be doubted. His case speaks for +itself. But it is noteworthy that we hear of him no more at Oea, where +he had resided for three years at the time of the trial. This +distressing family quarrel must have caused some bitterness of +feeling, and Augustine (_Ep._ 138. 19) mentions a quarrel with the +inhabitants of Oea on the question of the erection of a statue in his +honour. These facts may not improbably have led him to seek residence +elsewhere. Be this as it may, when we next hear of him he is in +Carthage, enjoying the highest renown as philosopher, poet, and +rhetorician. It was during this residence at Carthage that he +delivered the flamboyant orations of which fragments have been +preserved to us in the _Florida_. A few of these excerpts can be +dated. The seventeenth is written during the proconsulate of Scipio +Orfitus in 163-164 A.D. The ninth contains a panegyric of the +proconsul Severianus, who must have held office some time during the +joint reign of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, 161-169 A.D. (see +note, p. 236). The sixteenth refers to Aemilianus Strabo, who was +consul in 156 A.D. and had not yet become proconsul of Africa. As the +interval between holding the consulate and the proconsulate was from +ten to thirteen years, this fragment may be dated, if not before 166, +at any rate before 169 A.D. + +Apuleius won more than mere applause. Carthage decreed a statue in his +honour (_Florida_ 16), and conferred on him the chief-priesthood of +the province. This office entitled its holder to the first place in +the provincial council, and was the highest honour that the province +could bestow (_Florida_ 16). Civil office he never held (Augustine, +_Ep._ 138. 19), perhaps never sought. His genius, it may be said with +confidence, was far from fitting him for judicial or administrative +functions. If we may trust Apollinaris Sidonius (_Ep._ II. 10. 5), +Pudentilla showed herself a model wife by the passionate interest she +took in her husband's work. 'Pudentilla was for Apuleius what Marcia +was for Hortensius, Terentia for Cicero, Calpurnia for Piso, +Rusticiana for Symmachus: these noble women held the lamp while their +husbands read and meditated!' It is even possible that she bore him a +son, as the second book of the _de Platone_ is dedicated to 'my son +Faustinus'. Of his death we know nothing. Testimony as to his +appearance is conflicting. His accusers (_Apol._ 4) charge him with +being a 'handsome philosopher'. He replies that his body is worn by +the fatigues of study and his hair as tangled as a lump of tow! + +His works were astonishingly numerous. Beside those already mentioned +there have come down to us two books on the life and philosophy of +Plato,[3] a highly rhetorical treatise on the 'Demon of Socrates', and +a free translation of the pseudo-Aristotelian treatise 'on the +Universe', though Apuleius is regrettably far from making due +acknowledgement of his debt to the original. None of these works can +be described as interesting, though the treatise on the 'Demon of +Socrates' contains some characteristic purple passages. + +[Footnote 3: He regarded Plato as his master above all others. We find +_Platonicus_ attached to him as an honorific title in the MSS.] + +It would, however, scarcely be an exaggeration to say that more of +Apuleius' works have perished than survived. He has told us in the +_Florida_ (20) that he has written dialogues, hymns, music, history, +and satire. And we have copious references to works from his pen, +that, perhaps fortunately, no longer exist. Beside the three poems +which survive in the _Apologia_ and a translation of a passage of +Menander, preserved in a manuscript once at Beauvais, but now lost +(Baehrens, _Poet. Lat. Min._ 4, p. 104), he mentions a hymn to +Aesculapius, written both in Latin and Greek (_Florida_ 18), and a +panegyric in verse on the virtues of Scipio Orfitus (_Florida_ 17). He +wrote also another novel entitled _Hermagoras_, a collection of famous +love-stories of the past, sundry 'histories', a translation of the +_Phaedo_, and numerous scientific works, dealing with problems of +mathematics, music, astronomy, medicine, botany, and zoology. + +The glory won by Apuleius during his lifetime survived after his +death. Augustine knows his works well. He recognizes his importance as +a writer, but abhors him as a magician. Apuleius is a thaumaturge +against whom the faithful need to be warned. 'The enemies of +Christianity,' says Augustine (_Ep._ 138), 'venture to place Apuleius +and Apollonius of Tyana on the same or even a higher level than +Christ.' But in the same letter he speaks of him as a 'great orator' +whose fame still lives among his fellow countrymen of Africa. Above +all the _Golden Ass_ has kept his name alive to our own day. Even +those who know nothing of the work as a whole, or who would relegate +it to obscurity for its occasional gross indecency, know and love the +story of Cupid and Psyche, if not in the original at least in many a +work of art, and in the pages of La Fontaine, Walter Pater, or William +Morris. + +As might be expected from one who left so few themes untouched, +Apuleius is one of the most superficial of ancient writers. It has +been well said of him by M. Paul Monceaux, 'Apulee est un de ces +esprits encyclopediques, apres a la curee de toutes les connaissances, +qui se rencontrent au commencement et a la fin des civilisations.' For +the acquisition of his extraordinary reputation he needed an age and +an audience in which learning and literature alike were decadent, +though far from forgotten. He has none of the scientific spirit. He +does not really understand the authors he quotes; he has no critical +spirit, and his own investigations are prompted by indiscriminate +curiosity. But he has vast stores of miscellaneous knowledge such as +might delight the half-educated, and as a rhetorician he possesses a +strange and debased brilliance, fired by an astonishing if disorderly +imagination. The verve, the humour, and above all the welter of warmth +and colour that characterize the _Golden Ass_ make us forgive the +palpable degradation of the Latin language. Not less remarkable is the +_Apologia_. There are few speeches of antiquity that give such a vivid +impression of the character of the author and of the life of the +society in which he moved. The style, it is true, is often bombastic +and affected, many of the arguments are almost more puerile and absurd +than the accusations, while the intense conceit and complacency of the +author often make him ridiculous. A man of wide and varied knowledge, +he has no depth of intellect. He is always half charlatan, and the +reader is rarely free from the impression that he is taking liberties +with the uncertain taste and ignorance of his provincial audience. But +even the weaknesses of style and argument have their charm for the +modern reader. For, if he never entirely fails to laugh with Apuleius, +he certainly indulges in many a hearty laugh at him. + +The _Florida_ are no less superficial and bombastic, and the vanity of +Apuleius is revealed even more remarkably than in the _Apologia_. But +they are never long enough to be tedious, and contain much that is +amusing, be the humour unconscious or intentional; and even if we can +rarely give whole-hearted admiration to the style, we cannot but +marvel at its dexterity, while its very _bizarrerie_ is not without +its charm. + +This is hardly the place for a disquisition upon African Latin. It is +sufficient here to say that the two main features of the style of +Apuleius are its archaism and its extreme floridity. It has been +asserted that this strange style is of purely African growth,[4] and +that it owes much of its oriental wealth of colour to the Semitic +element that must still have formed so large a proportion of the +population of Africa. But there seems little really to support this +view; it is probable that, allowing for the personal factor, in this +case exceptionally important, and the eccentricities to which +Apuleius' erudition may have led him, we are confronted with no more +than an exaggerated revival of the Asiatic style of oratory. No doubt +the seed fell on good ground, but it is impossible to set one's finger +on any definitely African element.[5] + +[Footnote 4: For a vivacious exposition of this view cf. Monceaux, +_Les Africains_. Paris, 1894.] + +[Footnote 5: See the chapter on Apuleius in Norden's admirable work, +_Die antike Kunstprosa_, Leipzig, 1898.] + +The style presents grave difficulties to the translator. The English +language will not carry the requisite amount of bombast; the +assonances and the puns are generally incapable of reproduction. Even +when this allowance has been made, it is in many cases impossible to +give anything approximating to a translation in natural English. I +can only trust that the English of this translation has not wholly +lost the colour to which Apuleius owes so much of his charm. The +sacrifice is not so great in these works as it must necessarily be in +any English translation of the more exotic and more brilliant-hued +_Metamorphoses_, better known as _The Golden Ass_. But in any case the +cooler tints and sobriety of our native language must--even in hands +less unskilled than mine--fail to do justice to the fantastic Latin of +the original. The vivacity of French coupled with the richness and +warmth of Italian would need to be combined to produce anything +approaching a really good translation, even of the least fantastic +works of Apuleius. + + + + +THE APOLOGIA + + +1. For my part, Maximus Claudius, and you, gentlemen who sit beside +him on the bench, I regarded it as a foregone conclusion that Sicinius +Aemilianus would for sheer lack of any real ground for accusation cram +his indictment with mere vulgar abuse; for the old rascal is notorious +for his unscrupulous audacity, and, further, launched forth on his +task of bringing me to trial in your court before he had given a +thought to the line his prosecution should pursue. Now while the most +innocent of men may be the victim of false accusation, only the +criminal can have his guilt brought home to him. It is this thought +that gives me special confidence, but I have further ground for +self-congratulation in the fact that I have you for my judge on an +occasion when it is my privilege to have the opportunity of clearing +philosophy of the aspersions cast upon her by the uninstructed and of +proving my own innocence. Nevertheless these false charges are on the +face of them serious enough, and the suddenness with which they have +been improvised makes them the more difficult to refute. For you will +remember that it is only four or five days since his advocates of +malice prepense attacked me with slanderous accusations, and began to +charge me with practice of the black art and with the murder of my +step-son Pontianus. I was at the moment totally unprepared for such a +charge, and was occupied in defending an action brought by the +brothers Granius against my wife, Pudentilla. I perceived that these +charges were brought forward not so much in a serious spirit as to +gratify my opponents' taste for wanton slander. I therefore +straightway challenged them, not once only, but frequently and +emphatically, to proceed with their accusation. The result was that +Aemilianus, perceiving that you, Maximus, not to speak of others, were +strongly moved by what had occurred, and that his words had created a +serious scandal, began to be alarmed and to seek for some safe refuge +from the consequences of his rashness. + +2. Therefore as soon as he was compelled to set his name to the +indictment, he conveniently forgot Pontianus, his own brother's son, +of whose death he had been continually accusing me only a few days +previously. He made absolutely no mention of the death of his young +kinsman[6]; he abandoned this most serious charge, but--to avoid the +appearance of having totally abandoned his mendacious accusations--he +selected, as the sole support of his indictment, the charge of +magic--a charge with which it is easy to create a prejudice against +the accused, but which it is hard to prove. Even that he had not the +courage to do openly in his own person, but a day later presented the +indictment in the name of my step-son, Sicinius Pudens, a mere boy, +adding that he appeared as his representative. This is a new method. +He attacks me through the agency of a third person, whose tender age +he employs to shield his unworthy self against a charge of false +accusation. You, Maximus, with great acuteness saw through his designs +and ordered him to renew his original accusation in person. In spite +of his promise to comply, he cannot be induced to come to close +quarters, but actually defies your authority and continues to skirmish +at long range with his false accusations. He persistently shirks the +perilous task of a direct attack, and perseveres in his assumption of +the safe role of the accuser's legal representative. As a result, even +before the case came into court, the real nature of the accusation +became obvious to the meanest understanding. The man who invented the +charge and was the first to utter it had not the courage to take the +responsibility for it. Moreover the man in question is Sicinius +Aemilianus, who, if he had discovered any true charge against me, +would scarcely have been so backward in accusing a stranger of so many +serious crimes, seeing that he falsely asserted his own uncle's will +to be a forgery although he knew it to be genuine: indeed he +maintained this assertion with such obstinate violence, that even +after that distinguished senator, Lollius Urbicus, in accordance with +the decision of the distinguished consulars, his assessors, had +declared the will to be genuine and duly proven, he continued--such +was his mad fury--in defiance of the award given by the voice of that +most distinguished citizen, to assert with oaths that the will was a +forgery. It was only with difficulty that Lollius Urbicus refrained +from making him suffer for it. + +[Footnote 6: I conjecture: _de morte cognati adolescentis subito +tacens tanti criminis descriptione destitit, ne tamen omnino desistere +calumnia magiam, &c._] + +3. I rely, Maximus, on your sense of justice and on my own innocence, +but I hope that in this trial also we shall hear the voice of Lollius +raised impulsively in my defence; for Aemilianus is deliberately +accusing a man whom he knows to be innocent, a course which comes the +more easy to him, since, as I have told you, he has already been +convicted of lying in a most important case, heard before the Prefect +of the city. Just as a good man studiously avoids the repetition of a +sin once committed, so men of depraved character repeat their past +offence with increased confidence, and, I may add, the more often they +do so, the more openly they display their impudence. For honour is +like a garment; the older it gets, the more carelessly it is worn. I +think it my duty, therefore, in the interest of my own honour, to +refute all my opponent's slanders before I come to the actual +indictment itself. For I am pleading not merely my own cause, but that +of philosophy as well, philosophy, whose grandeur is such that she +resents even the slightest slur cast upon her perfection as though it +were the most serious accusation. Knowing this, Aemilianus' advocates, +only a short time ago, poured forth with all their usual loquacity a +flood of drivelling accusations, many of which were specially invented +for the purpose of blackening my character, while the remainder were +such general charges as the uninstructed are in the habit of levelling +at philosophers. It is true that we may regard these accusations as +mere interested vapourings, bought at a price and uttered to prove +their shamelessness worthy of its hire. It is a recognized practice on +the part of professional accusers to let out the venom of their +tongues to another's hurt; nevertheless, if only in my own interest, I +must briefly refute these slanders, lest I, whose most earnest +endeavour it is to avoid incurring the slightest spot or blemish to my +fair fame, should seem, by passing over some of their more ridiculous +charges, to have tacitly admitted their truth, rather than to have +treated them with silent contempt. For a man who has any sense of +honour or self-respect must needs--such at least is my opinion--feel +annoyed when he is thus abused, however falsely. Even those whose +conscience reproaches them with some crime, are strongly moved to +anger, when men speak ill of them, although they have been accustomed +to such ill report ever since they became evildoers. And even though +others say naught of their crimes, they are conscious enough that such +charges may at any time deservedly be brought against them. It is +therefore doubly vexatious to the good and innocent man when charges +are undeservedly brought against him which he might with justice bring +against others. For his ears are unused and strange to ill report, and +he is so accustomed to hear himself praised that insult is more than +he can bear. If, however, I seem to be anxious to rebut charges which +are merely frivolous and foolish, the blame must be laid at the door +of those, to whom such accusations, in spite of their triviality, can +only bring disgrace. I am not to blame. Ridiculous as these charges +may be, their refutation cannot but do me honour. + +4. To begin then, only a short while ago, at the commencement of the +indictment, you heard them say, 'He, whom we accuse in your court, is +a philosopher of the most elegant appearance and a master of eloquence +not merely in Latin but also in Greek!' What a damning insinuation! +Unless I am mistaken, those were the very words with which Tannonius +Pudens, whom no one could accuse of being a master of eloquence, began +the indictment. I wish that these serious reproaches of beauty and +eloquence had been true. It would have been easy to answer in the +words, with which Homer makes Paris reply to Hector:-- + + [Greek: ou toi apoblet' esti theon erikudea dora. + hossa ken autoi dosin, hekon d' ouk an tis heloito].-- + +which I may interpret thus: 'The most glorious gifts of the gods are +in no wise to be despised; but the things which they are wont to give +are withheld from many that would gladly possess them.' Such would +have been my reply. I should have added that philosophers are not +forbidden to possess a handsome face. Pythagoras, the first to take +the name of 'philosopher', was the handsomest man of his day. Zeno +also, the ancient philosopher of Velia, who was the first to discover +that most ingenious device of refuting hypotheses by the method of +self-inconsistency, that same Zeno was--so Plato asserts--by far the +most striking in appearance of all the men of his generation. It is +further recorded of many other philosophers that they were comely of +countenance and added fresh charm to their personal beauty by their +beauty of character. But such a defence is, as I have already said, +far from me. Not only has nature given me but a commonplace +appearance, but continued literary labour has swept away such charm as +my person ever possessed, has reduced me to a lean habit of body, +sucked away all the freshness of life, destroyed my complexion and +impaired my vigour. As to my hair, which they with unblushing +mendacity declare I have allowed to grow long as an enhancement to my +personal attractions, you can judge of its elegance and beauty. As you +see, it is tangled, twisted and unkempt like a lump of tow, shaggy and +irregular in length, so knotted and matted that the tangle is past the +art of man to unravel. This is due not to mere carelessness in the +tiring of my hair, but to the fact that I never so much as comb or +part it. I think this is a sufficient refutation of the accusations +concerning my hair which they hurl against me as though it were a +capital charge. + +5. As to my eloquence--if only eloquence were mine--it would be small +matter either for wonder or envy if I, who from my earliest years to +the present moment have devoted myself with all my powers to the sole +study of literature and for this spurned all other pleasures, had +sought to win eloquence to be mine with toil such as few or none have +ever expended, ceasing neither night nor day, to the neglect and +impairment of my bodily health. But my opponents need fear nothing +from my eloquence. If I have made any real advance therein, it is my +aspirations rather than my attainments on which I must base my claim. +Certainly if the aphorism said to occur in the poems of Statius +Caecilius be true, that innocence is eloquence itself, to that extent +I may lay claim to eloquence and boast that I yield to none. For on +that assumption what living man could be more eloquent than myself? I +have never even harboured in my thoughts anything to which I should +fear to give utterance. Nay, my eloquence is consummate, for I have +ever held all sin in abomination; I have the highest oratory at my +command, for I have uttered no word, I have done no deed, of which I +need fear to discourse in public. I will begin therefore to discourse +of those verses of mine, which they have produced as though they were +something of which I ought to be ashamed. You must have noticed the +laughter with which I showed my annoyance at the absurd and illiterate +manner in which they recited them. + +6. They began by reading one of my _jeux d'esprit_, a brief letter in +verse, addressed to a certain Calpurnianus on the subject of a +tooth-powder. When Calpurnianus produced my letter as evidence against +me, his desire to do me a hurt blinded him to the fact that if +anything in the letter could be urged as a reproach against me, he +shared in that reproach. For the verses testify to the fact that he +had asked me to send him the wherewithal to clean his teeth: + + _Good morrow! friend Calpurnianus, take + The salutation these swift verses make. + Wherewith I send, responsive to thy call, + A powder rare to cleanse thy teeth withal. + This delicate dust of Arab spices fine + With ivory sheen shall make thy mouth to shine, + Shall smooth the swollen gums and sweep away + The relics of the feast of yesterday. + So shall no foulness, no dark smirch be seen, + If laughter show thy teeth their lips between._ + +I ask you, what is there in these verses that is disgusting in point +either of matter or of manner? What is there that a philosopher should +be ashamed to own? Unless indeed I am to blame for sending a powder +made of Arabian spices to Calpurnianus, for whom it would be more +suitable that he should + + _Polish his teeth and ruddy gums_, + +as Catullus says, after the filthy fashion in vogue among the +Iberians. + +7. I saw a short while back that some of you could scarcely restrain +your laughter, when our orator treated these views of mine on the +cleansing of the teeth as a matter for savage denunciation, and +condemned my administration of a tooth-powder with fiercer indignation +than has ever been shown in condemning the administration of a poison. +Of course it is a serious charge, and one that no philosopher can +afford to despise, to say of a man that he will not allow a speck of +dirt to be seen upon his person, that he will not allow any visible +portion of his body to be offensive or unclean, least of all the +mouth, the organ used most frequently, openly and conspicuously by +man, whether to kiss a friend, to conduct a conversation, to speak in +public, or to offer up prayer in some temple. Indeed speech is the +prelude to every kind of action and, as the greatest of poets says, +proceeds from 'the barrier of our teeth'. If there were any one +present here to-day with like command of the grand style, he might say +after his fashion that those above all men who have any care for their +manner of speaking, should pay closer attention to their mouth than to +any other portion of their body, for it is the soul's antechamber, the +portal of speech, and the gathering place where thoughts assemble. I +myself should say that in my poor judgement there is nothing less +seemly for a free-born man with the education of a gentleman than an +unwashen mouth. For man's mouth is in position exalted, to the eye +conspicuous, in use eloquent. True, in wild beasts and cattle the +mouth is placed low and looks downward to the feet, is in close +proximity to their food and to the path they tread, and is hardly +ever conspicuous save when its owner is dead or infuriated with a +desire to bite. But there is no part of man that sooner catches the +eye when he is silent, or more often when he speaks. + +8. I should be obliged, therefore, if my critic Aemilianus would +answer me and tell me whether he is ever in the habit of washing his +feet, or, if he admits that he is in the habit of so doing, whether he +is prepared to argue that a man should pay more attention to the +cleanliness of his feet than to that of his teeth. Certainly, if like +you, Aemilianus, he never opens his mouth save to utter slander and +abuse, I should advise him to pay no attention to the state of his +mouth nor to attempt to remove the stains from his teeth with oriental +powders: he would be better employed in rubbing them with charcoal +from some funeral pyre. Least of all should he wash them with common +water; rather let his guilty tongue, the chosen servant of lies and +bitter words, rot in the filth and ordure that it loves! Is it +reasonable, wretch, that your tongue should be fresh and clean, when +your voice is foul and loathsome, or that, like the viper, you should +employ snow-white teeth for the emission of dark, deadly poison? On +the other hand it is only right that, just as we wash a vessel that is +to hold good liquor, he who knows that his words will be at once +useful and agreeable should cleanse his mouth as a prelude to speech. +But why should I speak further of man? Even the crocodile, the monster +of the Nile--so they tell me--opens his jaws in all innocence, that +his teeth may be cleaned. For his mouth being large, tongueless, and +continually open in the water, multitudes of leeches become entangled +in his teeth: these, when the crocodile emerges from the river and +opens his mouth, are removed by a friendly waterbird, which is allowed +to insert its beak without any risk to itself. + +9. But enough of this! I now come to certain other of my verses, which +according to them are amatory; but so vilely and coarsely did they +read them as to leave no impression save one of disgust. Now what has +it to do with the malpractices of the black art, if I write poems in +praise of the boys of my friend Scribonius Laetus? Does the mere fact +of my being a poet make me a wizard? Who ever heard any orator produce +such likely ground for suspicion, such apt conjectures, such +close-reasoned argument? 'Apuleius has written verses!' If they are +bad, that is something against him _qua_ poet, but not _qua_ +philosopher. If they be good, why do you accuse him? 'But they were +frivolous verses of an erotic character.' So that is the charge you +bring against me? and it was a mere slip of the tongue when you +indicted me for practising the black art? And yet many others have +written such verse, although you may be ignorant of the fact. Among +the Greeks, for instance, there was a certain Teian, there was a +Lacedaemonian, a Cean, and countless others; there was even a woman, a +Lesbian, who wrote with such grace and such passion that the sweetness +of her song makes us forgive the impropriety of her words; among our +own poets there were Aedituus, Porcius, and Catulus, with countless +others. 'But they were not philosophers.' Will you then deny that +Solon was a serious man and a philosopher? Yet he is the author of +that most wanton verse: + + _Longing for thy body and the kiss of thy sweet lips._ + +What is there so lascivious in all my verses compared with that one +line? I will say nothing of the writings of Diogenes the Cynic, of +Zeno the founder of Stoicism, and many other similar instances. Let me +recite my own verses afresh, that my opponents may realize that I am +not ashamed of them: + + _Critias my treasure is and you, + Light of my life, Charinus, too + Hold in my love-tormented heart + Your own inalienable part. + Ah! doubt not! with redoubled spite + Though fire on fire consume me quite, + The flames ye kindle, boys divine, + I can endure, so ye be mine. + Only to each may I be dear + As your own selves are, and as near; + Grant only this and you shall be + Dear as mine own two eyes to me._ + +Now let me read you the others also which they read last as being the +most intemperate in expression. + + _I lay these garlands, Critias sweet, + And this my song before thy feet; + Song to thyself I dedicate, + Wreaths to the Angel of thy fate. + The song I send to hymn the praise + Of this, the best of all glad days, + Whereon the circling seasons bring + The glory of thy fourteenth spring; + The garlands, that thy brows may shine + With splendour worthy spring's and thine, + That thou in boyhood's golden hours + Mayst deck the flower of life with flowers. + Wherefore for these bright blooms of spring + Thy springtide sweet surrendering, + The tribute of my love repay + And all my gifts with thine outweigh. + Surpass the twined garland's grace + With arms entwined in soft embrace; + The crimson of the rose eclipse + With kisses from thy rosy lips. + Or if thou wilt, be this my meed + And breathe thy soul into the reed; + Then shall my songs be shamed and mute + Before the music of thy flute._ + +10. These are the verses, Maximus, which they throw in my teeth, as +though they were the work of an infamous rake and had lover's garlands +and serenades for their theme. You must have noticed also that in this +connexion they further attack me for calling these boys Charinus and +Critias, which are not their true names. On this principle they may as +well accuse Caius Catullus for calling Clodia Lesbia, Ticidas for +substituting the name Perilla for that of Metella, Propertius for +concealing the name Hostia beneath the pseudonym of Cynthia, and +Tibullus for singing of Delia in his verse, when it was Plania who +ruled his heart. For my part I should rather blame Caius Lucilius, +even allowing him all the license of a satiric poet, for prostituting +to the public gaze the boys Gentius and Macedo, whose real names he +mentions in his verse without any attempt at concealment. How much +more reserved is Mantua's poet, who, when like myself he praised the +slave-boy of his friend Pollio in one of his light pastoral poems, +shrinks from mentioning real names and calls himself Corydon and the +boy Alexis. But Aemilianus, whose rusticity far surpasses that of the +shepherds and cowherds of Vergil, who is, in fact, and always has been +a boor and a barbarian, though he thinks himself far more austere than +Serranus, Curius, or Fabricius, those heroes of the days of old, +denies that such verses are worthy of a philosopher who is a follower +of Plato. Will you persist in this attitude, Aemilianus, if I can show +that my verses were modelled upon Plato? For the only verses of Plato +now extant are love-elegies, the reason, I imagine, being that he +burned all his other poems because they were inferior in charm and +finish. Listen then to the verses written by Plato in honour of the +boy Aster, though I doubt if at your age it is possible for you to +learn to appreciate literature: + + _Thou wert the morning star among the living + Ere thy fair light had fled;-- + Now having died, thou art as Hesperus giving + New light unto the dead._[7] + +[Footnote 7: Shelley's translation.] + +There is another poem by Plato dealing conjointly with the boys Alexis +and Phaedrus: + + _I did but breathe the words 'Alexis fair', + And all men gazed on him with wondering eyes, + My soul, why point to questing beasts their prize? + 'Twas thus we lost our Phaedrus; ah! beware!_ + +Without citing any further examples I will conclude by quoting a line +addressed by Plato to Dion of Syracuse: + + _Dion, with love thou hast distraught my soul._ + +11. Which of us is most to blame? I who am fool enough to speak +seriously of such things in a law-court? or you who are slanderous +enough to include such charges in your indictment? For sportive +effusions in verse are valueless as evidence of a poet's morals. Have +you not read Catullus, who replies thus to those who wish him ill: + + _A virtuous poet must be chaste. Agreed. + But for his verses there is no such need._ + +The divine Hadrian, when he honoured the tomb of his friend the poet +Voconius with an inscription in verse from his own pen, wrote thus: + + _Thy verse was wanton, but thy soul was chaste_, + +words which he would never have written had he regarded verse of +somewhat too lively a wit as proving their author to be a man of +immoral life. I remember that I have read not a few poems by the +divine Hadrian himself which were of the same type. Come now, +Aemilianus, I dare you to say that that was ill done which was done by +an emperor and censor, the divine Hadrian, and once done was recorded +for subsequent generations. But, apart from that, do you imagine that +Maximus will censure anything that has Plato for its model, Plato +whose verses, which I have just read, are all the purer for being +frank, all the more modest for being outspoken? For in these matters +and the like, dissimulation and concealment is the mark of the sinner, +open acknowledgement and publication a sign that the writer is but +exercising his wit. For nature has bestowed on innocence a voice +wherewith to speak, but to guilt she has given silence to veil its +sin. + +12. I say nothing of those lofty and divine Platonic doctrines, that +are familiar to but few of the elect and wholly unknown to all the +uninitiate, such for instance as that which teaches us that Venus is +not one goddess, but two, each being strong in her own type of love +and several types of lovers. The one is the goddess of the common +herd, who is fired by base and vulgar passion and commands not only +the hearts of men, but cattle and wild beasts also, to give themselves +over to the gratification of their desires: she strikes down these +creatures with fierce intolerable force and fetters their servile +bodies in the embraces of lust. The other is a celestial power endued +with lofty and generous passion: she cares for none save men, and of +them but few; she neither stings nor lures her followers to foul +deeds. Her love is neither wanton nor voluptuous, but serious and +unadorned, and wins her lovers to the pursuit of virtue by revealing +to them how fair a thing is nobility of soul. Or, if ever she commends +beautiful persons to their admiration, she puts a bar upon all +indecorous conduct. For the only claim that physical beauty has upon +the admiration is that it reminds those whose souls have soared above +things human to things divine, of that beauty which once they beheld +in all its truth and purity enthroned among the gods in heaven. +Wherefore let us admit that Afranius shows his usual beauty of +expression when he says: + + _Only the sage can love, only desire + Is known to others_; + +although if you would know the real truth, Aemilianus, or if you are +capable of ever comprehending such high matters, the sage does not +love, but only remembers. + +13. I would therefore beg you to pardon the philosopher Plato for his +amatory verse, and relieve me of the necessity of offending against +the precepts put by Ennius into the mouth of Neoptolemus by +philosophizing at undue length; on the other hand if you refuse to +pardon Plato, I am quite ready to suffer blame on this count in his +company. I must express my deep gratitude to you, Maximus, for +listening with such close attention to these side issues, which are +necessary to my defence inasmuch as I am paying back my accusers in +their own coin. Your kindness emboldens me to make this further +request, that you will listen to all that I have to say by way of +prelude to my answer to the main charge with the same courtesy and +attention that you have hitherto shown. + +I beg this, since I have next to deal with that long oration, austere +as any censor's, which Pudens delivered on the subject of my mirror. +He nearly exploded, so violently did he declaim against the horrid +nature of my offence. 'The philosopher owns a mirror, the philosopher +actually possesses a mirror.' Grant that I possess it: if I denied it, +you might really think that your accusation had gone home: still it is +by no means a necessary inference that I am in the habit of adorning +myself before a mirror. Why! suppose I possessed a theatrical +wardrobe, would you venture to argue from that that I am in the +frequent habit of wearing the trailing robes of tragedy, the saffron +cloak of the mimic dance, or the patchwork suit of the harlequinade? I +think not. On the contrary there are plenty of things of which I enjoy +the use without the possession. But if possession is no proof of use +nor non-possession of non-use, and if you complain of the fact that I +look into the mirror rather than that I possess it, you must go on to +show when and in whose presence I have ever looked into it; for as +things stand, you make it a greater crime for a philosopher to look +upon a mirror than for the uninitiated to gaze upon the mystic emblems +of Ceres. + +14. Come now, let me admit that I _have_ looked into it. Is it a crime +to be acquainted with one's own likeness and to carry it with one +wherever one goes ready to hand within the compass of a small mirror, +instead of keeping it hidden away in some one place? Are you ignorant +of the fact that there is nothing more pleasing for a man to look upon +than his own image? At any rate I know that fathers love those sons +most who most resemble themselves, and that public statues are decreed +as a reward for merit that the original may gladden his heart by +looking on them. What else is the significance of statues and +portraits produced by the various arts? You will scarcely maintain the +paradox that what is worthy of admiration when produced by art is +blameworthy when produced by nature; for nature has an even greater +facility and truth than art. Long labour is expended over all the +portraits wrought by the hand of man, yet they never attain to such +truth as is revealed by a mirror. Clay is lacking in life, marble in +colour, painting in solidity, and all three in motion, which is the +most convincing element in a likeness: whereas in a mirror the +reflection of the image is marvellous, for it is not only like its +original, but moves and follows every nod of the man to whom it +belongs; its age always corresponds to that of those who look into the +mirror, from their earliest childhood to their expiring age: it puts +on all the changes brought by the advance of years, shares all the +varying habits of the body, and imitates the shifting expressions of +joy and sorrow that may be seen on the face of one and the same man. +For all we mould in clay or cast in bronze or carve in stone or tint +with encaustic pigments or colour with paint, in a word, every attempt +at artistic representation by the hand of man after a brief lapse of +time loses its truth and becomes motionless and impassive like the +face of a corpse. So far superior to all pictorial art in respect of +truthful representation is the craftsmanship of the smooth mirror and +the splendour of its art. + +15. Two alternatives then are before us. We must either follow the +precept of the Lacedaemonian Agesilaus, who had no confidence in his +personal appearance and refused to allow his portrait to be painted or +carved; or we must accept the universal custom of the rest of mankind +which welcomes portraiture both in sculpture and painting. In the +latter case, is there any reason for preferring to see one's portrait +moulded in marble rather than reflected in silver, in a painting +rather than in a mirror? Or do you regard it as disgraceful to pay +continual attention to one's own appearance? Is not Socrates said +actually to have urged his followers frequently to consider their +image in a glass, that so those of them that prided themselves on +their appearance might above all else take care that they did no +dishonour to the splendour of their body by the blackness of their +hearts; while those who regarded themselves as less than handsome in +personal appearance might take especial pains to conceal the meanness +of their body by the glory of their virtue? You see; the wisest man of +his day actually went so far as to use the mirror as an instrument of +moral discipline. Again, who is ignorant of the fact that Demosthenes, +the greatest master of the art of speaking, always practised pleading +before a mirror as though before a professor of rhetoric? When that +supreme orator had drained deep draughts of eloquence in the study of +Plato the philosopher, and had learned all that could be learned of +argumentation from the dialectician Eubulides, last of all he betook +himself to a mirror to learn perfection of delivery. Which do you +think should pay greatest attention to the decorousness of his +appearance in the delivery of a speech? The orator when he wrangles +with his opponent or the philosopher when he rebukes the vices of +mankind? The man who harangues for a brief space before an audience of +jurymen drawn by the chance of the lot, or he who is continually +discoursing with all mankind for audience? The man who is quarrelling +over the boundaries of lands, or he whose theme is the boundaries of +good and evil? Moreover there are other reasons why a philosopher +should look into a mirror. He is not always concerned with the +contemplation of his own likeness, he contemplates also the causes +which produce that likeness. Is Epicurus right when he asserts that +images proceed forth from us, as it were a kind of slough that +continually streams from our bodies? These images when they strike +anything smooth and solid are reflected by the shock and reversed in +such wise as to give back an image turned to face its original. Or +should we accept the view maintained by other philosophers that rays +are emitted from our body? According to Plato these rays are filtered +forth from the centre of our eyes and mingle and blend with the light +of the world without us; according to Archytas they issue forth from +us without any external support; according to the Stoics these rays +are called into action[8] by the tension of the air: all agree that, +when these emanations strike any dense, smooth, and shining surface, +they return to the surface from which they proceeded in such manner +that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection, and +as a result that which they approach and touch without the mirror is +imaged within the mirror. + +[Footnote 8: _facti_ MSS.] + +16. What think you? Should not philosophers make all these problems +subjects of research and inquiry and in solitary study look into +mirrors of every kind, solid and liquid? There is also over and above +these questions further matter for discussion. For instance, why is +it that in flat mirrors all images and objects reflected are shown in +almost precisely their original dimensions, whereas in convex and +spherical mirrors everything is seen smaller, in concave mirrors on +the other hand larger than nature? Why again and under what +circumstances are left and right reversed? When does one and the same +mirror seem now to withdraw the image into its depths, now to extrude +it forth to view? Why do concave mirrors when held at right angles to +the rays of the sun kindle tinder set opposite them? What is the cause +of the prismatic colours of the rainbow, or of the appearance in +heaven of two rival images of the sun, with sundry other phenomena +treated in a monumental volume by Archimedes of Syracuse, a man who +showed extraordinary and unique subtlety in all branches of geometry, +but was perhaps particularly remarkable for his frequent and attentive +inspection of mirrors. If you had only read this book, Aemilianus, +and, instead of devoting yourself to the study of your fields and +their dull clods, had studied the mathematician's slate and +blackboard, believe me, although your face is hideous enough for a +tragic mask of Thyestes, you would assuredly, in your desire for the +acquisition of knowledge, look into the glass and sometimes leave your +plough to marvel at the numberless furrows with which wrinkles have +scored your face. + +But I should not be surprised if you prefer me to speak of your ugly +deformity of a face and to be silent about your morals, which are +infinitely more repulsive than your features. I will say nothing of +them. In the first place I am not naturally of a quarrelsome +disposition, and secondly I am glad to say that until quite recently +you might have been white or black for all I knew. Even now my +knowledge of you is inadequate. The reason for this is that your +rustic occupations have kept you in obscurity, while _I_ have been +occupied by my studies, and so the shadow cast about you by your +insignificance has shielded your character from scrutiny, while I for +my part take no interest in others' ill deeds, but have always thought +it more important to conceal my own faults than to track out those of +others. As a result you have the advantage of one who, while he is +himself shrouded in darkness, surveys another who chances to have +taken his stand in the full light of day. You from your darkness can +with ease form an opinion as to what I am doing in my not +undistinguished position before all the world; but your position is so +abject, so obscure, and so withdrawn from the light of publicity that +you are by no means so conspicuous. + +17. I neither know nor care to know whether you have slaves to till +your fields or whether you do so by interchange of service with your +neighbours. But _you_ know that at Oea I gave three slaves their +freedom on the same day, and your advocate has cast it in my teeth +together with other actions of mine of which you have given him +information. And yet but a few minutes earlier he had declared that I +came to Oea accompanied by no more than one slave. I challenge you to +tell me how I could have made one slave into three free men. But +perhaps this is one of my feats of magic. Has lying made you blind, or +shall I rather say that from force of habit you are incapable of +speaking the truth? 'Apuleius,' you say, 'came to Oea with one slave,' +and then only a very few words later you blurt out, 'Apuleius on one +and the same day at Oea gave three slaves their freedom.' Not even the +assertion that I had come with three slaves and had given them all +their freedom would have been credible: but suppose I had done so, +what reason have you for regarding three slaves as a mark of my +poverty, rather than for considering three freed men as a proof of my +wealth? Poor Aemilianus, you have not the least idea how to accuse a +philosopher: you reproach me for the scantiness of my household, +whereas it would really have been my duty to have laid claim, however +falsely, to such poverty. It would have redounded to my credit, for I +know that not only philosophers of whom I boast myself a follower, but +also generals of the Roman people have gloried in the small number of +their slaves. Have your advocates really never read that Marcus +Antonius, a man who had filled the office of consul, had but eight +slaves in his house? That that very Carbo who obtained supreme control +of Rome had fewer by one? That Manius Curius, famous beyond all men +for the crowns of victory that he had won, Manius Curius who thrice +led the triumphal procession through the same gate of Rome, had but +two servants to attend him in camp, so that in good truth that same +man who triumphed over the Sabines, the Samnites, and Pyrrhus had +fewer slaves than triumphs? Marcus Cato did not wait for others to +tell it of him, but himself records the fact in one of his speeches +that when he set out as consul for Spain he took but three slaves from +the city with him. When, however, he came to stay at a state +residence, the number seemed insufficient, and he ordered two slaves +to be bought in the market to wait on him at table, so that he took +five in all to Spain. Had Pudens come across these facts in his +reading, he would, I think, either have omitted this particular +slander or would have preferred to reproach me on the ground that +three slaves were too large rather than too small an establishment for +a philosopher. + +18. Pudens actually reproached me with being poor, a charge which is +welcome to a philosopher and one that he may glory in. For poverty has +long been the handmaid of philosophy; frugal and sober, she is strong +in her weakness and is greedy for naught save honour; the possession +of her is a prophylactic against wealth, her mien is free from care, +and her adornment simple; her counsels are beneficent, she puffs no +man up with pride, she corrupts no man with passions beyond his +control, she maddens no man with the lust for power, she neither +desires nor can indulge in the pleasures of feasting and of love. +These sins and their like are usually the nurslings of wealth. Count +over all the greatest crimes recorded in the history of mankind, you +will find no poor man among their guilty authors. On the other hand, +it is rare to find wealthy men among the great figures of history. All +those at whom we marvel for their great deeds were the nurslings of +poverty from their very cradles, poverty that founded all cities in +the days of old, poverty mother of all arts, witless of all sin, +bestower of all glory, crowned with all honour among all the peoples +of the world. Take the history of Greece: the justice of poverty is +seen in Aristides, her benignity in Phocion, her force in Epaminondas, +her wisdom in Socrates, her eloquence in Homer. It was this same +poverty that established the empire of the Roman people in its first +beginnings, and even to this day Rome offers up thanksgivings for it +to the immortal gods with libations poured from a wooden ladle and +offerings borne in an earthen platter. If the judges sitting to try +this case were Caius Fabricius, Cnaeus Scipio, Manius Curius, whose +daughters on account of their poverty were given dowries from the +public treasury and so went to their husbands bringing with them the +honour of their houses and the wealth of the state; if Publicola, who +drove out the Kings, or Agrippa, the healer of the people's strife, +men whose funerals were on account of their poverty enriched by the +gift of a few farthings per man from the whole Roman people; if +Atilius Regulus, whose lands on account of his own poverty were +cultivated at the public expense; if, in a word, all the heroes of the +old Roman stock, consuls and censors and triumphant generals, were +given a brief renewal of life and sent back to earth to give hearing +to this case, would you dare in the presence of so many poor consuls +to reproach a philosopher with poverty? + +19. Perhaps Claudius Maximus seems to you to be a suitable person +before whom to deride poverty, because he himself is in enjoyment of +great wealth and enormous opulence. You are wrong, Aemilianus, you are +wholly mistaken in your estimate of his character, if you take the +bounty of his fortune rather than the sternness of his philosophy as +the standard for your judgement and fail to realize that one, who +holds so austere a creed and has so long endured military service, is +more likely to befriend a moderate fortune with all its limitations +than opulence with all its luxury, and holds that fortunes, like +tunics, should be comfortable, not long. For even a tunic, if it be +not carried high, but is allowed to drag, will entangle and trip the +feet as badly as a cloak that hangs down in front. In everything that +we employ for the needs of daily life, whatever exceeds the mean is +superfluous and a burden rather than a help. So it is that excessive +riches, like steering oars of too great weight and bulk, serve to sink +the ship rather than to guide it; for their bulk is unprofitable and +their superfluity a curse. I have noticed that of the wealthy +themselves those win most praise who live quietly and in moderate +comfort, concealing their actual resources, administering their great +possessions without ostentation or pride and showing like poor folk +under the disguise of their moderation. Now, if even the rich to some +extent affect the outward form and semblance of poverty to give +evidence of their moderation, why should we of slenderer means be +ashamed of being poor not in appearance only but in reality? + +20. I might even engage with you in controversy over the word poverty, +urging that no man is poor who rejects the superfluous and has at his +command all the necessities of life, which nature has ordained should +be exceedingly small. For he who desires least will possess most, +inasmuch as he who wants but little will have all he wants. The +measure of wealth ought therefore not to be the possession of lands +and investments, but the very soul of man. For if avarice make him +continually in need of some fresh acquisition and insatiable in his +lust for gain, not even mountains of gold will bring him satisfaction, +but he will always be begging for more that he may increase what he +already possesses. That is _the_ genuine admission of poverty. For +every desire for fresh acquisition springs from the consciousness of +want, and it matters little how large your possessions are if they are +too small for _you_. Philus had a far smaller household than Laelius, +Laelius than Scipio, Scipio than Crassus the Rich, and yet not even +Crassus had as much as he wanted; and so, though he surpassed all +others in wealth, he was himself surpassed by his own avarice and +seemed rich to all save himself. On the other hand, the philosophers +of whom I have spoken wanted nothing beyond what was at their +disposal, and, thanks to the harmony existing between their desires +and their resources, they were deservedly rich and happy. For poverty +consists in the need for fresh acquisition, wealth in the satisfaction +springing from the absence of needs. For the badge of penury is +desire, the badge of wealth contempt. Therefore, Aemilianus, if you +wish me to be regarded as poor, you must first prove that I am +avaricious. But if my soul lacks nothing, I care little how much of +the goods of this world be lacking to me; for it is no honour to +possess them and no reproach to lack them. + +21. But let us suppose it to be otherwise. Suppose that I am poor, +because fortune has grudged me riches, because my guardian, as often +happens, misappropriated my inheritance, some enemy robbed me, or my +father left me nothing. Is it just to reproach a man for that which is +regarded as no reproach to the animal kingdom, to the eagle, to the +bull, to the lion? If the horse be strong in the possession of his +peculiar excellences, if he is pleasant to ride and swift in his +paces, no one rebukes him for the poverty of his food. Must you then +reproach me, not for any scandalous word or deed, but simply because I +live in a small house, possess an unusually small number of slaves, +subsist on unusually light diet, wear unusually light clothing, and +make unusually small purchases of food? Yet however scanty my service, +food, and raiment may seem to you, I on the contrary regard them as +ample and even excessive. Indeed I am desirous of still further +reducing them, since the less I have to distract me the happier I +shall be. For the soul, like the body, goes lightly clad when in good +health; weakness wraps itself up, and it is a sure sign of infirmity +to have many wants. We live, just as we swim, all the better for being +but lightly burdened. For in this stormy life as on the stormy ocean +heavy things sink us and light things buoy us up. It is in this +respect, I find, that the gods more especially surpass men, namely +that they lack nothing: wherefore he of mankind whose needs are +smallest is most like unto the gods. + +22. I therefore regarded it as a compliment when to insult me you +asserted that my whole household consisted of a wallet and a staff. +Would that my spirit were made of such stern stuff as to permit me to +dispense with all this furniture and worthily to carry that equipment +for which Crates sacrificed all his wealth! Crates, I tell you, though +I doubt if you will believe me, Aemilianus, was a man of great wealth +and honour among the nobility of Thebes; but for love of this habit, +which you cast in my face as a crime, he gave his large and luxurious +household to his fellow citizens, resigned his troops of slaves for +solitude, so contemned the countless trees of his rich orchards as to +be content with one staff, exchanged his elegant villas for one small +wallet, which, when he had fully appreciated its utility, he even +praised in song by diverting from their original meaning certain lines +of Homer in which he extols the island of Crete. I will quote the +first lines, that you may not think this a mere invention of mine +designed to meet the needs of my own case: + + _There is a town named Wallet in the midst + Of smoke that's dark as wine._ + +The lines which follow are so wonderful, that had you read them you +would envy me my wallet even more than you envy me my marriage with +Pudentilla. You reproach philosophers for their staff and wallet. You +might as well reproach cavalry for their trappings, infantry for their +shields, standard-bearers for their banners, triumphant generals for +their chariots drawn by four white horses and their cloaks embroidered +with palm-leaves. The staff and wallet are not, it is true, carried by +the Platonic philosophers, but are the badges of the Cynic school. To +Diogenes and Antisthenes they were what the crown is to the king, the +cloak of purple to the general, the cowl to the priest, the trumpet to +the augur. Indeed the Cynic Diogenes, when he disputed with Alexander +the Great, as to which of the two was the true king, boasted of his +staff as the true sceptre. The unconquered Hercules himself, since you +despise my instances as drawn from mere mendicancy, Hercules that +roamed the whole world, exterminated monsters, and conquered races, +god though he was, had but a skin for raiment and a staff for company +in the days when he wandered through the earth. And yet but a brief +while afterwards he was admitted to heaven as a reward for his virtue. + +23. But if you despise these examples and challenge me, not to plead +my case, but to enter into a discussion of the amount of my fortune, +to put an end to your ignorance on this point, if it exists, I +acknowledge that my father left my brother and myself a little under +2,000,000 sesterces--a sum on which my lengthy travels, continual +studies, and frequent generosity have made considerable inroads. For I +have often assisted my friends and have shown substantial gratitude to +many of my instructors, on more than one occasion going so far as to +provide dowries for their daughters. Nay, I should not have hesitated +to expend every farthing of my patrimony, if so I might acquire, what +is far better, a contempt for it. But as for you, Aemilianus, and +ignorant boors of your kidney, in your case the fortune makes the man. +You are like barren and blasted trees that produce no fruit, but are +valued only for the timber that their trunks contain. But I beg you, +Aemilianus, in future to abstain from reviling any one for their +poverty, since you yourself used, after waiting for some seasonable +shower to soften the ground, to expend three days in ploughing +single-handed, with the aid of one wretched ass, that miserable farm +at Zarath, which was all your father left you. It is only recently +that fortune has smiled on you in the shape of wholly undeserved +inheritances which have fallen to you by the frequent deaths of +relatives, deaths to which, far more than to your hideous face, you +owe your nickname of Charon. + +24. As to my birthplace, you assert that my writings prove it to lie +right on the marches of Numidia and Gaetulia, for I publicly +described myself as half Numidian, half Gaetulian in a discourse +delivered in the presence of that most distinguished citizen Lollianus +Avitus. I do not see that I have any more reason to be ashamed of that +than had the elder Cyrus for being of mixed descent, half Mede, half +Persian. A man's birthplace is of no importance, it is his character +that matters. We must consider not in what part of the world, but with +what purpose he set out to live his life. Vendors of wine and cabbages +are permitted to enhance the value of their wares by advertising the +excellence of the soil whence they spring, as for instance with the +wine of Thasos and the cabbages of Phlius. For those products of the +soil are wonderfully improved in flavour by the fertility of the +district which produces them, the moistness of the climate, the +mildness of the winds, the warmth of the sun, and the richness of the +soil. But in the case of man, the soul enters the tenement of the body +from without. What, then, can such circumstances as these add to or +take away from his virtues or his vices? Has there ever been a time or +place in which a race has not produced a variety of intellects, +although some races seem stupider and some wiser than others? The +Scythians are the stupidest of men, and yet the wise Anacharsis was a +Scyth. The Athenians are shrewd, and yet the Athenian Meletides was a +fool. I say this not because I am ashamed of my country, since even in +the time of Syphax we were a township. When he was conquered we were +transferred by the gift of the Roman people to the dominion of King +Masinissa, and finally as the result of a settlement of veteran +soldiers, our second founders, we have become a colony of the highest +distinction. In this same colony my father attained to the post of +_duumvir_ and became the foremost citizen of the place, after filling +all the municipal offices of honour. I myself, immediately after my +first entry into the municipal senate, succeeded to my father's +position in the community, and, as I hope, am in no ways a degenerate +successor, but receive like honour and esteem for my maintenance of +the dignity of my position. Why do I mention this? That you, +Aemilianus, may be less angry with me in future and may more readily +pardon me for having been negligent enough not to select your 'Attic' +Zarath for my birthplace. + +25. Are you not ashamed to produce such accusations with such violence +before such a judge, to bring forward frivolous and self-contradictory +accusations, and then in the same breath to blame me on both charges +at once? Is it not a sheer contradiction to object to my wallet and +staff on the ground of austerity, to my poems and mirror on the ground +of undue levity; to accuse me of parsimony for having only one slave, +and of extravagance in having three; to denounce me for my Greek +eloquence and my barbarian birth? Awake from your slumber and remember +that you are speaking before Claudius Maximus, a man of stern +character, burdened with the business of the whole province. Cease, I +say, to bring forward these empty slanders. Prove your indictment, +prove that I am guilty of ghastly crimes, detestable sorceries, and +black art-magic. Why is it that the strength of your speech lies in +mere noise, while it is weak and flabby in point of facts? + +I will now deal with the actual charge of magic. You spared no +violence in fanning the flame of hatred against me. But you have +disappointed all men's expectations by your old wives' fables, and the +fire kindled by your accusations has burned itself away. I ask you, +Maximus, have you ever seen fire spring up among the stubble, +crackling sharply, blazing wide and spreading fast, but soon +exhausting its flimsy fuel, dying fast away, leaving not a wrack +behind? So they have kindled their accusation with abuse and fanned it +with words, but it lacks the fuel of facts and, your verdict once +given, is destined to leave not a wrack of calumny behind. The whole +of Aemilianus' calumnious accusation was centred in the charge of +magic. I should therefore like to ask his most learned advocates how, +precisely, they would define a magician. If what I read in a large +number of authors be true, namely, that magician is the Persian word +for priest, what is there criminal in being a priest and having due +knowledge, science, and skill in all ceremonial law, sacrificial +duties, and the binding rules of religion, at least if magic consists +in that which Plato sets forth in his description of the methods +employed by the Persians in the education of their young princes? I +remember the very words of that divine philosopher. Let me recall them +to your memory, Maximus: 'When the boy has reached the age of +fourteen he is handed over to the care of men known as the Royal +Masters. They are four in number, and are chosen as being the best of +the elders of Persia, one the wisest, another the justest, a third the +most temperate, a fourth the bravest. And one of these teaches the boy +the magic of Zoroaster the son of Oromazes; and this magic is no other +than the worship of the gods. He also teaches him the arts of +kingship.' + +26. Do you hear, you who so rashly accuse the art of magic? It is an +art acceptable to the immortal gods, full of all knowledge of worship +and of prayer, full of piety and wisdom in things divine, full of +honour and glory since the day when Zoroaster and Oromazes established +it, high-priestess of the powers of heaven. Nay, it is one of the +first elements of princely instruction, nor do they lightly admit any +chance person to be a magician, any more than they would admit him to +be a king. Plato--if I may quote him again--in another passage dealing +with a certain Zalmoxis, a Thracian and also a master of this art, has +written that 'magical charms are merely beautiful words'. If that is +so, why should I be forbidden to learn the fair words of Zalmoxis or +the priestly lore of Zoroaster? But if these accusers of mine, after +the fashion of the common herd, define a magician as one who by +communion of speech with the immortal gods has power to do all the +marvels that he will, through a strange power of incantation, I really +wonder that they are not afraid to attack one whom they acknowledge +to be so powerful. For it is impossible to guard against such a +mysterious and divine power. Against other dangers we may take +adequate precautions. He who summons a murderer before the judge comes +into court with an escort of friends; he who denounces a poisoner is +unusually careful as to what he eats; he who accuses a thief sets a +guard over his possessions. But for the man who exposes a magician, +credited with such awful powers, to the danger of a capital sentence, +how can escort or precaution or watchmen save him from unforeseen and +inevitable disaster? Nothing can save him, and therefore the man who +believes in the truth of such a charge as this is certainly the last +person in the world who should bring such an accusation. + +27. But it is a common and general error of the uninitiated to bring +the following accusations against philosophers. Some of them think +that those who explore the origins and elements of material things are +irreligious, and assert that they deny the existence of the gods. +Take, for instance, the cases of Anaxagoras, Leucippus, Democritus, +and Epicurus, and other natural philosophers. Others call those +magicians who bestow unusual care on the investigation of the workings +of providence and unusual devotion on their worship of the gods, as +though, forsooth, they knew _how_ to perform everything that they know +actually to _be_ performed. So Epimenides, Orpheus, Pythagoras, and +Ostanes were regarded as magicians, while a similar suspicion attached +to the 'purifications' of Empedocles, the 'demon' of Socrates and the +'good' of Plato. I congratulate myself therefore on being admitted to +such distinguished company. + +I fear, however, Maximus, that you may regard the empty, ridiculous +and childish[9] fictions which my opponents have advanced in support +of their case as serious charges merely because they have been put +forward. 'Why,' says my accuser, 'have you sought out particular kinds +of fish?' Why should not a philosopher be permitted to do for the +satisfaction of his desire for knowledge what the _gourmand_, is +permitted to do for the satisfaction of his gluttony? 'What,' he asks, +'induced a free woman to marry you after thirteen years of widowhood?' +'Surely,' I answer, 'it is more remarkable that she should have +remained a widow so long.' 'Why, before she married you, did she +express certain opinions in a letter?' 'Is it reasonable,' I ask, 'to +demand of any one the reasons of another person's private opinions?' +'But,' he goes on, 'although she was your senior in years, she did not +despise your youth.' Surely this simply serves to show that there was +no need of magic to induce a woman to marry a man, or a widow to wed a +bachelor some years her junior. There are more charges equally +frivolous. 'Apuleius,' he persists, 'keeps a mysterious object in his +house which he worships with veneration.' Surely it would be a worse +offence to have nothing to worship at all. 'A boy fell to the ground +in Apuleius' presence.' What if a young man or even an old man had +fallen in my presence through a sudden stroke of disease or merely +owing to the slipperiness of the ground? Do you really think to prove +your charge of magic by such arguments as these; the fall of a +wretched boy, my marriage to my wife, my purchases of fish? + +[Footnote 9: _et simplicia_, vulgo.] + +28. I should run but small risk if I were to content myself with what +I have already said and begin my peroration. But since as a result of +the length at which my accusers spoke, the water-clock still allows me +plenty of time, let us, if there is no objection, consider the charges +in detail. I will deny none of them, be they true or false. I will +assume their truth, that this great crowd, which has gathered from all +directions to hear this case, may clearly understand not only that no +true incrimination can be brought against philosophers, but that not +even any false charge can be fabricated against them, which--such is +their confidence in their innocence--they will not be prepared to +admit and to defend, even though it be in their power to deny it. I +will therefore begin by refuting their arguments, and will prove that +they have nothing to do with magic. Next I will show that even on the +assumption of my being the most consummate magician, I have never +given cause or occasion for conviction of any evil practice. I will +also deal with the lies with which they have endeavoured to arouse +hostility against me, with their misquotation and misinterpretation of +my wife's letters, and with my marriage with Pudentilla, whom, as I +will proceed to prove, I married for love and not for money. This +marriage of ours caused frightful annoyance and distress to +Aemilianus. Hence springs all the anger, frenzy, and raving madness +that he has shown in the conduct of this accusation. If I succeed in +making all these points abundantly clear and obvious, I shall then +appeal to you, Claudius Maximus, and to all here present to bear me +out, that the boy Sicinius Pudens, my step-son, through whom and with +whose consent his uncle now accuses me, was quite recently stolen from +my charge after the death of Pontianus his brother, who was as much +his superior in character as in years, and that he was fiercely +embittered against myself and his mother through no fault of mine: +that he abandoned his study of the liberal arts and cast off all +restraint, and--thanks to the education afforded him by this +villainous accusation--is more likely to resemble his uncle Aemilianus +than his brother Pontianus. + +29. I will now, as I promised, take Aemilianus' ravings one by one, +beginning with that charge which you must have noticed was given the +place of honour in the accuser's speech, as his most effective method +of exciting suspicion against me as a sorcerer, the charge that I had +sought to purchase certain kinds of fish from some fishermen. Which of +these two points is of the slightest value as affording suspicion of +sorcery? That fishermen sought to procure me the fish? Would you have +me entrust such a task to gold-embroiderers or carpenters, and, to +avoid your calumnies, make them change their trades so that the +carpenter would net me the fish, and the fisherman take his place and +hew his timber? Or did you infer that the fish were wanted for evil +purposes because I paid to get them? I presume, if I had wanted them +for a dinner-party, I should have got them for nothing. Why do not you +go farther and accuse me on many similar grounds? I have often bought +wine and vegetables, fruit and bread. The principles laid down by you +would involve the starvation of all purveyors of dainties. Who will +ever venture to purchase food from them, if it be decided that all +provisions for which money is given are wanted not for food but for +sorcery? But if there is nothing in all this that can give rise to +suspicion, neither the payment of the fishermen to ply their usual +trade, to wit, the capture of fish--I may point out that the +prosecution never produced any of these fishermen, who are, as a +matter of fact, wholly creatures of their imagination--nor the +purchase of a common article of sale--the prosecution have never +stated the amount paid, for fear that if they mentioned a small sum, +it would be regarded as trivial, or if they mentioned a large sum it +would fail to win belief,--if, I say, there is no cause for suspicion +on any of these grounds, I would ask Aemilianus to tell me what, +failing these, induced them to accuse me of magic. + +30. 'You seek to purchase fish,' says he. I will not deny it. But, I +ask you, is any one who does that a magician? No more, in my opinion, +than if I should seek to purchase hares or boar's flesh or fatted +capons. Or is there something mysterious in fish and fish alone, +hidden from all save sorcerers only? If you know what it is, clearly +you are a magician. If you do not know, you must confess that you are +bringing an accusation of the nature of which you are entirely +ignorant. To think that you should be so ignorant not only of all +literature, but even of popular tales, that you cannot even invent +charges that will have some show of plausibility! For of what use for +the kindling of love is an unfeeling chilly creature like a fish, or +indeed anything else drawn from the sea, unless indeed you propose to +bring forward in support of your lie the legend that Venus was born +from the sea? I beg you to listen to me, Tannonius Pudens, that you +may learn the extent of the ignorance which you have shown by +accepting the possession of a fish as a proof of sorcery. If you had +read your Vergil, you would certainly have known that very different +things are sought for this purpose. He, as far as I recollect, +mentions 'soft garlands' and 'rich herbs and 'male incense' and +'threads of diverse hues', and, in addition to these, 'brittle +laurel,' 'clay to be hardened,' and 'wax to be melted in the fire'. +There are also the objects mentioned by him in a more serious poem. + + _Rank herbs are sought, with milky venom dark + By brazen sickles under moonlight mown; + Sought also is that wondrous talisman, + Torn from the forehead of the foal at birth + Ere yet its dam could snatch it._ + +But you who take such exception to fish attribute far different +instruments to magicians, charms not to be torn from new-born +foreheads, but to be cut from scaly backs; not to be plucked from the +fields of earth, but to be drawn up from the deep fields of ocean; not +to be mowed with sickles, but to be caught on hooks. Finally, when he +is speaking of the black art, Vergil mentions poison, you produce an +_entree_; he mentions herbs and young shoots, you talk of scales and +bones; he crops the meadow, you search the waves. I would also have +quoted for your benefit similar passages from Theocritus with many +others from Homer and Orpheus, from the comic and tragic poets and +from the historians, had I not noticed ere now that you were unable to +read Pudentilla's letter which was written in Greek. I will, +therefore, do no more than cite one Latin poet. Those who have read +Laevius[10] will recognize the lines. + +[Footnote 10: MSS. _Laelius_.] + + _Love-charms the warlocks seek through all the world: + The 'lover's knot' they try, the magic wheel, + Ribbons and, nails and roots and herbs and shoots, + The two-tailed lizard that draws on to love,[11] + And eke the charm that glads the whinnying mare._ + +[Footnote 11: _Saurae inlices bicodulae._ Helm, wrongly I think, +places a comma between _saurae_ and _inlices_.] + +31. You would have made out a far more plausible case by pretending +that I made use of such things instead of fish, if only you had +possessed the slightest erudition. For the belief in the use of these +things is so widespread that you might have been believed. But of what +use are fish save to be cooked and eaten at meals? In magic they seem +to me to be absolutely useless. I will tell you why I think so. Many +hold Pythagoras to have been a pupil of Zoroaster, and, like him, to +have been skilled in magic. And yet it is recorded that once near +Metapontum, on the shores of Italy, his home, which his influence had +converted into a second Greece, he noticed certain fishermen draw up +their net. He offered to buy whatever it might contain, and after +depositing the price ordered all the fish caught in meshes of the net +to be released and thrown back into the sea. He would assuredly never +have allowed them to slip from his possession had he known them to +possess any valuable magical properties. For being a man of abnormal +learning, and a great admirer of the men of old, he remembered that +Homer, a poet of manifold or, rather I should say, absolute knowledge +of all that may be known, spoke of the power of all the drugs that +earth produces, but made no mention of the sea, when speaking of a +certain witch, he wrote the line: + + _All drugs, that wide earth nourishes, she knew._ + +Similarly in another passage he says: + + _Earth the grain-giver + Yields up to her its store of drugs, whereof + Many be healing, mingled in the cup, + And many baneful._ + +But never in the works of Homer did Proteus anoint his face nor +Ulysses his magic trench, nor Aeolus his windbags, nor Helen her +mixing bowl, nor Circe her cup, nor Venus her girdle, with any charm +drawn from the sea or its inhabitants. You alone within the memory of +man have been found to sweep as it were by some convulsion of nature +all the powers of herbs and roots and young shoots and small pebbles +from their hilltops into the sea, and there confine them in the +entrails of fish. And so whereas sorcerers at their rites used to call +on Mercury the giver of oracles, Venus that lures the soul, the moon +that knows the mystery of the night, and Trivia the mistress of the +shades, you will transfer Neptune, with Salacia and Portumnus and all +the company of Nereids from the cold tides of the sea to the burning +tides of love. + +32. I have given my reasons for refusing to believe that magicians and +fish have anything to do with one another. But now, if it please you, +we will assume with Aemilianus that fish are useful for making magical +charms as well as for their usual purposes. But does that prove that +whoever acquires fish is _ipso facto_ a magician? On those lines it +might be urged that whoever acquires a sloop is a pirate, whoever +acquires a crowbar a burglar, whoever acquires a sword an assassin. +You will say that there is nothing in the world, however harmless, +that may not be put to some bad use, nothing so cheerful that it may +not be given a gloomy meaning. And yet we do not on that account put a +bad interpretation on everything, as though, for instance, you should +hold that incense, cassia, myrrh, and similar other scents are +purchased solely for the purpose of funerals; whereas they are also +used for sacrifice and medicine. But on the lines of your argument +you must believe that even the comrades of Menelaus were magicians; +for they, according to the great poet, averted starvation at the isle +of Pharos by their use of curved fish-hooks. Nay, you will class in +the same category of sorcerers seamews, dolphins, and the lobster; +_gourmands_ also, who sink whole fortunes[12] in the sums they pay to +fishermen; and fishermen themselves, who by their art capture all +manner of fish. 'But what do you want fish for?' you insist. I feel +myself under no necessity to tell you, and refuse to do so. But I +challenge you to prove unsupported that I bought them for the purpose +you assert; as though I had bought hellebore or hemlock or opium or +any other of those drugs, the moderate use of which is salutary, +although they are deadly when given with other substances or in too +large quantities. Who would endure it if you made this a ground for +accusing me of being a poisoner, merely because those drugs are +capable of killing a man? + +[Footnote 12: _merguntur_ MSS.] + +33. However, let us see what these fish were, fish so necessary for my +possession and so hard to find, that they were well worth the price I +paid for their acquisition. They have mentioned no more than three. To +one they gave a false name; as regards the other two they lied. The +name was false, for they asserted that the fish was a sea-hare, +whereas it was quite another fish, which Themison, my servant, who +knows something of medicine, as you heard from his own lips, bought of +his own suggestion for me to inspect. For, as a matter of fact, he has +not as yet ever come across a sea-hare. But I admit that I search for +other kinds of fish as well, and have commissioned not only fishermen +but private friends to search for all the rarest kinds of fish, +begging them either to describe the appearance of the fish or to send +it me, if possible, alive, or, failing that, dead. Why I do so I will +soon make clear. My accusers _lied_--and very cunning they thought +themselves--when they closed their false accusation by pretending that +I had sought for two sea-beasts known by gross names. That fellow +Tannonius wished to indicate the nature of the obscenity, but failed, +matchless pleader that he is, owing to his inability to speak. After +long hesitation he indicated the name of one of them by means of some +clumsy and disgusting circumlocution. The other he found impossible to +describe with decency, and evaded the difficulty by turning to my +works and quoting a certain passage from them in which I described the +attitude of a statue of Venus. + +34. He also with that lofty puritanism which characterizes him, +reproached me for not being ashamed to describe foul things in noble +language. I might justly retort on him that, though he openly +professes the study of eloquence, that stammering voice of his often +gives utterance to noble things so basely as to defile them, and that +frequently, when what he has to say presents not the slightest +difficulty, he begins to stutter or even becomes utterly tongue-tied. +Come now! Suppose I had said nothing about the statue of Venus, nor +used the phrase which was of such service to you, what words would you +have found to frame a charge, which is as suited to your stupidity as +to your powers of speech? I ask you, is there anything more idiotic +than the inference that, because the names of two things resemble each +other, the things themselves are identical? Or did you think it a +particularly clever invention on your part to pretend that I had +sought out these two fish for the purpose of using them as magical +charms? Remember that it is as absurd an argument to say that these +sea-creatures with gross names were sought for gross purposes, as to +say that the sea-comb is sought for the adornment of the hair, the +fish named sea-hawk to catch birds, the fish named the little boar for +the hunting of boars, or the sea-skull to raise the dead. My reply to +these lying fabrications, which are as stupid as they are absurd, is +that I have never attempted to acquire these playthings of the sea, +these tiny trifles of the shore, either gratis or for money. + +35. Further, I reply that you were quite ignorant of the nature of the +objects which you pretended that I sought to acquire. For these +worthless fish you mention can be found on any shore in heaps and +multitudes, and are cast up on dry land by the merest ripple without +any need for human agency. Why do you not say that at the same time I +commissioned large numbers of fishermen to secure for me at a price +striped sea-shells from the shore, smooth pebbles, crabs' claws, +sea-urchins' husks, the tentacles of cuttlefish, shingle, straws, +cordage, not to mention[13] worm-eaten oyster-shells, moss, and +seaweed, and all the flotsam of the sea that the winds drive, or the +salt wave casts up, or the storm sweeps back, or the calm leaves high +and dry all along our shores? For their names are no less suitable +than those I mentioned above for the purpose of awakening suspicions. +You have said that certain objects drawn from the sea have a certain +value for gross purposes on account of the similarity of their names. +On this analogy why should not a stone be good for diseases of the +bladder, a shell for the making of a will, a crab for a cancer, +seaweed for an ague? Really, Claudius Maximus, in listening to these +appallingly long-winded accusations to their very close you have shown +a patience that is excessive and a kindness which is too +long-suffering. For my part when they uttered these charges of theirs, +as though they were serious and cogent, while I laughed at their +stupidity, I marvelled at your patience. + +[Footnote 13: _ne pergam_ (Helm).] + +36. However, since he takes so much interest in my affairs, I will now +tell Aemilianus why I have examined so many fishes already and why I +am unwilling to remain in ignorance of some I have not yet seen. +Although he is in the decline of life and suffering from senile decay, +let him, if he will, acquire some learning even at the eleventh hour. +Let him read the works of the philosophers of old, that now at any +rate he may learn that I am not the first ichthyologist, but follow in +the steps of authors, centuries my seniors, such as Aristotle, +Theophrastus, Eudemus, Lycon, and the other successors of Plato, who +have left many books on the generation, life, parts and differences of +animals. It is a good thing, Maximus, that this case is being tried +before a scholar like yourself, who have read Aristotle's numerous +volumes 'on the generation, the anatomy, the history of animals', +together with his numberless 'Problems' and works by others of his +school, treating of various subjects of this kind. If it is an honour +and glory to them that they should have put on record the results of +their careful researches, why should it be disgraceful to me to +attempt the like task, especially since I shall attempt to write on +those subjects both in Greek and Latin and in a more concise and +systematic manner, and shall strive either to make good omissions or +remedy mistakes in all these authors? I beg of you, if you think it +worth while, to permit the reading of extracts from my 'magic' works, +that Aemilianus may learn that my sedulous researches and inquiries +have a wider range than he thinks. Bring a volume of my Greek +works--some of my friends who are interested in questions of natural +history may perhaps have them with them in court--take by preference +one of those dealing with problems of natural philosophy, and from +among those that volume in particular which treats of the race of +fish. While he is looking for the book, I will tell you a story which +has some relevance to this case. + +37. The poet Sophocles, the rival and survivor of Euripides--for he +lived to extreme old age--on being accused by his own son of insanity +on the ground that the advance of age had destroyed his wits, is said +to have produced that matchless tragedy, his _Oedipus Coloneus_, on +which he happened to be engaged at the time, and to have read it aloud +to the jury without adding another word in his defence, except that he +bade them without hesitation to condemn him as insane if an old man's +poetry displeased them. At that point--so I have read--the jury rose +to their feet as one man to show their admiration of so great a poet, +and praised him marvellously both for the shrewdness of his argument +and for the eloquence of his tragic verse. And indeed they were not +far off unanimously condemning the accuser as the madman instead. + +Have you found the book? Thank you. Let us try now whether what I +write may serve me in good stead in a law-court. Read a few lines at +the beginning, then some details concerning the fish. And do you while +he reads stop the water-clock. (_A passage from the book is read._) + +38. You hear, Maximus. You have doubtless frequently read the like in +the works of ancient philosophers. Remember too that these volumes of +mine describe fishes only, distinguishing those that spring from the +union of the sexes from those which are spontaneously generated from +the mud, discussing how often and at what periods of the year the +males and females of each species come together, setting forth the +distinction established by nature between those of them who are +viviparous and those who are oviparous--for thus I translate the +Greek phrases [Greek: zootoka] and [Greek: ootoka]--together with the +causes of this distinction and the organic differences by which it is +characterized, in a word--for I would not weary you by discussing all +the different methods of generation in animals--treating of the +distinguishing marks of species, their various manners of life, the +difference of their members and ages, with many other points necessary +for the man of science but out of place in a law-court. I will ask +that a few of my Latin writings dealing with the same science may be +read, in which you will notice some rare pieces of knowledge and names +but little known to the Romans; indeed they have never been produced +before to-day, but yet, thanks to my toil and study they have been so +translated from the Greek, that in spite of their strangeness they are +none the less of Latin mintage. Do you deny this, Aemilianus? If so, +let your advocates tell me in what Latin author they have ever before +read such words as those which I will cause to be recited to you. I +will mention only aquatic animals, nor will I make any reference to +other animals save in connexion with the characteristics which +distinguish them from aquatic creatures. Listen then to what I say. +You will cry out at me saying that I am giving you a list of magic +names such as are used in Egyptian or Babylonian rites. [Greek: +Selacheia malacheia malakostraka chondrakantha ostrakoderma +karcharodonta amphibia lepidota pholidota dermoptera steganopoda +monere synagelastika]. I might continue the list, but it is not worth +wasting time over such trifles, and I need time to deal with other +charges. Meanwhile read out my translation into Latin of the few names +I have just given you. (_The translation is read. The Latin names are +lost._) + +39. What think you? Is it disgraceful for a philosopher who is no rude +and unlearned person of the reckless Cynic type, but who remembers +that he is a disciple of Plato, is it disgraceful for such an one to +know and care for such learning or to be ignorant and indifferent? to +know how far such things reveal the workings of providence, or to +swallow all the tales his father and mother told him of the immortal +gods? Quintus Ennius wrote a poem on dainties: he there enumerates +countless species of fish, which of course he had carefully studied. I +remember a few lines and will recite them: + + _Clipea's sea-weasels are of all the best, + For 'mice' the place is Aenus; oysters rough + In greatest plenty from Abydos come. + The sea-comb's found at Mitylene and + Ambracian Charadrus, and I praise + Brundisian sargus: take him, if he's big. + Know that Tarentum's small sea-boar is prime; + The sword-fish at Surrentum thou shouldst buy; + Blue fish at Cumae. What! have I passed by + Scarus? the brain of Jove is not less sweet. + You catch them large and good off Nestor's home. + Have I passed by the black-tail and the 'thrush', + The sea-merle and the shadow of the sea? + Best to Corcyra go for cuttlefish, + For the acarne and the fat sea-skull + The purple-fish, the little murex too, + Mice of the sea and the sea-urchin sweet._ + +He glorified many fish in other verses, stating where each was to be +found and whether they were best fried or stewed, and yet he is not +blamed for it by the learned. Spare then to blame me, who describe +things known to few under elegant and appropriate names both in Greek +and Latin. + +40. Enough of this! I call your attention to another point. What if I +take such interest and possess such skill in medicine as to search for +certain remedies in fish? For assuredly as nature with impartial +munificence has distributed and implanted many remedies throughout all +other created things, so also similar remedies are to be found in +fish. Now, do you think it more the business of a magician than of a +doctor, or indeed of a philosopher, to know and seek out remedies? For +the philosopher will use them not to win money for his purse, but to +give assistance to his fellow men. The doctors of old indeed knew how +to cure wounds by magic song, as Homer, the most reliable of all the +writers of antiquity, tells us, making the blood of Ulysses to be +stayed by a chant as it gushed forth from a wound. Now nothing that is +done to save life can be matter for accusation. 'But,' says my +adversary, 'for what purpose save evil did you dissect the fish +brought you by your servant Themison?' As if I had not told you just +now that I write treatises on the organs of all kind of animals, +describing the place, number and purpose of their various parts, +diligently investigating Aristotle's works on anatomy and adding to +them where necessary. I am, therefore, greatly surprised that you are +only aware of my having inspected one small fish, although I have +actually inspected a very large number under all circumstances +wherever I might find them, and have, moreover, made no secret of my +researches, but conducted them openly before all the world, so that +the merest stranger may, if it please him, stand by and observe me. In +this I follow the instruction of my masters, who assert that a free +man of free spirit should as far as possible wear his thoughts upon +his face. Indeed I actually showed this small fish, which you call a +sea-hare, to many who stood by. I do not yet know what name to call +it[14] without closer research, since in spite of its rarity and most +remarkable characteristics I do not find it described by any of the +ancient philosophers. This fish is, as far as my knowledge extends, +unique in one respect, for it contains twelve bones resembling the +knuckle-bones of a sucking-pig, linked together like a chain in its +belly. Apart from this it is boneless. Had Aristotle known this, +Aristotle who records as a most remarkable phenomenon the fact that +the fish known as the small sea-ass alone of all fishes has its +diminutive heart placed in its stomach, he would assuredly have +mentioned the fact. + +[Footnote 14: _vocem_ (Colvius).] + +41. 'You dissected a fish,' says he. Who can call this a crime in a +philosopher which would be no crime in a butcher or cook? 'You +dissected a fish.' Perhaps you object to the fact that it was raw. You +would not regard it as criminal if I had explored its stomach and cut +up its delicate liver after it was cooked, as you teach the boy +Sicinius Pudens to do with his own fish at meals. And yet it is a +greater crime for a philosopher to eat fish than to inspect them. Are +augurs to be allowed to explore the livers of victims and may not a +philosopher look at them too, a philosopher who knows that he can draw +omens from every animal, that he is the high-priest of every god? Do +you bring that as a reproach against me which is one of the reasons +for the admiration with which Maximus and myself regard Aristotle? +Unless you drive his works from the libraries and snatch them from the +hands of students you cannot accuse me. But enough! I have said almost +more on this subject than I ought. + +See, too, how they contradict themselves. They say that I sought my +wife in marriage with the help of the black art and charms drawn from +the sea at the very time when they acknowledge me to have been in the +midmost mountains of Gaetulia, where, I suppose, Deucalion's deluge +has made it possible to find fish! I am, however, glad that they do +not know that I have read Theophrastus' 'On beasts that bite and +sting' and Nicander 'On the bites of wild animals'; otherwise they +would have accused me of poisoning as well! As a matter of fact I have +acquired a knowledge of these subjects thanks to my reading of +Aristotle and my desire to emulate him. I owe something also to the +advice of my master Plato, who says that those who make such +investigations as these 'pursue a delightful form of amusement which +they will never regret'. + +42. Since I have sufficiently cleared up this business of the fish, +listen to another of their inventions equally stupid, but much more +extravagant and far more wicked. They themselves knew that their +argument about the fish was futile and bound to fail. They realized, +moreover, its strange absurdity (for who ever heard of fish being +scaled and boned for dark purposes of magic?), they realized that it +would be better for their fictions to deal with things of more common +report, which have ere now been believed. And so they devised the +following fiction which does at least fall within the limits of +popular credence and rumour. They asserted that I had taken a boy +apart to a secret place with a small altar and a lantern and only a +few accomplices as witnesses, and there so bewitched him with a +magical incantation that he fell in the very spot where I pronounced +the charm, and on being awakened was found to be out of his wits. They +did not dare to go any further with the lie. To complete their story +they should have added that the boy uttered many prophecies. For this +we know is the prize of magical incantations, namely divination and +prophecy. And this miracle in the case of boys is confirmed not only +by vulgar opinion but by the authority of learned men. I remember +reading various relations of the kind in the philosopher Varro, a +writer of the highest learning and erudition, but there was the +following story in particular. Inquiry was being made at Tralles by +means of magic into the probable issue of the Mithridatic war, and a +boy who was gazing at an image of Mercury reflected in a bowl of water +foretold the future in a hundred and sixty lines of verse. He records +also that Fabius, having lost five hundred denarii, came to consult +Nigidius; the latter by means of incantations inspired certain boys so +that they were able to indicate to him where a pot containing a +certain portion of the money had been hidden in the ground, and how +the remainder had been dispersed, one denarius having found its way +into the possession of Marcus Cato the philosopher. This coin Cato +acknowledged he had received from a certain lackey as a contribution +to the treasury of Apollo. + +43. I have read this and the like concerning boys and art-magic in +several authors, but I am in doubt whether to admit the truth of such +stories or no, although I believe Plato when he asserts that there are +certain divine powers holding a position and possessing a character +midway between gods and men, and that all divination and the miracles +of magicians are controlled by them. Moreover it is my own personal +opinion that the human soul, especially when it is young and +unsophisticated, may by the allurement of music or the soothing +influence of sweet smells be lulled into slumber and banished into +oblivion of its surroundings so that, as all consciousness of the body +fades from the memory, it returns and is reduced to its primal nature, +which is in truth immortal and divine; and thus, as it were in a kind +of slumber, it may predict the future. But howsoever these things may +be, if any faith is to be put in them, the prophetic boy must, as far +as I can understand, be fair and unblemished in body, shrewd of wit +and ready of speech, so that a worthy and fair shrine may be provided +for the divine indwelling power--if indeed such a power does enter +into the boy's body--or that the boy's mind when wakened may quickly +apply itself to its inherent powers of divination, find them ready to +its use and reproduce their promptings undulled and unimpaired by any +loss of memory. For, as Pythagoras said, not every kind of wood is fit +to be carved into the likeness of Mercury. If that be so, tell me who +was that healthy, unblemished, intelligent, handsome boy whom I deemed +worthy of initiation into such mysteries by the power of my spells. As +a matter of fact, Thallus, whom you mentioned, needs a doctor rather +than a magician. For the poor wretch is such a victim to epilepsy that +he frequently has fits twice or thrice in one day without the need for +any incantations, and exhausts all his limbs with his convulsions. His +face is ulcerous, his head bruised in front and behind, his eyes are +dull, his nostrils distended, his feet stumbling. He may claim to be +the greatest of magicians in whose presence Thallus has remained for +any considerable time upon his feet. For he is continually lying +down, either a seizure or mere weariness[15] causing him to collapse. + +[Footnote 15: _seu_ (Casaubon).] + +44. Yet you say that it is my incantations that have overwhelmed him, +simply because he has once chanced to have a fit in my presence. Many +of his fellow servants, whose appearance as witnesses you have +demanded, are present in court. They all can tell you why it is they +spit upon Thallus, and why no one ventures to eat from the same dish +with him or to drink from the same cup. But why do I speak of these +slaves? You yourselves have eyes. Deny then, if you dare, that Thallus +used to have fits of epilepsy long before I came to Oea, or that has +frequently been shown to doctors. Let his fellow slaves who are in +your service deny this: I will confess myself guilty of everything, if +he has not long since been sent away into the country, far from the +sight of all of them, to a distant farm, for fear he should infect the +rest of the household. They cannot deny this to be the fact. For the +same reason it is impossible for us to produce him here to-day. The +whole of this accusation has been reckless and sudden, and it was only +the day before yesterday that Aemilianus demanded that we should +produce fifteen slaves before you. The fourteen living in the town are +present to-day. Thallus only is absent owing to the fact that he has +been banished to a place some hundred miles distant. However, we have +sent a man to bring him here in a carriage. I ask you, Maximus, to +question these fourteen slaves whom we have produced as to where the +boy Thallus is and what is the state of his health; I ask you to +question my accuser's slaves. They will not deny that this boy is of +revolting appearance, that his body is rotten through and through with +disease, that he is liable to fits, and is a barbarian and a +clodhopper. This is indeed a handsome boy whom you have selected as +one who might fairly be produced at the offering of sacrifice, whom +one might touch upon the head and clothe in a fair white cloak in +expectation of some prophetic reply from his lips. I only wish he were +present. I would have entrusted him to your tender mercies, +Aemilianus, and would be ready to hold him myself that you might +question him. Here in open court before the judges he would have +rolled his wild eyes upon you, he would have foamed at the mouth, spat +in your face, drawn in his hands convulsively, shaken his head and +fallen at last in a fit into your arms. + +45. Here are fourteen slaves whom you bade me produce in court. Why do +you refuse to question them? You want one epileptic boy who, you know +as well as I, has long been absent from Oea. What clearer evidence of +the falseness of your accusations could be desired? Fourteen slaves +are present, as you required; you ignore them. One young boy is +absent: you concentrate your attack on him. What is it that you want? +Suppose Thallus were present. Do you want to prove that he had a fit +in my presence? Why, I myself admit it. You say that this was the +result of incantation. I answer that the boy knows nothing about it, +and that I can prove that it was not so. Even you will not deny that +Thallus was epileptic. Why then attribute his fall to magic rather +than disease? Was there anything improbable in his suffering that fate +in _my_ presence, which he has often suffered on other occasions in +the presence of a number of persons? Nay, even supposing I had thought +it a great achievement to cast an epileptic into a fit, why should I +use charms when, as I am told by writers on natural history, the +burning of the stone named _gagates_ is an equally sure and easy proof +of the disease? For its scent is commonly used as a test of the +soundness or infirmity of slaves even in the slave-market. Again, the +spinning of a potter's wheel will easily infect a man suffering from +this disease with its own giddiness. For the sight of its rotations +weakens his already feeble mind, and the potter is far more effective +than the magician for casting epileptics into convulsions. You had no +reason for demanding that I should produce these slaves. I have good +reason for asking you to name those who witnessed that guilty ritual +when I cast the moribund Thallus into one of his fits. The only +witness you mention is that worthless boy, Sicinius Pudens, in whose +name you accuse me. He says that he was present. His extreme youth is +no reason why we should reject his sworn evidence, but the fact that +he is one of my accusers _does_ detract from his credibility. It would +have been easier for you, Aemilianus, and your evidence would have +carried much more weight, had you said that you were present at the +rite and had been mad ever since, instead of entrusting the whole +business to the evidence of boys as though it were a mere joke. A boy +had a fit, a boy saw him. Was it also some boy that bewitched him? + +46. At this point Tannonius Pudens, like the old hand he is, saw that +this lie also was falling flat and was doomed to failure by the frowns +and murmurs of the audience, and so, in order to check the suspicions +of some of them by kindling fresh expectations, he said that he would +produce other boys as well whom I had similarly bewitched. He thus +passed to another line of accusation. I might ignore it, but I will go +out of my way to challenge it as I have done with all the rest. I want +those boys to be produced. I hear they have been bribed by the promise +of their liberty to perjure themselves. But I say no more. Only +produce them. I demand and insist, Tannonius Pudens, that you should +fulfil your promise. Bring forward those boys in whose evidence you +put your trust; produce them, name them. You may use the time allotted +to my speech for the purpose. Speak, I say, Tannonius. Why are you +silent? Why do you hesitate? Why look round? If _he_ does not remember +his instructions, or has forgotten his witnesses' names, do you at any +rate, Aemilianus, come forward and tell us what instructions you gave +your advocate, and produce those boys. Why do you turn pale? Why are +you silent? Is this the way to bring an accusation? Is this the way +to indict a man on so serious a charge? Is it not rather an insult to +so distinguished a citizen as Claudius Maximus, and a false and +slanderous persecution of myself? However, if your representative has +made a slip in his speech, and there are no such boys to produce, at +any rate make some use of the fourteen whom I have brought into court. +If you refuse, why did you demand the appearance of such a housefull? + +47. You have demanded fifteen slaves to support an accusation of +magic; how many would you be demanding if it were a charge of +violence? The inference is that fifteen slaves know something, and +that something is still a mystery. Or is it nothing mysterious and yet +something connected with magic? You must admit one of these two +alternatives: either the proceeding to which I admitted so many +witnesses had nothing improper about it, or, if it had, it should not +have been witnessed by so many. Now this magic of which you accuse me +is, I am told, a crime in the eyes of the law, and was forbidden in +remote antiquity by the Twelve Tables because in some incredible +manner crops had been charmed away from one field to another. It is +then as mysterious an art as it is loathly and horrible; it needs as a +rule night-watches and concealing darkness, solitude absolute and +murmured incantations, to hear which few free men are admitted, not to +speak of slaves. And yet you will have it that there were fifteen +slaves present on this occasion. Was it a marriage? or any other +crowded ceremony? or a seasonable banquet? Fifteen slaves take part +in a magic rite as though they had been created _quindecimvirs_ for +the performance of sacrifice! Is it likely that I should have +permitted so large a number to be present on such an occasion, if they +were too many to be accomplices? Fifteen free men form a borough, +fifteen slaves a household, fifteen fettered serfs a chain-gang. Did I +need such a crowd to help me by holding the lustral victims during the +lengthy rite? No! the only victims you mentioned were hens! Were they +to count the grains of incense? or to knock Thallus down? + +48. You assert also that by promising to heal her I inveigled to my +house a free woman who suffered from the same disease as Thallus; that +she, too, fell senseless as a result of my incantations. It appears to +me that you are accusing a wrestler not a magician, since you say that +all who visited me had a fall. And yet Themison, who is a physician +and who brought the woman for my inspection, denied, when you asked +him, Maximus, that I had done anything to the woman other than ask her +whether she heard noises in her ears, and if so, which ear suffered +most. He added that she departed immediately after telling me that her +right ear was most troubled in that way. At this point, Maximus, +although I have for the present been careful to abstain from praising +you, lest I should seem to have flattered you with an eye to winning +my case, yet I cannot help praising you for the astuteness of your +questions. After they had spent much time in discussing these points +and asserting that I had bewitched the woman, and after the doctor who +was present on that occasion had denied that I had done so, you, with +shrewdness more than human, asked them what profit I derived from my +incantations. They replied, 'The woman had a fit.' 'What then?' you +asked, 'Did she die?' 'No,' said they. 'What is your point then? How +did the fact of her having a fit profit Apuleius?' That third question +showed brilliant penetration and persistence. You knew that it was +necessary to submit all facts to stringent examination of their +causes, that often facts are admitted while motives remain to seek, +and that the representatives of litigants are called pleaders of +_causes_, because they set forth the causes of each particular act. To +deny a fact is easy and needs no advocate, but it is far more arduous +and difficult a task to demonstrate the rightness or wrongness of a +given action. It is waste of time, therefore, to inquire whether a +thing was done, when, even if it were done, no evil motive can be +alleged. Under such circumstances, if no criminal motive is +forthcoming, a good judge releases the accused from all further +vexatious inquiry. So now, since they have not proved that I either +bewitched the woman or caused her to have a fit, I for my part will +not deny that I examined her at the request of a physician; and I will +tell you, Maximus, why I asked her if she had noises in her ears. I +will do this not so much to clear myself of the charge which you, +Maximus, have already decided to involve neither blame nor guilt, as +to impart to you something worthy of your hearing and interesting to +one of your erudition. I will tell you in as few words as possible. I +have only to call your attention to certain facts. To instruct you +would be presumption. + +49. The philosopher Plato, in his glorious work, the _Timaeus_, sets +forth with more than mortal eloquence the constitution of the whole +universe. After discoursing with great insight on the three powers +that make up man's soul, and showing with the utmost clearness the +divine purpose that shaped our various members, he treats of the +causes of all diseases under three heads. The first cause lies in the +elements of the body, when the actual qualities of those elements, +moisture and cold and their two opposites, fail to harmonize. That +comes to pass when one of these elements assumes undue proportions or +moves from its proper place. The second cause of disease lies in the +vitiation of those components of the body which, though formed out of +the simple elements, have coalesced in such a manner as to have a +specific character of their own, such as blood, entrails, bone, +marrow, and the various substances made from the blending of each of +these. Thirdly, the concretion in the body of various juices, turbid +vapours, and dense humours is the last provocative of sickness. + +50. Of these causes that which contributes most to epilepsy, the +disease of which I set out to speak, is a condition when the flesh is +so melted by the noxious influence of fire as to form a thick and +foaming humour. This generates a vapour, and the heat of the air thus +compressed within the body causes a white and eruptive ferment. If +this ferment succeeds in escaping from the body, it is dispersed in a +manner that is repulsive rather than dangerous. For it causes an +eczema to break out upon the surface of the skin of the breast and +mottles it with all kinds of blotches. But the person to whom this +happens is never again attacked with epilepsy, and so he rids himself +of a most sore disease of the spirit at the price of a slight +disfigurement of the body. But if, on the other hand, this dangerous +corruption[16] be contained within the body and mingle with the black +bile, and so run fiercely through every vein, and then working its way +upwards to the head flood the brain with its destructive stream, it +straightway weakens that royal part of man's spirit which is endowed +with the power of reason and is enthroned in the head of man, that is +its citadel and palace. For it overwhelms and throws into confusion +those channels of divinity and paths of wisdom. During sleep it makes +less havoc, but when men are full of meat and wine it makes its +presence somewhat unpleasantly felt by a choking sensation, the herald +of epilepsy. But if it reaches such strength as to attack the heads of +men when they are wide awake, then their minds grow dull with a sudden +cloud of stupefaction and they fall to the ground, their bodies +swooning as in death, their spirit fainting within them. Men of our +race have styled it not only the 'Great sickness' and the 'Comitial +sickness', but also the 'Divine sickness', in this resembling the +Greeks, who call it [Greek: hiera nosos], the holy sickness. The name +is just; for this sickness does outrage to the rational part of the +soul, which is by far the most holy. + +[Footnote 16: _putredo_ (conj. Helm).] + +51. You recognize, Maximus, the theory of Plato, as far as I have been +able to give it a lucid explanation in the time at my disposal. I put +my trust in him when he says that the cause of epilepsy is the +overflowing of this pestilential humour into the head. My inquiry +therefore was, I think, reasonable when I asked the woman whether her +head felt heavy, her neck numb, her temples throbbing, her ears full +of noises. The fact that she acknowledged these noises to be more +frequent in her right ear was proof that the disease had gone home. +For the right-hand organs of the body are the strongest, and therefore +their infection with the disease leaves small hope of recovery. Indeed +Aristotle has left it on record in his _Problems_ that whenever in the +case of epileptics the disease begins on the right side, their cure is +very difficult. It would be tedious were I to repeat the opinion of +Theophrastus also on the subject of epilepsy. For he has left a most +excellent treatise on convulsions. He asserts, however, in another +book on the subject of animals ill-disposed towards mankind, that the +skins of newts--which like other reptiles they shed at fixed intervals +for the renewal of their youth--form a remedy for fits. But unless you +snatch up the skin as soon as it be shed, they straightway turn upon +it and devour it, whether from a malign foreknowledge of its value to +men or from a natural taste for it. I have mentioned these things, I +have been careful to quote the arguments of renowned philosophers, and +to mention the books where they are to be found, and have avoided any +reference to the works of physicians or poets, that my adversaries may +cease to wonder that philosophers have learnt the causes of remedies +and diseases in the natural course of their researches. Well then, +since this woman was brought to be examined by me in the hope that she +might be cured, and since it is clear both from the evidence of the +physician who brought her and from the arguments I have just set forth +that such a course was perfectly right, my opponents must needs assert +that it is the part of a magician and evildoer to heal disease, or, if +they do not dare to say that, must confess that their accusations in +regard to this epileptic boy and woman are false, absurd, and indeed +epileptic. + +52. Yes, Aemilianus, if you would hear the truth, _you_ are the real +sufferer from the falling sickness, so often have your false +accusations failed and cast you helpless to the ground. Bodily +collapse is no worse than intellectual, and it is as important to keep +one's head as to keep one's feet, while it is as unpleasant to be +loathed by this distinguished gathering as to be spat upon in one's +own chamber. But you perhaps think yourself sane because you are not +confined within doors, but follow the promptings of your madness +whithersoever it lead you: and yet compare your frenzy with that of +Thallus; you will find that there is but little to choose between +you, save that Thallus confines his frenzy to himself, while you +direct yours against others; Thallus distorts his eyes, you distort +the truth; Thallus contracts his hands convulsively, you not less +convulsively contract with your advocates; Thallus dashes himself +against the pavement, you dash yourself against the judgement-seat. In +a word, whatever he does, he does in his sickness erring +unconsciously; but you, wretch, commit your crimes with full knowledge +and with your eyes open, such is the vehemence of the disease that +inspires your actions. You bring false accusations as though they were +true; you charge men with doing what has never been done; though a +man's innocence be clear to you as daylight, you denounce him as +though he were guilty. + +53. Nay, further, though I had almost forgotten to mention it, there +are certain things of which you confess your ignorance, and which +nevertheless you make material for accusation as though you knew all +about them. You assert that I kept something mysterious wrapped up in +a handkerchief among the household gods in the house of Pontianus. You +confess your ignorance as to what may have been the nature or +appearance of this object; you further admit that no one ever saw it, +and yet you assert that it was some instrument of magic. You are not +to be congratulated on this method of procedure. Your accusation +reveals no shrewdness, and has not even the merit of impudence. Do not +think so for a moment. No! it shows naught save the ill-starred +madness of an embittered spirit and the pitiable fury of cantankerous +old age. The words you used in the presence of so grave and +perspicacious a judge amounted to something very like this. 'Apuleius +kept certain things wrapped in a cloth among the household gods in the +house of Pontianus. Since I do not know what they were, I therefore +argue that they were magical. I beg you to believe what I say, because +I am talking of that of which I know nothing.' What a wonderful +argument, in itself an obvious refutation of the charge. 'It must have +been this, because I do not know what it was.' You are the only person +hitherto discovered who knows that which he does not know. You so far +surpass all others in folly, that whereas philosophers of the most +keen and penetrating intellect assert that we should not trust even +the objects that we see, you make statements about things which you +have never seen or heard. If Pontianus still lived and you were to ask +him what the cloth contained, he would reply that he did not know. +There is the freedman who still has charge of the keys of the place; +he is one of your witnesses, but he says that he has never examined +these objects, although, as the servant responsible for the books kept +there, he opened and shut the doors almost daily, continually entered +the room, not seldom in my company but more often alone, and saw the +cloth lying on the table unprotected by seal or cord. Quite natural, +was it not? Magical objects were concealed in the cloth, and for that +reason I took little care for its safe custody, but left it about +anyhow for any one to examine and inspect, if he liked, or even to +carry it away! I entrusted it to the custody of others, I left it to +others to dispose of at their pleasure! What credence do you expect us +to give you after this? Are we to believe that you, on whom I have +never set eyes save in this court, know that of which Pontianus, who +actually lived under the same roof, was ignorant? or shall we believe +that you, who have never so much as approached the room where they +were placed, have seen what the freedman never saw, although he had +every opportunity to inspect them during the sedulous performance of +his duties? In a word, that which you never saw must have been what +you assert it to have been! And yet, you fool, if this very day you +had succeeded in getting that handkerchief into your hands, I should +deny the magical nature of whatever you might produce from it. + +54. I give you full leave; invent what you like, rack your memory and +your imagination to discover something that might conceivably seem to +be of a magical nature. Even then, should you succeed in so doing, I +should argue the point with you. I should say that the object in +question had been substituted by you for the original, or that it had +been given as a remedy, or that it was a sacred emblem that had been +placed in my keeping, or that a vision had bidden me to carry it thus. +There are a thousand other ways in which I might refute you with +perfect truth and without giving any explanation which is abnormal or +lies outside the limits of common observation. You are now demanding +that a circumstance, which, even if it were proved up to the hilt, +would not prejudice me in the eyes of a good judge, should be fatal to +me when, as it is, it rests on vague suspicion, uncertainty, and +ignorance. You will perhaps, as is your wont, say, 'What, then, was it +that you wrapped in a linen cloth and were so careful to deposit with +the household gods?' Really, Aemilianus! is this the way you accuse +your victims? You produce no definite evidence yourself, but ask the +accused for explanations of everything. 'Why do you search for fish? +Why did you examine a sick woman? What had you hidden in your +handkerchief?' Did you come here to accuse me or to ask me questions? +If to accuse me, prove your charges yourself; if to ask questions, do +not anticipate the truth by expressing opinions on that concerning +which your ignorance compels you to inquire. If this precedent be +followed, if there is no necessity for the accuser to prove anything, +but on the contrary he is given every facility for asking questions of +the accused, there is not a man in all the world but will be indicted +on some charge or other. In fact, everything that he has ever done +will be used as a handle against any man who is charged with sorcery. +Have you written a petition on the thigh of some statue? You are a +sorcerer! Else why did you write it? Have you breathed silent prayers +to heaven in some temple? You are a sorcerer! Else tell us what you +asked for? Or take the contrary line. You uttered no prayer in some +temple! You are a sorcerer! Else why did you not ask the gods for +something? The same argument will be used if you have made some votive +dedication, or offered sacrifice, or carried sprigs of some sacred +plant. The day will fail me if I attempt to go through all the +different circumstances of which, on these lines, the false accuser +will demand an explanation. Above all, whatever object he has kept +concealed or stored under lock and key at home will be asserted by the +same argument to be of a magical nature, or will be dragged from its +cupboard into the light of the law-court before the seat of judgement. + +55. I might discourse at greater length on the nature and importance +of such accusations, on the wide range for slander that this path +opens for Aemilianus, on the floods of perspiration that this one poor +handkerchief, contrary to its natural duty, will cause his innocent +victims! But I will follow the course I have already pursued. I will +acknowledge what there is no necessity for me to acknowledge, and will +answer Aemilianus' questions. You ask, Aemilianus, what I had in that +handkerchief. Although I might deny that I had deposited any +handkerchief of mine in Pontianus' library, or even admitting that it +was true enough that I did so deposit it, I might still deny that +there was anything wrapped up in it. If I should take this line, you +have no evidence or argument whereby to refute me, for there is no one +who has ever handled it, and only one freedman, according to your own +assertion, who has ever seen it. Still, as far as I am concerned I +will admit the cloth to have been full to bursting. Imagine yourself, +please, to be on the brink of a great discovery, like the comrades of +Ulysses who thought they had found a treasure when they stole the bag +that contained all the winds. Would you like me to tell you what I had +wrapped up in a handkerchief and entrusted to the care of Pontianus' +household gods? You shall have your will. I have been initiated into +various of the Greek mysteries, and preserve with the utmost care +certain emblems and mementoes of my initiation with which the priests +presented me. There is nothing abnormal or unheard of in this. Those +of you here present who have been initiated into the mysteries of +father Liber alone, know what you keep hidden at home, safe from all +profane touch and the object of your silent veneration. But I, as I +have said, moved by my religious fervour and my desire to know the +truth, have learned mysteries of many a kind, rites in great number, +and diverse ceremonies. This is no invention on the spur of the +moment; nearly three years since, in a public discourse on the +greatness of Aesculapius delivered by me during the first days of my +residence at Oea, I made the same boast and recounted the number of +the mysteries I knew. That discourse was thronged, has been read far +and wide, is in all men's hands, and has won the affections of the +pious inhabitants of Oea not so much through any eloquence of mine as +because it treats of Aesculapius. Will any one, who chances to +remember it, repeat the beginning of that particular passage in my +discourse? You hear, Maximus, how many voices supply the words. I will +order this same passage to be read aloud, since by the courteous +expression of your face you show that you will not be displeased to +hear it. (_The passage is read aloud._) + +56. Can any one, who has the least remembrance of the nature of +religious rites, be surprised that one who has been initiated into so +many holy mysteries should preserve at home certain talismans +associated with these ceremonies, and should wrap them in a linen +cloth, the purest of coverings for holy things? For wool, produced by +the most stolid of creatures and stripped from the sheep's back, the +followers of Orpheus and Pythagoras are for that very reason forbidden +to wear as being unholy and unclean. But flax, the purest of all +growths and among the best of all the fruits of the earth, is used by +the holy priests of Egypt, not only for clothing and raiment, but as a +veil for sacred things. And yet I know that some persons, among them +that fellow Aemilianus, think it a good jest to mock at things divine. +For I learn from certain men of Oea who know him, that to this day he +has never prayed to any god or frequented any temple, while if he +chances to pass any shrine, he regards it as a crime to raise his hand +to his lips in token of reverence. He has never given firstfruits of +crops or vines or flocks to any of the gods of the farmer, who feed +him and clothe him; his farm holds no shrine, no holy place, nor +grove. But why do I speak of groves or shrines? Those who have been on +his property say they never saw there one stone where offering of oil +has been made, one bough where wreaths have been hung. As a result, +two nicknames have been given him: he is called Charon, as I have +said, on account of his truculence of spirit and of countenance, but +he is also--and this is the name he prefers--called Mezentius, because +he despises the gods. I therefore find it the easier to understand +that he should regard my list of initiations in the light of a jest. +It is even possible that, thanks to his rejection of things divine, he +may be unable to induce himself to believe that it is true that I +guard so reverently so many emblems and relics of mysterious rites. I +care not a straw what Mezentius may think of me; but to others I make +this announcement clearly and unshrinkingly. If any of you that are +here present had any part with me in these same solemn ceremonies, +give a sign and you shall hear what it is I keep thus. For no thought +of personal safety shall induce me to reveal to the uninitiated the +secrets that I have received and sworn to conceal. + +57. I have, I think, Maximus, said enough to satisfy the most +prejudiced of men and, as far as the handkerchief is concerned, have +cleared myself of every speck of guilt. I shall run no risk in passing +from the suspicions of Aemilianus to the evidence of Crassus, which my +accusers read out next as if it were of the utmost importance. You +heard them read from a written deposition, the evidence of a gorging +brute, a hopeless glutton, named Junius Crassus, that I performed +certain nocturnal rites at his house in company with my friend Appius +Quintianus, who had taken lodgings there. This, mark you, Crassus says +that he discovered (in spite of the fact that he was as far away as +Alexandria at the time!) from finding the feathers of birds and traces +of the smoke of a torch. I suppose that while he was enjoying a round +of festivities at Alexandria--for Crassus is one who is ready even to +encroach upon the daylight with his gluttonies--I suppose, I say, that +there from his reeking tavern he espied, with eye keen as any +fowler's, feathers of birds wafted towards him from his house, and saw +the smoke of his home rising far off from his ancestral roof-tree. If +he saw this with his eyes, he saw even further than Ulysses prayed and +yearned to see. For Ulysses spent years in gazing vainly from the +shore to see the smoke rising from his home, while Crassus during a +few months' absence from home succeeded, without the least difficulty, +in seeing this same smoke as he sat in a wine-shop! If, on the other +hand, it was his nose discerned the smoke, he surpasses hounds and +vultures in the keenness of his sense of smell. For what hound, what +vulture hovering in the Alexandrian sky, could sniff out anything so +far distant as Oea? Crassus is, I admit, a _gourmand_ of the first +order, and an expert in all the varied flavours of kitchen-smoke, but +in view of his love of drinking, his only real title to fame, it would +have been easier for the fumes of his wine, rather than the fumes of +his chimney, to reach him at Alexandria. + +58. Even he saw that this would pass belief. For he is said to have +sold this evidence before eight in the morning while he was still +fasting from food and drink! And so he wrote that he had made his +discovery in the following manner. On his return from Alexandria he +went straight to his house, which Quintianus had by this time left. +There in the entrance-hall he came across a large quantity of birds' +feathers: the walls, moreover, were blackened with soot. He asked the +reason of this from the slave whom he had left at Oea, and the latter +informed him of the nocturnal rites carried out by myself and +Quintianus. What an ingenious lie! What a probable invention! That I, +had I wished to do anything of the sort, should have done it there +rather than in my own house! That Quintianus, who is supporting me +here to-day, and whom I mention with the greatest respect and honour +for the close love that binds him to me, for his deep erudition and +consummate eloquence, that this same Quintianus, supposing him to have +dined off some birds or, as they assert, killed them for magical +purposes, should have had no slave to sweep up the feathers and throw +them out of doors! Or further that the smoke should have been strong +enough to blacken the walls and that Quintianus should have suffered +such defacement of the room in which he slept, while it was still in +his occupation! Nonsense, Aemilianus! There is no probability in the +story, unless indeed Crassus on his return went not to the bedroom, +but after his fashion made straight for the kitchen. And what made +his slave suspect that the walls had been blackened by night in +particular? Was it the colour of the smoke? Does night smoke differ +from day smoke in being darker? And why did so suspicious and +conscientious a slave allow Quintianus to leave the house before +having it cleaned? Why did those feathers lie like lead and await the +arrival of Crassus for so long? Let not Crassus accuse his slave. It +is much more likely that he himself fabricated this mendacious +nonsense about feathers and soot, being unable even in his evidence to +divorce himself further from his kitchen. + +59. And why did you read out this evidence from a written deposition? +Where in the world is Crassus? Has he returned to Alexandria out of +disgust at the state of his house? Is he washing his walls? or, as is +more likely, is the glutton feeling ill after his debauch? I myself +saw him yesterday here at Sabrata hiccoughing in your face, +Aemilianus, in the most conspicuous manner in the middle of the +market-place. Pray, Maximus, ask your slaves whose duty it is to keep +you informed of people's names--although, I admit, Crassus is better +known to the keepers of taverns--yet ask them, I say, whether they +have ever seen Junius Crassus, a citizen of Oea, in this place. They +will answer 'yes'. Let Aemilianus then produce this most admirable +young man on whose testimony he relies. You notice the time of day. I +tell you that Crassus has long since been snoring in a drunken slumber +or has taken a second bathe and is now evaporating the sweat of +intoxication at the bath that he may be equal to a fresh drinking bout +after supper. He presents himself in writing only. That is the way he +speaks to you, Maximus. Even he is not so dead to sense of shame as to +be able to lie to your face without a blush. But there is perhaps +another reason for his absence. He may have been unable to abstain +from the wine-cup[17] sufficiently long to keep sober against this +moment; or it may be that Aemilianus took good care not to subject him +to your severe and searching gaze, lest you should damn the brute with +his close-shaven cheeks and his disgusting appearance by a mere glance +at his face, when you saw a young man with his features stripped of +the beard and hair that should adorn them, his eyes heavy with wine, +his lids swollen, his broad[18] grin, his slobbering lips, his harsh +voice, his trembling hands, his breath[19] reeking of the cook-shop. +He has long since devoured his fortune; nothing is left him of his +patrimony save a house that serves him for the sale of his false +witness, and never did he make a more remunerative contract than he +has done with regard to this evidence he offers to-day. For he sold +Aemilianus his drunken fictions for 3,000 sesterces, as every one at +Oea is aware. + +[Footnote 17: _a bria_ (Hildebrand).] + +[Footnote 18: _rictum diductum_ (Jahn).] + +[Footnote 19: _ructus popinam_ (Pricaeus).] + +60. We all knew of this before it actually took place. I might have +prevented the transaction by denouncing it, but I knew that so foolish +a lie would be prejudicial to Aemilianus, who wasted his money to +secure it, rather than to myself, who treated it with the contempt it +deserved. I wished not only that Aemilianus should lose his money, but +that Crassus should have his reputation ruined by his disgraceful +perjury. It was but the day before yesterday that the transaction took +place in the most open manner at the house of Rufinus, of whom I shall +soon have something to say. Rufinus and Calpurnianus acted as +middlemen and arranged the bargain.[20] The former carried out the +task with all the more readiness because he was certain that his wife, +at whose misconduct he knowingly connives, would be sure to recover +from Crassus a large proportion of his fee for perjury. I noticed that +you also, Maximus, suspected with your usual acuteness that they, as +soon as this written evidence was produced, had formed a league and +conspiracy against me; and I saw from your face that the whole affair +excited your disgust. Finally my accusers, in spite of their being +paragons of audacity and monsters of shamelessness, did not dare to +read out Crassus' evidence in full or to build anything upon it; for +they saw that at the mention of his name you smelt a rat. I have +mentioned these facts not because I am afraid of these dreadful +feathers and stains of soot--least of all with you to judge me--but +that Crassus might meet with due punishment for having sold mere smoke +to a helpless rustic like Aemilianus. + +[Footnote 20: _depectoribus_ (Kronenberg).] + +61. Their next[21] charge concerns the manufacture of a seal which +they produced when they read Pudentilla's letters. This seal, they +assert, I had fashioned of the rarest wood by some secret process for +purposes of the black art. They add that, although it is loathly and +horrible to look upon, being in the form of a skeleton, I yet give it +especial honour and call it in the Greek tongue, [Greek: basileus], my +king. I think I am right in saying that I am following the various +stages of their accusation in due order and reconstructing the whole +fabric of their slander detail by detail. + +[Footnote 21: _inde_ (Acidalius).] + +Now how can the manufacture of this seal have been secret, as you +assert, when you are sufficiently well acquainted with the maker to +have summoned him to appear in court? Here is Cornelius Saturninus, +the artist, a man whose skill is famous among his townsfolk and whose +character is above reproach. A little while back, in answer, Maximus, +to your careful cross-examination, he explained the whole sequence of +events in the most convincing and truthful manner. He said that I +visited his shop and, after looking at many geometrical patterns all +carved out of boxwood in the most cunning and ingenious manner, was so +much attracted by his skill that I asked him to make me certain +mechanical devices and also begged him to make me the image of some +god to which I might pray after my custom. The particular god and the +precise material I left to his choice, my only stipulation being that +it should be made of wood. He therefore first attempted to work in +boxwood. Meanwhile, during my absence in the country, Sicinius +Pontianus, my step-son, wishing to gratify me,[22] procured some ebony +tablets from that excellent lady Capitolina and brought them to his +shop, exhorting him to make what I had ordered out of this rarer and +more durable material: such a gift, he said, would be most gratifying +to me. Our artist did as Pontianus suggested, as far as the size of +the ebony tablets permitted. By careful dove-tailing of minute +portions of the tablets he succeeded in making a small figure of +Mercury. + +[Footnote 22: _gratum factum_ (Van der Vliet).] + +62. You heard all the evidence just as I repeat it. Moreover it +receives exact confirmation from the answers given to you in +cross-examination by Capitolina's son, a youth of the most excellent +character, who is here in court to-day. He said that Pontianus asked +for the tablets, that Pontianus took them to the artist Saturninus. +Nor does he deny that Pontianus received the completed signet from +Saturninus and afterwards gave it me. All these things have been +openly and manifestly proved. What remains, in which any suspicion of +sorcery can lie concealed? Nay, what is there that does not absolutely +convict you of obvious falsehood? You said that the seal was of secret +manufacture, whereas Pontianus, a distinguished member of the +equestrian order, gave the commission for it. The figure was carved in +public by Saturninus as he sat in his shop. He is a man of sterling +character and recognized honesty. The work was assisted by the +munificence of a distinguished married lady, and many both among the +slaves and the acquaintances who frequented my house were aware both +of the commission for the work and its execution. You were not ashamed +falsely to pretend that I had searched high and low for the requisite +wood through all the town, although you know that I was absent from +Oea at that time, and although it has been proved that I gave a free +hand as to the material. + +63. Your third lie was that the figure which was made was the lean, +eviscerated frame of a gruesome corpse, utterly horrible and ghastly +as any goblin. If you had discovered such definite proof of my +sorceries, why did you not insist on my producing it in court? Was it +that you might have complete freedom for inventing lies in the absence +of the subject of your slanders? If so, the opportunity afforded you +for mendacity has been lost you, thanks to a certain habit of mine +which comes in most opportunely. It is my wont wherever I go to carry +with me the image of some god hidden among my books and to pray to him +on feast days with offerings of incense and wine and sometimes even of +victims. When, therefore, I heard persistent though outrageously +mendacious assertions that the figure I carried was that of a +skeleton, I ordered some one to go and bring from my house my little +image of Mercury, the same that Saturninus had made for me at Oea. You +there, give it them! Let them see it, hold it, examine it. There you +see the image which that scoundrel called a skeleton. Do you hear +these cries of protest that arise from all present? Do you hear the +condemnation of your lie? Are you not at last ashamed of all your +slanders? Is this a skeleton, this a goblin, is this the familiar +spirit you asserted it to be? Is this a magic symbol or one that is +common and ordinary? Take it, I beg you, Maximus, and examine it. It +is good that a holy thing should be entrusted to hands as pure and +pious as yours. See there, how fair it is to view, how full of all a +wrestler's grace and vigour! How cheerful is the god's face, how +comely the down that creeps on either side his cheeks, how the curled +hair shows upon his head beneath the shadow of his hat's brim, how +neatly the tiny pair of pinions project about his brows, how daintily +the cloak is drawn about his shoulders! He who dares call this a +skeleton, either never sees an image of a god or if he does ignores +it. Indeed, he who thinks this to represent a goblin must have goblins +on the brain. + +64. But in return for that lie, Aemilianus, may that same god who goes +between the lords of heaven and the lords of hell grant you the hatred +of the gods of either world and ever send to meet you the shadows of +the dead with all the ghosts, with all the fiends, with all the +spectres, with all the goblins of all the world, and thrust upon your +eyes all the terror that walketh by night, all the dread dwellers in +the tomb, all the horrors of the sepulchre, although your age and +character have brought you near enough to them already. But we of the +family of Plato know naught save what is bright and joyous, majestic +and heavenly and of the world above us. Nay, in its zeal to reach the +heights of wisdom, the Platonic school has explored regions higher +than heaven itself and has stood triumphant on the outer circumference +of this our universe. Maximus knows that I speak truth, for in his +careful study of the _Phaedrus_ he has read of the 'place that is +higher than heaven, being builded on heaven's back.' Maximus also +clearly understands--I am now going to reply to your accusation about +the name--who he is whom not I but Plato was first to call the 'King'. +'All things,' he says, 'depend upon the King of all things and for him +only all things exist.' Maximus knows who that 'King' is, even the +cause and reason and primal origin of all nature, the lord and father +of the soul, the eternal saviour of all that lives, the unwearying +builder of his world. Yet builds he without labour, yet saves he +without care, he is father without begetting, he knows no limitation +of space or time or change, and therefore few may conceive and none +may tell of his power. + +65. I will even go out of my way to aggravate the suspicion of +sorcery; I will not tell you, Aemilianus, who it is that I worship as +my king. Even if the proconsul should ask me himself who my god is, I +am dumb. + +About the name I have said enough for the present. For the rest I know +that some of my audience are anxious to hear why I wanted the figure +made not of silver or gold, but only of wood, though I think that +their desire springs not so much from their anxiety to see me cleared +of guilt as from eagerness for knowledge. They would like to have this +last doubt removed, even although they see that I have amply rebutted +all suspicion of any crime. Listen, then, you who would know, but +listen with all the sharpness and attention that you may, for you are +to hear the very words that Plato wrote in his old age in the last +book of the _Laws_. 'The man of moderate means when he makes offerings +to the gods should do so in proportion to his means. Now, earth and +the household hearths of all men are holy to all the gods. Let no one +therefore dedicate any shrines to the gods over and above these.' He +forbids this with the purpose of preventing men from venturing to +build private shrines; for he thinks that the public temples suffice +his citizens for the purposes of sacrifice. He then continues, 'Gold +and silver in other cities, whether in the keeping of private persons +or of temples, are invidious possessions; ivory taken from a body +wherefrom the life has passed is not a welcome offering; iron and +bronze are instruments of war. Whatsoever a man dedicates, let it be +of wood and wood only, or if it be of stone, of stone only.' The +general murmur of assent shows, O Maximus, and you, gentlemen, who +have the honour to assist him, that I am adjudged to have made +admirable use of Plato, not only as a guide in life, but as an +advocate in court, to whose instructions, as you see, I give implicit +obedience. + +66. It is now time for me to turn first and foremost to the letters of +Pudentilla, or rather to retrace the whole course of events a little +further back still. For I desire to make it abundantly clear that I, +whom they keep accusing of having forced my way into Pudentilla's +house solely through love of money, ought really never to have come +near that house, had the thought of money ever crossed my mind. My +marriage has for many reasons brought me the reverse of prosperity +and, but for the fact that my wife's virtues are compensation for any +number of disadvantages, might be described as disastrous. + +Disappointment and envy are the sole causes that have involved me in +this trial, and even before that gathered many mortal perils about my +path. What motives for resentment has Aemilianus against me, even +assuming him to be correctly informed when he accuses me of magic? No +least word of mine has ever injured him in such a way as to give him +the appearance of pursuing a just revenge. It is certainly no lofty +ambition that prompts him to accuse me, ambition such as fired Marcus +Antonius to accuse Cnaeus Carbo, Caius Mucius to accuse Aulus +Albucius, Publius Sulpicius to accuse Cnaeus Norbanus, Caius Furius to +accuse Manius Aquilius, Caius Curio to accuse Quintus Metellus. They +were young men of admirable education and were led by ambition to +undertake these accusations as the first step in a forensic career, +that by the conduct of some _cause celebre_ they might make themselves +a name among their fellow citizens. This privilege was conceded by +antiquity to young men just entering public life as a means of winning +glory for their youthful genius. The custom has long since become +obsolete, but even if the practice were still common, it would not +apply to Aemilianus. It would not have been becoming to him to make +any display of his eloquence, for he is rude and unlettered; nor to +show a passion for renown, since he is a mere barbarian bumpkin; nor +thus to open his career as an advocate, for he is an old man on the +brink of the grave. The only hypothesis creditable to him would be +that he is perhaps giving an example of his austerity of character and +has undertaken this accusation through sheer hatred of wrongdoing and +to assert his own integrity. But I should hardly accept such an +hypothesis even in the case of a greater Aemilianus, not our African +friend here, but the conqueror of Africa and Numantia, who held, +moreover, the office of censor at Rome. Much less will I believe that +this dull blockhead, I will not say, hates sin, but recognizes it when +he sees it. + +67. What then was his motive? It is as clear as day to any one that +envy is the sole motive that has spurred him and Herennius Rufinus, +his instigator--of whom I shall have more to say later--and the rest +of my enemies, to fabricate these false charges of sorcery. + +Well, there are five points which I must discuss. If I remember +aright, their accusations as regards Pudentilla were as follows. +Firstly, they said that after the death of her first husband she +resolutely set her face against re-marriage, but was seduced by my +incantations. Secondly, there are her letters, which they regard as an +admission that I used sorcery. Thirdly and fourthly, they object that +she made a love-match at the advanced age of sixty and that the +marriage contract was sealed not in the town but at a country house. +Lastly, there is the most invidious of all these accusations, namely, +that which concerns the dowry. It is into this charge they have put +all their force and all their venom; it is this that vexes them most +of all. They assert that at the very outset of our wedded life I +forced my devoted wife in the absolute seclusion of her country house +to make over to me a large dowry. I will show that all these +statements are so false, so worthless, so unsubstantial, and I shall +refute them so easily and unquestionably, that in good truth, Maximus, +and you, gentlemen, his assessors, I fear you may think that I have +suborned my accusers to bring these charges, that I might have the +opportunity of publicly dispelling the hatred of which I am the +victim. I will ask you to believe _now_, what you will understand when +the facts are before you, that I shall need to put out all my strength +to prevent you from thinking that such a baseless accusation is a +cunning device of my own rather than a stupid enterprise of my +enemies. + +68. I shall now briefly retrace events and force Aemilianus himself +to admit, when he has heard the facts, that his envy was groundless +and that he has strayed far from the truth. In the meantime I beg you, +as you have already done, or if possible yet more than you have +already done, to give the best of your attention to me as I trace the +whole case to its fount and source. + +Aemilia Pudentilla, now my wife, was once the wife of a certain +Sicinius Amicus. By him she had two sons, Pontianus and Pudens. These +two boys were left by their father's death under the guardianship of +their paternal grandfather--for Amicus predeceased his father--and +were brought up by their mother with remarkable care and affection for +about fourteen years. She was in the flower of her age, and it was not +of her own choosing that she remained a widow for so long. But the +boys' grandfather was eager that she should, in spite of her +reluctance, take his son, Sicinius Clarus, for her second husband[23] +and with this in view kept all other suitors at a distance. He further +threatened her that if she married elsewhere he would by his will +exclude her sons from the possession of any of their father's +heritage. When she saw that nothing could move him to alter the +condition that he had laid down, such was her wisdom, and so admirable +her maternal affection, that to prevent her sons' interests suffering +any damage in this respect, she made a contract of marriage with +Sicinius Clarus in accordance with her father-in-law's bidding, but by +various evasions managed to avoid the marriage until the boys' +grandfather died, leaving them as his heirs, with the result that +Pontianus, the elder son, became his brother's guardian. + +[Footnote 23: _iterum_ (Riese).] + +69. She was now freed from all embarrassment, and being sought in +marriage by many distinguished persons resolved to remain a widow no +longer. The dreariness of her solitary life she might have borne, but +her bodily infirmities had become intolerable. This chaste and saintly +lady, after so many years of blameless widowhood, without even a +breath of scandal, owing to her long absence from a husband's +embraces, began to suffer internal pains so severe that they brought +her to the brink of the grave. Doctors and wise women agreed that the +disease had its origin in her long widowhood, that the evil was +increasing daily and her sickness steadily assuming a more serious +character; the remedy was that she should marry before her youth +finally departed from her. There were many who welcomed this +recommendation, but none more so than that fellow Aemilianus, who a +little while back asserted with the most unhesitating mendacity that +Pudentilla had never thought of marriage until I compelled her to be +mine by my exercise of the black art; that I alone had been found to +outrage the virgin purity of her widowhood by incantations and love +philtres. I have often heard it said with truth that a liar should +have a good memory. Had you forgotten, Aemilianus, that before I came +to Oea, you wrote to her son Pontianus, who had then attained to man's +estate and was pursuing his studies at Rome, suggesting that she +should marry? Give me the letter, or better give it to Aemilianus and +let him refute himself in his own voice with his own words. + +Is this your letter? Why do you turn pale? We know you are past +blushing. Is this your signature? Read a little louder, please, that +all may realize how his written words belie his speech and how much +more he is at variance with himself than with me. + +70. Did you, Aemilianus, write what has just been read out? 'I know +that she is willing to marry and that she ought to do so, but I do not +know the object of her choice.' You were right there. You knew nothing +about it. For Pudentilla, though she admitted that she wished to marry +again, said nothing to you about her suitor. She knew the intrusive +malignity of your nature too well. But you still expected her to marry +your brother Clarus and were induced by your false hopes to go further +and to urge her son to assent to the match. And of course, if she had +wedded Clarus, a boorish and decrepit old man, you would have asserted +that she had long desired to marry him of her own free will without +the intervention of any magic. But now that she has married a young +man of the elegance which you attribute to him, you say that she had +always refused to marry and must have done so under compulsion! You +did not know, you villain, that the letter you had written on the +subject was being preserved, you did not know that you would be +convicted by your own testimony. The fact is that Pudentilla, knowing +your changeableness and unreliability no less than your shamelessness +and mendacity, rather than forward the letter preferred to keep it as +clear evidence of your intentions, and wrote a letter of her own on +the same subject to her son Pontianus at Rome, in which she gave full +reasons for her determination. She told him pretty fully about the +state of her health; there was no longer any reason for her to persist +in remaining a widow; she had so remained for thus long and had +sacrificed her health solely to procure him the inheritance of his +grandfather's fortune, a fortune to which she had by the exercise of +the greatest care made considerable additions: Pontianus himself was +now by the grace of heaven ripe for marriage and his brother for the +garb of manhood. She begged them to suffer her at length to solace her +lonely existence and to relieve her ill health: they need have no +fears as to her final choice or as to her motherly affection; she +would still be as a wife what she had been as a widow. I will order a +copy of this letter to her son to be read aloud. (_The letter is +read._) + +71. This letter makes it, I think, sufficiently clear that it needed +no incantations of mine to move Pudentilla from her resolve to remain +a widow, but that she had been for some time by no means averse to +marriage, when she chose me--it may be in preference to others. I +cannot see why such a choice by so excellent a woman should be brought +against me as matter for reproach rather than honour. But I admit +feeling surprise that Aemilianus and Rufinus should be annoyed at the +lady's decision, when those who were actually suitors for her hand +acquiesce in her preference for myself. She was indeed guided in +making her choice less by her personal inclination than by the advice +of her son, a fact which Aemilianus cannot deny. For Pontianus on +receiving his mother's letter hastily flew hither from Rome, fearing +that, if the man of her choice proved to be avaricious, she might, as +often happens, transfer her whole fortune to the house of her new +husband. This anxiety tormented him not a little. All his own +expectations of wealth together with those of his brother depended on +his mother. His grandfather had left but a moderate fortune, his +mother possessed 4,000,000 sesterces. Of this sum, it is true, she +owed a considerable portion to her sons, but they had no security for +this, relying--naturally enough--on her word alone. He gave but silent +expression to his fears; he did not venture to show any open +opposition for fear of seeming to distrust her. + +72. Things being in this delicate position owing to the matrimonial +intentions of the mother and the fears of the son, chance or destiny +brought me to Oea on my way to Alexandria. Did not my respect for my +wife prevent me, I would say 'Would God it had never happened'. It was +winter when this occurred. Overcome by the fatigues of the journey, I +was laid up for a considerable number of days in the house of my +friends the Appii, whom I name to show the affection and esteem with +which I regard them. There Pontianus came to see me; for not so very +long before certain common friends had introduced him to me at Athens, +and we had afterwards lodged together and come to know each other +intimately. He greeted me with the utmost courtesy, inquired anxiously +after my health, and touched dexterously on the subject of love. For +he thought that he had found an ideal husband for his mother to whom +he could without the slightest risk entrust the whole fortune of the +house. At first he sounded me as to my inclinations in somewhat +ambiguous language, and seeing that I was desirous of resuming my +journey and was not in the least disposed to take a wife, he begged me +at any rate to remain at Oea for a little while, as he himself was +desirous of travelling with me. Since my physical infirmity had made +it impossible for me to profit by the present winter, he urged that it +would be well to wait for the next owing to the danger presented by +the passage of the Syrtes and the risk of encountering wild beasts. +His urgent entreaty induced my friends the Appii to allow me to leave +them and to become his guest in his mother's house. I should find the +situation healthier, he said, and should get a freer view of the +sea--a special attraction in my eyes. + +73. He had shown the greatest eagerness in inducing me to come to this +decision, and strongly recommended his mother and his brother--that +boy there--to my consideration. I gave them some help in our common +studies and a marked intimacy sprang up between us. Meanwhile I +gradually recovered my health. At the instance of my friends I gave a +discourse in public. This took place in the basilica, which was +thronged by a vast audience. I was greeted with many expressions of +approval, the audience shouted 'bravo! bravo!' like one man, and +besought me to remain and become a citizen of Oea. On the dispersal of +the audience Pontianus approached me, and by way of prelude said that +such universal enthusiasm was nothing less than a sign from heaven. He +then revealed to me that it was his cherished design--with my +permission--to bring about a match between myself and his mother, for +whose hand there were many suitors. He added that I was the only +friend in the world in whom he could put implicit trust and +confidence. If I were to refuse to undertake such a responsibility, +simply because it was no fair heiress that was offered me, but a woman +of plain appearance and the mother of children--if I were moved by +these considerations and insisted on reserving myself for a more +attractive and wealthier match, my behaviour would be unworthy of a +friend and a philosopher. It would take too long--even if I were +willing--to tell you what I replied and how long and how frequently we +conversed on the subject, with how many pressing entreaties he plied +me, never ceasing until he finally won my consent. I had had ample +opportunity for observing Pudentilla's character, for I had lived for +a whole year continually in her company and had realized how rich was +her endowment of good qualities; but my desire for travel led me to +desire to refuse the match as an impediment. But I soon began to love +her for her virtues as ardently as though I had wooed her of my own +initiative. Pontianus had also persuaded his mother to give me the +preference over all her other suitors, and showed extraordinary +eagerness for the marriage to take place at the earliest possible +date. We could scarcely induce him to consent to the very briefest +postponement to such time as he himself should have taken a wife and +his brother in due course have assumed the garb of manhood. That done, +we would be married at once. + +74. Would to heaven it were possible without serious damage to my case +to pass by what I have now to relate. I freely forgave Pontianus when +he begged for pardon, and I have no wish to seem to reproach him now +for the fickleness of his conduct. I acknowledge the truth of a +circumstance brought against me by my accusers, I admit that +Pontianus, after taking to himself a wife, broke his pledged word and +suddenly changed his mind; that he tried to prevent the fulfilment of +this project with no less obstinacy than he had shown zeal in +forwarding it. He was ready to make any sacrifice, to go any lengths, +to prevent our marriage taking place. Nevertheless this discreditable +change of attitude, this deliberate quarrel with his mother, must not +be laid to his charge, but to that of his father-in-law, Herennius +Rufinus, whom you see before you, a man than whom no more worthless, +wicked, and grime-stained soul lives upon this earth. I will--since I +cannot avoid it--give a brief description of this man's character, +using such moderation as I may, lest, if I pass him by in silence, the +energy which he has shown in engineering this accusation against me +should have been spent all in vain. + +This is the man who poisoned that worthless boy against me, who is the +prime mover in this accusation, who has hired advocates and bought +witnesses. This is the furnace in which all this calumny has been +forged, this the firebrand, this the scourge that has driven +Aemilianus here to his task. He makes it his boast before all men in +the most extravagant language that it is through his machinations that +my indictment has been procured. In truth he has some reason for +self-congratulation. For he is the organizer of every lawsuit, the +deviser of every perjury, the architect of every lie, the seed-ground +of every wickedness, the vile haunt and hideous habitation of lust and +gluttony, the mark of every scandal since his earliest years: in +boyhood, ere he became so hideously bald, the ready servant of the +vilest vices; in youth a stage dancer limp and nerveless enough in all +conscience, but, they tell me, clumsy and inartistic in his very +effeminacy. Except for his immodesty he is said not to have possessed +a single quality that should distinguish an actor. + +75. He is older now--God's curse upon him! I crave your pardon for my +warmth of language. But his house is the dwelling-place of panders, +his whole household foul with sin, himself a man of infamous +character, his wife a harlot, his sons like their parents. His door +night and day is battered with the kicks of wanton gallants, his +windows loud with the sound of loose serenades, his dining-room wild +with revel, his bedchambers the haunt of adulterers. For no one need +fear to enter it save he who has no gift for the husband. Thus does he +make an income from his own dishonour. What else should the wretch do? +He has lost a considerable fortune, though I admit that he only got +that fortune unexpectedly through a fraudulent transaction on the part +of his father. The latter, having borrowed money from a number of +persons, preferred to keep their money at the cost of his own good +name. Bills poured in on every side with demands for payment. Every +one that met him laid hands on him as though he were a madman. +'Steady, now!' says he, 'I can't find the cash.' So he resigned his +golden rings and all the badges of his position in society and thus +came to terms with his creditors. But he had by a most ingenious fraud +transferred the greater part of his property to his wife, and so, +although he himself was needy, ill-clad and protected by the very +depth of his fall, managed to leave this same Rufinus--I am telling +you the truth and nothing but the truth--no less than 3,000,000 +sesterces to be squandered on riotous living. This was the sum that +came to him unencumbered from his mother's property, over and above +the daily dowry brought him by his wife. Yet all this money has been +ravenously devoured by this glutton in a few short years, all this +fortune has been destroyed by the infinite variety of his +gormandizing; so that you might really think him to be afraid of +seeming in any way to be the gainer by his father's dishonesty. This +honourable fellow actually took care that what had been ill-gained +should be ill-spent, nor was anything left him from his too ample +fortune, save his depraved ambition and his boundless appetite. + +76. His wife, however, was getting old and worn out and refused to +continue to support the whole household by her own dishonour. But +there was a daughter who, at her mother's instigation, was exhibited +to all the wealthy young men, but in vain. Had she not come across so +easy a victim as Pontianus she would perhaps still have been sitting +at home a widow who had never been a bride. Pontianus, in spite of +urgent attempts on our part to dissuade him, gave her the right--false +and illusory though it was--to be called a bride. He did this knowing +that, but a short time before he married her, she had been seduced and +deserted by a young man of good family to whom she had been previously +betrothed. And so his new bride came to him, not as other brides come, +but unabashed and undismayed, her virtue lost, her modesty gone, her +bridal-veil a mockery. Cast off by her previous lover, she brought to +her wedding the name without the purity of a maid. She rode in a +litter carried by eight slaves. You who were present saw how +impudently she made eyes at all the young and how immodestly she +flaunted her charms. Who did not recognize her mother's pupil, when +they saw her dyed lips, her rouged cheeks, and her lascivious eyes? +Her dowry was borrowed, every farthing of it, on the eve of her +wedding, and was indeed greater than could be expected of so large and +impoverished a family. + +77. But though Rufinus' fortune is small, his hopes are boundless. +With avarice rivalled only by his need he had already devoured +Pudentilla's 4,000,000 in vain anticipation. With this in view he +decided that I must be got out of the way, in order that he might find +fewer obstacles in his attempt to hoodwink the weak Pontianus and the +lonely Pudentilla. He began, therefore, to upbraid his son-in-law for +having betrothed his mother to me. He urged him to draw back without +delay from so perilous a path, while there was yet time; to keep his +mother's fortune himself rather than deliberately transfer it to the +keeping of a stranger. He threatened that, if he refused, he would +take away his daughter, the device of an old hand to influence a young +man in love. To be brief, he so wrought upon the simple-minded young +man, who was, moreover, a slave to the charms of his new bride, as to +mould him to his will and move him from his purpose. Pontianus went to +his mother and told her what Rufinus had said to him. But he made no +impression on her steadfast character. On the contrary, she rebuked +him for his fickleness and inconstancy, and it was no pleasant news he +took back to his father-in-law. His mother had shown a firmness of +purpose not to be expected of one of her placid disposition, and to +make matters worse his expostulations had made her angry, which was +likely seriously to increase her obstinacy: in fact, she had finally +replied, that it was no secret to her that his expostulations were +instigated by Rufinus, a fact which made the support and assistance of +a husband against his desperate greed all the more necessary to her. + +78. When he heard this, the ruffian was stung to fury and burst into +such wild and ungovernable rage that in the presence of her own son he +heaped insults, such as he might have used to his own wife, on the +purest and most modest of women. In the presence of many witnesses, +whom, if you desire it, I will name, he loudly denounced her as a +wanton and myself as a sorcerer and poisoner, threatening to murder me +with his own hands. I can hardly restrain my anger, such fierce +indignation fills my soul. That you, the most effeminate of men, +should threaten any man with death at your hand! Your hand! What hand! +The hand of Philomela or Medea or Clytemnestra? Why, when you dance in +those characters you show such contemptible timidity, you are so +frightened at the sight of steel, that you will not even carry a +property sword? But I am digressing. Pudentilla, seeing to her +astonishment that her son had fallen lower than she could have deemed +possible, went into the country and by way of rebuke wrote him the +notorious letter, in which, according to my accusers, she confessed +that my magical practices had made her lose her reason and fall in +love with me. And yet, Maximus, the day before yesterday at your +command I took a copy of the letter in the presence of witnesses and +of Pontianus' secretary. Aemilianus also was there and countersigned +the copy. What is the result? In contradiction to my accusers' +assertion everything is found to tell in my favour. + +79. And yet, even if she had spoken somewhat strongly and had called +me a magician, it would be a reasonable explanation that she had, in +defending her conduct to her son, preferred to allege compulsion on my +part rather than her own inclination. Is Phaedra the only woman whom +love has driven to write a lying letter? Is it not rather a device +common to all women that, when they have begun to feel strong desire +for anything of this kind, they should prefer to make themselves out +the victims of compulsion? But even supposing she had genuinely +regarded me as a magician, would the mere fact of Pudentilla's writing +to that effect be a reason for actually regarding me as a magician? +You, with all your arguments and your witnesses and your diffuse +eloquence, have failed to prove me a magician. Could she prove it with +one word? A formal indictment, written and signed before a judge, is a +far more weighty document than what is written in a private letter! +Why do not you prove me a magician by my own deeds instead of having +recourse to the mere words of another? If your principle be followed, +and whatever any one may have written in a letter under the influence +of love or hatred be admitted as proof, many a man will be indicted on +the wildest charges. 'Pudentilla called you a magician in her letter; +therefore you are a magician!' If she had called me a consul, would +that make me one? What if she had called me a painter, a doctor, or +even an innocent man? Would you accept any of these statements, simply +because she had made them? You would accept none of them. Yet it is a +gross injustice to believe a person when he speaks evil of another and +to refuse to believe him when he speaks well. It is a gross injustice +that a letter should have power to destroy and not to save. 'But,' +says my accuser, 'she was out of her wits, she loved you +distractedly.' I will grant it for the moment. But are all persons, +who are the objects of love, magicians, just because the person in +love with them chances to say so in a letter? If, indeed, Pudentilla +wrote in a letter to another person what would clearly be prejudicial +to myself, I think she could hardly have been in love with me at the +moment in question. + +80. Tell me now, what is your contention? Was she mad or sane when she +wrote? Sane, do you say? Then she was not the victim of magic. Insane? +In that case she did not know what she was writing and must not be +believed. Nay, even supposing her to have been insane, she would not +have been aware of the fact. For just as to say 'I am silent' is to +make a fool of oneself, since these very words actually break silence, +and the act of speaking impugns the substance of one's speech, so it +is even more absurd to say 'I am mad'. It cannot be true unless the +speaker knows what he says, and he who knows what madness is, is +_ipso facto_ sane. For madness cannot know itself any more than +blindness can see itself. Therefore Pudentilla was in possession of +her senses, if she thought she was out of them. I could say more on +this point, but enough of dialectic! I will read out the letter which +gives crying witness to a very different state of things and might +indeed have been specially prepared to suit this particular trial. +Take it and read it out until I interrupt. (_The letter is read._) + +Stop a moment before you go on to what follows. We have come to the +crucial point. So far, Maximus, as far at any rate as I have noticed, +the lady has made no mention of magic, but has merely repeated in the +same order the statements which I quoted a short time ago about her +long widowhood, the proposed remedy for her ill health, her desire to +marry, the good report she had heard of me from Pontianus, his own +advice that she should marry me in preference to others. + +81. So much for what has been read. There remains a portion of the +letter which, although like the first part it was written in my +defence, also turns against me. For although it was specially written +to rebut the charge of magic brought against me, a remarkable piece of +ingenuity on the part of Rufinus has altered its meaning and brought +me into discredit with certain citizens of Oea as being a proved +sorcerer. Maximus, you have heard much from the lips of others, you +have learned yet more by reading, and your own personal experience +has taught you not a little. But you will say that never yet have you +come across such insidious cunning or such marvellous dexterity in +crime. What Palamedes, what Sisyphus, what Eurybates or Phrynondas +could ever have devised such guile? All those whom I have mentioned, +together with all the notorious deceivers of history, would seem mere +clowns and pantaloons, were they to attempt to match this one single +instance of Rufinus' craftiness. O miracle of lies! O subtlety worthy +of the prison and the stocks! Who could imagine that what was written +as a defence could without the alteration of a single letter be +transformed into an accusation! Good God! it is incredible. But I will +make clear to you how the incredible came to pass. + +82. The mother was rebuking her son because, after extolling me to her +as a model of all the virtues, he now, at Rufinus' instigation, +asserted that I was a magician. The actual words were as follows: +'Apuleius is a magician and has bewitched me to love him. Come to me, +then, while I am still in my senses!' These words, which I have quoted +in Greek, have been selected by Rufinus and separated from their +context. He has taken them round as a confession on the part of +Pudentilla, and, with Pontianus at his side all dissolved in tears, +has shown them through all the market-place, allowing men only to read +that portion which I have just cited and suppressing all that comes +before and after. His excuse was that the rest of the letter was too +disgusting to be shown; it was sufficient that publicity should be +given to Pudentilla's confession as to my sorcery. What was the +result? Every one thought it probable enough. That very letter, which +was written to clear my character, excited the most violent hatred +against me amongst those who did not know the facts. This foul villain +went rushing about in the midst of the market-place like any +bacchanal; he kept opening the letter and proclaiming, 'Apuleius is a +sorcerer! She herself describes her feelings and her sufferings! What +more do you demand?' There was no one to take my part and reply, 'Give +us the whole letter, please! Let me see it all, let me read it from +beginning to end. There are many things which, produced apart from +their context, may seem open to a slanderous interpretation. Any +speech may be attacked, if a passage depending for its sense on what +has preceded be robbed of its commencement, or if phrases be expunged +at will from the place they logically occupy, or if what is written +ironically be read out in such a tone as to make it seem a defamatory +statement.' With what justice this protest or words to that effect +might have been uttered the actual order of the letter will show. + +83. Now, Aemilianus, try to remember whether the following were not +the words of which, together with myself, you took a copy in the +presence of witnesses, 'For since I desired to marry for the reasons +of which I told you, you persuaded me to choose Apuleius in preference +to all others, since you had a great admiration for him and were eager +through me to become yet more intimate with him. But now that certain +ill-natured persons have brought accusations against us and attempt to +dissuade you, Apuleius has suddenly become a magician and has +bewitched me to love him. Come to me, then, while I am still in my +senses.' + +I ask you, Maximus, if letters--some of which are actually called +vocal[24]--could find a voice, if words, as poets say, could take them +wings and fly, would they not, when Rufinus first made disingenuous +excerpts from that letter, read but a few lines and deliberately said +nothing of much that bore a more favourable meaning, would not the +remaining letters have cried out that they were unjustly kept out of +sight? Would not the words suppressed by Rufinus have flown from his +hands and filled the whole market-place with tumult, crying that they +too had been sent by Pudentilla, they too had been entrusted with +something to say, and calling upon men to listen to _them_ instead of +giving ear to a dishonest villain who was attempting to prove a lie by +means of another's letter? for Pudentilla had never accused Apuleius +of magic, while Rufinus' accusation was tantamount to an acquittal. +All these things were not said then, but now, when they are of more +effectual service to me, their truth appears clearer than day. +Rufinus, your cunning stands revealed, your fraud stares us in the +face, your lies are laid bare; truth dethroned for a while rises once +more and slander sinks[25] downward to the bottomless pit. + +[Footnote 24: i.e. vowels.] + +[Footnote 25: _se ecfert--calumnia se mergit_ (Salmasius).] + +84. You challenged me with Pudentilla's letter: with that letter I win +the day. If you like to hear the conclusion, I will not grudge it +you. Tell me, what were the words with which she ended the letter, +that poor bewitched, lunatic, insane, infatuated lady? 'I am not +bewitched, I am not in love; it is my destiny.'[26] Would you have +anything more? Pudentilla throws your words in your teeth and publicly +vindicates her sanity against your slanderous aspersions. The motive +or necessity of her marriage, whichever it was, she now ascribes to +fate, and between fate and magic there is a great gulf, indeed they +have absolutely nothing in common. For if it be true that the destiny +of each created thing is like a fierce torrent that may neither be +stayed nor diverted, what power is left for magic drugs or +incantations? Pudentilla, therefore, not only denied that I was a +magician, but denied the very existence of magic. It is a good thing +that Pontianus, following his usual custom, kept his mother's letter +safe in its entirety: it is a good thing that the speed with which +this case has been hurried on left you no opportunity for adding to +that letter at your leisure. For this I have to thank you and your +foresight, Maximus. You saw through their slanders from the beginning +and hurried on the case that they might not gather strength as the +days went by; you gave them no breathing space and wrecked their +designs. Suppose now that the mother, after her wont, _had_ made +confession of her passion for me in some private letter to her son. +Was it just, Rufinus, was it consistent, I will not say with filial +piety but with common humanity, that these letters should be +circulated and, above all, published and proclaimed abroad by her own +son? But perhaps I am no better than a fool to ask you to have regard +for another's sense of decency when you have so long lost your own. + +[Footnote 26: [Greek: ten heimarmenen echo] (Rossbach).] + +85. Why should I only complain of what is past? The present is equally +distressing. To think that this unhappy boy should have been so +corrupted by you as to read aloud in the proconsular court, before a +man of such lofty character as Claudius Maximus, a letter from his +mother, which he chooses to regard as amatory, and in the presence of +the statues of the emperor Pius to accuse his mother of yielding to a +shameful passion and reproach her with her _amours_? Who is there of +such gentle temper, but that this would wake him to fury? Vilest of +creatures, do you pry into your mother's heart in such matters, do you +watch her glances, count her sighs, sound her affections, intercept +her letters, and accuse her of being in love? Do you seek to discover +what she does in the privacy of her own chamber, do you demand--I will +not say that she should be above love affairs--but that she should +cease to be a woman? Cannot you conceive the possibility that she +should show any affection save the affection of a mother for her son? +Ah! Pudentilla, you are unhappy in your offspring! Far better have +been barren than have borne such children! Ill-omened were the long +months through which you bore them in your womb and thankless your +fourteen years of widowhood! The viper, I am told, reaches the light +of day only by gnawing through its mother's womb; its parent must die +ere it be born. But your son is full-grown and the wounds he deals are +far bitterer, for they are inflicted on you while you yet live and see +the light of day. He insults your reserve, he arraigns your modesty, +he wounds you to the heart and outrages your dearest affections. Is +this the gratitude with which a dutiful son like yourself repays his +mother for the life she gave him, for the inheritance she won him, for +her long fourteen years of seclusion? Is the result of your uncle's +teaching this, that, if you were sure your sons would be like +yourself, you should be afraid to take a wife? There is a well-known +line + + _I hate the boy that's wise before his time._ + +Yes, and who would not loathe and detest a boy that is 'wicked before +his time', when he sees you, like some frightful portent, old in sin +but young in years, with the bodily powers of a boy, yet deep in +guilt, with the bright face of a child, but with wickedness such as +might match grey hairs? Nay, the most offensive thing about him is +that his pernicious deeds go scot free; he is too young to punish, yet +old enough to do injury. Injury, did I say? No! crime, unfilial, +black, monstrous, intolerable crime! + +86. The Athenians, when they captured the correspondence of their +enemy, Philip of Macedon, and the letters were being read in public +one by one, out of reverence for the common rights of humanity forbade +one letter to be read aloud, a letter addressed by Philip to his wife +Olympias. They spared the enemy that they might not intrude on the +privacy of husband and wife; they placed the law that is common to all +mankind above the claims of private vengeance. So enemy dealt with +enemy! How have you dealt with the mother that bore you? You see how +close is my parallel. Yet you read out aloud letters written by your +mother which, according to your assertion, concern her love affairs, +and you do so before this gathering here assembled, a gathering before +which you would not dare to read the verses of some obscene poet, even +if bidden to do so, but you would be restrained by some sense of +shame. Nay, you would never have touched your mother's letters, had +you ever been in touch with letters in the wider sense of the term. +But you have also dared to submit a letter of your own to be read, a +letter written about your mother in outrageously disrespectful, +abusive, and unseemly language, written too at a time when you were +still being brought up under her loving care. This letter you sent +secretly to Pontianus, and you have now produced it to avoid the +reproach of having sinned only once and to rescue so good a deed from +oblivion![27] Poor fool, do you not realize that your uncle permitted +you to do this, that he might clear himself in public estimation by +using your letter as proof that even before you migrated to his house, +even at the time when you caressed your mother with false words of +love, you were already as cunning as any fox and devoid of all filial +affection? + +[Footnote 27: _oblivio_ (Casaubon).] + +87. I cannot bring myself to believe Aemilianus such a fool as to +think that the letter of a mere boy, who is also one of my accusers, +could seriously tell against me. + +There is also that forged letter by which they attempted to prove that +I beguiled Pudentilla with flattery. I never wrote it and the forgery +is not even plausible. What need had I of flattery, if I put my trust +in magic? And how did they secure possession of that letter which +must, as is usual in such affairs, have been sent to Pudentilla by +some confidential servant? Why, again, should I write in such faulty +words, such barbarous language, I whom my accusers admit to be quite +at home in Greek? And why should I seek to seduce her by flattery so +absurd and coarse? They themselves admit that I write amatory verse +with sufficient sprightliness and skill. The explanation is obvious to +every one; it is this. He who could not read the letter which +Pudentilla wrote in Greek altogether too refined for his +comprehension, found it easier to read this letter and set it off to +greater advantage because it was his own. + +One more point and I shall have said enough about the letters. +Pudentilla, after writing in jest and irony those words 'Come then, +while I am yet in my senses', sent for her sons and her +daughter-in-law and lived with them for about two months. I beg this +most dutiful of sons to tell us whether he then noticed his mother's +alleged madness to have affected for the worse either her words or her +deeds. Let him deny that she showed the utmost shrewdness in her +examination of the accounts of the bailiffs, grooms, and shepherds, +that she earnestly warned his brother Pontianus to be on his guard +against the designs of Rufinus, that she rebuked him severely for +having freely published the letter she had sent him without having +read it honestly as it was written! Let him deny that, after what I +have just related to you, his mother married me in her country house, +as had been agreed some time previously! + +88. The reason for our decision to be married by preference at her +country house not far from Oea was to avoid a fresh concourse of +citizens demanding largesse. It was but a short time before that +Pudentilla had distributed 50,000 sesterces to the people on the +occasion of Pontianus' marriage and this boy's assumption of the garb +of manhood. We wished also to avoid the frequent and wearisome +dinner-parties which custom generally imposes on newly-married +couples. This is the whole reason, Aemilianus, why our marriage +contract was signed not in the town but at a country house in the +neighbourhood--to avoid squandering another 50,000 sesterces and to +escape dining in your company or at your house. Is that sufficient? I +must say that I am surprised that you object so strongly to the +country house, considering that you spend most of your time in the +country. The Julian marriage-law nowhere contains a clause to the +effect that no man shall wed in a country house. Indeed, if you would +know the truth, it is of far better omen for the expectation of +offspring that one should marry one's wife in a country house in +preference to the town, on rich soil in preference to barren ground, +on the greensward of the meadow rather than the pavement of the +market-place. She that would be a mother should marry in the very +bosom of her mother, among the standing crops, on the fruitful +plough-land, or she should lie beneath the elm that weds the vine, on +the very lap of mother earth, among the springing herbage, the +trailing vine-shoots and the budding trees. I may add that the +metaphor in the line so well known in comedy + + _That in the furrow children true be sown_ + +bears out this view most strongly. The ancient Romans also, such as +Quintius, Serranus and many others, were offered not only wives but +consulships and dictatorships in the open field. But I am becoming +long-winded. I will restrain myself for fear of gratifying you by my +praise of country life. + +89. As to Pudentilla's age, concerning which you lied so boldly as to +assert that she had married at the age of sixty, I will reply in a few +words. It is not necessary to speak at length in discussing a matter +where the truth is so obvious. + +Her father acknowledged her for his daughter in the usual fashion; the +documents in which he did so are preserved partly in the public record +office, partly in his house. Here they are before your very eyes. +Please hand the documents to Aemilianus. Let him examine the linen +strip that bears the seal; let him recognize the seal stamped upon +it, let him read the names of the consuls for the year, let him count +up the years. He gave her sixty years. Let him bring out the total at +fifty-five, admitting that he lied and gave her five too many. Nay, +that is hardly enough. I will deal yet more liberally with him. He +gave Pudentilla such a number of years that I will reward him by +returning ten. Mezentius has been wandering with Ulysses; let him at +least prove that she is fifty. To cut the matter short, as I am +dealing with an accuser who is used to multiplying by four, I will +multiply five years by four and subtract twenty years at one fell +swoop. I beg you, Maximus, to order the number of consuls since her +birth to be reckoned. If I am not mistaken, you will find that +Pudentilla has barely passed her fortieth year. The insolent audacity +of this falsehood! Twenty years' exile would be a worthy punishment +for such mendacity! Your fiction has added a good half to the sum, +your fabrication is one and a half times the size of the original. Had +you said thirty years when you ought to have said ten, it might have +been supposed that you had made a slip in the gesture used for your +calculation, that you had placed your forefinger against the middle +joint of your thumb, when you should have made them form a circle. But +whereas the gesture indicating forty is the simplest of all such +gestures, for you have merely to hold out the palm of your hand--you +have increased the number by half as much again. There is no room for +an erroneous gesture; the only possible hypothesis is that, believing +Pudentilla to be thirty, you got your total by adding up the number of +consuls, two to each year. + +90. I have done with this. I come now to the very heart of the +accusation, to the actual motive for the use of magic. I ask Rufinus +and Aemilianus to answer me and tell me--even assuming that I am the +most consummate magician--what had I to gain by persuading Pudentilla +to marry me by means of my love philtres and my incantations. I am +well aware that many persons, when accused of some crime or other, +even if it has been shown that there was some real motive for the +offence, have amply cleared themselves of guilt by this one line of +defence, that the whole record of their lives renders the suspicion of +such a crime incredible and that even though there may have been +strong temptation to sin, the mere fact of the existence of the +temptation should not be counted against them. We have no right to +assume that everything that might have been done actually has been +done. Circumstances may alter; the one true guide is a man's +character; the one sure indication that a charge should be rejected or +believed is the fact that through all his life the accused has set his +face towards vice or virtue as the case may be. I might with the +utmost justice put in such a plea for myself, but I waive my right in +your favour, and shall think that I have made out but a poor case for +myself, if I do no more than amply clear myself of all your charges +and show that there exists not the slightest ground for suspecting me +of sorcery. Consider what confidence in my innocence and what contempt +of you is implied by my conduct. If you can discover one trivial +reason that might have led me to woo Pudentilla for the sake of some +personal advantage, if you can prove that I have made the very +slightest profit out of my marriage, I am ready to be any magician you +please--the great Carmendas himself or Damigeron or Moses[28] of whom +you have heard, or Jannes or Apollobex or Dardanus himself or any +sorcerer of note from the time of Zoroaster and Ostanes till now. + +[Footnote 28: _is Moses_ (Jan. Parrhasius).] + +91. See, Maximus, what a disturbance they have raised, merely because +I have mentioned a few magicians by name. What am I to do with men so +stupid and uncivilized? Shall I proceed to prove to you that I have +come across these names and many more in the course of my study of +distinguished authors in the public libraries? Or shall I argue that +the knowledge of the names of sorcerers is one thing, participation in +their art another, and that it is not tantamount to confessing a crime +to have one's brain well stored with learning and a memory retentive +of its erudition? Or shall I take what is far the best course and, +relying on your learning, Maximus, and your perfect erudition, disdain +to reply to the accusations of these stupid and uncultivated fellows? +Yes, that is what I will do. I will not care a straw for what they may +think. I will go on with the argument on which I had entered and will +show that I had no motive for seducing Pudentilla into marriage by the +use of love philtres. + +My accusers have gone out of their way to make disparaging remarks +both about her age and her appearance; they have denounced me for +desiring such a wife from motives of greed and robbing her of her vast +and magnificent dowry at the very outset of our wedded life. I do not +intend to weary you, Maximus, with a long reply on these points. There +is no need for words from me, our deeds of settlement will speak more +eloquently than I can do. From them you will see that both in my +provision for the future and in my action at the time my conduct was +precisely the opposite of that which they have attributed to me, +inferring my rapacity from their own. You will see that Pudentilla's +dowry was small, considering her wealth, and was made over to me as a +trust not as a gift, and moreover that the marriage only took place on +this condition that if my wife should die without leaving me any +children, the dowry should go to her sons Pontianus and Pudens, while +if at her death she should leave me one son or daughter, half of the +dowry was to go to the offspring of the second marriage, the remainder +to the sons of the first. + +92. This, as I say, I will prove from the actual deed of settlement. +It may be that Aemilianus will still refuse to believe that the total +sum recorded is only 300,000 sesterces, and that the reversion of this +sum is given by the settlement to Pudentilla's sons. Take the deeds +into your own hands, give them to Rufinus who incited you to this +accusation. Let him read them, let him blush for his arrogant temper +and his pretentious beggary. _He_ is poor and ill-clad and borrowed +400,000 sesterces to dower his daughter, while Pudentilla, a woman of +fortune, was content with 300,000, and her husband, who has often +refused the hand of the richest heiresses, is also content with this +trifling dowry, a mere nominal sum. He cares for nothing save his wife +and counts the mutual love and harmony of his wedded life as his sole +treasure, his only wealth. Who that had the least experience of life, +would dare to pass any censure if a widow of inconsiderable beauty and +considerable age, being desirous of marriage, had by the offer of a +large dowry and easy conditions invited a young man, who, whether as +regards appearance, character or wealth, was no despicable match, to +become her husband? A beautiful maiden, even though she be poor, is +amply dowered. For she brings to her husband a fresh untainted spirit, +the charm of her beauty, the unblemished glory of her prime. The very +fact that she is a maiden is rightly and deservedly regarded by all +husbands as the strongest recommendation. For whatever else you +receive as your wife's dowry you can, when it pleases you and if you +desire to feel yourself under no further obligation, repay in full +just as you received it; you can count back the money, restore the +slaves, leave the house, abandon the estates. Virginity only, once it +has been given, can never be repaid; it is the one portion of the +dowry that remains irrevocably with the husband. A widow on the other +hand, if divorced, leaves you as she came. She brings you nothing that +she cannot ask back, she has been another's and is certainly far from +tractable to your wishes; she looks suspiciously on her new home, +while you regard her with suspicion because she has already been +parted from one husband: if it was by death she lost her husband, the +evil omen of her ill-starred union minimizes her attractions, while, +if she left him by divorce, she possesses one of two faults: either +she was so intolerable that she was divorced by her husband, or so +insolent as to divorce him. It is for reasons of this kind among +others that widows offer a larger dowry to attract suitors for their +hands. Pudentilla would have done the same had she not found a +philosopher indifferent to her dowry. + +93. Consider. If I had desired her from motives of avarice, what could +have been more profitable to me in my attempt to make myself master in +her house than the dissemination of strife between mother and sons, +the alienation of her children from her affections, so that I might +have unfettered and supreme control over her loneliness? Such would +have been, would it not, the action of the brigand you pretend me to +be. But as a matter of fact I did all I could to promote, to restore +and foster quiet and harmony and family affection, and not only +abstained from sowing fresh feuds, but utterly extinguished those +already in existence. I urged my wife--whose whole fortune according +to my accusers I had by this time devoured--I urged her and finally +persuaded her, when her sons demanded back the money of which I spoke +above, to pay over the whole sum at once in the shape of farms, at a +low valuation and at the price suggested by themselves, and further to +surrender from her own private property certain exceedingly fertile +lands, a large house richly decorated, a great quantity of wheat, +barley, wine and oil, and other fruits of the earth, together with not +less than four hundred slaves and a large number of valuable cattle. +Finally I persuaded her to abandon all claims on the portion she had +given them and to give them good hopes of one day coming into the rest +of the property. All these concessions I extorted from Pudentilla with +difficulty and against her will--I have her leave to tell the whole +story as it happened--I wrung them from her by my urgent entreaty, +though she was angry and reluctant. I reconciled the mother with her +sons, and began my career as a step-father by enriching my step-sons +with a large sum of money. + +94. All Oea was aware of this. Every one execrated Rufinus and +extolled my conduct. Pontianus together with his very inferior brother +had come to visit us, before his mother had completed her donation. He +fell at our feet and implored us to forgive and forget all his past +offences; he wept, kissed our hands and expressed his penitence for +listening to Rufinus and others like him. He also most humbly begged +me to make his excuses to the most honourable Lollianus Avitus to whom +I had recommended him not long before when he was beginning the study +of oratory. He had discovered that I had written to Avitus a few days +previously a full account of all that had happened. I granted him this +request also and gave him a letter with which he set off to Carthage, +where Lollianus Avitus, the term of his proconsulate having nearly +expired, was awaiting your arrival, Maximus. After reading my letters +he congratulated Pontianus with the exquisite courtesy which always +characterizes him for having so soon rectified his error and entrusted +him with a reply. Ah! what learning! what wit! what grace and charm +dwelt in that reply! Only a 'good man and an orator' could have +written it. I know, Maximus, that you will readily give a hearing to +this letter. Indeed, if it is to be read, I will recite it myself. +Give me Avitus' letter. That I should have received it has always +flattered me. To-day it shall do more than flatter, it shall save me! +You may let the water-clock continue, for I would gladly read and +re-read the letter of that excellent man to the third and fourth time +at the cost of any amount of the time allowed me. (_The letter is +read._) + +95. I know that after reading this letter I should bring my speech to +a close. For what ampler commendation, what purer testimony could I +produce in my support, what more eloquent advocacy? I have in the +course of my life listened with rapt attention to many eloquent +Romans, but never have I admired any so much as Avitus. There is in my +opinion no one living of any attainments or promise in oratory who +would not far sooner be Avitus, if he compare him with himself +impartially and without envy. For practically all the different +excellencies of oratory are united in him. Whatever speech Avitus +composes will be found so absolutely perfect and complete in all +respects that it would satisfy Cato by its dignity, Laelius with its +smoothness, Gracchus with its energy, Caesar with its warmth, +Hortensius with its arrangement, Calvus with its point, Sallust with +its economy and Cicero with its wealth of rhetoric. In fact, not to go +through all his merits, if you were to hear Avitus, you would wish +nothing added, withdrawn or altered of anything that he says. + +I see, Maximus, with what pleasure you listen to the recital of the +virtues which you recognize your friend Avitus to possess. Your +courtesy invited me to say a few words about him. But I will not +trespass on your kindness so far as to permit myself to commence a +discourse on his extraordinary virtues at this period of the case. It +is wearing to its end and my powers are almost exhausted. I will +rather reserve the praise of Avitus' virtues for some day when my time +is free and my powers unimpaired. + +96. _Now_, I grieve to say, it is my duty to turn from the description +of so great a man to discuss these pestilent fellows here. + +Do you dare then, Aemilianus, to match yourself against Avitus? Will +you attack with accusations of magic and the black art him whom Avitus +describes as a good man, and whose disposition he praises so warmly in +his letter? Or have you greater reason to be vexed at my forcing my +way into Pudentilla's house and pillaging her goods than Pontianus +would have had, Pontianus, who not only in my presence but even before +Avitus in my absence, made amends for the strife of a few days that +had sprung up between us at your instigation, and expressed his +gratitude to me in the presence of so great a man? Suppose I had read +a report of what took place in Avitus' presence instead of reading +merely his letter. What is there in the whole affair that could give +you or any one else[29] a handle for accusing me? Pontianus himself +considered himself in my debt for the money given him by his mother; +Pontianus rejoiced with the utmost sincerity in his good fortune in +having me for his step-father. Ah! would that he had returned from +Carthage safe and sound! or since it was not fated that that should +be, would that you, Rufinus, had not poisoned his judgement at the +last! What gratitude he would have expressed to me either personally +or in his will! However, as things are, I beg you, Maximus,--it will +not take long--to allow the reading of these letters full of +expressions of respect and affection for myself, which he sent me, +some of them from Carthage, some as he drew near on his homeward +journey, some written while he still enjoyed his health, and some when +the sickness was already upon him. Thus his brother, my accuser, will +realize with what[30] lack of success he pursues his literary studies +compared with his brother of blessed memory. (_Pontianus' letters are +read._) + +[Footnote 29: _quas vel tu vel quisquis_ (Van der Vliet). There is no +doubt as to the sense required: the precise correction must remain +doubtful.] + +[Footnote 30: _quam in omnibus minor Minervae_ (H.E.B.).] + +97. Did you hear the phrases which your brother Pontianus used in +speaking of me? He called me his father, his master, his instructor +not only on various occasions in his lifetime but actually on his +deathbed. I might follow this[31] by producing similar letters from +you, if I thought that the delay thus caused would be worth while. But +I should prefer to produce your brother's recent will, unfinished +though it may be, in which he made most dutiful and respectful mention +of myself. But Rufinus never allowed this will to be drawn up or +completed owing to his chagrin at the loss of the inheritance which he +had regarded in the light of a rich payment[32] for his daughter's +embraces during the few months in which he was Pontianus' +father-in-law. He had further consulted certain Chaldean soothsayers +as to what profit his daughter, whom he regarded in the light of an +investment, would bring him in. They, I am told, prophesied +truly--would they had not--that her first husband would die in a few +months. The rest of the prophecy dealing with the inheritance was as +usual fabricated to suit the desires of their client. But Rufinus +gaped for his prey in vain like a wild beast that has gone blind. For +Pontianus not only did not leave Rufinus' daughter as his heir--he +had discovered her evil character--but he did not even make her a +respectable legacy. He left her by way of insult linen to the value of +200 denarii, to show that he had not forgotten or ignored her, but +that he set this value on her as an expression of his resentment. As +his heirs--in this just as in the former will which has been read +aloud--he appointed his mother and his brother, against whom, mere boy +as he is, Rufinus is, as you see, bringing his old artillery into +play: I refer to his daughter. He thrusts her upon his embraces +although she is considerably his elder and but a brief while ago was +his brother's wife. + +[Footnote 31: _post quae_ (Beyte).] + +[Footnote 32: Omitting Helm's insertion of _praemium_ after _quam_.] + +98. Pudens was so captivated and possessed by the charms of that +harlot and by the beguiling words of the pander, her father, that the +moment his brother had breathed his last, he left his mother and +migrated to his uncle's house. The design was to facilitate the +carrying out of the schemes already afoot by removing him from our +influence. For Aemilianus is backing Rufinus and desires his success. +(_A movement among the audience._) Ah! Thank you! You rightly remind +me that this excellent uncle has hopes of his own mixed up in this +affair, for he knows that if this boy dies intestate he will be his +heir-at-law, whatever he may be in point of equity. I wish I had not +let this slip. I am a man of great self-control and it is not my way +to blurt out openly the silent suspicions that must have occurred to +every one. You did wrong in suggesting this point to me. But to be +frank, if you will have the truth, many have been wondering at the +sudden affection which you, Aemilianus, have begun to show for this +boy since the death of his brother Pontianus, whereas formerly you +were such a stranger to him that frequently, even when you met him, +you failed to recognize the face of your brother's son. But now you +show yourself so patient towards him, you so spoil him by your +indulgence and grant his every whim to such an extent that your +conduct makes the more suspicious think their suspicions well +grounded. You took him from us a mere boy and straightway gave him the +garb of manhood. While he was under our guardianship, he used to go to +school: now he has bidden a long farewell to study and betaken himself +to the delights of the tavern. He despises serious friends, and, boy +as he is, spends his tender years in revelling with the most abandoned +youths among harlots and wine-cups. He rules your house, orders your +slaves, directs your banquets. He is a frequent visitor to the +gladiatorial school and there--as a boy of position should!--he learns +from the keeper of the school the names of the gladiators, the fights +they have fought, the wounds they have received. He never speaks any +language save Punic, and though he may occasionally use a Greek word +picked up from his mother, he neither will nor can speak Latin. You +heard, Maximus, a little while ago, you heard my step-son--oh! the +shame of it!--the brother of that eloquent young fellow Pontianus, +hardly able to stammer out single syllables, when you asked him +whether his mother had given himself and his brother the gifts which, +as I told you just now, she actually gave them with my hearty support. + +99. I call you, therefore, Claudius Maximus, and you, gentlemen, his +assessors, and you that with me stand before this tribunal, to bear +witness that this boy's disgraceful falling away in morals is due to +his uncle here and that candidate for the privilege of becoming his +father-in-law, and that I shall henceforth count it a blessing that +such a step-son has lifted the burden of superintending him from my +shoulders, and that from this day forth I will never intercede for him +with his mother. For recently--I had almost forgotten to mention +it--when Pudentilla, who had fallen ill after the death of her son +Pontianus, was writing her will, I had a prolonged struggle to prevent +her disinheriting this boy on account of the outrageous insult and +injury he had inflicted on her. I prayed her with the utmost +earnestness to erase that most important clause, which, I can assure +you, she had already written, every word of it! Finally, I even +threatened to leave her, if she refused to accede to my request, and +begged her to grant me this boon, to conquer her wicked son by +kindness, and to save me from all the ill feeling which her action +would create. I did not desist till she complied. I regret that I +should have smoothed Aemilianus' way for him and showed him such an +unexpected path[33] to wealth. Look, Maximus, see how confused he is +at hearing this, see how he casts his eyes upon the ground. He had +not unnaturally expected something very different. He knew that my +wife was angry with her son on account of his insolent behaviour and +that she returned my devotion. He had reason also for fear in regard +to myself; for any one else, even if like myself he had been above +coveting the inheritance, would gladly have seen so undutiful a +step-son punished. It was this anxiety above all others that spurred +them on to accuse me. Their own avarice led them falsely to conjecture +that the whole inheritance had been left to me. As far as the past is +concerned, I will dispel your fears on that point. I was proof against +the temptation both of enriching myself and of revenging myself. I--a +step-father, mind you--contended for my wicked step-son with his +mother, as a father might contend against a stepmother in the +interests of a virtuous son; nor did I rest satisfied till, with a +perfectly extravagant sense of fairness, I had restrained my good +wife's lavish generosity towards myself. + +[Footnote 33: _semitam_ (codd. inferiores).] + +100. Give me the will which was made in the interests of so unfilial a +son by his mother. Each word of it was preceded by an entreaty from +myself, whom my accusers speak of as a mere robber. Order the tablets +to be broken open, Maximus. You will find that her son is the heir, +that I get nothing save some trifling complimentary legacy inserted to +avoid the non-appearance of my name, the husband's name, mark you, in +my wife's will, supposing she succumbed to any of the ills to which +this flesh is heir. Take up your mother's will. You are right, in one +respect it is undutiful. She excludes her devoted husband from the +inheritance in favour of her most unfilial son? Nay, it is not her son +to whom she leaves her fortune; she leaves it rather to the greedy +Aemilianus and the matchmaking Rufinus and that drunken gang, that +hang about you and prey upon you. Take it, O best of sons! Lay aside +your mother's love-letters for a while and read her will instead. If +she ever wrote anything while not in her right mind, you will find it +here, nor will you have to go far to find it. 'Let Sicinius Pudens, my +son, be my heir.' I admit it! he who reads this, will think it +insanity. Is this same son your heir, who at his own brother's funeral +attempted with the help of a gang of the most abandoned youths to shut +you out of the house which you yourself had given him, who is so +deeply and bitterly incensed to find that his brother left you co-heir +with himself, who hastened to desert you when you were plunged in +grief and mourning, and fled from your bosom to Aemilianus and +Rufinus, who afterwards uttered many insults against you to your face, +and manufactured others with the help of his uncle, who has dragged +your name through the law-courts, has attempted by using your own +letters publicly to besmirch your fair fame, and has accused upon a +capital charge the husband of your choice, with whom, as Pudens +himself objected, you were madly in love! Open the will, my good boy, +open it, I beg you. You will find it easier then to prove your +mother's insanity. + +Why do you draw back? Why do you refuse to look at it, now that you +are free from all anxiety about the inheritance of your mother's +fortune? + +101. He may do as he likes, Maximus, but for my part I cast these +tablets at your feet and call you to witness that henceforth I shall +show greater indifference as to what Pudentilla may write in her will. +He may approach his mother himself for the future; he has made it +impossible for me to plead for him again. He is now a man and his own +master; henceforth let him himself dictate to his mother the terms[34] +of an unpalatable will, himself smooth away her anger. He who can +plead in court, will be able to plead with his mother. I am more than +satisfied not only to have refuted the miscellaneous accusations +brought against myself, but also to have utterly swept away the +hateful charge on which the whole trial is based, the charge of having +attempted to secure the inheritance for myself. + +[Footnote 34: Omit _qui_ inserted by Helm after _ut_.] + +I will bring one final proof to show the falsity of that last charge +before I bring my speech to a close. I wish to pass nothing over in +silence. You asserted that I bought a most excellent farm in my own +name, but with a large sum of money which belonged to my wife. I say +that a tiny property was bought for 60,000 sesterces, and bought not +by me but by Pudentilla in her own name, that Pudentilla's name is in +the deed of sale, and that the taxes paid on the land are paid in the +name of Pudentilla. The honourable Corvinus Celer, the state treasurer +to whom the tax is paid, is here in court. Cassius Longinus also is +present, my wife's guardian and trustee, a man of the loftiest and +most irreproachable character. I cannot speak of him save with the +deepest respect. Ask him, Maximus, what was the purchase which he +authorized, and what was the trifling sum for which this wealthy lady +bought her little estate. (_Cassius Longinus and Corvinus Celer give +evidence._) + +Is it as I said? Is my name ever mentioned in the deed of sale? Is the +price paid for this trifling property such as should excite any +prejudice against me, or did my wife give me even so much as this +small gift? + +102. What is there left, Aemilianus, that in your opinion I have +failed to refute? What had I to gain by my magic that should lead me +to attempt to win Pudentilla by love-philtres? What had I to gain from +her? A small dowry instead of a large one? Truly my incantations were +miraculous. That she should refund her dowry to her sons rather than +leave it in my possession? What magic can surpass this? That she +should at my exhortation present the bulk of her property to her sons +and leave me nothing, although before her marriage with myself she had +shown them no special generosity? What a criminal use of +love-philtres! or perhaps I had better call it a generous action which +has not received its deserts! By her will, which she drew up in a fit +of violent irritation against her son, she leaves as her heir that +same son with whom she had quarrelled, rather than myself to whom she +was devoted! For all my incantations it was only with difficulty that +I persuaded her to this. Suppose that you were pleading your case, not +before Claudius Maximus, a man of the utmost fairness and unswerving +justice, but before a judge of depraved morals and of ferocious +temper, one in fact who naturally inclined to the side of the accuser +and was only too ready to condemn the accused! Give him some hint to +follow! Give him even the slightest reasonable opportunity for +declaring in your favour! At least invent something, devise some +suitable reply to questions such as have been put to you. Nay, since +every action must necessarily have some motive, answer me this, you +who say that Apuleius tried to influence Pudentilla's heart by magical +charms, answer me this! What did he seek to get from her by so doing? +Was he in love with her beauty? You say not! Did he covet her wealth? +The evidence of the marriage settlement denies it, the evidence of the +deed of gift denies it, the evidence of the will denies it! It shows +not only that I did not court the generosity of my wife, but that I +even repulsed it with some severity. What other motives can you +allege? Why are you struck dumb? Why this silence? What has become of +that ferocious utterance with which you opened the indictment, couched +in the name of my step-son? 'This is the man, most excellent Maximus, +whom I have resolved to indict before you.' + +103. Why did you not add 'He whom I indict is my teacher, my +step-father, my mediator'? But how did you proceed? 'He is guilty of +the most palpable and numerous sorceries.' Produce one of these many +sorceries or at least some doubtful instance from those which you +style so palpable. Nay, see whether I cannot reply to your various +charges with two words to each. 'You clean your teeth.' Excusable +cleanliness. 'You look into mirrors.' Philosophers should. 'You write +verse.' 'Tis permitted. 'You examine fish.' Following Aristotle. 'You +worship a piece of wood.' So Plato. 'You marry a wife.' Obeying law. +'She is older than you.' Nothing commoner. 'You married for money.' +Take the marriage-settlement, remember the deed of gift, read the +will! + +If I have rebutted all their charges, word by word, if I have refuted +all their slanders, if I am beyond reproach, not only as regards their +accusations but also as regards their vulgar abuse, if I have done +nothing to impair the honour of philosophy, which is dearer to me than +my own safety, but on the contrary have smitten my adversary hip and +thigh and vanquished him at all points, if all my contentions are +true, I can await your estimate of my character with the same +confidence with which I await the exercise of your power; for I regard +it as less serious and less terrible to be condemned by the proconsul +than to incur the disapproval of so good and so perfect a man. + + + + +THE FLORIDA + + +_The exordium to a discourse delivered in a town through which +Apuleius passes in the course of a journey._ + +1. It is the usual practice of wayfarers with a religious disposition, +when they come upon a sacred grove or holy place by the roadside, to +utter a prayer, to offer an apple, and pause for a moment from their +journeying. So I, on entering the revered walls of your city, feel +that, for all my haste, it is my duty to ask your favour, to make an +address, and to break the speed of my journey. I cannot conceive aught +that could give a traveller juster cause to halt in sign of reverence; +no altar crowned with flowers, no grotto shadowed with foliage,[35] no +oak bedecked with horns, no beech garlanded with the skins of beasts, +no mound whose engirdling hedge proclaims its sanctity, no tree-trunk +hewn into the semblance of a god, no turf still wet with libations, no +stone astream with precious unguents. For these are but small things, +and though there be a few that seek them out and do them worship, the +majority note them not and pass them by. + +[Footnote 35: _frondibus_, cod. Florent. 29. 2 man. primi +correctoris.] + + +_Man's sight compared with that of the eagle._ + +2. But such was not the opinion of my master Socrates. For once when +he saw a youth of handsome appearance who remained for a long time +without uttering a syllable, he said to him, 'Say something, that I +may see what you are like.' For Socrates felt that a man who spoke not +at all was in a sense invisible, since he held that it was not with +the bodily vision, but with the mind's eye and the sight of the soul +that men should be regarded. In this he disagreed with the soldier in +Plautus, who says, + + _One man that has eyes is better by far as a witness than + ten that have ears._ + +Indeed, for the purpose of examining men he had practically reversed +the meaning of the line to + + _One man that has ears is better by far as a witness than + ten that have eyes._ + +Moreover, if the judgements of the eye were of greater value than +those of the soul, we should assuredly have to yield the palm for +wisdom to the eagle. For we men cannot see things far removed from us +nor yet things that are very near us, but all of us to a certain +extent are blind. And if you confine us to the eyes alone with their +dim earthly vision, the words of the great poet will be very true, +that a cloud as it were is shed upon our eyes and we cannot see beyond +a stone's cast. The eagle, on the other hand, soars exceeding high in +heaven to the very clouds, and rides on his pinions through all that +space where there is rain and snow, regions beyond whose heights +thunderbolts and lightnings have no place, even to the very floor of +heaven and the topmost verge of the storms of earth. And having +towered thus high, with gentle motion he turns his great body to glide +to left or right, directing his wings, that are as sails, whither he +will by the movement of his tail, which, small though it be, serves as +a rudder. Thence he gazes down on the world, staying awhile in that +far height[36] the ceaseless oarage of his wings and, poised almost +motionless with hovering flight, looks all around him and seeks what +prey he shall choose whereon to swoop[37] sudden like a thunderbolt +from heaven on high. In one glance he sees all cattle in the field, +all beasts upon the mountains, all men in their cities, all threatened +at once by his intended swoop, and thence he falls to pierce with his +beak and clutch with his claws the unsuspecting lamb, the timid hare, +or whatsoever living creature chance offers to his hunger or his +talons. + +[Footnote 36: _inhibens_ (Heinsius) _pinnarum eminus_ (MSS.).] + +[Footnote 37: _fulminis vicem de caelo improvisa, simul._ Van der +Vliet places a comma after _vicem_ and gives none after _improvisa_.] + + +_The story of Marsyas and his challenge to Apollo._ + +3. Hyagnis, according to tradition, was the father and instructor of +the piper Marsyas, and skilled in song beyond all others in the years +when music was still in its infancy. It is true that as yet the sound +of his breath lacked the finer modulations; he knew but a few simple +modes and his pipe had but few stops. For the art was but newly born +and only just beginning to grow. There is nothing that can attain +perfection in its first beginnings; everything must commence by +mastering the elements in hope, ere it can attain experience and +success. Well, then, before Hyagnis the majority of musicians could do +no more than the shepherds or cowherds of Vergil who + + _Made sorry strains on pipes of scrannel straw._ + +If any of them seemed to have made some real advance in art, even he +played only on one pipe or one trumpet. Hyagnis was the first to +separate his hands when he played, the first to fill two pipes with +one breath, the first to finger stops with either hand and make sweet +harmony of shrill treble and booming bass. Marsyas was his son, and +though he possessed his father's skill upon the pipe, he was in all +else a barbarous Phrygian, with a filthy beard and the grim and shaggy +face of a wild beast. All his body was covered with hair and bristles, +and yet--good heavens! he is said to have striven for mastery with +Apollo. 'Twas hideousness contending with beauty, a rude boor against +a sage, a beast against a god. The Muses and Minerva, hiding their +amusement, stood by to judge, that they might make a mockery of the +monster's uncouth presumption and punish his stupidity. But Marsyas, +like the peerless fool he was, never perceived that he was an object +of ridicule, and before he began to blow upon his pipes stammered out +in his barbarous jargon some insane boasts about himself and Apollo. +He prided himself on the mane thrown back from his brow, on his +unkempt beard, his shaggy breast, his skill upon the pipes and his +lack of wealth. By contrast--oh the absurdity of it!--he blamed Apollo +for the opposite of these qualities, for being Apollo, for wearing his +hair long, for having a fair face and smooth body, for his skill in so +many arts, and for the opulence of his fortune. 'In the first place,' +he said, 'his hair is smoothed and plastered into tufts and curls that +fall about his brow and hang before his face. His body is fair from +head to foot, his limbs shine bright, his tongue gives oracles, and he +is equally eloquent in prose or verse, propose which you will. What of +his robes so fine in texture, so soft to the touch, aglow with purple? +What of his lyre that flashes gold, gleams white with ivory, and +shimmers with rainbow gems? What of his song, so cunning and so sweet? +Nay, all these allurements suit with naught save luxury. To virtue +they bring shame alone!' And then he proceeded to display his own body +as the model of perfection. The Muses laughed when they heard him +denounce Apollo for possessing gifts such as the wise would pray to +possess, and when this boastful piper had been defeated in the contest +and had been skinned as though he were a two-footed bear, they left +him with his entrails torn and exposed to the air. Thus did Marsyas +sing for his own undoing, and such was his fall. As for Apollo he was +ashamed of so inglorious a victory. + + +_The piper Antigenidas._ + +4. There was a certain piper named Antigenidas, whose every note made +honeyed harmony. He had skill, too, to make music in every mode, +choose which you would, the simple Aeolian or the complex Ionian, the +mournful Lydian, the solemn Phrygian, or the warlike Dorian. Being +therefore the most famous of all that played upon the pipe, he said +that nothing so tormented him, nothing so vexed his heart and soul, as +the fact that the musicians who played the trumpet at funerals were +dignified by the name of pipers. But he would have endured this +identity of names with equanimity, had he ever seen the performance of +mimes; for he would have noted that the magistrates, who preside in +the theatre, and the characters on the stage, who come in for a good +cudgelling, are clad in practically the same purple garments. So too, +had he ever watched our games! For he would have seen one presiding, +another fighting, yet both of them sharing the same common humanity. +He would have noted that the Roman toga is worn alike by him who +performs a vow to heaven and by him that lies dead upon the bier, that +the Grecian pallium serves to shroud the dead no less than to clothe +the philosopher. + + +_Fragment from the opening of a discourse delivered in a theatre._ + +5. You have, I feel assured, come to this theatre with the best will +in the world. For you know that the importance of an oration does not +depend on the place in which it is delivered, but that the first thing +that has to be considered is, 'What form of entertainment is the +theatre going to provide?' If it is a mime, you will laugh; if a +rope-walker, you will tremble lest he fall; if a comedian, you will +applaud him, while, if it be a philosopher, you will learn from him. + + +_India and the Gymnosophists._ + +6. India is a populous country of enormous extent. It lies far to the +east of us, close to the point where ocean turns back upon himself and +the sun rises, on that verge where meet the last of lands and the +first stars of heaven. Far away it lies, beyond the learned Egyptians, +beyond the superstitious Jews and the merchants of Nabataea, beyond +the children of Arsaces in their long flowing robes, the Ityreans, to +whom earth gives but scanty harvest, and the Arabs, whose perfumes are +their wealth. Wherefore I marvel not so much at the great stores of +ivory possessed by these Indians, their harvests of pepper, their +exports of cinnamon, their finely-tempered steel, their mines of +silver and their rivers of gold. I marvel not so much that in the +Ganges they have the greatest of all rivers which + + _Lord of all the waters of the East + Is cloven and parted in a hundred streams. + A hundred vales are his, a hundred mouths, + And hundred-fold the flood that meets the main_; + +nor wonder I that the Indians that dwell at the very portals of day +are yet of the hue of night, nor that in their land vast serpents +engage in combat with huge elephants, to the equal danger and the +common destruction of either; for they envelop and bind their prey in +slippery coils so that they cannot disengage their feet nor in any +wise break the scaly fetters of these clinging snakes, but must needs +find vengeance by hurling their vast bulk to the ground and crushing +the foe that grips them by the weight of their whole bodies. But it is +of the marvels of men rather than of nature that I would speak.[38] +For the dwellers in this land are divided into many castes. There is +one whose sole skill lies in tending herds of oxen, whence they are +known as the oxherds. There are others who are cunning in the barter +of merchandise, others who are sturdy warriors in battle and have +skill to fight at long range with arrows or hand to hand with swords. +There is, further, one caste that is especially remarkable. They are +called gymnosophists. At these I marvel most of all. For they are +skilled--not in growing the vine, or grafting fruit-trees, or +ploughing the soil. They know not how to till the fields, or wash +gold, or break horses, or tame bulls, or to clip or feed sheep or +goats. What, then, is their claim to distinction? This: one thing they +know outweighing all they know not. They honour wisdom one and all, +the old that teach and the young that learn. Nor is there aught I more +commend in them than that they hate that their minds should be +sluggish and idle. And so, when the table is set in its place, before +the viands are served, all the youths leave their homes and +professions to flock to the banquet. The masters ask each one of them +what good deed he has performed between the rising of the sun and the +present hour. Thereupon one tells how he has been chosen as arbiter +between two of his fellows, has healed their quarrel, reconciled their +strife, dispelled their suspicions and made them friends instead of +foes. Another tells how he has obeyed some command of his parents, +another relates some discovery that his meditations have brought him +or some new knowledge won from another's exposition. And so with the +rest of them,[39] they tell their story. He who can give no good +reason for joining in the feast is thrust fasting from the doors to go +to his work. + +[Footnote 38: _libentius ego_ (MSS.).] + +[Footnote 39: _denique ceteri commemorant_ (MSS.).] + + +_On Alexander and false philosophers._ + +7. The famous Alexander, by far the noblest of all kings, won the +title of the Great from the deeds that he had done and the empire he +had built, and thus it was secured that the man who had won glory +without peer should never be so much as named without a word of +praise. For he alone since time began, alone of all whereof man's +memory bears record, after he had conquered a world-wide empire such +as none may ever surpass, proved himself greater than his fortune. By +his energy he challenged the most glorious successes that fortune +could bestow, equalled them by his worth, surpassed them by his +virtues, and stood alone in peerless glory, so that none might dare +even hope for such virtue or pray for such fortune. The life of this +Alexander is marked by so many lofty deeds and glorious acts, be it of +prowess in the battle or statecraft in the council chamber, that you +may marvel at them till you are weary. It is the story of all these +great achievements that my friend Clemens, most learned and sweetest +of poets, has attempted to glorify in the exquisite strains of his +verse. + +Now among the most remarkable acts recorded of Alexander is this. +Desiring that his likeness should be handed down to posterity with as +little variation as possible, he refused to permit it to be profaned +by a multitude of artists, and issued a proclamation to all the world +over which he ruled that no one should rashly counterfeit the king's +likeness in bronze or with the painter's colours, or with the +sculptor's chisel. Only Polycletus might portray him in bronze, only +Apelles depict him in colour, only Pyrgoteles carve his form with the +engraver's chisel. If any other than these three, each supreme in his +peculiar art, should be discovered to have set his hand to reproduce +the sacred image of the king, he should be punished as severely as +though he had committed sacrilege. This order struck such fear into +all men that Alexander alone of mankind was always like his portraits, +and that every statue, painting, or bronze revealed the same fierce +martial vigour, the same great and glorious genius, the same fresh and +youthful beauty, the same fair forehead with its back-streaming hair. +And would that philosophy could issue a like proclamation that should +have equal weight, forbidding unauthorized persons to reproduce her +likeness; then the study and contemplation of wisdom in all her +aspects would be in the hands of a few good craftsmen who had been +carefully trained, and unlettered fellows of base life and little +learning would ape the philosopher no longer (though their imitation +does not go beyond the professor's gown), and the queen of all +studies, whose aim is no less excellence of speech than excellence of +life, would no longer be profaned by evil speech and evil living: and, +mark you, profanation of either kind is far from hard. What is more +readily come by than madness of speech and worthlessness of character? +The former springs from contempt of others, the latter from contempt +of self. For to show little care for one's own character is +self-contempt, while to attack others with uncouth and savage speech +is an insult to those that hear you. For is it not the height of +insolence, think you, that a man should deem you to rejoice in hearing +abuse of the best of men, and should believe that you do not +understand evil and wicked words, or, if you do understand them, hold +them to be good? What boor, what porter, what taverner is so poor of +speech that could not curse more eloquently than these folk, if he +would consent to assume the professor's gown? + + +_A eulogy of the proconsul of Africa._ + +8. He owes more to his personal character than to his rank, although +even his rank is one that is shared by few. For out of numberless +multitudes of men not many are senators, of senators but few are of +noble birth, of the noble but few attain to the rank of consul, of +consuls but few are good, and of the good but few are learned. But to +confine what I have to say to his high office, 'tis not lightly that +any man may assume the insignia of his rank either as regards clothing +or foot-gear. + + +_A defence of himself against his critics and a laudation of the +proconsul Severianus._ + +9. If it should so chance that in this magnificent gathering there +should sit any of those that envy or hate me, since in a great city +persons may always be found who prefer to abuse rather than imitate +persons better than themselves, and, since they cannot be like them, +affect to hate them. They do this of course in order to illumine the +obscurity that shrouds their own names by the splendour that falls +from mine; if then, I say, any one of these envious persons sullies +this distinguished audience with the stain of his presence, I would +ask him for a moment to cast his eyes round this incredibly vast +concourse. When he has contemplated a throng such as before my day +never yet gathered to listen to a philosopher, let him consider in his +heart how great a risk to his reputation is undertaken by a man who is +not used to contempt in appearing here to-day; for it is an arduous +task, and far from easy of accomplishment, to satisfy even the +moderate expectations of a few. Above all it is difficult for me, for +the fame I have already won and your own kindly anticipation of my +skill will not permit me to deliver any ill-considered or superficial +utterance. For what man among you would pardon me one solecism or +condone the barbarous pronunciation of so much as one syllable? Who of +you will suffer me to stammer in disorderly and faulty phrases such as +might rise to the lips of madmen? In others of course you would pardon +such lapses, and very rightly so. But you subject every word that _I_ +utter to the closest examination, you weigh it carefully, you try it +by the plumb-line and the file, you test it by the polish of the lathe +and the sublimity of the tragic buskin. Such is the indulgence +accorded to mediocrity, such the severity meted out to distinction. I +recognize, therefore, the difficulty of the task that lies before me, +and I do not ask you to alter the opinions you entertain of me. Yet I +would not have you deceived by false and petty resemblances, for, as I +have often said, there are certain strolling beggars who assume a +professor's gown to win their livelihood. Not only the proconsul, but +the town crier also ascends the tribunal and appears wearing the toga +like his master. But the crier stands upon his feet for hours +together, or strides to and fro, or bawls his news with all the +strength of his lungs. The proconsul, on the contrary, speaks quietly +and with frequent pauses, sits while he speaks, and often reads from a +written document. This is only natural. For the garrulous voice of the +crier is the voice of a hired servant, the words read by the +proconsul from a written document constitute a judgement, which, once +read, may not have one letter added to it or taken away, but so soon +as it is delivered, is set down in the provincial records. My literary +position will provide a humble analogy. All that I utter before you is +forthwith taken down and read. I can withdraw or change nothing, nor +make the least correction. I must therefore be all the more careful in +what I say before you, and that too with regard to more than one form +of composition. For there is greater variety in the works of my muse +than in all the elaborate achievements of Hippias. If you will give me +your best attention I will explain what I mean with greater detail and +precision. + +Hippias was one of the sophists, and surpassed all his fellows in the +variety of his accomplishments, while as an orator he was second to +none. He was a contemporary of Socrates, and a native of Elis. Of his +family nothing is known. But his fame was great, his fortune moderate; +moreover he had a noble wk and an extraordinary memory, pursued many +branches of study, and had many rivals. This Hippias, of whom I speak, +once came to Pisa during the Olympian games arrayed in raiment that +was as remarkable to the eye as it was wonderful in its workmanship. +For he had purchased nothing of what he wore: it was all the work of +his own hands, the clothes in which he was clad, the shoes wherewith +he was shod, and the jewels that made him conspicuous. Next his skin +he wore an undershirt of triple weft and the finest texture, double +dyed with purple. He had woven it for himself in his own house with +his own hands. He had for girdle a belt, broidered in Babylonian +fashion with many varied colours. In this also no man else had helped +him. For outer garment he had a white cloak cast about his shoulders; +this cloak also is known to have been the work of his own hands. He +had fashioned even the shoes that covered his feet and the ring of +gold with its cunningly engraved signet which he displayed on his left +hand. Himself he had wrought the circle of gold, had closed the bezel +around the gem and engraved the stone. I have not yet told you all the +tale of his achievements. But I will not shrink from enumerating all +the marvels that he thought it no shame to show. For he proclaimed +before that vast concourse that his own hands had fashioned the +oil-flask which he carried. It was in shape a flattened sphere, and +its outlines were round and smooth. Beside it he showed an exquisite +flesh-scraper, the handle[40] of which was straight, while the tongue +was curved and grooved with hollow channels, so that the hand might +have a firm grip and the sweat might be carried off in a trickling +stream from the blade. Who could withhold praise from a man who had +such manifold knowledge of so many arts, who had won such glory in +every branch of knowledge, who was, in fact, a very Daedalus,[41] such +skill had he to fashion so many useful instruments? Nay, I myself +praise Hippias, but I prefer to imitate his fertile genius in respect +of the learning, rather than of the furniture with which it was so +richly equipped. I have, I confess, but indifferent skill in these +sedentary arts. When I want clothes I buy them from the weaver, when I +want sandals, such as I am now wearing, I purchase them from the +shoemaker. I do not carry a ring, since I regard gold and precious +stones of as little value as pebbles or lead. As for flesh-scrapers +and oil-flasks and other utensils of the bath I procure them in the +market. I will not go to the extent of denying that I am wholly +ignorant how to use a shuttle, an awl, a file, a lathe, and other +tools of the kind, but I confess that I infinitely prefer to all these +instruments one simple pen, with which I may write poems of all kinds, +such as may suit with the reciter's wand and the accompaniment of the +lyre or grace the comic or the tragic stage. Satires also do I write +and riddles, histories also on diverse themes, speeches that the +eloquent and dialogues that philosophers have praised. Nay, and I +write all these and much besides with equal fluency in Greek and +Latin, with equal pleasure, like ardour and uniform skill. Most +excellent proconsul, I would I could offer all these works of mine not +in fragments and quotations but in entirety and completeness! Would I +might enjoy the priceless boon of your testimony to the merits of all +the offspring of my muse! It is not that I lack praise, for my glory +has long bloomed fresh and bright before the eyes of all your +predecessors, till to-day it is presented to you! But there is none +whose admiration I would more gladly win than yours, for I admire you +beyond all other men by reason of your surpassing virtues. Such is the +ordinance of nature. Praise implies love and, love once given to +another, we demand his praise in return. And I acknowledge that I love +you; no private tie of interest binds me to you, it is in your public +capacity that you have won my devotion. I have never received any +favour at your hands, for I have never asked for one. But philosophy +has taught me not only to love my benefactors, but even such as may +have done me injury, to attach greater importance to justice than to +my private interests, and to prefer the furtherance of the public +welfare to the service of my own. And so it comes about that while +most men love you for the actual benefits conferred upon them by your +goodness, I love you for the zeal with which that goodness is +inspired. And the secret of my devotion is this. I have seen your +moderation in dealing with the affairs of the inhabitants of this +province, a moderation which has won the affection of those who have +come into contact with you by the benefits you have conferred on them, +of those with whom you have never come into contact by the good +example you have set. For while many have received your benefits, all +have profited by your example. Who would not gladly learn from you by +what moderation one may acquire your pleasing gravity, your severity +tempered with mercy, your unruffled resolution and the kindly energy +of your character? Africa has within my knowledge had no proconsul +whom she reverenced more or feared less. Your year of office stands +alone; for in it shame rather than fear has been the motive to set a +check on crime. No other invested with your power has more often +blessed, more rarely terrified: no governor has ever brought a son +with him more like his father's virtues than is yours; and for this +reason no proconsul has ever resided longer at Carthage than have you. +For during the period which you devoted to visiting the province, +Honorinus remained with us; wherefore, though we have never regretted +our governor's absence more, we have felt it less. For the son has all +his father's sense of justice, the youth has all an old man's wisdom, +the deputy has all the consul's authority. In a word, he presents such +a perfect pattern and likeness of your virtues, that the glory +acquired by one so young would, I vow, be a greater source of wonder +than your own, save for one fact; he has inherited it from you. Would +we might live in the joy of his perpetual presence! What need have we +of change of governors? What profit of these short years, these +fleeting months of office? Ah! how swiftly pass the days, when the +good are with us, how quickly spent the term of power for all the best +of those who have ruled over us! Ah! Severianus, the whole province +will sigh for your departure. But Honorinus at least is called away +by the honours which are his due; the praetorship awaits him; the +favour of the two Caesars forms him for the consulate; to-day our love +enfolds him, and the hopes of Carthage promise that in the years to +come he will be here once more. Your example is our sole comfort; he +who has served as deputy shall soon return to us as proconsul! + +[Footnote 40: _clausulae_ vulgo.] + +[Footnote 41: _Daedalum_ (Krueger).] + + +_On Providence and its marvels._ + + 10. _First hail we thee, O Sun, + Whose fiery course and rushing steeds reveal + The glowing splendour of thy ardent flame._ + +Hail we also the Moon, who learns of his light how she herself may +shine, and the influences also of the five planets--Jupiter that +brings blessings, Venus that brings pleasure, Mercury the giver of +swiftness, Saturn the worker of bane, Mars with his temper of fire. +There are also other divine influences, that lie midway 'twixt earth +and heaven, influences that we may feel but not see, such as the power +of Love and the like, whose force we feel, though we have never seen +their form. So too on earth 'tis this force that, in accordance with +the wise behests of providence, here bids the lofty peaks of mountains +rise, there has spread forth the low flat levels of the plain, has +marked out the streams of rivers and the greensward of the meadows, +has given birds the power to fly, reptiles to crawl, wild beasts to +run, and men to walk. + + +_A comparison between those who lack wealth and those who lack +virtue._ + +11. He whose soul is barren of virtue is like those poor wretches that +till a barren inheritance of stony fields, mere heaps of rocks and +thorns. Since they may win no harvest from their own wildernesses, and +find no fruit in a soil where only + + _Wild oats and darnel rank have mastery_, + +conscious of their own poverty they go forth to steal the fruits of +others and rifle their gardens, that they may mingle their neighbours' +flowers with their own thistles. + + +_On the Parrot._ + +12. The parrot is an Indian bird, in size very slightly smaller than a +dove. But there is nothing dovelike in its hue. For it has nothing of +the milky whiteness or dull blue, blended or distinct, nor yet of the +pale yellow or iridescence that characterize the dove. The parrot is +green from the roots of its feathers to their very tips, save only for +the markings on the neck. For its tiny neck is girdled and crowned +with a slender band of crimson like a collar of gold, which is of +equal brilliance through all its extent. Its beak is extraordinarily +hard. If after it has soared to a great height it swoops headlong on +to some rock, it breaks the force of its fall with its beak, which it +uses as an anchor. Its head is not less hard than its beak. When it is +being taught to imitate human speech, it is beaten over the head with +an iron wand, that it may recognize its master's command. This is the +rod of its school-days. It can be taught to speak from the day of its +birth to its second year, while its mouth is still easily formed and +its tongue sufficiently soft to learn the requisite modulations. On +the other hand, if caught when it is old, it is hard to teach and +forgets what it has learned. The parrot which is most easily taught +the language of man is one that feeds on acorns and manlike has five +toes on each foot. All parrots do not possess this last peculiarity, +but there is one point which all have in common: their tongue is +broader than that of any other bird. Wherefore they articulate human +words more easily owing to the size of their palate and the organ of +speech. When it has learnt anything, it sings or rather speaks it out +with such perfect imitation that, if you should hear it, you would +think a man was speaking; on the contrary if you hear a crow[42] +attempting to speak, you would still call the result croaking rather +than speech. But crow and parrot are alike in this; they can only +utter words that they have been taught. Teach a parrot to curse and it +will curse continually, making night and day hideous with its +imprecations. Cursing becomes its natural note and its ideal of +melody. When it has repeated all its curses, it repeats the same +strain again. Should you desire to rid yourself of its bad language, +you must either cut out its tongue or send it back as soon as possible +to its native woods. + +[Footnote 42: _corvinam quidem si audias idem conantem, crocire non +loqui._ The text is corrupt, Van der Vliet's suggestion probably gives +the correct sense.] + + +_A comparison between the eloquence of the philosopher and the song of +birds._ + +13. ... For the eloquence bestowed on me by philosophy has no +resemblance to the song that nature has given to certain birds which +sing but for a brief space and at certain times only. For instance, +the swallows sing at morn, the cicalas at noon, the night-owl late in +the dark, the screech-owl at even, the horned-owl at midnight, the +cock before the dawn. Indeed these animals seem to have made a compact +together as to the various times and tones of their song. The crowing +of the cock is a sound should wake men from their beds, the horned-owl +groans, the screech-owl shrieks, the night-owl cries 'tuwhit, tuwhoo', +the cicalas chatter, and the swallows twitter shrill. But the wisdom +and eloquence of the philosopher are ready at all times, waken awe in +them that hear, are profitable to the understanding, and their music +is of every tone. + + +_On Crates the Cynic._ + +14. These arguments and the like which he had heard from the lips of +Diogenes, together with others which suggested themselves to him on +other occasions, had such influence with Crates, that at last he +rushed out into the market-place and there renounced all his fortune +as being a mere filthy encumbrance, a burden rather than a benefit. +His action having caused a crowd to collect, he cried in a loud voice, +saying, 'Crates, even Crates sets thee free.' Thenceforth he lived not +only in solitude, but naked and in perfect freedom and, so long as he +lived, his life was happy. And such was the passion he inspired that a +maiden of noble birth, spurning suitors more youthful and more wealthy +than he, actually went so far as to beg him to marry her. In answer +Crates bared his shoulders which were crowned with a hump, placed his +wallet, staff and cloak upon the ground, and said to the girl, 'There +is all my gear! and your eyes can judge of my beauty. Take good +counsel, lest later I find you complaining of your lot.' But Hipparche +accepted his conditions, replying that she had already considered the +question and taken sufficient counsel, for nowhere in all the world +could she find a richer or a fairer husband. 'Take me where you will!' +she cried.... + + +_Of the isle of Samos and Pythagoras._ + +15. Samos is an island of no great size in the Icarian sea, and lies +over against Miletus to the west, with but a small space of sea +between them. In whichever direction you sail from this island, though +you make no great haste, the next day will see you safe in harbour. +The land does not respond readily to the cultivation of corn, and it +is waste of time to plough it. But the olive grows better in it, and +those who grow vines or vegetables have no fault to find with it. Its +farmers are entirely taken up with hoeing the ground and the +cultivation of trees, for it is from these rather than from cereals +that Samos derives its wealth. The native population is numerous, and +the island is visited by many strangers. The capital town is unworthy +of its reputation, but the abundant ruins of its walls testify to its +former size. + +It possesses, however, a temple of Juno famous from remote antiquity: +to reach it, if I remember aright, one must follow the shore for not +more than twenty furlongs from the city. The treasury of the goddess +is extraordinarily rich, containing great quantities of gold and +silver plate, in the form of platters, mirrors, cups, and all manner +of utensils. There is also a great quantity of brazen images of +different kinds. These are of great antiquity, and remarkable for +their workmanship; I may mention one of them in particular, a statue +of Bathyllus standing in front of the altar; it was the gift of the +tyrant Polycrates, and I think I have never seen anything more +perfect. Some hold that it represents Pythagoras, but this opinion is +incorrect. The statue represents a youth of remarkable beauty; his +hair is parted evenly in the midst of his forehead and streams over +either cheek. Behind his hair is longer and reaches down to his +shoulders, covering the neck whose sheen one may detect between the +tresses. The neck is plump, the jaws full, the cheeks fine, and there +is a dimple in the middle of his chin. His pose is that of a player on +the lyre. He is looking at the goddess, and has the appearance of one +that sings, while his embroidered tunic streams to his very feet. He +is girt in the Greek style, and a cloak covers either arm down to the +wrists. The rest of the cloak hangs down in graceful folds. His lyre +is fastened by an engraven baldric, which holds it close to the body. +His hands are delicate and taper. The left touches the strings with +parted fingers, the right is in the attitude of one that plays and is +approaching the lyre with the plectrum, as though ready to strike as +soon as the voice ceases for a moment to sing. Meanwhile the song +seems to well forth from the delicate mouth, whose lips are half open +for the effort. This statue may represent one of the youthful +favourites of the tyrant Polycrates[43] hymning his master's love in +Anacreontic[44] strain. But it is far from[45] likely that it is a +statue of the philosopher Pythagoras. It is true he was a native of +Samos, remarkable for his unusual beauty, and skilled beyond all men +in harping and all manner of music, and living at the period when +Polycrates was lord of Samos. But the philosopher was far from being a +favourite of this tyrant. Indeed Pythagoras fled secretly from the +island at the very beginning of the tyrant's reign. He had recently +lost his father Mnesarchus, who was, I read, a skilful jeweller +excelling in the carving of gems, though it was fame rather than +wealth that he sought in the exercise of his art. There are some who +assert that Pythagoras was about this time carried to Egypt among the +captives of King Cambyses, and studied under the _magi_ of Persia, +more especially under Zoroaster the priest of all holy mysteries; +later they assert he was ransomed by a certain Gillus, King of Croton. +However, the more generally accepted tradition asserts that it was of +his own choice he went to study the wisdom of the Egyptians. There he +was initiated by their priests into the mighty secrets of their +ceremonies, passing all belief; there he learned numbers in all their +marvellous combinations, and the ingenious laws of geometry. Not +content with these sciences, he next approached the Chaldaeans and the +Brahmins, a race of wise men who live in India.[46] Among these +Brahmins he sought out the gymnosophists. The Chaldaeans taught him +the lore of the stars, the fixed orbits[47] of the wandering lords of +heaven, and the influence of each on the births of men. Also they +instructed him in the art of healing, and revealed to him remedies in +the search for which men have lavished their wealth and wandered far +by land and sea.[48] But it was from the Brahmins that he derived the +greater part of his philosophy, the arts of teaching the mind and +exercising the body, the doctrines as to the parts of the soul and its +various transmigrations, the knowledge of the torments and rewards +ordained for each man, according to his deserts, in the world of the +gods below. Further he had for his master Pherecydes, a native of the +island of Syros and the first who dared throw off the shackles of +verse and write in the free style of unfettered prose. Pherecydes died +of a horrible disease, for his flesh rotted and was devoured of lice; +Pythagoras buried him with reverent care. He is said also to have +studied the laws of nature under Anaximander of Miletus, to have +followed the Cretan Epimenides, a famous prophet skilled also in rites +of expiation, that he might learn from him and also Leodamas, the +pupil of Creophylus, the reputed guest and rival of the poet Homer. +Taught by so many sages, and having drained such deep and varied +draughts of learning through all the world, and being moreover dowered +with a vast intellect whose grandeur almost passes man's +understanding, he was the founder of the science and the inventor of +the name of philosophy. The first of all his lessons to his disciples +was the lesson of silence. With him meditation was a necessary +preliminary to wisdom, meditation set a bridle on all speech, robbed +words, which poets style winged, of their pinions and restrained them +within the white barrier of the teeth. This, I tell you, was for him +the first axiom of wisdom, 'Meditation is learning, speech is +unlearning.' His disciples, however, did not refrain from speech all +their lives, nor did their master impose dumbness on all for a like +space of time. For those of more solid character a brief term of +silence was considered sufficient discipline; the more talkative were +punished by exile from speech for as much as five years. I may add +that my master Plato deviates little or not at all from the principles +of this school, and in most of his utterances is a follower of +Pythagoras. And that I too might win from my instructors the right to +be called one of his followers, I have learned this double lesson in +the course of my philosophical studies--to speak boldly when there is +need of speech and gladly to be mute when there is need of silence. As +a result of this self-command, I think I may say that I have won from +your predecessors no less praise for my seasonable silence than +approval for the timeliness of my speech. + +[Footnote 43: _qui_ vulgo.] + +[Footnote 44: _Anacreonteum_ vulgo.] + +[Footnote 45: _ceterum multum abest_ (MSS.).] + +[Footnote 46: Omitting _illa_ before _Indiae gens est_.] + +[Footnote 47: _statos ambitus_ (Krueger).] + +[Footnote 48: _mortalibus_ MSS. _late pecuniis_ (Stewech).] + + +_An oration of thanks to Aemilianus Strabo and the senate of Carthage +for decreeing a statue in his honour._ + +16. Before I begin, illustrious representatives of Africa, to thank +you for the statue, with the demand for which you honoured me while I +was still with you, setting the seal upon your kindness by actually +decreeing its erection during my absence, I wish first to explain to +you why I absented myself for a considerable number of days from the +sight of my audience and betook myself to the Persian baths, where the +healthy may find delightful bathing, and the sick a no less welcome +relief. For I have resolved to make it clear to you, to whose service +I have dedicated myself irrevocably and for ever, that every moment of +my life is well spent. There shall be no action of mine, important or +trivial, but you shall be informed of it and pass judgement upon it. +Well then! to come to the reason for my sudden departure from the +presence of this most distinguished assembly, I will tell you a story +of the comic poet Philemon which is not so very unlike my own and will +serve to show you how sudden and unexpected are the perils that +threaten the life of man. You all are well acquainted with his +talents, listen then to a few words concerning his death, or perhaps +you would like a few words on his talents as well. + +This Philemon was a poet, a writer of the middle comedy, and composed +plays for the stage in competition with Menander and contested against +him. He may not have been his equal, he was certainly his rival. Nay, +on not a few occasions--I am almost ashamed to mention it--he actually +defeated him. However this may be, you will certainly find his works +full of humour: the plots are full of wittily contrived intrigue, the +_denouements_ clear, the characters suited to the situations, the +words true to life, the jests never unworthy of true comedy, the +serious passages never quite on the level of tragedy. Seductions are +rare in his plays; if he introduces love affairs, it is as a +concession to human weakness. That does not, however, prevent the +presence in his plays of the faithless pander, the passionate lover, +the cunning slave, the coquetting mistress, the jealous wife whose +word is law, the indulgent mother, the crusty uncle, the friend in +need, the warlike soldier, aye and hungry parasites, skinflint +parents, and saucy drabs. One day, long after these excellences had +made him famous as a writer of comedy, he happened to give a +recitation of a portion of a play which he had just written. He had +reached the third act, and was beginning to arouse in his audience +those pleasurable emotions so dear to comedy, when a sudden shower +descended and forced him to put off the audience gathered to hear him +and the recitation which he had just begun. A similar event befell me, +you will remember, quite recently when I was addressing you. However, +Philemon, at the demand of various persons, promised to finish his +recitation the next day without further postponement. On the morrow, +therefore, a vast crowd assembled to hear him with the utmost +enthusiasm. Everybody who could do so took a seat facing the stage and +as near to it as he could get. Late arrivals made signs to their +friends to make room for them to sit: those who sat at the end of a +row complained of being thrust off their seat into the gangway; the +whole theatre was crammed with a vast audience. A hum of +conversation[49] arose. Those who had not been present the previous +day began to ask what had been recited; those who had been present +began to recall what they had heard, and finally when everybody had +made themselves acquainted with what had preceded, all began to look +forward to what was to come. Meanwhile the day wore on and Philemon +failed to come at the appointed time. Some blamed the poet for the +delay, more defended him. But when they had sat there for quite an +unreasonable length of time and still Philemon did not make his +appearance, some of the more active members of the audience were sent +to fetch him. They found him lying in his bed--dead. He had just +breathed his last, and lay there upon the couch stiff and stark in the +attitude of one plunged in meditation. His fingers still were twined +about his book, his mouth still pressed against the page he had been +reading. But the life had left him; he had forgotten his book, and +little recked he now of his audience. Those who had entered the room +stood motionless for a space, struck dumb by the strange suddenness of +the blow and the wondrous beauty of his death. Then they returned and +reported to the people that the poet Philemon, for whom they were +waiting that there in the theatre he might finish the drama of his +imagination, had finished the one true play, the drama of life, in his +own home. To this world he had said 'farewell' and 'applaud', but to +his friends 'weep and make your moan'. 'The shower of yesterday,' they +continued, 'was an omen of our tears; the comedy has ended in the +torch of funeral or ever it could come to the torch of marriage. Nay, +since so great a poet has laid aside the mask of this life, let us go +straight from the theatre to perform his burial. 'Tis his bones we now +must gather to our hearts; his verse must for awhile take second +place.' + +[Footnote 49: _loqui_ (Van der Vliet).] + +It was long ago that I first learned the story I have just told you, +but the peril I have undergone during the last few days[50] has +brought it afresh to my mind. For when my recitation was--as I am sure +you remember--interrupted by the rain, at your desire I put it off +till the morrow, and in good truth it was nearly with me as it was +with Philemon. For on that same day I twisted my ankle so violently at +the wrestling school that I almost tore the joint from my leg. +However, it returned to its socket, though my leg is still weak with +the sprain. But there is more to tell you. My efforts to reduce the +dislocation were so great that my body broke out into a profuse sweat +and I caught a severe chill. This was followed by agonizing pain in my +bowels, which only subsided when its violence was on the point of +killing me. A moment more and like Philemon I should have gone to the +grave, not to my recital, should have finished not my speech but my +destiny, should have brought not my tale but my life to a close. Well +then, as soon as the gentle temperature and still more the soothing +medical properties of the Persian baths had restored to me the use of +my foot--for though it gave naught save the most feeble support, it +sufficed me in my eagerness to appear before you--I set forth to +perform my pledge. And in the interval you have conferred such a boon +upon me that you have not only removed my lameness but have made me +positively nimble. + +[Footnote 50: The reading is uncertain. Van der Vliet's suggestion +seems to give the outline of the sense desired.] + +Was I not right to make all speed that I might express my boundless +gratitude for the honour which you have conferred unasked. True, +Carthage is so illustrious a city that it were an honour to her that a +philosopher should beg to be thus rewarded, but I wished the boon you +have bestowed on me to have its full value with no taint of +detraction, to suffer no loss of grace by any petition on my part, in +a word to be wholly disinterested. For he that begs pays so heavily, +and so large is the price that he to whom the petition is addressed +receives, that, where the necessaries of life are concerned, one had +rather purchase them one and all than ask them as a gift. Above all, +this principle applies to cases where honours are concerned. He to +whom they come as the result of importunate petition owes[51] no +gratitude for his success to any save himself. On the other hand, he +who receives honours without descending to vexatious canvassing is +obliged to the givers for two reasons; he has not asked and yet he has +received. The thanks, therefore, which I owe you are double or rather +manifold, and my lips shall proclaim them at all times and places. But +on the present occasion I will, as is my wont, make public +protestation of my gratitude from a written address which I have +specially composed in view of this distinction. For assuredly that is +the method in which a philosopher should return thanks to a city that +has decreed him a public statue. My discourse will, however, depart +slightly from this method as a mark of respect to the exalted +character and position of Aemilianus Strabo. I hope that I may be able +to compose a suitable discourse if only you will permit me to submit +it to your approbation[52] to-day. For Strabo is so distinguished a +scholar, that his own talents bring him even greater honour than his +noble rank and his tenure of the consulate. In what terms, Aemilianus +Strabo, who of all men that have been, are, or yet shall be, are most +renowned among the virtuous, most virtuous among the renowned, most +learned amongst either, in what terms can I hope to thank or +commemorate the gracious thoughts you have entertained for me? How may +I hope adequately to celebrate the honour to which your kindness has +prompted you? How may my speech repay you worthily for the glory +conferred by your action? It baffles my imagination. But I will seek +earnestly and strive to find a way + + _While breath still rules these limbs and memory + Is conscious of its being._ + +[Footnote 51: _unam gratiam_ vulgo.] + +[Footnote 52: _vobis comprobari_ (Krueger).] + +For at the present moment, I will not deny it, the gladness of my +heart is too loud for my eloquence, I cannot think for pleasure, +delight is master of my soul and bids me rejoice rather than speak. +What shall I do? I wish to show my gratitude, but my joy is such that +I have not yet leisure to express my thanks. No one, however sour and +stern he be, will blame me if the honour bestowed on me makes me no +less nervous[53] than appreciative, if the testimony to my merits, +delivered by a man of such fame and learning, has transported me with +exultation. For he delivered it in the senate of Carthage, a body +whose kindness is only equalled by its distinction; and he that spoke +was one who had held the consulship, one by whom it were an honour +even to be known. Such was the man who appeared before the most +illustrious citizens of the province of Africa to sing my praise! + +[Footnote 53: _non minus uereor quam intellego_ (Krueger).] + +I have been told that two days ago he sent a written request in which +he demanded that my statue should be given a conspicuous place, and +above all told of the bonds of friendship which began under such +honourable circumstances, when we served together beneath the banner +of literature and studied under the same masters; he then recorded[54] +all the good wishes for his success with which I had welcomed each +successive step of his advance in his official career. He had already +done me a compliment in remembering that I had once been his fellow +student: it was a fresh compliment that so great a man should record +my friendship for him as though I were his equal. But he went further. +He stated that other peoples and cities had decreed not only statues, +but other distinctions as well in my honour. Could anything be added +to such a panegyric as this, delivered by the lips of an ex-consul? +Yes: for he cited the priesthood I had undertaken, and showed that I +had attained the highest honour that Carthage can bestow. But the +greatest and most remarkable compliment[55] paid me was this: after +producing such a wealth of flattering testimonials he commended me to +your notice by himself voting in my favour. Finally, he, a man in +whose honour every province rejoices through all the world to erect +four or six horse chariots, promised that he would erect my statue at +Carthage at his own expense. + +[Footnote 54: _nunc postea vota omnia mea_ (MSS.).] + +[Footnote 55: om. _honos_ following MSS.] + +What lacks there to sanction and establish my glory and to set it on +the topmost pinnacle of fame? I ask you, what is there lacking? +Aemilianus Strabo, who has already held the consulship and is +destined, as we all hope and pray, soon to be a proconsul, proposed +the resolution conferring these honours upon me in the senate-house of +Carthage. You gave your unanimous assent to the proposal. Surely in +your eyes this was more than a mere resolution, it was a solemn +enactment of law. Nay more, all the Carthaginians gathered in this +august assembly showed such readiness in granting a site for the +statue that they might make it clear to you that, if they put off a +resolution for the erection of a second statue, as I hope,[56] to the +next meeting of the senate, they were influenced by the desire to show +the fullest reverence and respect to their honourable consular, and to +avoid seeming to emulate rather than imitate his beneficence. That is +to say, they wished to set apart a whole day for the business of +conferring on me the public honour still in store. Moreover, these +most excellent magistrates, these most gracious chiefs of your city, +remembered that the charge with which you men of Carthage had +entrusted them was in full harmony with their desires. Would you have +me be ignorant, be silent, as to these details? It would be rank +ingratitude. Far from that, I offer my very warmest thanks to the +whole assembly for their most lavish favour. I could not be more +grateful. For they have honoured me with the most flattering applause +in that senate-house, where even to be named is the height of honour. +And so I have in some sense achieved--pardon my vanity--that which was +so hard to achieve, and seemed indeed not unnaturally to be beyond my +powers. I have won the affections of the people, the favour of the +senate, the approbation of the magistrates and the chief men of the +city. What lacks there now to the honour of my statue, save the price +of the bronze and the service of the artist? These have never been +denied me even in small cities. Much less shall Carthage deny it, +Carthage, whose senate, even where greater issues are at stake, +decrees and counts not the cost. But I will speak of this more fully +at a later date, when you have given fuller effect to your resolution. +Moreover, when the time comes for the dedication of my statue, I will +proclaim my gratitude to you yet more amply in another written +discourse, will declare it to you, noble senators, to you, renowned +citizens, to you, my worthy friends. Yes, I will commit my gratitude +to the retentive pages of a book, that it may travel through every +province and, worlds and ages hence, record my praises of your +kindness to all peoples and all time. + +[Footnote 56: _quantum spero_ (MSS.).] + + +_Fragment of a panegyric on Scipio Orfitus._ + +17. I leave it to those who are in the habit of obtruding themselves +upon their proconsul's leisure moments[57] to attempt to commend their +wits by the exuberance of their speech, and to glorify themselves by +affecting to bask in the smiles of your friendship. Both of these +offences are far from me, Scipio Orfitus. For on the one hand my poor +wit, such as it is, is too well known to all men to have any need of +further commendation; on the other hand, I prefer to enjoy rather than +to parade the friendship of yourself and such as you; I desire such +friendship, but I do not boast of it, for desire can in no case be +other than genuine, whereas boasting may always be false. With this in +view I have ever cultivated the arts of virtue, I have always sought +both here in Africa and when I moved among your friends in Rome to win +a fair name both for my character and studies, as you yourself can +amply testify, with the result that you should be no less eager to +court my friendship than I to long for yours. Reluctance to excuse the +rarity of a friend's appearances is a sign that you desire his +continual presence; if you delight in the frequency of his visits or +are angry with him for neglecting to come, if you welcome his company +and regret its cessation, it is clear proof of love, since it is +obvious that his presence must be a pleasure whose absence is a pain. +But the voice, if it be refrained in continued silence, is as useless +as the nostrils when choked by a cold in the head, the ears when they +are blocked with dirt, the eyes when they are sealed by cataract. What +can the hands do, if they are fettered, or what the feet, if they are +shackled? What can[58] the mind that rules and directs us do, if it be +relaxed in sleep or drowned in wine or crushed beneath the weight of +disease? Nay, as the sword acquires its sheen by usage, and rusts if +it lie idle, so the voice is dulled by its long torpor if it be hidden +in the sheath of silence. Desuetude must needs beget sloth, and sloth +decay. If the tragic actor declaim not daily, the resonance of his +voice is dulled and its channels grow hoarse. Wherefore he purges his +huskiness by loud and repeated recitation. However, it is vain toil +and useless labour[59] for a man to attempt to improve the natural +quality of the human voice. There are many sounds that surpass it. The +trumpet's blare is louder, the music of the lyre more varied, the +plaint of the flute more pleasing, the murmurs of the pipe sweeter, +the message of the bugle further heard. I forbear to mention the +natural sounds of many animals which challenge admiration by their +different peculiarities, as, for instance, the deep bellow of the +bull, the wolf's shrill howl, the dismal trumpeting of the elephant, +the horse's lively neigh, the bird's piercing song, the angry roar of +the lion, together with the cries of other beasts, harsh or musical, +according as they are roused by the madness of anger or the charms of +pleasure. In place of such cries the gods have given man a voice of +narrower compass; but if it give less delight to the ear, it is far +more useful to the understanding. Wherefore it should be all the more +cultivated by the most frequent use, and that nowhere else[60] than in +the presence of an audience presided over by so great a man, and in +the midst of so numerous and distinguished a gathering of learned men +who come kindly disposed to hear. For my part, if I were skilled to +make ravishing music on the lyre, I should never play save before +crowded assemblies. It was in solitude that + + _Orpheus to woods, to fish Arion sang._ + +[Footnote 57: om. _et negotiosis_ following MSS.] + +[Footnote 58: _quid si etiam_ (Krueger).] + +[Footnote 59: _cassus labor supervacaneo studio. Plurifariam +superatur_, (MSS.). The reading is uncertain, but the above +punctuation will yield adequate sense.] + +[Footnote 60: om. _usquam libentius_ with MSS.] + +For if we may believe legend, Orpheus had been driven to lonely exile, +Arion hurled from his ship. One of them soothed savage beasts, the +other charmed beasts that were compassionate: both musicians were +unhappy, inasmuch as they strove not for honour nor of their free +choice, but for their safety and of hard necessity. I should have +admired them more if they had pleased men, not beasts. Such solitude +were far better suited to birds, to blackbird and nightingale and +swan. The blackbird whistles like a happy boy in distant wilds, the +nightingale trills its song of youthful passion in the lonely places +of Africa, the swan by far-off rivers chants the music of old age. But +he who would produce a song that shall profit boys, youths, and +greybeards, must sing it in the midst of thousands of men, even as now +I sing the virtues of Orfitus. It is late, perhaps, but it is meant in +all earnestness, and may prove no less pleasing than profitable to the +boys, the youths, and the old men of Carthage. For all have enjoyed +the indulgence of the best of all proconsuls: he has tempered their +desires and restrained them with gentle remedies, he has given to boys +the boon of plenty, to young men merriment, and to the old security. +But now, Scipio, that I have come to touch on your merits, I fear lest +either your own noble modesty or my own native bashfulness may close +my mouth. But I cannot refrain from touching on a very few of the many +virtues which we so justly admire in you. Citizens whom he has saved, +show with me that you recognize them! + + +_A discourse pronounced before the Carthaginians, incidentally +treating of Thales and Protagoras._ + +18. You have come in such large numbers to hear me that I feel I ought +rather to congratulate Carthage for possessing so many friends of +learning among her citizens than demand pardon for myself, the +professed philosopher who ventures to speak in public. For the crowd +that has collected is worthy of the grandeur of our city, and the +place chosen for my speech is worthy of so great a multitude. +Moreover, in a theatre we must consider, not the marble of its +pavements, not the boards of the stage, nor the columns of the +back-scene, nay, nor yet the height of its gables, the splendour of +its fretted roofs, the expanse of its tiers of seats; we need not call +to mind that this place is sometimes the scene for the foolery of the +mime, the dialogue of comedy, the sonorous rant of tragedy, the +perilous antics of the rope-walker, the juggler's sleight of hand, the +gesticulation of the dancer, with all the tricks of their respective +arts that are displayed before the people by other artists. All these +considerations may be put on one side; all that we need consider is +this, the discourse of the orator and the reasons for the presence of +the audience. Wherefore, just as poets in this place shift the scene +to various other cities--take, for instance, the tragic poet who makes +his actor say + + _Liber, that dwellest on these heights august + Of famed Cithaeron_ + +or the comic poet who says + + _Plautus but asks you for a tiny space + Within the circuit vast of these fair walls, + Whither without the aid of architect + He may transport old Athens,--_ + +even so I beg your leave to shift my scene, not, however, to any +distant city overseas, but to the senate-house or public library of +Carthage. I ask you, therefore, if any of my utterances be worthy of +the senate-house, to imagine that you are listening to me within the +very walls of the senate-house; if my words reveal learning, I beg you +to regard them as though you were reading them in the public library. +Would that I could find words enough to do justice to the magnitude of +this assembly and did not falter just when I would be most eloquent. +But the old saying is true, that heaven never blesses any man with +unmixed and flawless prosperity; even in the keenest joys there is +ever some slight undertone of grief, some blend of gall and honey; +there is no rose without a thorn. I have often experienced the truth +of this, and never more than at the present moment. For the more I +realize how ready you are to praise me, the more exaggerated becomes +the awe in which I stand of you, and the greater my reluctance to +speak. I have spoken to strange audiences often, and with the utmost +fluency, but now that I am confronted with my own folk, I hesitate. +Strange to say, I am frightened by what should allure, curbed by what +should spur me on, and restrained by what should make me bold. There +is much that should give me courage in your presence. I have made my +home in your city which I knew well as a boy, and where my student +days were spent. You know my philosophic views, my voice is no +stranger to you, you have read my books and approved of them. My +birthplace is represented in the council of Africa, that is, in your +own assembly; my boyhood was spent with you, you were my teachers, it +was here that my philosophy found its first inspiration, though 'twas +Attic Athens brought it to maturity, and, during the last six years, +my voice, speaking in either language, has been familiar to your ears. +Nay more, my books have no higher title to the universal praise that +is theirs, than the fact that you have passed a favourable judgement +upon them. All these great and varied allurements, appealing as they +do to you as well as to me, hamper and intimidate me just in +proportion as they attract you to the pleasure of hearing me. I should +find it far easier to sing your praises before the citizens of some +other city than to your face. To such an extent is it true that +modesty is a serious obstacle to one confronted by his fellow +citizens, while truth may speak unfettered in the presence of +strangers. But always and everywhere I praise you as my parents and +the first teachers of my youth, and do my best to repay my debt. But +the reward I offer you is not that which the sophist Protagoras +stipulated to receive and never got, but that which the wise Thales +got without ever stipulating for it. What is it you want? Ah! I +understand. I will tell you both stories. + +Protagoras was a sophist with knowledge on an extraordinary number of +subjects, and one of the most eloquent among the first inventors of +the art of rhetoric. He was a fellow citizen and contemporary of the +physicist Democritus, and it was from Democritus he derived his +learning. The story runs that Protagoras made a rash bargain with his +pupil Euathlus, contracting for an exceptionally high fee on the +following conditions. The money was to be paid if Euathlus was +successful in the first suit he pleaded in court. The young man +therefore first learned all the methods employed to win the votes of +the jurors, all the tricks of opposing counsel, and all the artifices +of oratory. This he did with ease, for he was a very clever fellow +with a natural aptitude for strategy. When he had satisfied himself +that he had learned all he desired to know, he began to show +reluctance to perform his part of the contract. At first he baffled +his teacher's requests for payment by interposing various ingenious +delays, and for a considerable time refused either to plead in court +or to pay the stipulated fee. At last Protagoras called him into +court, set forth the conditions under which he had accepted him as a +pupil, and propounded the following dilemma. 'If I win,' he said, 'you +must pay the fee, for you will be condemned to do so. If you win, you +will still have to pay under the terms of your contract. For you will +have won the first suit you have ever pleaded. So if you win, you lose +under the terms of the contract: if you are defeated, you lose by the +sentence of the court.' What more would you have? The jury thought the +argument a marvel of shrewdness and quite irrefutable. But Euathlus +showed himself a very perfect pupil of so cunning a master, and turned +back the dilemma on its inventor. 'In that case,' he replied, 'I owe +your fee under neither count. For either I win and am acquitted by the +court, or lose and am released from the bargain, which states that I +do not owe you the fee if I am defeated in my first case in court. And +this is my first case! So in any case I come off scot free; if I lose, +I am saved by the contract; if I win, by the verdict of the jury.' +What think you? Does not the opposition of these sophistic arguments +remind you of brambles, that the wind has entangled one with another? +They cling together; thorns of like length on either side, each +penetrating to an equal depth, each dealing wound for wound. So we +will leave Protagoras' reward to shrewd and greedy folk. It involves +too many thorny difficulties. Far better is that other reward, which +they say was suggested by[61] Thales. + +[Footnote 61: _Thalem ... suasisse_ (MSS.).] + +Thales of Miletus was easily the most remarkable of the famous seven +sages. For he was the first of the Greeks to discover the science of +geometry, was a most accurate investigator of the laws of nature, and +a most skilful observer of the stars. With the help of a few small +lines he discovered the most momentous facts: the revolution of the +years, the blasts of the winds, the wanderings of the stars, the +echoing miracle of thunder, the slanting path of the zodiac, the +annual turnings of the sun, the waxing of the moon when young, her +waning when she has waxed old, and the shadow of her eclipse; of all +these he discovered the laws. Even when he was far advanced into the +vale of years, he evolved a divinely inspired theory concerning the +period of the sun's revolution through the circle in which he moves +in all his majesty. This theory, I may say, I have not only learned +from books, but have also proved its truth by experiment. This theory +Thales is said to have taught soon after its discovery to Mandraytus +of Priene. The latter, fascinated by the strangeness and novelty of +his newly acquired knowledge, bade Thales choose whatever recompense +he might desire in return for such precious instruction. 'It is enough +recompense,' replied Thales the wise, 'if you will refrain from +claiming as your own the theory I have taught you, whenever you begin +to impart it to others, and will proclaim me and no other as the +discoverer of this new law.' In truth that was a noble recompense, +worthy of so great a man and beyond the reach of time. For that +recompense has been paid to Thales down to this very day, and shall be +paid to all eternity by all of us who have realized the truth of his +discoveries concerning the heavens. + +Such is the recompense I pay you, citizens of Carthage, through all +the world, in return for the instruction that Carthage gave me as a +boy. Everywhere I boast myself your city's nursling, everywhere and in +every way I sing your praises, do zealous honour to your learning, +give glory to your wealth and reverent worship to your gods. Now, +therefore, I will begin by speaking of the god Aesculapius. With what +more auspicious theme could I engage your ears? For he honours the +citadel of our own Carthage with the protection of his undoubted +presence. See, I will sing to you both in Greek and Latin a hymn +which I have composed to his glory and long since dedicated to him. +For I am well known as a frequenter of his rites, my worship of him is +no new thing, my priesthood has received the smile of his favour, and +ere now I have expressed my veneration for him both in prose and +verse. Even so now I will chant a hymn to his glory both in Greek and +Latin. I have prefaced it with a dialogue likewise in both tongues, in +which Sabidius Severus and Julius Persius shall speak together. They +are men who are deservedly bound alike to one another, and to you and +the public weal by the closest ties of friendship. Both are equally +distinguished for their learning, their eloquence, and their +benevolence. It is difficult to say whether they are more remarkable +for their great moderation, their ready energy, or the distinction of +their career. They are united one to another by the most complete +harmony. There is but one point on which rivalry exists between them, +namely this: they dispute which has the greater love for Carthage; for +this they contend with all their strength and all their soul, and +neither is vanquished in the contest. Thinking, then, that you would +be most delighted to listen to their converse, and that such a theme +suited my powers and would be a welcome offering to the god, I begin +at the outset of my book by making one of my fellow students of Athens +demand of Persius in Greek what was the subject of the declamation +delivered by myself on the previous day in the temple of Aesculapius. +As the dialogue proceeds I introduce Severus to their company. His +part is written in the language of Rome. For Persius, although a +master of Latin, shall yet to-day speak to you in the Attic tongue. + + +_A story of the physician Asclepiades._ + +19. The famous Asclepiades, who ranks among the greatest of doctors, +indeed, if you except Hippocrates, as the very greatest, was the first +to discover the use of wine as a remedy. It requires, however, to be +administered at the proper moment, and it was in the discovery of the +right moment that he showed especial skill, noting most carefully the +slightest symptom of disorder or undue rapidity of the pulse. It +chanced that once, when he was returning to town from his country +house, he observed an enormous funeral procession in the suburbs of +the city. A huge multitude of men who had come out to perform the last +honours stood round about the bier, all of them plunged in deep sorrow +and wearing worn and ragged apparel. He asked whom they were burying, +but no one replied; so he went nearer[62] to satisfy his curiosity and +to see who it might be that was dead, or, it may be, in the hope to +make some discovery in the interests of his profession. Be this as it +may, he certainly snatched the man from the jaws of death as he lay +there on the verge of burial. The poor fellow's limbs were already +covered with spices, his mouth filled with sweet-smelling unguent. He +had been anointed and was all ready for the pyre. But Asclepiades +looked upon him, took careful note of certain signs, handled his body +again and again and perceived that the life was still in him, though +scarcely to be detected. Straightway he cried out 'He lives! Throw +down your torches, take away your fire demolish the pyre, take back +the funeral feast and spread it on his board at home'. While he spoke +a murmur arose; some said that they must take the doctor's word, +others mocked at the physician's skill. At last, in spite of the +opposition offered even by his relations, perhaps because they had +already entered into possession of the dead man's property, perhaps +because they did not yet believe his words, Asclepiades persuaded them +to put off the burial for a brief space. Having thus rescued him from +the hands of the undertaker, he carried the man home, as it were from +the very mouth of hell, and straightway revived the spirit within him, +and by means of certain drugs called forth the life that still lay +hidden in the secret places of the body. + +[Footnote 62: _uti_ (Beyte) _cognosceret more ingenii_ (MSS.). _more +ingenii_ may be corrupt. If it may stand, it must mean 'as his nature +prompted him', i.e. to satisfy his curiosity.] + + +_A panegyric on his own talents._ + +20. There is a remarkable saying of a wise man concerning the +pleasures of the table to the effect that, 'The first glass quenches +thirst, the second makes merry, the third kindles desire, the fourth +madness.' But in the case of a draught from the Muses' fountain the +reverse is true. The more cups you drink and the more undiluted the +draught the better it will be for your soul's good. The first cup is +given by the master that teaches you to read and write and redeems you +from ignorance[63], the second is given by the teacher of literature +and equips you with learning, the third arms you with the eloquence of +the rhetorician. Of these three cups most men drink. I, however, have +drunk yet other cups at Athens--the imaginative draught of poetry, the +clear draught of geometry, the sweet draught of music, the austerer +draught of dialectic, and the nectar of all philosophy, whereof no man +may ever drink enough. For Empedocles composed verse, Plato dialogues, +Socrates hymns, Epicharmus music, Xenophon histories, and Xenocrates +satire. But your friend Apuleius cultivates all these branches of art +together and worships all nine Muses with equal zeal. His enthusiasm +is, I admit, in advance of his capacity, but that perhaps makes him +all the more praiseworthy, inasmuch as in all high enterprises it is +the effort that merits praise, success is after all a matter of +chance. As an illustration I may remind you, that the law punishes +even the premeditation of crime, though the criminal's purpose may +never have been carried out; the hand may be pure, but there is blood +upon the soul, and that suffices. As, then, to call down the doom of +law it suffices to purpose deeds meet for punishment, so to win praise +it is sufficient to essay deeds worthy of the voice of fame; and what +greater or surer claim to praise may any man have than to glorify +Carthage? For you, her citizens, are full of learning to a man, your +boys learn, your young men display, and your old men teach all manner +of knowledge. Carthage is the venerable instructress of our province, +Carthage is the heavenly muse of Africa, Carthage is the fount whence +all the Roman world draws draughts of inspiration. + +[Footnote 63: _litteratoris, ruditate_ (Krueger).] + + +_An excuse for delay caused by social duties._ + +21. Sometimes even when haste is most incumbent on us, the delays that +slow our progress may bring such honour, that often we shall be glad +to have been thwarted of our purpose. For instance, take the case of +persons who are compelled to journey in such high haste, that they +prefer the perils of the saddle to a seat in a carriage on account of +the trouble caused by their baggage, the weight of the vehicle, the +delays to progress, the roughness of the track, not to mention the +boulders that beset the route, the tree trunks fallen across the way, +the rivers that intersect the level, and the steep slopes of the +mountains. Well, then, those who wish to avoid all these obstacles +select a horse of tried endurance, mettle, and speed, that is to say, +one strong to bear and swift to go, like the horse described by +Lucilius that + + _With one sole stride o'erpasses plain and hill._ + +None the less, if as this horse bears them along on the wings of his +speed, they chance to see some great personage, a man of noble birth, +high wisdom, and universal fame, then, however pressing their haste, +they refrain their speed that they may do him honour, slacken their +pace and rein in their horse: then straightway leaping to the ground +they transfer to their left hand the switch, which they carry +wherewith to beat the horse, and with right hand thus left free +approach the great man and salute him. If it please him for a while to +ask questions of them, they will walk with him for a while and talk +with him: in fact they will gladly suffer any amount of delay in the +performance of the duty which they owe him. + + +_On the Virtues of Crates._ + +22. Crates, the well-known disciple of Diogenes, was honoured at +Athens by the men of his own day as though he had been a household +god. No house was ever closed to him, no head of a family had ever so +close a secret as to regard Crates as an unseasonable intruder: he was +always welcome; there was never a quarrel, never a lawsuit between +kinsfolk, but he was accepted as mediator and his word was law. The +poets tell that Hercules of old by his valour subdued all the wild +monsters of legend, beast or man, and purged all the world of them. +Even so our philosopher was a very Hercules in the conquest of anger, +envy, avarice, lust, and all the other monstrous sins that beset the +human soul. He expelled all these pests from their minds, purged +households, and tamed vice. Nay, he too went half-naked and was +distinguished by the club he carried, aye, and he sprang from that +same Thebes, where Hercules, men say, was born. Even before he became +Crates pure and simple, he was accounted one of the chief men in +Thebes: his family was noble, his establishment numerous, his house +had a fair and ample porch: his lands were rich and his clothing +sumptuous. But later, when he understood that the wealth which had +been transmitted to him, carried with it no safeguard whereon he might +lean as on a staff in the ways of life, but that all was fragile and +transitory, that all the wealth that is in all the world was of no +assistance to a virtuous life.... + + +_On the uncertainty of fortune._ + +23. Imagine some good ship, wrought by skilled hands, well built +within and fairly adorned without, with rudder answering to the touch, +taut rigging, lofty mast, resplendent tops, and shining sails; in a +word, supplied with all such gear as may serve either for use or the +delight of the eye. Imagine all this and then think how easily, if the +tempest and no helmsman be her guide, the deep may engulf her or the +reefs grind her to pieces with all her goodly gear. Again, when +physicians enter a sick man's house to visit him, none of them bids +the invalid be of good cheer on account of the exquisite balconies +with which they see the house to be adorned, nor on account of the +fretted ceilings all overlaid with gold, or the multitudes of handsome +boys and youths that stand about the couch in his chamber. Rather the +physician sits down by the man's bedside, takes his hand, feels it and +explores the beat and movements of the pulse. If he discovers any +irregularity or disorder, he informs his patient that he is seriously +ill. Our rich man is bidden fast: on that day mid all the abundant +store of his own house, he touches not even bread: and meanwhile all +his slaves feast and are merry, and their servile state makes no +difference to them. + + +_An improvisation._ + +24. You have asked me to give you an improvisation. Listen then. You +have heard me speak prepared, now hear me unprepared. I think I risk +but little in making an attempt to speak without premeditation in view +of the extraordinary approval which I have won by my set speeches. For +having pleased you by more serious efforts, I have no fear of +displeasing you when I speak on a frivolous subject. But in order that +you may know me in all my infinite variety, make trial of me in what +Lucilius called + + _The improviser's formless art_, + +and see whether I have the same skill at short notice as I have after +preparation; if indeed there be any of you who have never heard the +trifles I toss off on the spur of the moment. You will listen to them +with the same critical exactitude that I have bestowed on their +composition, but with greater complaisance, I hope, than I can feel in +reciting them. For prudent judges are wont to judge finished works by +a somewhat severe standard, but are far more complaisant to +improvisations. For you weigh and examine all that is actually +written, but in the case of extempore speaking pardon and criticism go +hand in hand, as it is right they should. For what we read forth from +manuscript will remain such as it was when set down, even though you +say nothing, but those words which I must utter now and the travail of +whose birth you must share with me, will be just such as your favour +shall make them. For the more I modify my style to suit your taste, +the more I shall please you.[64] I see that you hear me gladly. From +this moment it lies with you to furl or spread my sails, that they +hang not slack and drooping nor be reefed and brailed. + +[Footnote 64: _modificabor, tanto a vobis in maius tolletur._ So all +editions before Van der Vliet. The words _tanto ... tolletur_ have no +MS. support, but some such insertion is necessary for the sense.] + +I will try to apply the saying of Aristippus. Aristippus was the +founder of the Cyrenaic school of philosophy and was a disciple of +Socrates--a fact which he regarded as the greater honour of the two. A +certain tyrant asked him what benefit he had derived from so long and +so devoted a study of philosophy. 'It has given me the power,' replied +Aristippus, 'to converse with all men without fear or concern.' + +My speech has begun with a certain abruptness of expression due to the +suddenness with which the subject suggested itself to me. It is as +though I were building a loose wall in which one must be content to +pile the stones haphazard without filling the interior with rubble, +levelling the front, or making all lines true to rule. For in building +up this speech I shall not bring stones from my own quarry, hewn +foursquare and planed on all sides with their outer edge cut smooth +and level, so that the nail slips lightly over it. No! at every point +I must fit in material that is rough and uneven, or slippery and +smooth, or jagged, projecting and angular, or round and rolling. There +will be no correction by rule, no measure or proportion, no attention +to the perpendicular. For it is impossible to produce a thing on the +spur of the moment and to give it careful consideration, nor is there +anything in the world that can hope at one and the same time to be +praised for its care and admired for its speed. + + +_The fable of the fox and the crow._ + +25. I have complied with the desire of certain persons who just now +begged me to speak extempore. But, by Hercules, I fear that I may +suffer the fate that befell the crow in Aesop's fable: namely, that in +the attempt to win this new species of glory I may lose the little I +have already acquired. What is this parable, you ask me? I will gladly +turn fabulist for awhile. A crow and a fox caught sight of a morsel of +food at the same moment and hurried to seize it. Their greed was +equal, but their speed was not. Reynard ran, but the crow flew, with +the result that the bird was too quick for the quadruped, sailed down +the wind on extended pinions, outstripped and forestalled him. Then, +rejoicing at his victory in the race for the booty, the crow flew into +a neighbouring oak and sat out of reach on the topmost bough. The fox +being unable to hurl a stone, launched a trick at him and reached him. +For coming up to the foot of the tree, he stopped there, and seeing +the robber high above him exulting in his booty, began to praise him +with cunning words. 'Fool that I was thus vainly to contend with +Apollo's bird! For his body is exquisitely proportioned, neither +exceeding small nor yet too large, but just of the size demanded by +use and beauty; his plumage is soft, his head sharp and fine, his beak +strong. Nay, more, he has wings with which to follow, keen eyes with +which to see, and claws with which to seize his prey. As for his +colour, what can I say? There are two transcendent hues, the blackness +of pitch and the whiteness of snow, the colours that distinguish night +and day. Both of these hues Apollo has given to the birds he loves, +white to the swan and black to the crow. Would he had given the latter +a voice like the sweet song he has conferred upon the swan, that so +fair a bird, so far excelling all the fowls of the air, might not +live, as now he lives, voiceless, the darling of the god of eloquence, +but himself mute and tongueless.' When the crow heard that, though +possessed of so many qualities, there yet lacked this one, he was +seized with a desire to utter as loud a cry as possible, that the swan +might not have the advantage of him in this respect at any rate, and +forgetting the morsel which he held in his beak, he opened his mouth +to its widest extent, and thus lost by his song what his wings had won +him, while the fox recovered by craft what his feet had lost him. Let +us reduce this fable to the smallest number of words possible. The +crow, to prove himself musical--for the fox pretended that this, the +absence of a voice, was the sole slur on such exquisite beauty--began +to croak, and delivered over the spoil which he carried in his mouth +to the enemy who had thus ensnared him. + + +_A transition from Greek to Latin._ + +26. I have known for a long time what it is your demonstrations +demand: namely, that I should deal with the rest of my material in +Latin. For I remember that at the very beginning, when you were +divided in opinion, I promised that neither party among you, neither +those who insisted on Greek nor those who insisted on Latin, should go +away without hearing the language he desired. Wherefore, if it seems +good to you, let us consider that my speech has been Attic long +enough. It is time to migrate from Greece to Latium. For we are now +almost half through our inquiry and, as far as I can see, the second +half does not yield to the first part which I have delivered in Greek. +It is as strong in argument, as full of epigram, as rich in +illustration and as admirable in style. + + + + +NOTES + + +THE APOLOGIA + +CHAPTER 1. _Claudius Maximus_, proconsul of Africa, is spoken of as +having succeeded Lollianus Avitus. Lollianus Avitus was consul in 144 +A.D. As ten to thirteen years usually elapsed between tenure of the +consulate and proconsulate, Lollianus Avitus may have been proconsul +154-7 A.D., and Claudius Maximus 155-8 A.D. + +_gentlemen who sit beside him on the bench._ The governor of the +province, when holding his assize, would be assisted by a _consilium_ +of assessors drawn partly from his staff, partly from the local +_conventus civium Romanorum_. + +_Granii._ Nothing is known of this suit. Granii are mentioned as +connexions of Lollius Urbicus (C.I.L. viii. 6705). + +CHAPTER 2. _Lollius Urbicus_ is described a few lines lower down as +_praefectus urbi_, which is borne out by an inscription (C.I.L. vi. +28). The lawsuit of Aemilianus must therefore have been heard at Rome. +The explanation of the words _quam quidem vocem_, &c., which follow, +imply that Lollius was now in Numidia. This is possible enough since +an inscription (C.I.L. viii. 6705) proves him to have been a native of +Tiddis in Numidia. The _praefectus urbi_ was assisted by a +_consilium_, not by _iudices_. Here the members of the _consilium_ are +described as _consulares_. [Cp. Karlowa, Roem. Rechtgesch., p. 551.] + +CHAPTER 4. _not merely in Latin but also in Greek._ Cp. Florida, +chaps. 18 and 26. + +_Tannonius Pudens_, an advocatus of the accusers and, presumably, a +relative. + +_Homer_, sc. Il. iii. 65. + +_Pythagoras_, inventor of the term [Greek: philosophia]; cp. Diog. +Laert. i, proem. 12. He was a native of Samos and migrated to Croton. +See Florida, chap. 15. Floruit circa 530 B.C. + +_Zeno_ of Velia or Elea in Lucania was the founder of dialectic. +Floruit circa 450 B.C. + +_self inconsistency._ The phrase _argumenta ambifariam dissolvere_ is +very obscure. I am indebted to Professor Cook Wilson for the following +note. 'A comparison of the passage with the captious argument of +Protagoras (Florida, chap. 17, _ambifariam proposuit_), which is in +the form of a dilemma, might suggest that _ambifariam_ in both places +means "by dilemma". But this is not a natural way of describing the +method of Zeno. The characteristic of his philosophy was, according to +tradition, that he tried to prove the thesis of Parmenides negatively +by disproving the hypothesis contradictory to it. The disproof +consisted in showing that the hypothesis in question involved a +contradiction. If, therefore, _ambifariam_ means "by dilemma" it would +appear that Apuleius did not understand the true characteristic of +Zeno's method; for _dissolvere_ should refer to Zeno's method of +disproof, which is not properly called dilemma. + +'But perhaps it is not necessary to assume such a mistake on the part +of Apuleius. _Ambifariam_ may mean "ambiguously" in the sense of +involving both sides of a contradiction (i.e. both of two +contradictory propositions). This would suit the Protagoras passage +well, for the argument, as the context shows, involves a +contradiction. Zeno's argumentation also could be correctly described +as _ambifariam dissolvere_, because he refuted the thesis opposed to +that of Parmenides by showing that it involves a contradiction. Then +the meaning of the passage would be that Zeno's cleverness +(_sollertissimum artificium_) lay in the use of the _reductio ad +absurdum_ argument. In that case the translation would be as given in +the text.' I find a confirmation of Professor Cook Wilson's view in +the following line, cited from Timon of Phlius by Diog. Laert. ix. v. +2, where the word [Greek: amphoteroglossos] is used with reference to +Zeno's methods of argument, sc. [Greek: amphoteroglossou te mega +sthenos ouk alapadnon]. + +_Plato_, sc. Parmenides, 127_b_. + +_capital charge._ There is an untranslatable pun here, _capitalis_ +bearing the double meaning 'capital' and 'pertaining to the head'. + +CHAPTER 5. _Statius Caecilius_, one of the most famous writers of +comedy. He died 168 B.C. + +CHAPTER 6. _tooth-powder_, clearly a magical compound according to the +accusers. + +_Catullus_, sc. xxxix. 17-21. + +CHAPTER 7. _the barrier of the teeth._ Homer, Odyss. i. 64. + +CHAPTER 8. _the crocodile._ See Herodotus ii. 68. + +CHAPTER 9. _Teian_, sc. Anacreon, circa 520 B.C. + +_Lacedaemonian_, sc. Alcman, circa 650 B.C. + +_Cean_, sc. Simonides, circa 520 B.C. + +_Lesbian_, sc. Sappho, circa 600 B.C. + +_Aedituus_, _Porcius_, _Catulus_, erotic epigrammatists of the +Republican period, 130-100 B.C. The latter was Marius' colleague in +the Cimbrian wars. + +_Solon._ The line ascribed to Solon is almost too gross in the +original to be genuine. + +_Diogenes_, the founder of the Cynic school (died 324 B.C.), wrote +'concerning marriage and the begetting of children' in an erotic +fashion. Diog. Laert. vi. 2. 12. + +_Zeno_ of Citium, founder of the Stoic school (died 264 B.C.), wrote +an 'art of love'. Diog. Laert. vii. 21. 29. + +CHAPTER 10. _Ticidas_, an erotic poet, contemporary with Catullus and, +like him, belonging to the Alexandrian school. + +_Lucilius_, the first of Rome's great satirists (148-103 B.C.), +famous for the extraordinary vigour with which he lashed the vices of +the age. The allusion in the present passage is unknown, though a +fragment is preserved containing the name of Macedo and possibly also +of Gentius (cp. Baehrens, Fragm. Poet. Rom., p. 168). + +_the Mantuan poet._ Vergil, Ecl. ii. + +_Serranus_, the cognomen of Atilius Regulus, consul 257 B.C., the +famous Regulus of the first Punic war. + +_Curius_ Dentatus, thrice consul, and victor over the Samnites and +Pyrrhus. + +_Fabricius_, general in the war against Pyrrhus. Consul in 282 and 278 +B.C. These three great soldiers were selected as types of Roman +virtue. Cp. Verg. Aen. vi. 485. + +_Dion_, brother-in-law and son-in-law of Dionysius II, tyrant of +Syracuse, the friend and pupil of Plato, and for a brief space tyrant +of Syracuse. + +CHAPTER 11. _Catullus_ xvi. 5. + +_Hadrian_, Emperor, 117-138 A.D. + +_Voconius_, mentioned here only. + +CHAPTER 12. _Venus is not one goddess but two._ For this doctrine see +Plato's Symposium, p. 181. + +_Afranius_, the most famous writer of purely Roman comedy (_fabulae +togatae_), floruit circa 110 B.C. + +CHAPTER 13. _Ennius_ (239-169 B.C.), the 'father of Roman Poetry'. Cp. +Cic. de Or. ii. 156 'ac sic decrevi philosophari potius ut Neoptolemus +apud Ennium "paucis: nam omnino haud placet"'. + +_the mirror_, clearly regarded by the accusers, though Apuleius does +not say so, as a magical instrument. + +CHAPTER 15. _The Lacedaemonian Agesilaus_, the greatest of the Spartan +kings, 440-360 B.C. Cp. Cic. ad Fam. v. 12. + +_Socrates._ Cp. Diog. Laert. ii. 5, 33. + +_Demosthenes_ and _Plato_. Cp. Quint. xii. 2. 22 and 10. 23. + +_Eubulides_, a sophist of Miletus. Cp. Diog. Laert. ii. 10. 4. + +_the orator when he wrangles_, &c. The pun on _iurgari_, 'wrangles,' +and _obiurgari_, 'rebukes,' can scarcely be reproduced. 'Disproves' +and 'disapproves' would weaken the translation. + +_Epicurus_ of Samos, born 342 B.C. For his views on vision cp. Lucret. +iv. 156, on mirrors, 293. + +_Plato._ Cp. Timaeus, p. 46 A, 'Within the eyes they (the gods) +planted that variety of fire which does not burn, but it is called +light homogeneous with the light without. We are enabled to see in the +daytime, because the light within our eyes pours out through the +centre of them and commingles with the light without. The two being +thus confounded together transmit movements from every object they +touch through the eye inward to the soul, and thus bring about the +sensation of the sight.' Grote's Plato iii. 265. + +_Archytas_ of Tarentum, a Pythagorean (circa 400 B.C.). _The +Stoics_--believed that sight consisted in a refined fluid or visual +effluence proceeding from the central intelligence through the eyes. +'In the process of seeing, the [Greek: horatikon pneuma] (visual +effluence) coming into the eyes from the [Greek: hegemonikon] (central +intelligence) gives a spherical form to the air before the eye by +virtue of its [Greek: tonike kinesis] (i.e. the tension it sets up), +and by means of the sphere of air comes in contact with things; and +since by this process rays of light emanate from the eye, darkness +must be visible.' Zeller, The Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics, p. +209, note. Cp. Plut. Plac. Phil. iv. 15. + +CHAPTER 16. _two rival images of the sun._ Apparently an allusion to +the phenomenon of mock suns. Archimedes had, according to Apuleius, +treated of the rainbow and the mock sun in connexion with his +researches into mirrors. + +CHAPTER 17. _Marcus Antonius_, the orator, born 143 B.C., Consul 99 +B.C. + +_Carbo_, consul 85-82 B.C., one of the leaders of the Marian party +and the chief opponent of Sulla after Marius' death. + +_Manius Curius._ See note on chap. 10. + +_Marcus Cato_, consul in 195 B.C., conducted a successful campaign in +Spain in that and the following year. + +CHAPTER 18. _Aristides_, the Athenian statesman and general, surnamed +the just, died circa 468 B.C. + +_Phocion_, an Athenian general and statesman, born 402 B.C., died 317 +B.C. He was famous for his virtue and his poverty. + +_Epaminondas_, the great Theban general who fell at Mantinea, 362 B.C. +He was of noble birth but poor. + +_Fabricius._ See note on chap. 10. + +_Gnaeus Scipio._ Cp. Val. Max. iv. 4. 10. 'In the second Punic war +Gnaeus Scipio wrote to the senate from Spain, begging that he might be +replaced in his command. For his daughter was now of marriageable age, +but could not be provided with a dowry during his absence from Rome.' + +_Publicola_ (_Valerius_), colleague of Brutus in the consulship in the +first year of the Republic. + +_Agrippa_, Menenius, consul 503 B.C., mediator between the _plebs_ and +the nobles in 493 B.C., in which year he died. + +_Atilius Regulus._ See note on _Serranus_, chap. 10. + +CHAPTER 20. _Philus_, a sceptical academician, one of the circle of +Scipio Africanus the younger. + +_Laelius_, the intimate friend of the younger Africanus. + +_Crassus_, the famous financier, triumvir with Caesar and Pompey. + +CHAPTER 22. _Crates._ See Florida 14 for some account of him. The rest +of the poem on his wallet is preserved by Diog. Laert. vi. 5. 1, but +is scarcely worth quoting. + +_Antisthenes_, the founder of the Cynic school of philosophy, +flourished circa 366 B.C. He was the teacher of Diogenes. + +CHAPTER 24. _Lollianus Avitus._ See note on Claudius Maximus, chap. +1. + +_Anacharsis_, a Scythian prince who travelled far in search of +knowledge. He came to Athens in the time of Solon and created a great +impression by his wisdom. + +_Meletides_ (or more properly Melitides) was an Athenian of proverbial +stupidity, whose name was synonymous for blockhead. Eustathius on +Odyss. x. 552, says that he could not count above five or distinguish +between his father and mother! + +_Syphax_, king of the Massaesyli in W. Numidia, fought for the +Carthaginians during the second Punic war, and was finally defeated +and captured by Scipio in 203 B.C. After his fall _Masinissa_, King of +the Massyli, was left supreme in Numidia. + +_duumvir._ The chief magistrates in a _colonia_ were styled _duumviri +iure dicundo_. + +_the dignity of my position._ This is generally interpreted as meaning +that Apuleius himself had become _duumvir_. It is more likely, +considering his age and his continued absences from Madaura, that it +means merely the position acquired for him by his father's +distinguished office. + +CHAPTER 25. _Magician is the Persian word for priest._ 'The name +_magi_ applied to all workers of miracles, strictly designates the +priests of Mazdeism, and well-attested tradition made certain Persians +the inventors of genuine magic, the magic which the Middle Ages styled +the black art. If they did not invent it, for it is as old as +humanity, they were at least the first to give magic a doctrinal basis +and to assign it a place in a well-defined theological system.... By +the Alexandrian period, books attributed to Zoroaster, Hostanes, and +Hystaspes were translated into Greek.' Cumont, Les Religions +Orientales dans le Paganisme Romain, p. 227. Cp. Pliny, N.H. xxx. 7. +_Plato_, Alcibiades i. 121 E. + +_Zoroaster, son of Oromazes_, the founder of the ancient religion of +Persia (Mazdeism). + +CHAPTER 26. _Plato._ The allusion is to Charmides, p. 157 A. Socrates +offers Charmides a charm to cure the headache. But the charm will do +more than cure the headache. 'I learnt it, when serving with the army, +of one of the physicians of the Thracian King Zamolxis. He was one of +those who are said to give immortality. This Thracian said to me ... +"Zamolxis, our king, who is also a god, says that as you ought not to +attempt to cure the eyes without the head or the head without the +eyes, so neither ought you to attempt to cure the body without the +soul," ... "For all good and evil, whether in the body or in human +nature, originates, as he declared, in the soul, and overflows from +thence, as from the head into the eyes. And therefore if the head and +body are to be well, you must begin by curing the soul; that is the +first thing. And the cure has to be effected by the use of certain +charms, _and these charms are fair words_; and by them temperance is +implanted in the soul, and where temperance is, there health is +speedily implanted, not only to the head, but to the whole body."' +(Jowett's Translation.) Apuleius scarcely makes a fair use of Plato's +words, which he has so far detached from their context as to give them +almost entirely a new meaning. + +_Zamolxis_, probably an indigenous deity of the Getae. Greek legend +made him a Getan slave of Pythagoras, who on manumission went home, +became priest of the chief deity of the Getae, and taught the +Pythagorean doctrine of the immortality of the soul. + +CHAPTER 27. _Anaxagoras_ of Clazomenae, born about 499 B.C. He came to +Athens and had great influence there, being the friend of Pericles and +Euripides. He was, however, banished for unorthodoxy and died at +Lampsacus aged 72. + +_Leucippus_, the founder of the atomic theory. His exact date and +place of birth are uncertain. + +_Democritus_ of Abdera, born about 450 B.C. He developed the atomic +theory of Leucippus. + +_Epicurus_, like Democritus and Leucippus, maintained the atomic +theory. Cp. note on chap. 15. + +_Epimenides_, a seer and prophet of Crete who purified Athens of the +plague with which she was afflicted in consequence of the crime of +Cylon, circa 596 B.C. + +_Ostanes_, or Hostanes, a famous semi-fabulous magician of Persia. + +_the 'purifications' of Empedocles._ Empedocles of Agrigentum +(flourished circa 450 B.C.) wrote a poem of 3,000 lines, entitled +'purifications' ([Greek: katharmoi]). In this he recommended good +moral conduct as a means of averting epidemics and other evils. But as +a fragment quoted by Diog. Laert. viii. 59, shows, he claimed also to +have power over the winds. + +_the 'demon' of Socrates_, the divine sign or voice [Greek: +daimonion], which is represented by Socrates as having guided his +actions, is never spoken of by him in terms that would lead us to +suppose that he regarded it as a familiar spirit, though it is so +treated by later writers (e.g. Plutarch, de genio Socratis, and +Apuleius, de deo Socratis). + +_the 'good' of Plato._ The reference is probably to the identification +of [Greek: to agathon] with the [Greek: demiourgos] the creator spoken +of in the Timaeus. + +CHAPTER 30. _Vergil._ Cp. Ecl. viii. 64-82. Aen. iv. 513-16. + +_the wondrous talisman._ The allusion is to the _hippomanes_ or growth +said to be found on the forehead of a new-born foal. Unless the mother +was prevented she devoured it. + +_Theocritus_, sc. Id. ii. + +_Homer_, e.g. the adventures with Circe. + +_Orpheus._ See the Orphica (Abel), _Fr._ 172; Argonaut. 955 sqq. +Lithica 172 sqq. + +_Laevius._ The MSS. give Laelius. But no poet Laelius is known. There +was, however, a poet _Laevius_ at the beginning of the first century +B.C. + +_the lover's knot._ The Latin is _antipathes_, explained by Abt +(Apologie des Apuleius, p. 103) as _quod mutuum affectum provocat_. + +_the magic wheel_ spun rapidly to draw the beloved to the lover. Cp. +Theocr. ii. 30. 'And as this brazen wheel spins, so may Delphis be +spun by Aphrodite to my door.' + +_nails._ Portions of the beloved were valuable ingredients in charms. +Cp. Apul. Metamorph. bk. iii, 16, 17, where hair from the beloved's +head is required. + +_ribbons_ used as fillets during the ritual. Cp. chap. 30, 'soft +garlands.' + +_the two-tailed lizard._ Theocr. ii. 57, testifies to the use of the +lizard as a love charm. A magic papyrus from Egypt (Griffiths +Thompson, col. xiii (23), p. 97) mentions a two-tailed lizard as an +ingredient in a charm to cause death. + +_the charm that glads_, &c., sc. _hippomanes_; see note on preceding +page. + +CHAPTER 31. _Homer._ Iliad xi. 741. Odyssey iv. 229. + +_Proteus._ Odyssey iv. 364. + +_Ulysses._ Odyssey xi. 25. + +_Aeolus._ Odyssey x. 19. + +_Helen._ Odyssey iv. 59. + +_Circe._ Odyssey x. 234. + +_Venus._ Iliad xiv. 214. + +_Mercury._ Cp. the magic hymn contained in a magical papyrus (Papyr. +Lond. 46. 414). 'Thou art told of as foreknower of the fates and as +the godlike dream sending oracles both by day and night.' + +_Trivia_ = Hecate. + +_Salacia_, a Roman sea-goddess, the wife of Neptune. + +_Portumnus_, the Roman harbour-god. + +CHAPTER 32. _Menelaus._ Hom. Odyss. iv. 368. + +CHAPTER 35. _A shell for the making of a will._ The pun _testa ad +testamentum_ cannot be reproduced in English. + +_seaweed for an ague._ Here again there is an untranslatable jest. +_Alga_ (seaweed) suggests _algere_, 'to be cold,' one of the symptoms +of the ague (_querceram_). + +CHAPTER 36. _Theophrastus_ of Eresus, the favourite pupil of +Aristotle. + +_Eudemus_ of Rhodes, also a disciple of Aristotle. + +_Lycon_ of Troas, a distinguished Peripatetic philosopher (floruit +circa 272 B.C.). + +CHAPTER 39. _Quintus Ennius_, 239-169 B.C. The lines which follow are +all that survive of the Hedyphagetica. They seem to be closely +imitated from the Gastronomia of Archestratus quoted by Athenaeus iii, +pp. 92. 300. 318. There is great uncertainty as to the text, and but +few of the fish mentioned can be identified with any certainty. + +CHAPTER 40. _Homer._ Odyssey xix. 456. + +CHAPTER 41. _And yet it is a greater crime_, &c. An allusion to the +vegetarianism of the Pythagoreans and others. + +_Nicander_ of Colophon, an Alexandrian didactic poet. The [Greek: +theriaka] survives, is over 1,000 lines long, and deals with the bites +of wild beasts. + +_Plato._ The words are not actually found in Plato's extant works; +Apuleius is probably slightly misquoting Timaeus 59_c_. + +CHAPTER 42. _Varro_ (Marcus Terentius), 116-28 B.C. The most learned +and voluminous of Roman authors. + +_an image of Mercury._ Clearly the reference is to some such practice +as that of 'screeing' in the ink-pool. Cp. Kinglake, Eothen, chap. 18. + +_Cato_ (the famous Marcus Cato, see chap. 17, note) was priest of +Apollo and received offerings to the god. + +CHAPTER 43. _Plato._ Sympos. 202, where [Greek: daimones] are spoken +of as powers 'which interpret and convey to the gods the prayers and +sacrifices of men and to men the commands and rewards of gods.' Also +cp. de deo Socratis, chap. 6. + +_fair and unblemished of body._ Beauty and virginity are insisted on +in various passages in the magical papyri (see Abt op. cit., p. 185) +as necessary in the boy through whom the god is to speak. Cp. also +Benvenuto Cellini's Autobiography (Symond's Translation, p. 126, ed. +1901). + +_Pythagoras._ 'I think also it was said by the Pythagoreans respecting +those who teach for the sake of reward, that they show themselves to +be worse than statuaries or those artists who perform their work +sitting. For these, when some one orders them to make a statue of +Hermes, search for wood adapted to the reception of the proper form; +but those pretend that they can readily produce the works of virtue +from every nature.' Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras, chap. 34 (Taylor's +Translation). + +CHAPTER 44. _as might fairly be produced at a sacrifice_, &c. The +divination is preceded by sacrifice just as in Benvenuto Cellini (loc. +cit.) the sorcerer first burns incense. The head is touched as being +the source from which the oracle is to proceed (_arx et regia_, chap. +50). The clean robe is necessary, to ritual purity and is mentioned +more than once in the magic papyri. + +CHAPTER 45. _Gagates_ is, according to Pliny, N.H. xxxvi. 141, 2, a +black smooth stone, resembling pumice. It is light and fragile and +differs but little from wood. When powdered it emits a strong odour; +when burned it smells sulphurous, and, wonderful to relate, it is +kindled by water and extinguished by oil. + +CHAPTER 47. _Twelve Tables._ In this, the earliest Roman code, +punishment was imposed on any person _qui fruges excantassit_, or _qui +malum carmen incantassit_. Pliny, N.H. xxviii. 2. 17. + +_Quindecimvirs._ The _quindecimviri sacris faciundis_ were priests of +Apollo and had charge of the Sibylline books. + +CHAPTER 49. _The Timaeus_, pp. 82-6. + +The _three powers that make up the soul_ are those mentioned in the +Timaeus, 35 sqq., i.e. _Same_, _Other_, and _Essence_. + +CHAPTER 50. _The Comitial sickness_, so called because, if a case of +epilepsy occurred during the meeting of the _comitia_, the assembly +was immediately broken up. + +CHAPTER 51. _The Problems._ Aristot. Fr. ed. Rose, p. 181. + +_Theophrastus_, cp. fragm. 175_w_. Diog. Laert. v. 2. 13. + +CHAPTER 52. _Thallus contracts his hands_, &c. 'Thallus manus +contrahit, tu patronos.' The pun is (_a_) bad and (_b_) untranslatable +into reasonably good English. The literal meaning is 'Thallus +contracts his hands, you collect advocates'. + +CHAPTER 55. _The comrades of Ulysses_, &c. Odyss. x. 28-55. + +_Aesculapius._ Cp. Florida 18. + +_the mysteries of father Liber._ The mysterious object is probably the +mystic casket (_cista_) containing the [Greek: phallos], emblem of +fertility. + +CHAPTER 56. _The followers of Orpheus and Pythagoras_ abstained from +the slaying of animals for the service of man. Cp. Herodotus ii. 81. + +_Mezentius._ Cp. Verg. Aen. vii. 647 'contemptor divom'. + +CHAPTER 57. _Ulysses._ Odyss i. 58. + +CHAPTER 62. _High and low through all the town._ The pun on _oppido_, +'exceedingly,' and _oppido_, 'town,' does not admit of reproduction. + +CHAPTER 64. _The Phaedrus_, 247. 'For the immortal souls, when they +are at the end of their course, go out and stand upon the back of +heaven, and the revolution of the spheres carries them round and they +behold the world beyond. Now of the heaven which is above the heavens, +no earthly poet has sung or ever will sing in a worthy manner. But I +must tell, for I am bound to speak truly when speaking of the truth. +The colourless and formless and intangible essence is visible to the +mind, which is the only lord of the soul. Circling around this in the +region above the heavens is the place of true knowledge.' (Jowett's +Translation). + +_The King._ The passage quoted is from Plato, Epist. ii, p. 312 (403). +It goes on to say 'and he is the cause of all things that are +beautiful'. Compare the [Greek: nous basileus] identified with the +cosmic soul in the Philebus 29E-30A. + +CHAPTER 65. _The Laws_, pp. 955, 6. It is possible that [Greek: +monoxylon] may mean 'of one wood only'. + +CHAPTER 66. _Marcus Antonius_, _Cnaeus Carbo_, &c. Of these _causes +celebres_ nothing is known worthy of mention here. Apuleius errs in +saying that Mucius accused Albucius. As a matter of fact Albucius +accused Mucius on the ground of extortion. Cp. Cic. Brut. 26. 102. For +the suit between Metellus and Curio cp. Ascon. in Cornel. 63. Cnaeus +Norbanus should probably be Caius Norbanus, and Caius Furius, Lucius +Fufius. Cp. Cic. de Off. ii. 14. 49, de Or. ii. 21. 89, and Cic. Brut. +62. 222, de Off. ii. 14. 50. + +CHAPTER 73. _A discourse in public._ Fragments of such discourses are +to be found in the Florida. + +CHAPTER 75. _His gold rings._ By the time of Hadrian the wearing of a +gold ring (_ius anuli aurei_) was no more than a sign of free birth, +and the only privilege conferred was that of obtaining office. See +_Anulus_, Dict. Ant. + +CHAPTER 78. _When you dance in those characters._ Tragedy proper had +been replaced on the Roman stage by the _saltica fabula_, in which the +_pantomimus_ executed a mimetic dance illustrating a libretto sung by +a chorus. + +CHAPTER 81. _Palamedes_ was famous for having detected the pretended +madness of Ulysses, by which he sought to avoid going upon the +expedition to Troy. Ulysses was ploughing and Palamedes placed the +infant Telemachus in front of the ploughshare. Ulysses revealed his +sanity by stopping the plough. + +_Sisyphus_, King of Corinth, was famous as a master of all manner of +deceit, outwitting even the arch-thief Autolycus. He was finally cast +into Tartarus for having discovered the amour of Zeus with the nymph +Aegina. + +_Eurybates_ (or Eurybatus) coupled with Phrynondas by Plato +(Protagoras 327). He was an Ephesian sent by Croesus to Greece with a +large sum of money to hire mercenaries. He betrayed his trust and went +over to Cyrus. + +_Phrynondas_, a stranger (probably a Boeotian) who lived at Athens +during the Peloponnesian war and became proverbial as a scoundrel. + +_clowns and pantaloons._ _Maccus_ and _Bucco_ were stock characters in +the Atellan farce. + +CHAPTER 85. _The viper._ This superstition arises from the fact that +the viper does not lay eggs, but is viviparous. + +_a well-known line._ The author is unknown. + +CHAPTER 87. _Quite at home in Greek._ See note on chap. 4. + +CHAPTER 88. _The line so well known in comedy._ The reading nearest to +the MSS. would be [Greek: paidon ep' apoto, gnesion epi spora] (Van +der Vliet). Unless, however, the phrase [Greek: paidon ep' apoto +gnesion] is a stock phrase which occurred in more than one comedy, +which might perhaps be argued from the plural _comoediis_, there can +be no doubt that the words [Greek: epi spora] are interpolated, +inasmuch as the line occurs in the fragment of the [Greek: +perikeiromene] of Menander, discovered at Oxyrhynchus by Drs. +Greenfell and Hunt (Ox. Pap. ii, No. 211, p. 11 sqq.), and runs as +follows + + [Greek: tauten gnesion + paidon ep' apoto soi didomi. Pol. lambano]. + +_Serranus._ See note on chap. 10. + +CHAPTER 89. _Multiplying by four._ The pun in the word _quadruplator_ +cannot be reproduced in English. The name was given to a public +informer who sued for a fourfold penalty. + +_a slip in the gesture._ Bede (Op. Colon., MDCXII, vol. i, p. 132 _b_) +says, 'When you say ten, you will place the nail of the forefinger +against the middle joint of the thumb, when you say thirty, you will +join the nails of thumb and forefinger in a gentle embrace.' Here the +MSS. read _adperisse_, which suggests _aperuisse_. But _aperuisse_ +does not naturally express the gesture described by Bede, and Helm's +emendation _adgessisse_ seems necessary. + +CHAPTER 90. _Carmendas_, _Damigeron_, &c. _Carmendas_ is unknown. +_Damigeron_ is mentioned elsewhere as a magician (Tertull. de Anima, +57), but nothing is known of him. _Moses_ appears as a magician in the +magical papyri (Griffiths Thompson pap. col. v, p. 47 (13)). The +miracles wrought by Moses in Egypt sufficiently account for this. +_Jannes_, one of the Egyptian magicians worsted by Moses. Cp. Epistle +to Timothy ii. 3. 8. _Apollobex_, a magician named _Apollobeches_ is +mentioned by Pliny, N.H. xxx. 9, as also is _Dardanus_. For _Ostanes_ +and _Zoroaster_ see chaps. 25 and 27, notes. + +CHAPTER 95. _Cato_, the earliest of the great orators of Rome: for his +excellences see Cicero, Brutus, 65 sqq. (Cp. note on chap. 17). + +_Laelius_, see note on chap. 20. Cicero selects _lenitas_ as the chief +characteristic of his style (de Orat. iii. 7. 28). + +_Gracchus_ (Caius Sempronius) was famous for the fire of his oratory +(cp. Cic. Brut. 125, 126, de Orat. iii. 56. 214). + +_Caesar_ is generally praised chiefly for _elegantia_ in his oratory, +rather than for his warmth (cp. Cic. Brut. 252, 261, Quint. x. 1. +114). + +_Hortensius_, Cicero's chief rival: a master of the Asiatic style (cp. +Cic. Brut. 228, 9. 302, 3. 325-8). + +_Calvus_, a contemporary of Cicero. One of the chief representatives +of the Attic style (cp. Cic. Brut. 283). + +_Sallust_, the famous historian. + +CHAPTER 98. _The garb of manhood._ He had already assumed the _toga +virilis_, cp. chap. 88. This must be taken metaphorically = 'You let +him behave like a man.' + +CHAPTER 101. _He who can plead in court_, &c. There is a play on +_perorare_ (= to plead in court) and _exorare_ (= to win over his +mother by prayer). + +CHAPTER 102. _What a criminal use of love-philtres_, &c. There is a +pun on _veneficium_ and _beneficium_ which cannot be reproduced. + + +THE FLORIDA + +CHAPTER 2. _Plautus._ Truculentus, ii. 6. 8. + +_the great poet._ Homer, Iliad, iii. 12. + +CHAPTER 3. _Vergil._ Ecl. iii. 27. + +CHAPTER 4. _Antigenidas_, a famous musician of the first half of the +fourth century B.C. Others attribute the grievance to his pupil +Ismenias. This story is also told by Dio Chrysostom xlix. + +CHAPTER 6. _Nabataea_, a district at the north-east end of the Red +Sea. + +_Arsaces_, a king of Persia (perhaps Artaxerxes II, 379 B.C.) from +whom the Parthian kings traced their descent. Here _Arsacidae_ = +Parthians. + +_Ityraea_, a district under Mount Hermon to the north of Bashan. + +_Ganges._ The quotation is from Statius, Silvae, ii. 4. 25. + +_wash gold._ Lat. _colare_ = to strain, sift. + +CHAPTER 7. _Alexander._ This story of his portraits is told by many +writers, though Lysippus is substituted for Polycletus by the more +accurate, inasmuch as Polycletus was a sculptor of the fifth century, +and contemporary with Pheidias! This is quite characteristic of +Apuleius. + +_Apelles_, the greatest of Greek painters, floruit circa 332 B.C. + +_Pyrgoteles_, one of the most famous gem-engravers of Greece. Little +is known of him beyond this story. + +_the professor's gown._ Cp. Aulus Gellius, ix. 2, where a man with a +long beard and huge cloak tries to persuade Herodes Atticus that he is +a philosopher. Herodes replies, 'I see the cloak and the gown, but not +the philosopher.' + +CHAPTER 9. _Hippias of Elis_, one of the early sophists (middle of the +fifth century B.C.); cp. Plat. Hipp. Min. 368 B. + +_the reciter's wand._ It was the custom in Greece for a reciter to +hold in his hand a wand or [Greek: rhabdos]. + +_Severianus_, proconsul of Africa between 161 and 169 A.D., as is +shown by the words _the two Caesars_, M. Aurelius and L. Verus. + +CHAPTER 10. _The Sun._ The passage quoted is from some unknown +tragedy, perhaps a Phoenissae, cp. Eur. Phoen. 1. + +_Mercury._ Those born under Mercury had a 'mercurial' disposition, +those under Mars a 'martial' temper (cp. _ignita_). + +_other divine influences that lie midway._ Cp. note on Apologia, chap. +43. + +CHAPTER 11. _darnel._ The quotation is from Vergil, Georgic i. 154. +Cp. also Ecl. v. 37. + +CHAPTER 14. _Crates._ Cp. Florida 22, and Apologia, chap. 22. + +CHAPTER 15. _Polycrates_, floruit circa 530 B.C. + +_Pythagoras._ See note on Apologia, chap. 4. + +_Pherecydes._ See note on Apologia, ch. 27. + +_Anaximander_, an Ionian philosopher, born 610 B.C. + +_Epimenides._ See note on Apologia, chap. 27. + +_Creophylus_, an early epic poet, reputed author of the 'Capture of +Oechalia', which he was said to have received from Homer as the dowry +of the latter's daughter. + +_Leodamas._ Nothing is known of this Leodamas. Apuleius may have made +a slip and written Leodamas for Hermodamas, who is mentioned by Diog. +Laert. viii. 2, as the descendant of Creophylus. + +CHAPTER 16. _Philemon_ was a writer of the 'new', not the 'middle' comedy. + +_'farewell' and 'applaud'._ Cp. the well-known epitaph:--'iam mea +peracta, mox vestra agetur fabula: valete et plaudite.' + +_Aemilianus Strabo_ was _consul suffectus_ in 156 A.D. See +Prosopographia imp. Rom. part 3. nr. 674, p. 275. + +_while breath still_, &c., from Vergil, Aeneid iv. 336. + +_priesthood_ of the province of Africa. See Introduction, p. 12. + +CHAPTER 17. _Scipio Orfitus_, proconsul of Africa, 163, 4 A.D. See +Prosopographia imp. Rom. part 1, nr. 1184, p. 464. + +_Orpheus to woods_, &c., from Vergil, Eclogue vii. 56. + +CHAPTER 18. _the tragic poet._ Unknown. + +_Plautus._ Truculentus, prologue 1-3. + +_no rose without a thorn._ The Latin is _ubi uber, ibi tuber_. +Wherever you get rich soil, there you will find pignuts. + +_the council of Africa_ was theoretically an association for the +worship of the imperial house. It had some political importance, +however, inasmuch as it might criticize the governor and forward its +criticisms to the Emperor at Rome. + +_Protagoras_, a famous sophist of Abdera (latter half of fifth +century). + +_dilemma._ See note on Apologia, chap. 9, _self-inconsistency_. A +closely parallel story is told of Corax and Tisias, rhetoricians +slightly earlier in date. + +_Thales of Miletus_, the first of the great mathematicians and +physical philosophers of Greece: one of the seven sages. He flourished +towards the end of the seventh century B.C. + +CHAPTER 19. _Asclepiades_, a famous physician from Bithynia, of the +first half of the first century B.C. + +CHAPTER 20. _The first cup_, &c. The wise author of this saying was, +according to Diog. Laert, i. 72, Anacharsis. + +_Empedocles._ See note on Apologia, chap. 27. + +_Epicharmus_, a famous comic poet of Megara in Sicily. He flourished +early in the fifth century B.C. + +_Xenocrates._ Diog. Laert. mentions five writers of this name, none of +them of any great importance. It is possible that we should read +_Xenophanes_, who, according to Diog. Laert. ix. 10, wrote _silli_, a +form of lampoon or satire. He was the founder of the Eleatic school +and probably flourished about 500 B.C. + +CHAPTER 22. _Crates pure and simple_, i.e. by his renunciation of the +world described in chap. 15. + +CHAPTER 24. The MSS. give this as a prologue to the de deo Socratis. +It belongs, however, manifestly to the Florida. + +_Aristippus_, founder of the Cyrenaic school, a friend and younger +contemporary of Socrates. + + * * * * * + +OXFORD +PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS +BY HORACE HART, M.A. +PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Apologia and Florida of Apuleius +of Madaura, by Lucius Apuleius + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK APOLOGIA AND FLORIDA *** + +***** This file should be named 26294.txt or 26294.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/2/9/26294/ + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Linda Cantoni, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by Case Western Reserve University Preservation Department +Digital Library) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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