Apuleius: DE DOGMATE PLATONIS

[1] (1) Certus equidem eram proque uero obtinebam, Maxime Cl. quique in consilio estis, Sicinium Aemilianum, senem notissimae temeritatis, accusationem mei prius apud te coeptam quam apud se cogitatam penuria criminum solis conuiciis impleturum; (2) quippe insimulari quiuis innocens potest, reuinci nisi nocens non potest. (3) Quo ego uno praecipue confisus gratulor medius fidius, quod mihi copia et facultas te iudice optigit purgandae apud imperitos philosophiae et probandi mei. (4) Quanquam istae calumniae ut prima specie graues, ita ad difficultatem defensionis repentinae fuere.

[1] (1) I was indeed certain and maintained as true, Most Excellent Claudius, and you who are on the council, that Sicinius Aemilianus, an old man of most notorious temerity, would, for want of crimes, fill his accusation of me—begun before you sooner than thought out by himself—with mere revilings. (2) For indeed any innocent person can be accused; none but the guilty can be convicted. (3) Relying especially on this one thing, by my faith I rejoice that, with you as judge, there has fallen to me the opportunity and means of clearing philosophy in the eyes of the unskilled and of proving myself. (4) Although these calumnies, as at first sight they were weighty, so too brought difficulty for a sudden defense.

(5) Nam, ut meministi, dies abhinc quintus an sextus est, cum me causam pro uxore mea Pudentilla aduersus Granios agere aggressum de composito necopinantem patroni eius incessere maledictis et insimulare magicorum maleficiorum ac denique necis Pontiani priuigni mei coepere. (6) Quae ego cum intellegerem non tam crimina iudicio quam obiectamenta iurgio prolata, ultro eos ad accusandum crebris flagitationibus prouocaui.

(5) For, as you remember, it is the fifth or sixth day since, when I, having undertaken to plead the cause on behalf of my wife Pudentilla against the Granii, by preconcerted plan his advocates set upon me unawares with revilings and began to charge me with magical malefices and, finally, with the murder of Pontianus, my stepson. (6) Which things, when I understood to have been brought forward not so much as crimes for judgment as throw-ins for a wrangle, I of my own accord challenged them to prosecute, with frequent demands.

(7) Ibi uero Aemilianus cum te quoque acrius motum et ex uerbis rem factam uideret, quaerere occepit ex diffidentia latibulum aliquod temeritati. [2] (1) Igitur Pontianum fratris sui filium, quem paulo prius occisum a me clamitarat, postquam ad subscribendum compellitur, ilico oblitus est; (2) de morte cognati adulescentis subito tacere. Tanti criminis descriptione <ne> tamen omnino desistere uideretur, calumnia<m> magiae, quae facilius infamatur quam probatur, eam solum sibi delegit ad accusandum.

(7) Thereupon Aemilianus, when he saw that you too were more sharply stirred and that from words the matter had come to deed, began to seek, out of diffidence, some hiding-place for his rashness. [2] (1) Accordingly, Pontianus, his brother’s son—whom a little earlier he had been shouting was slain by me—once he is compelled to subscribe, immediately forgets it; (2) he suddenly falls silent about the death of the young kinsman. By the description of so great a charge, <ne> however he might seem to desist entirely, the calumny<m> of magic, which is more easily defamed than proved—this alone he chose for himself to prosecute.

(3) Ac ne id quidem de professo audet, uerum postera die dat libellum nomine priuigni mei Sicini Pudentis admodum pueri et adscribit se ei assistere, (4) nouo more per alium lacessendi, scilicet ut optentu eius aetatulae ipse insimulationis falsae non plecteretur. (5) Quod tu cum sollertissime animaduertisses et iccirco eum denuo iussisses proprio nomine accusationem delatam sustinere, (6) pollicitus ita facturum ne sic quidem quitus est ut comminus ageret percelli, set iam et aduersum te contumaciter eminus calumniis uelitatur. (7) Ita totiens ab accusandi periculo profugus in assistendi uenia perseuerauit.

(3) And not even that does he dare to do openly, but on the next day he submits a libellus in the name of my stepson Sicinius Pudens, a very young boy, and adds that he will assist him; (4) a new fashion of provoking through another, to wit, so that under the pretext of his tender age he himself might not be punished for a false insinuation. (5) When you had most shrewdly observed this and therefore had ordered him anew to sustain the accusation laid in his own name, (6) though he promised he would do so, not even thus was he content to engage at close quarters and be struck down, but now even against you he contumaciously skirmishes from afar with calumnies. (7) Thus, so often a fugitive from the danger of accusing, he persisted in the indulgence of “assisting.”

(8) Igitur et priusquam causa ageretur, facile intellectu cuiuis fuit, qualisnam accusatio futura esset, cuius qui fuerat professor et machinator idem fieri auctor timeret, (9) ac praesertim Sicinius Aemilianus, qui, si quippiam ueri in me explorasset, nunquam profecto tam cunctanter hominem extraneum tot tantorumque criminum postulasset, (10) qui auunculi sui testamentum quod uerum sciebat pro falso infamarit, (11) tanta quidem pertinacia, ut, cum Lollius Vrbicus V. C. uerum uideri et ratum esse debere de consilio consularium uirorum pronuntiasset, contra clarissimam uocem iurauerit uecordissimus iste, tamen illud testamentum fictum esse, (12) adeo ut aegre Lollius Vrbicus ab eius pernicie temperarit.

(8) Therefore even before the case was argued, it was easy for anyone to understand what sort of accusation was going to be, the author of which—the same man who had been its proclaimer and machinator—was afraid to become its sponsor; (9) and especially Sicinius Aemilianus, who, if he had discovered anything of truth against me, would surely never so hesitantly have prosecuted a stranger for so many and so great crimes; (10) who has defamed the testament of his maternal uncle, which he knew to be true, as false; (11) with such pertinacity indeed that, when Lollius Urbicus, a Most Distinguished Man, had, on the advice of consular men, pronounced that it appeared true and ought to be valid, this most witless fellow swore—against that very clear voice—that nevertheless that testament was fictitious; (12) to such a degree that Lollius Urbicus could hardly restrain himself from his destruction.

[3] (1) Quam quidem uocem et tua aequitate et mea innocentia fretus spero in hoc quoque iudicio erupturam, quippe qui sciens innocentem criminatur eo sane facilius, quod iam, ut dixi, mentiens apud praefectum urbi in amplissima causa conuictus est. (2) Namque peccatum semel ut bonus quisque postea sollicitius cauet, ita qui ingenio malo est confidentius integrat ac iam de cetero quo saepius, eo apertius delinquit. (3) Pudor enim ueluti uestis quanto obsole[n]tior est, tanto incuriosius habetur.

[3] (1) Relying both on your equity and on my innocence, I hope that that very voice will burst forth in this judgment too, seeing that he who knowingly accuses an innocent man does so all the more easily, because already, as I said, he has been convicted of lying before the Prefect of the City in a most weighty cause. (2) For just as, after a single sin, every good man thereafter guards against it more anxiously, so he who is of bad nature repeats it more confidently, and from then on, the more often, the more openly he transgresses. (3) For shame, like a garment, the more worn it is, the more carelessly it is kept.

(4) Et ideo necessarium arbitror pro integritate pudoris mei, priusquam ad rem aggrediar, maledicta omnia refutare.

(4) And therefore I judge it necessary, for the integrity of my modesty, before I address the matter, to refute all the slanders.

(5) Sustineo enim non modo meam, uerum etiam philosophiae defensionem, cuia magnitudo uel minimam reprehensionem pro <ma>ximo crimine aspernatur, (6) propter quod paulo prius patroni Aemiliani multa in me proprie conficta et alia communiter in philosophos sueta ab imperitis mercennaria loquacitate effutierunt.

(5) For I sustain not only my own defense, but even the defense of philosophy, whose magnitude spurns even the least censure as the <ma>ximum crime, (6) on account of which a little earlier the advocates of Aemilianus babbled out many things fabricated specifically against me, and others commonly used against philosophers, with mercenary loquacity from the unskilled.

(7) Quae etsi possunt ab his utiliter blaterata ob mercedem et auctoramento impudentiae depensa haberi, iam concesso quodam more rabulis id genus, quo ferme solent linguae suae uirus alieno dolori locare, (8) tamen uel mea causa paucis refellenda sunt, ne is, qui sedulo laboro ut ne quid maculae aut inhonestamenti in me admittam, uidear cuipiam, si quid ex friuolis praeteriero, id agnouisse potius quam contempsisse. (9) Est enim pudentis animi et uerecundi, ut mea opinio fert, uel falsas uitu<pe>rationes grauari, cum etiam hi, qui sibi delicti alicuius conscii sunt, tamen, cum male audiunt, impendio commoueantur et obirascantur, (10) quamquam, exinde ut male facere coeperunt, consueuerint male audire, quod, si a ceteris silentium est, tamen ipsi sibimet conscii sunt posse se merito increpari. (11) Enimuero bonus et innoxius quisque rudis et imperitas auris ad male audiendum habens et laudis assuetudine contumeliae insolens multo tanta ex animo laborat ea sibi immerito dici, quae ipse possit aliis uere obiectare.

(7) Which, even if they can be held by them as usefully blathered for a fee and paid as a bounty of impudence, by a certain custom now conceded to rabblers of that sort, who for the most part are accustomed to place the venom of their tongue upon another’s pain, (8) nevertheless, for my sake at least, must be refuted in a few words, lest I—who labor diligently that I admit no stain or dishonor—should seem to anyone, if I pass over anything among the fruvolous, to have acknowledged it rather than despised it. (9) For it is, as my opinion bears, the part of a modest and bashful mind to be burdened even by false vitu<pe>rations, since even those who are conscious to themselves of some offense, nevertheless, when they are ill-spoken of, are exceedingly stirred and grow angry, (10) although, from the time they began to do ill, they have become accustomed to hear ill, because, if there is silence from others, yet they themselves are conscious to themselves that they can deservedly be reproved. (11) Indeed every good and harmless person, having an untrained and inexpert ear for hearing ill and, by the habit of praise, unaccustomed to contumely, suffers much in soul that such things are said undeservedly of him which he himself could truly object to others.

(12) Quod si forte inepta uidebor et oppido friuola uelle defendere, illis debet ea res uitio uorti, quibus turpe est etiam haec obiectasse, non mihi culpae dari, cui honestum erit etiam haec diluisse.

(12) But if by chance I shall seem inept and downright frivolous in wishing to defend these, that matter ought to be imputed as a fault to those for whom even to have objected these things is disgraceful, not given as blame to me, for whom it will be honorable even to have refuted these.

[4] (1) Audisti ergo paulo prius in principio accusationis ita dici: 'accusamus apud te philosophum formonsum et tam Graece quam Latine' _ pro nefas! _ 'disertissimum.' (2) Nisi fallor enim, his ipsis uerbis accusationem mei ingressus est Tannonius Pudens, homo uere ille quidem non disertissimus.

[4] (1) You heard therefore a little earlier, at the beginning of the accusation, it said thus: 'we accuse before you a handsome philosopher and, as much in Greek as in Latin' _ for shame! _ 'most eloquent.' (2) For unless I am mistaken, with these very words Tannonius Pudens began his accusation of me, a man truly, to be sure, not the most eloquent.

(3) Quod utinam tam grauia formae et facundiae crimina uere mihi opprobrasset! Non difficile ei respondissem quod <H>omericus Alexander Hectori:

(3) Would that he had truly reproached me with such grave crimes of form and facundity! I should not have found it difficult to answer him what the <H>omeric Alexander [said] to Hector:

__ ___ _______' ____ ____ ________ ____,

[lacuna] [lacuna] [lacuna]' [lacuna] [lacuna] [lacuna] [lacuna],

(4) ____ ___ _____ _____, ____ _' ___ __ ___ ______,

(4) [unreadable Greek text], [unreadable Greek text],

(5) munera deum gloriosissima nequaquam aspernanda; quae tamen ab ipsis tribui sueta multis uolentibus non obtingunt. Haec ego de forma respondissem.

(5) the most glorious gifts of the gods are by no means to be sparned; which, however, though wont to be bestowed by the gods themselves, do not befall many who desire them. This is what I would have answered about form.

(6) Praeterea: licere etiam philosophis esse uoltu liberali. (7) Pythagoram, qui primum se esse philosophum nuncuparit, eum sui saeculi excellentissima forma fuisse; (8) item Zenonem illum antiquum Velia oriundum, qui primus omnium sollertissimo artificio ambifariam dissoluerit, eum quoque Zenonem longe decorissimum fuisse, ut Plato autumat; (9) itemque multos philosophos ab ore honestissimos memoriae prodi, qui gratiam corporis morum honestamentis ornauerint.

(6) Moreover: that it is permitted even for philosophers to be of a liberal countenance. (7) Pythagoras, who first styled himself a philosopher, was of the most excellent beauty of his age; (8) likewise that ancient Zeno, a native of Velia, who first of all by most skillful artifice resolved on both sides, that Zeno too was by far the most comely, as Plato avers; (9) and likewise that many philosophers are handed down to memory as most honorable in visage, who have adorned the grace of the body with the honors of character.

(10) Sed haec defensio, ut dixi, aliquam multum a me remota est, cui praeter formae mediocritatem continuatio etiam litterati laboris omnem gratiam corpore deterget, habitudinem tenuat, sucum exsorbet, colorem obliterat, uigorem debilitat. (11) Capillus ipse, quem isti aperto mendacio ad lenocinium decoris promissum dixere, uides quam sit amoenus ac delicatus: (12) horrore implexus atque impeditus, stuppeo tomento adsimilis et inaequaliter hirtus et globosus et congestus, prorsum inenodabilis diutina incuria non modo comendi, sed saltem expediendi et discriminandi. (13) Satis, ut puto, crinium crimen, quod illi quasi capitale intenderunt, refutatur.

(10) But this defense, as I said, is in some measure far removed from me, since, besides the mediocrity of my form, the continuation of literary labor scours off every grace from the body, attenuates the habitude, sucks out the sap, obliterates the color, weakens the vigor. (11) The hair itself, which those men, by an open falsehood, said was grown long for the pandering of comeliness, you see how “pleasant and delicate” it is: (12) tangled and hampered with roughness, like tow of hemp, unevenly bristly and lumpy and heaped together, altogether un-unravelable through long neglect, not only of combing, but even of clearing and parting. (13) Enough, as I think, the indictment about the hair, which they leveled as though capital, is refuted.

[5] (1) De eloquentia uero, si qua mihi fuisset, neque mirum, neque inuidiosum deberet uideri, si ab ineunte aeuo unis studiis litterarum ex summis uiribus deditus omnibus aliis spretis uoluptatibus ad hoc aeui haud sciam anne super omnis homines impenso labore diuque noctuque cum despectu et dispendio bonae ualetudinis eam quaesissem. (2) Sed nihil ab eloquentia metuant, quam ego, si quid omnino promoui, potius spero quam praesto.

[5] (1) As for eloquence, if any had been mine, it ought to seem neither marvelous nor invidious, if from my earliest age, devoted with utmost energies to the single studies of letters, with all other pleasures spurned, down to this age—I do not know whether beyond all men—by expended labor day and night, with disregard and at the expense of good health, I had sought it. (2) But let them fear nothing from eloquence, which I, if I have promoted anything at all, rather hope for than actually possess.

(3) Sane quidem, si uerum est quod Statium Caecilium in suis poematibus scripsisse dicunt, innocentiam eloquentiam esse, ego uero profiteor ista ratione ac praefero me nemini omnium de eloquentia concessurum. (4) Quis enim me hoc quidem pacto eloquentior uiuat, quippe qui nihil unquam cogitaui quod eloqui non auderem? (5) Eundem me aio facundissimum esse, nam omne peccatum semper nefas habui; eundem disertissimum, quod nullum meum factum uel dictum extet, de quo di<s>serere publice non possim (6) ita, ut iam de uorsibus dis<s>ertabo quos a me factos quasi pudendos protulerunt, cum quidem me animaduertisti cum risu illis suscensentem, quod eos absone et indocte pronuntiarent.

(3) Indeed, if it is true what they report that Statius Caecilius wrote in his poems, that innocence is eloquence, I for my part profess on that reasoning and declare that I will yield to no one among all in eloquence. (4) For who lives more eloquent than I in this very respect, I who have never conceived anything that I would not dare to utter? (5) I likewise say that I am most fluent, for I have always held every sin to be a nefarious wrong; likewise most articulate, since there exists no deed or word of mine about which I cannot publicly di<s>sert, (6) so that now I will di<s>sert about the verses which they produced as though shameful, composed by me—when indeed you noticed me, with a laugh, resenting them for the fact that they pronounced them discordantly and unlearnedly.

[6] (1) Primo igitur legerunt e ludicris meis epistolium de dentifricio uersibus scriptum ad quendam Calpurnianum, qui cum aduersum me eas litteras promeret, non uidit profecto cupiditate laedendi, si quid mihi ex illis fieret criminosum, id mihi secum esse commune. (2) Nam petisse eum a me aliquid tersui dentibus uersus testantur:

[6] (1) First, then, they read from my playful pieces a little letter about dentifrice, written in verses to a certain Calpurnianus, who, when he brought forth those letters against me, assuredly did not see, in his desire to wound, that if anything from them should become incriminating for me, this would be common to me with himself. (2) For that he asked from me something for the cleansing of the teeth, the verses testify:

(3) Calpurniane, salue properis uersibus.

(3) Calpurnianus, greetings with swift verses.

Misi, ut petisti, <tibi> munditias dentium,

I have sent, as you requested, <to you> a dentifrice,

nitelas oris ex Arabicis frugibus,

mouth-polishers of the mouth from Arabian fruits,

tenuem, candificum, nobilem puluisculum,

a fine, whitening, noble little powder,

complanatorem tumidulae gingiuulae,

a smoother of the slightly tumid little gingiva,

conuerritorem pridianae reliquiae,

a sweeper-up of yesterday's relics,

ne qua uisatur tetra labes sordium,

lest any foul stain of sordidness be seen,

restrictis forte si labellis riseris.

if by chance you have laughed with your little lips drawn tight.

(4) Quaeso, quid habent isti uersus re aut uerbo pudendum, quid omnino quod philosophus suum nolit uideri? (5) Nisi forte in eo reprehendendus sum, quod Calpurniano puluisculum ex Arabicis frugibus miserim, quem multo aequius erat spurcissimo ritu Hiberorum, ut ait Catullus, sua sibi urina

(4) I ask, what do those verses have shameful in matter or in word, what at all that a philosopher would not wish to seem his own? (5) Unless perhaps I am to be reproved in this, that I sent to Calpurnianus a little powder from Arabian grains, whereas it had been much more fitting, by the most filthy rite of the Iberians, as Catullus says, with his own urine

'dentem atque russam pumicare gingiuam.'

'to pumice the tooth and the red gingiva.'

[7] (1) Vidi ego dudum uix risum quosdam tenentis, cum munditias oris uidelicet orator ille aspere accusaret et dentifricium tanta indignatione pronuntiaret, quanta nemo quisquam uenenum.

[7] (1) I myself some time ago saw certain men scarcely restraining a laugh, when that orator, to wit, was harshly arraigning the cleanliness of the mouth and was pronouncing “dentifrice” with as great indignation as no one whatsoever does “venom.”

(2) Quidni? Crimen haud contemnendum philosopho, nihil in se sordidum sinere, nihil uspiam corporis apertum immundum pati ac fetulentum, (3) praesertim os, cuius in propatulo et conspicuo usus homini creberrimus, siue ille cuipiam osculum ferat seu cum qui[c]quam sermocinetur siue in auditorio dissertet siue in templo preces alleget. (4) Omnem quippe hominis actum sermo praeit, qui, ut ait poeta praecipuus, dentium muro proficiscitur.

(2) Why not? A “crime” not to be contemned in a philosopher: to allow nothing sordid in himself, to suffer no exposed part anywhere of the body to be unclean and fetid, (3) especially the mouth, whose use for a man is most frequent in the open and in public view, whether he give someone a kiss, or hold converse with qui[c]quam, or dissertate in an auditorium, or recite prayers in a temple. (4) For speech goes before every act of man, which, as the principal poet says, sets out from the wall of the teeth.

(5) Dares nunc aliquem similiter grandiloquum: diceret suo more cum primis cui ulla fandi cura sit impensius cetero corpore os colendum, quod esset animi uestibulum et orationis ianua et cogitationum comitium. (6) Ego certe pro meo captu dixerim nihil minus quam oris illuuiem libero et liberali uiro competere. (7) Est enim ea pars hominis loco celsa, uisu prompta, usu facunda.

(5) Produce now someone similarly grandiloquent: he would say, in his wonted manner, that for whoever has any care for speaking, the mouth must, first of all, be cultivated more diligently than the rest of the body, since it is the vestibule of the mind and the gate of oration and the comitium of thoughts. (6) I, certainly, according to my capacity, would say that the squalor of the mouth least of all befits a free and liberal man. (7) For that part of the human being is high in position, plain to sight, fluent in use.

Nam quidem feris et pecudibus os humile est et deorsum ad pedes deiectum, uestigio et pabulo proximum; nunquam ferme nisi mortuis aut ad morsum exasperatis conspicitur. Hominis uero nihil prius tacentis, nihil saepius loquentis contemplere.

Indeed, in wild beasts and herd-animals the mouth is low and cast down toward the feet, proximate to the footprint and to fodder; it is scarcely ever seen except in the dead or in those exasperated to a bite. As for a man, however, you behold nothing earlier when he is silent, nothing more often when he is speaking.

[8] (1) Velim igitur censor meus Aemilianus respondeat, unquamne ipse soleat pedes lauare; uel, si id non negat, contendat maiorem curam munditiarum pedibus quam dentibus inpertiendam. (2) Plane quidem, si quis ita ut tu, Aemiliane, nunquam ferme os suum nisi maledictis et calumniis aperiat, censeo ne ulla cura os percolat neque ille exotico puluere dentis emaculet, quos iustius carbone de rogo obteruerit, neque saltem communi aqua perluat. (3) Quin ei nocens lingua mendaciorum et amaritudinum praeministra semper in fetutinis et olenticetis suis iaceat.

[8] (1) I would wish, then, that my censor Aemilianus answer whether he is ever wont to wash his feet; or, if he does not deny that, let him contend that greater care of cleanliness ought to be imparted to the feet than to the teeth. (2) Plainly indeed, if someone, like you, Aemilianus, hardly ever opens his mouth except for maledictions and calumnies, I judge that no care should polish the mouth, nor should he brighten his teeth with exotic powder—teeth which more justly he would have blackened with charcoal from a funeral pyre—nor even rinse them with common water. (3) Nay rather, let that guilty tongue, fore-minister of lies and of bitternesses, always lie in its own stenches and onion-beds.

(4) Nam quae, malum, ratio est linguam mundam et laetam, uocem contra spurcam et tetram possidere, uiperae ritu niueo denticulo atrum uenenum inspirare? (5) Ceterum qui sese sciat <o>rationem prompturum neque inutilem neque iniucundam, eius merito os, ut bono potui poculum, praelauitur.

(4) For what, the mischief, is the rationale for having a tongue clean and cheerful, but, on the contrary, a voice filthy and grim, to breathe, after the manner of a viper, black venom from a snow-white little tooth? (5) But the man who knows that he is about to produce an <o>ration neither useless nor unpleasing—his mouth, with good right, like a cup for a good draught, is prelaued.

(6) Et quid ego de homine nato diutius? Belua immanis, crocodillus ille qui in Nilo gignitur, ea quoque, ut comperior, purgandos sibi dentis innoxio hiatu praebet. (7) Nam quod est ore amplo, set elingui et plerumque in aqua recluso, multae hiru[n]dines dentibus implectuntur.

(6) And why should I speak longer about one born a man? The monstrous beast, that crocodile which is engendered in the Nile, also, as I learn, offers its teeth to be cleansed, with a harmless gaping. (7) For because it has a wide mouth, but is tongueless, and for the most part opened in the water, many leeches entwine themselves upon its teeth.

Eas illi, cum egressus in praeripia fluminis hiauit, una ex auibus fluuialibus amica auis iniecto rostro sine noxae periculo exculpit.

These, for him, when he has gone out upon the river’s precipitous banks and gaped, a friendly bird—one of the fluvial birds—cleans out with its beak inserted, without peril of harm.

[9] (1) Mitto haec. Venio ad ceteros uorsus ut illi uocant amatorios, quos tamen tam dure et rustice legere, ut odium mouerent. (2) Sed quid ad magica maleficia, quod ego pueros Scriboni Laeti, amici mei, carmine laudaui?

[9] (1) I pass over these. I come to the remaining verses, the amatory, as they call them, which, however, they read so harshly and rustically that they stirred up hatred. (2) But what has that to do with magical malefactions, that I lauded in song the sons of Scribonius Laetus, my friend?

(3) An ideo magus, quia poeta? Quis unquam fando audiuit tam similem suspicionem, tam aptam coniecturam, tam proxumum argumentum? (4) 'Fecit uorsus Apuleius.' Si malos, crimen est, nec id tamen philosophi, sed poetae; sin bonos, quid accusas?

(3) So, a magus therefore, because a poet? Who ever, in speaking, has heard of so similar a suspicion, so apt a conjecture, so proximate an argument? (4) ‘Apuleius made verses.’ If bad ones, it is a crime—yet not that of a philosopher, but of a poet; but if good ones, what do you accuse?

(5) 'At enim ludicros et amatorios fecit.' Num ergo haec sunt crimina mea, et nomine erratis, qui me magiae detulistis?

(5) 'But indeed he made ludic and amatory verses.' Are these then my crimes, and are you erring in the very name, you who have brought a charge of magic against me?

(6) Fecere tamen et alii talia, etsi uos ignoratis: apud Graecos Teius quidam et Lacedaemonius et Ciu[i]s cum aliis innumeris, (7) etiam mulier Lesbia, lasciue illa quidem tantaque gratia, ut nobis insolentiam linguae suae dulcedine carminum commendet; (8) apud nos uero Aedituus et Porcius et Catulus, isti quoque cum aliis innumeris. (9) 'At philosophi non fuere.' Num igitur etiam Solonem fuisse serium uirum et philosophum negabis, cuius ille lasciuissimus uersus est:

(6) Yet others too have done such things, even if you are ignorant of it: among the Greeks, a certain Teian and a Lacedaemonian and a man of Ciu[i]s, along with countless others, (7) even a Lesbian woman—lascivious she indeed, and with such grace that by the sweetness of her songs she commends to us the insolence of her tongue; (8) among us, in truth, Aedituus and Porcius and Catulus, these too along with countless others. (9) “But they were not philosophers.” Will you then even deny that Solon was a serious virum and a philosopher, he whose is that most lascivious verse:

_____ _______ ___ ________ ________.

[illegible] [illegible] [illegible] [illegible] [illegible].

(10) Et quid tam petulans habent omnes uersus mei, si cum isto uno contendantur, (11) ut taceam scripta Diogenis Cynici et Zenonis Stoicae sectae conditoris, id genus plurima?

(10) And what so petulant is there in all my verses, if they be compared with that one, (11) to be silent about the writings of Diogenes the Cynic and of Zeno, the founder of the Stoic sect, very many of that kind?

Recitem denuo, ut sciant me eorum non pigere:

Let me recite anew, so that they may know that I do not regret them:

(12) Et Critias mea delicia est et salua, Charine,

(12) And Critias is my delight and safe, Charine,

pars in amore meo, uita, tibi remanet.

a part in my love, my life, remains to you.

Ne metuas, nam me ignis et ignis torreat ut uult;

Do not fear, for may fire, yes fire, scorch me as it wills;

hasce duas flammas, dum potiar, patiar.

these two flames, until I may obtain them, I will endure.

Hoc modo sim uobis, unus sibi quisque quod ipse est;

In this way may I be to you, each person to himself what he himself is;

hoc mihi uos eritis, quod duo sunt oculi.

you will be to me what two eyes are.

(13) Recitem nunc et alios, quos illi quasi intemperantissimos postremum legere:

(13) Let me now recite others as well, which they read last as though most intemperate:

(14) Florea serta, meum mel, et haec tibi carmina dono.

(14) Floral garlands, my honey, and these songs I give to you.

Carmina dono tibi, serta tuo genio,

I give songs to you, garlands to your Genius,

carmina uti, Critia, lux haec optata canatur

with songs, Critias, let this hoped-for light be sung

quae bis septeno uere tibi remeat,

which returns to you in the twice-seven spring,

serta autem ut laeto tibi tempore tempora uernent,

and that garlands, at a happy time for you, may make your temples vernal,

aetatis florem floribus ut decores.

that you may adorn the flower of your age with flowers.

Tu mihi da contra pro uerno flore tuum uer,

You, give to me in return, in place of the vernal flower, your spring,

ut nostra exuperes munera muneribus.

so that you may surpass our gifts with gifts.

Pro implexis sertis complexum corpore redde,

In place of entwined garlands, give back an embrace with your body,

proque rosis oris sauia purpurei.

and in place of roses, kisses of your purple mouth.

Quod si animum inspires, dona et iam carmina nostra

But if you inspire the spirit, grant even now our songs

cedent uicta tuo dulciloquo calamo.

they will yield, conquered, to your sweet-speaking reed-pen.

[10] (1) Habes crimen meum, Maxime, quasi improbi comisatoris de sertis et canticis compositum.

[10] (1) You have my crime, Maximus, as if that of a shameless carouser, composed concerning garlands and canticles.

(2) Hic illud etiam reprehendi animaduertisti, quod, cum aliis nominibus pueri uocentur, ego eos Charinum et Critian appellitarim. (3) Eadem igitur opera accusent C. Catul<l>um, quod Lesbiam pro Clodia nominarit, et Ticidam similiter, quod quae Metella erat Perillam scripserit, et Propertium, qui Cunthiam dicat, Hostiam dissimulet, et Tibullum, quod ei sit Plania in animo, Delia in uersu. (4) Et quidem C. Lucilium, quanquam sit iambicus, tamen improbarim, quod Gentium et Macedonem pueros directis nominibus carmine suo prostituerit.

(2) You also noticed that this was found fault with: that, while boys are called by other names, I have been wont to call them Charinum and Critian. (3) By the same token, then, let them accuse C. Catul<l>um for having named Lesbia instead of Clodia, and similarly Ticida, for having written Perilla for the one who was Metella, and Propertium, who says “Cunthia” but conceals Hostia, and Tibullus, because he has Plania in mind, Delia in verse. (4) And indeed I would still disapprove of C. Lucilius, although he is an iambic poet, for having in his song prostituted the boys Gentius and Macedon by their straightforward names.

(5) Quanto modestius tandem Mantuanus poeta, qui itidem ut ego puerum amici sui Pollionis bucolico ludicro laudans et abstinens nominum sese quidem Corydonem, puerum uero Alexin uocat.

(5) How much more modest, then, the Mantuan poet, who, just as I, praising the boy of his friend Pollio in a bucolic ludicrum and abstaining from names, calls himself indeed Corydon, but the boy Alexin.

(6) Sed Aemilianus, uir ultra Virgilianos opiliones et busequas rusticanus, agrestis quidem semper et barbarus, uerum longe austerior, ut putat, Serranis et Curiis et Fabriciis, negat id genus uersus Platonico philosopho competere. (7) Etiamne, Aemiliane, si Platonis ipsius exemplo doceo factos? Cuius nulla carmina extant nisi amoris elegia.

(6) But Aemilianus, a man rustic beyond Vergilian shepherds and cowherds, ever rustic indeed and barbarous, yet far more austere, as he thinks, than the Serrani and the Curii and the Fabricii, denies that that kind of verses befits a Platonic philosopher. (7) Even so, Aemilianus, if I demonstrate that they were composed on Plato’s own example? Of whom no poems are extant except an elegy of love.

Nam cetera omnia, credo quod tam lepida non erant, igni deussit. (8) Disce igitur uersus Platonis philosophi in puerum Astera, si tamen tantus natu potes litteras discere:

For the rest of everything, I believe that, because they were not so charming, he consigned to the fire. (8) Learn, therefore, the verses of the philosopher Plato about the boy Aster, if, however, being so great in years, you can learn your letters:

_____ ____ ___ _______ ___ _______ _____ô

___ __ _____ _______ ________ __ _________.

[illegible].

(9) Item eiusdem Platonis in Alexin Phaedrumque pueros coniuncto carmine:

(9) Likewise, of the same Plato, upon the boys Alexis and Phaedrus, in a conjoined poem:

___ ___ _____ _______ ____ _____ ___' ___ _____,

_____ ___ _____ ____ ____________.

[unintelligible] [unintelligible] [unintelligible] [unintelligible] [unintelligible].

____, <__> _______ _____ ______; ___' _______

_______. ___ ____ _______ __________;

(10) Ne pluris commemorem, nouissimum uersum eius de Dione Syracusano si dixero, finem faciam:

(10) Not to recount more, if I mention his most recent verse about Dion the Syracusan, I shall make an end:

_ ____ _______ _____ _____ ____.

[11] (1) Sed sumne ego ineptus, qui haec etiam in iudicio? An uos potius calumniosi, qui etiam haec in accusatione, quasi ullum specimen morum sit uersibus ludere? (2) Catullum ita respondentem maliuolis non legistis:

[11] (1) But am I inept, that I bring up these things even in court? Or are you rather calumnious, you who even include these things in the accusation, as if to play with verses were any specimen of morals? (2) Have you not read Catullus replying thus to the malevolent:

'Nam castum esse decet pium poetam

'For it befits a pious poet to be chaste

ipsum, uersiculos nihil necesse est'?

himself; as for the little verses, it is not at all necessary'?

(3) Diuus Adrianus cum Voconi amici sui poetae tumulum uorsibus muneraretur, ita scripsit:

(3) When the deified Hadrian was honoring with verses the tomb of Voconus, his friend the poet, he wrote thus:

'Lasciuus uersu, mente pudicus eras,'

'Lascivious in verse, chaste in mind, you were,'

quod nunquam ita dixisset, si forent lepidiora carmina argumentum impudicitiae habenda. (4) Ipsius etiam diui Adriani multa id genus legere me memini. Aude sis, Aemiliane, dicere male id fieri, quod imperator et censor diuus Adrianus fecit et factum memoriae reliquit.

which he would never have said thus, if more charming verses were to be held as an argument of impudicity. (4) I remember reading many of that kind by the deified Hadrian himself as well. Dare, pray, Aemilianus, to say that it is done amiss—that which the emperor and censor, the deified Hadrian, did and left to memory.

(5) Ceterum Maximum quicquam putas culpaturum, quod sciat Platonis exemplo a me factum? Cuius uersus quos nunc percensui tanto sanctiores sunt, quanto apertiores, tanto pudicius compositi, quanto simplicius professi. (6) Namque haec et id genus omnia dissimulare et occultare peccantis, profiteri et promulgare ludentis est; quippe natura uox innocentiae, silentium maleficio distributa.

(5) Moreover, do you think that Maximus will blame anything which he knows was done by me on Plato’s example? Whose verses, which I have now reviewed, are the more sacred the more open, the more chastely composed the more simply professed. (6) For to dissimulate and to conceal these things and all of that kind is of one sinning; to profess and to promulgate is of one playing; indeed, by nature voice is allotted to innocence, silence to wrongdoing.

[12] (1) Mitto enim dicere alta illa et diuina Platonica, rarissimo cuique piorum ignara, ceterum omnibus profanis incognita: geminam esse Venerem deam, proprio quamque amore et diuersis amatoribus pollentis; (2) earum alteram uulgariam, quae sit percita populari amore, non modo humanis animis, uerum etiam pecuinis et ferinis ad libidinem imperitare ui immodica trucique perculsorum animalium serua corpora complexu uincientem; (3) alteram uero caelitem Venerem, praedita[m] quae sit optimati amore, solis hominibus et eorum paucis curare, nullis ad turpitudinem stimulis uel illecebris sectatores suos percellentem; (4) quippe amorem eius non amoenum et lasciuum, sed contra incom[i]tum et serium pulchritudine honestatis uirtutes amatoribus suis conciliare, et si quando decora corpora co<m>mendet, a contumelia eorum procul absterrere; (5) neque enim quicquam aliud in corporum forma diligendum quam quod ammoneant diuinos animos eius pulchritudinis, quam prius ueram et sinceram inter deos uidere. (6) Quapropter, ut semper, eleganter Afranius hoc scriptum relinquat:

[12] (1) For I pass over saying those high and divine Platonica, unknown to almost every one of the pious, but to all the profane not known: that the goddess Venus is double, each prevailing by her own proper love and with different lovers; (2) of these, the one is the vulgar, who is stirred by popular love, to lord it to lust not only over human souls, but even over brute and ferine creatures, binding by embrace the servile bodies of animals struck by immoderate violence and savage impulse; (3) but the other is the celestial Venus, endowed[m] with a nobility’s love, caring only for human beings and of them only a few, not driving her sectators by any goads or allurements toward turpitude; (4) indeed she coalesces for her lovers the virtues by the beauty of honorableness, not an agreeable and lascivious love, but on the contrary an unco[i]mbed and serious one; and if ever she co<m>mends comely bodies, she keeps far away from any affront to them; (5) for in the form of bodies nothing else is to be esteemed lovable than that they admonish the divine souls of that beauty which earlier they beheld true and sincere among the gods. (6) Wherefore, ut always, Afranius leaves this written elegantly:

'amabit sapiens, cupient ceteri';

'the sapient will love, the others will desire';

tamen si uerum uelis, Aemiliane, uel si haec intellegere unquam potes, non tam amat sapiens quam recordatur.

nevertheless, if you wish the truth, Aemilianus, or if you can ever understand these things, the wise man does not so much love as recollect.

[13] (1) Da igitur ueniam Platoni philosopho uersuum eius de amore, ne ego necesse habeam contra sententiam Neoptolemi Enniani pluribus philosophari. (2) Vel si tu id non facis, ego me facile patiar in huiuscemodi uersibus culpari cum Platone.

[13] (1) Grant, then, pardon to Plato the philosopher for his verses on love, lest I be obliged to philosophize at greater length against the sententia of the Ennian Neoptolemus. (2) Or if you do not do that, I will easily allow myself to be blamed in verses of this kind along with Plato.

(3) Tibi autem, Maxime, habeo gratiam propensam, cum has quoque appendices defensionis meae iccirco necessarias, quia accusationi rependuntur, tam attente audis. (4) Et ideo hoc etiam peto, quod mihi ante ipsa crimina superest audias, ut adhuc fecisti, libenter et diligenter.

(3) But to you, Maximus, I have a ready gratitude, since you listen so attentively even to these appendices of my defense, necessary for this reason, because they are paid back in counterbalance to the accusation. (4) And therefore I also ask this: that you hear, as you have thus far, willingly and diligently, what remains to me before the charges themselves.

(5) Sequitur enim de speculo longa illa et censoria oratio, de quo pro rei atrocitate paene diruptus est Pudens clamitans: 'Habet speculum philosophus! Possidet speculum philosophus!' (6) Vt igitur habere concedam _ ne aliquid obiecisse te credas, si negaro _, non tamen ex eo accipi me necesse est exornari quoque ad speculum solere. (7) Quid enim?

(5) For there follows, in fact, that long and censorious oration about the mirror, at which, on account of the atrocity of the matter, Pudens was almost bursting, shouting: 'The philosopher has a mirror! The philosopher possesses a mirror!' (6) So then, let me concede that I have it, _lest you think you have brought some objection, if I should deny it_, yet from this it is not necessary to infer that I also am wont to deck myself out at the mirror. (7) What then?

Si choragium thymelicum possiderem, num ex eo argumentarere etiam uti me consuesse tragoedi[i] syrmate, histrionis crocota, _ orgia, mimi centunculo? Non opinor. Nam et contra plurimis rebus possessu careo, usu fruor.

If I were to possess a thymelic choragium, would you from that argue that I also am accustomed to use the tragedy’s syrma, the actor’s crocota, the _orgia_, the mime’s centunculus? I do not think so. For, conversely, while I lack possession of very many things, I enjoy their use.

(8) Quod si neque habere utendi argumentum est neque non utendi non habere, et speculi non tam possessio culpatur quam inspectio, illud etiam docear necesse est, quando et quibus praesentibus in speculum inspexerim, quoniam ut res est, magis piaculum decernis speculum philosopho quam Cereris mundum profano uidere.

(8) But if neither possession is an argument for using, nor is not having an argument for not using, and in the case of the mirror not so much possession as inspection is blamed, I must also be taught this: when, and with what persons present, I looked into a mirror; since, as the matter stands, you decide it to be more a piacular offense for a philosopher to look into a mirror than for a profane man to see the mundus of Ceres.

[14] (1) Cedo nunc, si et inspexisse me fateor, quod tandem crimen est imaginem suam nosse eamque non uno loco conditam, sed quoquo uelis paruo speculo promptam gestare? (2) An tu ignoras nihil esse aspectabilius homini nato quam formam suam? Equidem scio et filiorum cariores esse qui similes uidentur et publicitus simulacrum suum cuique, quod uideat, pro meritis praemio tribui.

[14] (1) Come now, if I even confess that I have looked, what crime, pray, is it to know one’s own image and to carry it about, not stored in a single place, but ready at hand in a small mirror wherever you wish? (2) Or do you not know that nothing is more worthy of being looked upon by one born than his own form? Indeed I know that, among sons, those who seem similar are the more dear, and that publicly one’s own statue is bestowed on each man, to look upon, as a reward according to merits.

(3) Aut quid sibi statuae et imagines uariis artibus effigiatae uolunt? Nisi forte quod artificio elaboratum laudabile habetur, hoc natura oblatum culpabile iudicandum est, cum sit in ea uel magis miranda et facilitas et similitudo.

(3) Or what is the point of statues and images fashioned by various arts? Unless perhaps what has been elaborated by art is held laudable, while what is offered by nature is to be judged culpable, since in it both the facility and the similitude are even more to be wondered at.

(4) Quippe in omnibus manu faciundis imaginibus opera diutino sumitur, neque tamen similitudo aeque ut in speculis comparet. (5) Deest enim et luto uigor et saxo color et picturae rigor et motus omnibus, qui praecipua fide similitudinem repraesentat, cum in eo uisitur imago mire relata, ut similis, ita mobilis et ad omnem nutum hominis sui morigera. (6) Eadem semper contemplantibus aequaeua est ab ineunte pueritia ad obeuntem senectam, tot aetatis uices induit, tam uarias habitudines corporis participat, tot uultus eiusdem laetantis uel dolentis imitatur.

(4) Indeed, in all images made by hand, long labor is expended, nor, however, does the likeness appear as equally as in mirrors. (5) For in clay vigor is lacking, and in stone color, and in painting firmness, and motion in all—motion which, with paramount fidelity, represents the similarity—since in it the image is seen marvelously rendered, as similar, so mobile and compliant to every nod of its person. (6) To those contemplating, the same is always coeval from the outset of boyhood to approaching old age; it assumes so many turns of age, shares in such diverse conditions of body, imitates so many countenances of the same person rejoicing or grieving.

(7) Enimuero quod luto fictum uel aere infusum uel lapide incussum uel cera inustum uel pigmento illitum uel alio quopiam humano artificio adsimulatum est, non multa intercapedine temporis dissimile redditur et ritu cadaueris unum uultum et immobilem possidet. (8) Tantum praestat imaginis artibus ad similitudinem referundum leuitas illa speculi fabra et splendor opifex.

(7) Indeed, what has been fashioned in clay, or poured in bronze, or struck into stone, or seared in wax, or smeared with pigment, or made to resemble by some other human artifice, in no great interval of time is rendered dissimilar and, after the manner of a cadaver, possesses a single and motionless face. (8) So much does that lightness of the mirror, skill-wrought, and the craftsman splendor excel the arts of image-making in bringing back a likeness.

[15] (1) Aut igitur unius Hagesilai Lacedaemonii sententia nobis sequenda est, qui se neque pingi neque fingi unquam diffidens formae suae passus est, (2) aut si mos omnium ceterorum hominum retinendus uidetur in statuis et imaginibus non repudiandis, cur existimes imaginem suam cuique uisendam potius in lapide quam in argento, magis in tabula quam in speculo?

[15] (1) Either therefore the opinion of Agesilaus the Lacedaemonian alone must be followed by us, who, distrusting his own form, never allowed himself to be either painted or fashioned; (2) or, if the custom of all the other men seems to be to be retained in not repudiating statues and images, why would you think that each person should see his own image rather in stone than in silver, more on a panel than in a mirror?

(3) An turpe arbitraris formam suam spectaculo assiduo explorare? (4) An non Socrates philosophus ultro etiam suasisse fertur discipulis suis, crebro ut semet in speculo contemplarentur, (5) ut qui eorum foret pulchritudine sibi complacitus, impendio procuraret ne dignitatem corporis malis moribus dedecoraret, (6) qui uero minus se commendabilem forma putaret, sedulo operam daret ut uirtutis laude turpitudinem tegeret? (6) Adeo uir omnium sapientissimus speculo etiam ad disciplinam morum utebatur.

(3) Do you think it disgraceful to explore one’s form by assiduous spectacle? (4) Or is not Socrates the philosopher even reported to have urged his disciples of his own accord to contemplate themselves frequently in a mirror, (5) so that whoever of them should be self-pleased with his beauty might with especial diligence take care not to dishonor the dignity of the body by evil morals, (6) but whoever should think himself less commendable in form might sedulously give effort to cover disgracefulness by the praise of virtue? (6) To such a degree the man most wise of all used even the mirror for the discipline of morals.

(8) Demost<h>enen uero, primarium dicendi artificem, quis est qui non sciat semper ante speculum quasi ante magistrum causas meditatum? (9) Ita ille summus orator cum a Platone philosopho facundiam <h>ausisset, ab Eubulide dialectico argumentationes edidicisset, nouissimam pronuntiandi congruentiam ab speculo petiuit. (10) Vtrum igitur putas maiorem curam decoris in adseueranda oratione suscipiendam rhetori iurganti an philosopho obiurganti, apud iudices sorte ductos paulisper disceptanti an apud omnis homines semper disserenti, de finibus agrorum litiganti an de finibus bonorum et malorum docenti?

(8) Demosthenes, indeed, the foremost craftsman of speaking, who is there who does not know that he always practiced his cases before a mirror as before a teacher? (9) Thus that supreme orator, when he had drawn eloquence from Plato the philosopher and had learned argumentations from Eubulides the dialectician, sought from the mirror the very last congruence of delivery. (10) Which, then, do you think should undertake the greater care for decorum in the asserting of speech: the rhetorician wrangling or the philosopher rebuking; the one disputing for a little while before judges drawn by lot, or the one discoursing always before all men; the one litigating about the boundaries of fields, or the one teaching about the ends of good and evil?

(11) Quid quod nec ob haec debet tantummodo philosophus speculum inuisere? (12) Nam saepe oportet non modo similitudinem suam, uerum etiam ipsius similitudinis rationem considerare: num, ut ait Epicurus, profectae a nobis imagines uelut quaedam exuuiae iugi fluore a corporibus manantes, cum leue aliquid et solidum offenderunt, illisae reflectantur et retro expressae contrauersim respondeant; (13) an, ut alii philosophi disputant, radii nostri seu mediis oculis proliquati et lumini extrario mixti atque ita uniti, ut Plato arbitratur, (14) seu tantum oculis profecti sine ullo foris amminiculo, ut Archytas putat, seu intentu aëris facti, ut Stoici rentur, (15) cum alicui corpori inciderunt spisso et splendido et leui, paribus angulis quibus inciderant resultent ad faciem suam reduces atque ita, quod extra tangant ac uisant, id intra speculum imaginentur.

(11) What moreover, that not for these reasons only ought the philosopher to visit the mirror? (12) For often it is proper to consider not only one’s own likeness, but even the rationale of the likeness itself: whether, as Epicurus says, images sent forth from us, like certain cast-off exuviae, flowing from bodies in a continual stream, when they strike something smooth and solid, being dashed against it are reflected and, driven back, respond contrariwise; (13) or, as other philosophers argue, whether our rays, either poured forth through the midst of the eyes and mixed with the light outside and thus united, as Plato judges, (14) or proceeding only from the eyes without any outward aid, as Archytas thinks, (15) or formed by the tension of the air, as the Stoics suppose, when they have fallen upon a body that is dense and shining and smooth, rebound with equal angles to those with which they struck it, returning to their face, and thus what they touch and see outside, they imagine within the mirror.

[16] (1) Videturne uobis debere philosophia haec omnia uestigare et inquirere et cuncta specula uel uda uel suda [soli] uidere? (2) Quibus praeter ista quae dixi etiam illa ratiocinatio necessaria est, cur in planis quidem speculis ferme pares optutus et imagines uideantur, <in> tumidis uero et globosis omnia defectiora, at contra in cauis auctiora; (3) ubi et cur laeua cum dexteris permutentur; quando se imago eodem speculo tum recondat penitus, tum foras exerat; (4) cur caua specula, si exaduersum soli retineantur, appositum fomitem accendant; (5) qui fiat ut arcus in nubibus uarie, duo[s] soles aemula similitudine uisantur, alia praeterea eiusdem modi plurima, (6) quae tractat uolumine ingenti Archimedes Syracusanus, uir in omni quidem geometria multum ante alios admirabilis subtilitate, sed haud sciam an propter hoc uel maxime memorandus, quod inspexerat speculum saepe ac diligenter.

[16] (1) Does it seem to you that philosophy ought to investigate and inquire into all these things and to view all mirrors, whether moist or dry, [the sun]? (2) For whom, besides those things which I have said, this further reasoning too is necessary: why in flat mirrors the gazes and the images appear almost equal, <in> swollen and globular ones everything is more diminished, but conversely in hollow ones larger; (3) where and why the lefts are interchanged with the rights; when the image in the same mirror now hides itself completely, now thrusts itself outward; (4) why hollow mirrors, if held opposite to the sun, ignite the applied tinder; (5) how it comes about that the rainbow in the clouds appears in various ways, that two suns are seen in emulative similarity, and very many other things besides of the same sort; (6) which Archimedes of Syracuse treats in a huge volume, a man in all geometry far before others, admirable for subtlety—but I do not know whether he is to be most of all remembered on account of this, that he had often and carefully inspected the mirror.

(7) Quem tu librum, Aemiliane, si nosses ac non modo campo et glebis, uerum etiam abaco et puluisculo te dedisses, mihi istud crede, quanquam teterrimum os tuum minimum a Thyesta tragico demutet, tamen profecto discendi cupidine speculum inuiseres et aliquando relicto aratro mirarere tot in facie tua sulcos rugarum.

(7) Which book, Aemilianus, if you had known it and had devoted yourself not only to the field and clods, but even to the abacus and little dust, believe me in this: although your most hideous face would change very little from the tragic Thyestes, yet surely, out of a desire for learning, you would visit a mirror and, with the plow left aside at some point, you would marvel at so many furrows of wrinkles on your face.

(8) At ego non mirer, si boni consulis me de isto distortissimo uultu tuo dicere, de moribus tuis multo truculentioribus reticere. (9) Ea res est: praeter quod non sum iurgiosus, etiam libenter te nuper usque albus an ater esses ignoraui, et adhuc <h>ercle non satis noui. (10) Id adeo factum, quod et tu rusticando obscurus es et ego discendo occupatus.

(8) But I should not marvel, if you take it in good part that I speak about that most distorted face of yours, and keep silence about your much more truculent morals. (9) This is the matter: besides that I am not quarrelsome, I also quite willingly until recently was ignorant whether you were white or black, and even now, by Hercules, I do not sufficiently know. (10) This indeed has happened because you, by rusticating, are obscure, and I, by learning, am occupied.

(11) Ita et tibi umbra ignobilitatis a probatore obstitit, et ego numquam studui male facta cuiusquam cognoscere, sed semper potius duxi mea peccata tegere quam aliena indagare. (12) Igitur hoc mihi aduersum te usu uenit, quod qui forte constitit in loco lumine conlustrato atque eum alter e tenebris prospectat. (13) Nam ad eundem modum tu quidem, quid ego in propatulo et celebri agam, facile e tenebris tuis arbitraris, cum ipse humilitate abdita et lucifuga non sis mihi mutuo conspicuus.

(11) Thus both for you a shadow of ignobility has stood in the way with the examiner, and I have never striven to learn the misdeeds of anyone, but have always rather thought it better to cover my own sins than to investigate another’s. (12) Therefore this has come about for me, in regard to you: like a man who by chance has taken his stand in a place illuminated with light, and another looks at him from out of the darkness. (13) For in the same manner you, indeed, easily judge from your darkness what I do in the open and the frequented, while you yourself, hidden in lowliness and light-fleeing, are not in turn conspicuous to me.

[17] (1) Ego adeo seruosne tu habeas ad agrum colendum an ipse mutuarias operas cum uicinis tuis cambies, neque scio neque laboro. (2) At tu me scis eadem die tris Oeae manu misisse, idque mihi patronus tuus inter cetera a te sibi edita obiecit, quanquam modico prius dixerat me uno seruo comite Oeam uenisse. (3) Quod quidem uelim mihi respondeas, qui potuerim ex uno tris manu mittere, nisi si et hoc magicum est.

[17] (1) For my part, whether you have slaves for cultivating the field or yourself exchange mutual services with your neighbors, I neither know nor care. (2) But you know me to have manumitted three at Oea on the same day, and your patron threw this in my teeth among other things put forward by you to him, although a little before he had said that I had come to Oea with one slave as companion. (3) As to this I would indeed like you to answer me, how I could from one manumit three, unless this too is magical.

(4) Tantamne esse mentiendi caecitatem dicam an consuetudinem? 'Venit Apuleius Oeam cum uno seruo '; dein pauculis uerbis intergarritis: 'Apuleius Oeae una die tris manu misit.' (5) Ne illud quidem credibile fuisset, cum tribus uenisse, omnes liberasse. Quod tamen si ita fecissem, cur potius tris seruos inopiae signum putares quam tris libertos opulentiae?

(4) Shall I call it such a blindness of lying, or a custom? ‘Apuleius came to Oea with one slave’; then, after a few words bandied between you: ‘Apuleius at Oea in one day manumitted three.’ (5) Not even that would have been credible—that, having come with three, he freed them all. Yet if I had done so, why would you rather have thought three slaves a sign of indigence than three freedmen of opulence?

(6) Nescis profecto, nescis, Aemiliane, philosophum accusare, qui famulitii paucitatem obprobraris, quam ego gloriae causa ementiri debuissem, quippe qui scirem non modo philosophos, quorum me sectatorem fero, uerum etiam imperatores populi Romani paucitate seruorum gloriatos. (7) Itane tandem ne haec quidem legere patroni tui: M. Antonium consularem solos octo seruos domi habuisse, Carbonem uero illum, qui rebus potitus est, uno minus, at enim Manio Curio tot adoreis longe incluto, quippe qui ter triumphum una porta egerit, ei igitur Manio Curio duos solos in castris calones fuisse? (8) Ita ille uir de Sabinis deque Samnitibus deque Pyrro triumphator paucioris seruos habuit quam triumphos.

(6) You surely do not know, you do not know, Aemilianus, how to accuse a philosopher, you who reproach the paucity of my attendants, which I ought to have lied about for the sake of glory, since I knew that not only philosophers, of whose sect I declare myself a follower, but even the emperors of the Roman people gloried in the paucity of their slaves. (7) So then, has your patron not even read these things: that Marcus Antonius, a consular man, had only eight slaves at home, and Carbo indeed—the one who got control of affairs—one fewer; but, as for Manius Curius, far renowned for so many triumphs, since he drove a triple triumph through one gate, that to that Manius Curius there were in the camp only two camp-servants? (8) Thus that man, a triumphator over the Sabines and the Samnites and Pyrrhus, had fewer slaves than triumphs.

(9)M. autem Cato nihil oppertus, ut alii de se praedicarent, ipse in o[pe]ratione sua scriptum reliquit, cum in Hispania<m> consul proficisceretur, tris seruos solos ex urbe duxisse; (10) quoniam ad uillam publicam uenerat, parum uisum qui uteretur, iussisse duos pueros in foro de mensa emi, eos quinque in Hispaniam duxisse.

(9) But M. Cato, having waited for nothing so that others might vaunt about him, himself left written in his own o[pe]ration that, when as consul he was setting out to Spain<m>, he had led only three slaves out of the city; (10) since he had come to the public villa, it seemed too few for him to make use of, he ordered two boys to be bought in the Forum off the dealer’s table, and he led those five into Spain.

(11) Haec Pudens si legisset, ut mea opinio est, aut omnino huic maledicto supersedisset aut in tribus seruis multitudinem comitum philosophi quam paucitatem reprehendere maluisset.

(11) If Pudens had read these things, as is my opinion, either he would altogether have desisted from this malediction, or, in the matter of three slaves, he would have preferred to reprehend the multitude of a philosopher’s companions rather than the paucity.

[18] (1) Idem mihi etiam paupertatem obprobrauit, acceptum philosopho crimen et ultro profitendum. (2) Enim paupertas olim philosophiae uernacula est, frugi, sobria, paruo potens, aemula laudis, aduersum diuitias possessa, habitu secura, cultu simplex, consilio benesuada. (3) Neminem umquam superbia inflauit, neminem inpotentia deprauauit, neminem tyrannide efferauit, delicias uentris et inguinum neque uult ullas neque potest.

[18] (1) The same man also reproached me with poverty, a charge acceptable to a philosopher and to be professed unbidden. (2) For poverty has long been native to philosophy—thrifty, sober, powerful with little, a rival for praise, held in opposition to riches, untroubled in garb, simple in dress, persuasive in counsel for good. (3) No one has ever been puffed up with pride by it, no one depraved by lack of self-mastery, no one made savage by tyranny; the luxuries of belly and loins it neither wishes for nor can.

(4) Quippe haec et alia flagitia diuitiarum alumni solent. Maxima quaeque scelera si ex omni memoria hominum percenseas, nullum in illis pauperem reperies, (5) ut contra haut temere inter inlustris uiros diuites comparent, sed quemcunque in aliqua laude miramur, eum paupertas ab incunabulis nutricata est. (6) Paupertas, inquam, prisca aput saecula omnium ciuitatium conditrix, omnium artium repertrix, omnium peccatorum inops, omnis gloriae munifica, cunctis laudibus apud omnis nationes perfuncta.

(4) Indeed these and other flagitious crimes are wont to be committed by the nurslings of riches. If you review the greatest crimes in the whole memory of men, you will find no poor man among them, (5) so that, on the contrary, hardly do rich men appear among illustrious men; but whomever we admire in any praise, him poverty has nursed from the cradle. (6) Poverty, I say, ancient in former ages, the foundress of all commonwealths, the discoveress of all arts, destitute of all sins, munificent of all glory, having fulfilled all praises among all nations.

(7) Eadem est enim paupertas apud Graecos in Aristide iusta, in Phocione benigna, in Epaminonda strenua, in Socrate sapiens, in Homero diserta. (8) Eadem paupertas etiam populo Romano imperium a primordio fundauit, proque eo in <h>odiernum diis immortalibus simpulo et catino fictili sacrificat.

(7) For the same poverty among the Greeks is in Aristides just, in Phocion benign, in Epaminondas strenuous, in Socrates wise, in Homer eloquent. (8) The same poverty also founded for the Roman people the empire from the first beginnings, and for its sake down to <h>oday it sacrifices to the immortal gods with a simpulum and an earthenware bowl.

(9) Quod si modo iudices de causa ista sederent C. Fabricius, Gn. Scipio, Manius Curius, quorum filiae ob paupertatem de publico dotibus donatae ad maritos ierunt portantes gloriam domesticam, pecuniam publicam, (10) si Publicola regum exactor et Agrippa populi reconciliator, quorum funus ob tenuis opes a populo Romano collatis <s>extantibus adornatum est, (11) si Atilius Regulus, cuius agellus ob similem penuriam publica pecunia cultus est, (12) si denique omnes illae ueteres prosapiae consulares et censoriae et triumphales breui usura lucis ad iudicium istud remissae audirent, auderesne paupertatem philosopho exprobrare apud tot consules pauperes?

(9) But if now as judges in this case there sat Gaius Fabricius, Gnaeus Scipio, Manius Curius, whose daughters, on account of poverty, having been endowed with dowries from the public treasury, went to their husbands carrying domestic glory and public money, (10) if Publicola, the expeller of kings, and Agrippa, the reconciler of the people, whose funeral, on account of slender means, was adorned by the Roman people with contributions of <s>extantes, (11) if Atilius Regulus, whose little field, on account of similar penury, was cultivated at public expense, (12) if finally all those old consular and censorial and triumphal lineages, sent back with a brief loan of the light to attend this judgment, were hearing—would you dare to reproach poverty to a philosopher in the presence of so many poor consuls?

[19] (1) An tibi Claudius Maximus idoneus auditor uidetur ad irridendam paupertatem, quod ipse uberem et prolixam rem familiarem sortitus est? (2) Erras, Aemiliane, et longe huius animi frustra es, si eum ex fortunae indulgentia, non ex philosophiae censura metiris, si uirum tam austerae sectae tamque diutinae militiae non putas amiciorem esse cohercitae mediocritati quam delicatae opulentiae, fortunam uelut tunicam magis concinnam quam longam probare; (3) quippe etiam ea si non gestetur et trahatur, nihil minus quam lacinia praependens impedit et praecipitat. (4) Etenim omnibus ad uitae munia utendis quicquid aptam moderationem supergreditur, [h]oneri potius quam usui exuberat.

[19] (1) Does Claudius Maximus seem to you a suitable hearer for deriding poverty, because he himself has been endowed with an abundant and extensive household fortune? (2) You err, Aemilianus, and are far wide of this spirit to no purpose, if you measure him by the indulgence of Fortune and not by the standard of Philosophy, if you do not think that a man of so austere a sect and so long a militia is more a friend to constrained mediocrity than to delicate opulence, approving Fortune, like a tunic, more for being well-fitted than for being long; (3) for indeed even that, if it is not worn but dragged, hampers and pitches one headlong no less than a hanging hem. (4) For in all things to be used for the duties of life, whatever exceeds fitting moderation swells to be a burden rather than a use.

(5) Igitur et inmodicae diuitiae uelut ingentia et enormia gubernacula facilius mergunt quam regunt, quod habent irritam copiam, noxiam nimietatem.

(5) Therefore, immoderate riches too, like vast and misshapen rudders, more easily sink than steer, because they possess a vain abundance, a noxious excess.

(6) Quin ex ipsis opulentioribus eos potissimum uideo laudari, qui nullo strepitu, modico cultu, dissimulatis facultatibus agunt et diuitias magnas administrant sine ostentatione, sine superbia, specie mediocritatis pauperum similes. (7) Quod si etiam ditibus ad argumentum modestiae quaeritur imago quaepiam et color paupertatis, cur eius pudeat tenuioris, qui eam non simulate, sed uere fungimur?

(6) Indeed, among the very more opulent I see especially praised those who live with no racket, with modest cultivation, with their resources concealed, and who administer great riches without ostentation, without arrogance, with an appearance of mediocrity, like the poor. (7) But if even for the rich, as an argument of modesty, there is sought some image and color of poverty, why should the man of slender means be ashamed of it, we who do not simulate it, but truly live it?

[20] (1) Possum equidem tibi et ipsius nominis controuersiam facere, neminem nostrum pauperem esse qui superuacanea nolit, poscit necessaria, quae natura oppido pauca sunt. (2) Namque is plurimum habebit, qui minimum desiderabit; habebit enim quantum uolet qui uolet minimum. (3) Et idcirco diuitiae non melius in fundis et in fenore quam in ipso hominis animo aestimantur, qui si est auaritia egenus et ad omne lucrum inexplebilis, nec montibus auri satiabitur, sed semper aliquid, ante parta ut augeat, mendicabit.

[20] (1) I can indeed even raise for you a controversy about the very name, that none of us is poor who does not want superfluities, but asks for the necessaries, which by nature are exceedingly few. (2) For he will have the most who will desire the least; for he will have as much as he wishes who will wish the least. (3) And therefore riches are assessed not better in estates and in interest than in the very mind of a man; for if he is impoverished by avarice and insatiable for every gain, he will not be sated by mountains of gold, but will always be begging for something, in order to increase what was previously acquired.

(4) Quae quidem uera confessio est paupertatis. Omnis enim cupido acquirendi ex opinione inopiae uenit, nec refert, quam magnum sit quod tibi minus est. (5) Non habuit tantam rem familiarem Philus quantam Laelius, nec Laelius quantam Scipio, nec Scipio quantam Crassus Diues, at enim nec Crassus Diues quantam uolebat; (6) ita cum omnis superaret, a suamet auaritia superatus est omnibusque potius diues uisus est quam sibi.

(4) Which indeed is a true confession of poverty. For every desire of acquiring comes from the opinion of need, nor does it matter how great is that which is lacking to you. (5) Philus did not have so great a household estate as Laelius, nor Laelius as Scipio, nor Scipio as Crassus the Rich; but indeed not even Crassus the Rich had as much as he wanted; (6) and so, although he surpassed all, he was surpassed by his own avarice, and seemed rich to all others rather than to himself.

(7) At contra hi philosophi quos commemoraui non ultra uolentes quam poterant, sed congruentibus desideriis et facultatibus iure meritoque dites et beati fuerunt. (8) Pauper enim fis appetendi egestate, diues non egendi satietate, quippe qui inopia desiderio, opulentia fastidio cernuntur.

(7) But on the contrary, these philosophers whom I have commemorated, not willing beyond what they were able, but with desires and faculties congruent, were by right and by merit wealthy and blessed. (8) For you fall into poverty by an indigence of appetence, rich by a satiety of not needing; for want is discerned by desire, opulence by fastidiousness.

(9) Igitur, Aemiliane, si pauperem me haberi uis, prius auarum esse doceas necesse est. Quod si nihil in animo deest, de rebus extrariis quantum desit non laboro, quarum neque laus in copia neque culpa in penuria consistit.

(9) Therefore, Aemilianus, if you wish me to be considered poor, it is necessary that you first teach me to be avaricious. But if nothing is lacking in the mind, I do not trouble about how much is lacking in external things, in which neither praise consists in abundance nor fault in penury.

[21] (1) Sed finge haec aliter esse ac me ideo pauperem, quia mihi fortuna diuitias inuidit easque, ut ferme euenit, aut tutor imminuit aut inimicus eripuit aut pater non reliquit: hocine homini opprobrari, pauperiem, quod nulli ex animalibus uitio datur, non aquilae, non tauro, non leoni? (2) Equus si uirtutibus suis polleat, ut sit aequabilis uector et cursor pernix, nemo ei penuriam pabuli exprobrat: tu mihi uitio dabis non facti uel dicti alicuius prauitatem, sed quod uiuo gracili lare, quod paucioris habeo, parcius pasco, leuius uestio, minus obsono?

[21] (1) But suppose these things are otherwise, and that I am therefore poor because Fortune begrudged me riches, and these, as commonly happens, either a guardian diminished, or an enemy snatched away, or a father did not bequeath: is this to be thrown in a man’s teeth—poverty—which is imputed as a fault to none of the animals, not to the eagle, not to the bull, not to the lion? (2) If a horse excels in his own virtues, so as to be an even-tempered mount and a nimble runner, no one reproaches him with penury of fodder: will you assign to me as a fault not the depravity of some deed or utterance, but that I live with a slender hearth, that I have fewer, that I feed myself more sparingly, clothe myself more lightly, make less provision for the table?

(3) Atqui ego contra, quantulacumque tibi haec uidentur, multa etiam et nimia arbitror et cupio ad pauciora me coercere, tanto beatior futurus quanto collectior. (4) Namque animi ita ut corporis sanitas expedita, imbecillitas laciniosa est, certumque signum est infirmitatis pluribus indigere. (5) Prorsus ad uiuendum uelut ad natandum is melior, qui onere liberior; sunt enim similiter etiam in ista uitae humanae tempestate[s] leuia sustentui, grauia demersui.

(3) But I, on the contrary, however small these things seem to you, judge them many and even excessive, and I desire to constrain myself to fewer, the happier I shall be by as much as I am more collected. (4) For the health of the mind, as of the body, is unencumbered, weakness is ragged; and it is a sure sign of infirmity to need more things. (5) Altogether, for living as for swimming, he is better who is freer of burden; for there are likewise, even in this storm[s] of human life, things light for sustentation, things heavy for submersion.

(6) Equidem didici ea re praecedere maxime deos hominibus, quod nulla re ad usum sui indigeant, igitur ex nobis cui quam minimis opus sit, eum esse deo similiorem.

(6) Indeed I have learned that in this respect the gods most of all excel men: that they need nothing for their own use; therefore, among us, whoever has need of the fewest things is more similar to a god.

[22] (1) Proinde gratum habui, cum ad contumeliam diceretis rem familiarem mihi peram et baculum fuisse. (2) Quod utinam tantus animi forem, ut praeter eam supellectilem nihil quicquam requirerem, sed eundem ornatum digne gestarem, quem [so]Crates ultro diuitiis abiectis appetiuit. (3) [so]Crates, inquam, si quid credis, Aemiliane, uir domi inter Thebanos proceres diues et nobilis amore huius habitus, quem mihi obiectas, rem familiarem largam et uberem populo donauit, multis seruis a sese remotis solitatem delegit, arbores plurimas et frugiferas prae uno baculo spreuit, uillas ornatissimas una perula mutauit, (4) quam postea comperta utilitate etiam carmine laudauit flexis ad hoc Homericis uersibus, quibus ille Cretam insulam nobilitat. (5) Principium dicam, ne me haec ad defensionem putes confinxisse:

[22] (1) Accordingly, I took it gratefully when you said, by way of contumely, that my household estate had been a wallet and a staff. (2) Would that I were of spirit so great as to require nothing whatsoever beyond that furnishing, but to bear worthily the same adornment which [so]Crates, riches cast away of his own accord, sought after. (3) [so]Crates, I say, if you believe anything, Aemilianus, a man at home among the Theban grandees, rich and noble, out of love for this garb which you reproach me with, donated to the people a household estate broad and abundant; removing many slaves from himself, he chose solitude; he spurned very many fruit-bearing trees in preference to a single staff; he exchanged most ornate villas for one little scrip; (4) which afterwards, when its utility was discovered, he even praised in song, with Homeric verses bent to this purpose, with which that man makes the island of Crete renowned. (5) I will recite the beginning, lest you think I have fabricated these things for my defense:

[_____] <____> ___ _____ ____ ____ ___ ______ ____ [_____],

iam cetera tam mirifica, quae si tu legisses, magis mihi peram quam nuptias Pudentillae inuidisses.

and now the rest so wondrous, which, if you had read them, you would have envied me the bag rather than the nuptials of Pudentilla.

(6) Peram et baculum tu philosophis? Exprobrares igitur et equitibus faleras et peditibus clipeos et signiferis uexilla ac denique triumphantibus quadrigas albas et togam palmatam? (7) Non sunt quidem ista Platonicae sectae gestamina, sed Cynicae familiae insignia.

(6) A wallet and a staff, for philosophers, you say? Would you then reproach horsemen for their trappings, foot-soldiers for their shields, standard-bearers for their standards, and finally men in triumph for their white four-horse chariots and the palm-embroidered toga? (7) These are indeed not the gear of the Platonic sect, but the insignia of the Cynic household.

Verum tamen hoc Diogeni et Antist<h>eni pera et baculum, quod regibus diadema, quod imperatoribus paludamentum, quod pontificibus galerum, quod lituus auguribus. (8) Diogenes quidem Cynicus cum Alexandro magno de ueritate regni certabundus baculo uice sceptri gloriabatur. (9) Ipse denique Hercules inuictus _ quoniam haec tibi ut quaedam mendicabula [a]nimis sordent _, (10) ipse, inquam, Hercules lustrator orbis, purgator ferarum, gentium domitor, is tamen deus, cum terras peragraret, paulo prius quam in caelum ob uirtutes as[s]citus est, neque una pelli uestitior fuit neque uno baculo comitatior.

Yet, nevertheless, this for Diogenes and Antist<h>enes—the wallet and the staff—is what the diadem is for kings, what the paludamentum is for emperors, what the galerus is for pontiffs, what the lituus is for augurs. (8) Diogenes the Cynic, indeed, contending with Alexander the Great about the truth of kingship, used to boast of his staff in lieu of a scepter. (9) Hercules himself, unconquered — _since these things, as certain beggar-trappings, are loathsome to your mind_ — (10) he himself, I say, Hercules, lustrator of the world, purger of wild beasts, subduer of peoples—yet that god, when he traversed the lands, a little before he was taken up into heaven on account of his virtues, was neither clad with a single hide nor attended by a single staff.

[23] (1) Quod si haec exempla nihili putas ac me non ad causam agundam, uerum ad censum dis<s>erundum uocasti, ne quid tu rerum mearum nescias, si tamen nescis, profiteor mihi ac fratri meo relictum a patre HS XX paulo secus, (2) idque a me longa peregrinatione et diutinis studiis et crebris liberalitatibus modice imminutum. (3) Nam et amicorum plerisque opem tuli et magistris plurimis gratiam retuli, quorundam etiam filias dote auxi. (4) Neque enim dubitassem equidem uel uniuersum patrimonium impendere, ut acquirerem mihi quod maius est contemptu patrimonii.

[23] (1) But if you think these examples are worth nothing, and have summoned me not to plead a case, but to discourse upon my census, so that you may not be ignorant of my affairs—if indeed you do not know—I declare that to me and to my brother there was left by my father HS 20, a little less; (2) and that has been moderately diminished by me through long peregrination, prolonged studies, and frequent liberalities. (3) For I both brought aid to very many of my friends and repaid favor to numerous teachers, and I even increased the dowry of some men’s daughters. (4) Nor indeed would I have hesitated to expend even the whole patrimony, in order to acquire for myself what is greater than a patrimony—contempt of patrimony.

(5) Tu uero, Aemiliane, et id genus homines uti tu es inculti et agrestes, tanti re uera estis quantum habetis, ut arbor infecunda et infelix, quae nullum fructum ex sese gignit, tanti est in pretio, quanti lignum eius in trunco.

(5) But you, Aemilian, and men of that kind—as you are—uncultivated and rustic, in very truth are worth as much as you possess, just as a tree infecund and ill-fated, which begets no fruit from itself, is of so much price as its wood is in the trunk.

(6) At tamen parce postea, Aemiliane, paupertatem cuipiam obiectare, qui nuper usque agellum Zarathensem, quem tibi unicum pater tuus reliquerat, solus uno asello ad tempestiuum imbrem triduo exarabas. (7) Neque enim diu est, cum te crebrae mortes propinquorum immeritis hereditatibus fulserunt, unde tibi potius quam ob istam teterrimam faciem Charon nomen est.

(6) But nevertheless, hereafter, Aemilianus, be sparing in flinging poverty in someone’s face, you who only lately were plowing the little Zarathene plot, which your father had left you as your sole possession, alone with a single little donkey, in three days to catch the seasonable rain. (7) For it is not long since the frequent deaths of your kin have enriched you with unmerited inheritances, whence the name Charon belongs to you rather than on account of that most hideous face.

[24] (1) De patria mea uero, quod eam sitam Numidiae et Gaetuliae in ipso confinio mei<s> scriptis ostendi scis, quibus memet professus sum, cum Lolliano Auito c.u. praesente publice dissererem, 'Seminumidam' et 'Semigaetulum': (2) non uideo quid mihi sit in ea re pudendum, haud minus quam Cyro maiori, quod genere mixto fuit Semimedus ac Semipersa. (3) Non enim ubi prognatus, sed ut moratus quisque sit spectandum, nec qua regione, sed qua ratione uitam uiuere inierit, considerandum est. (4) Holitori et cauponi merito est concessum holus et uinum ex nobilitate soli commendare, uinum Thasium, holus Phliasium; quippe illa terrae alumna multum ad meliorem saporem iuuerit et regio fecunda et caelum pluuium et uentus clemens et sol apricus et solum sucidum.

[24] (1) As for my fatherland indeed, that it is situated on the very border of Numidia and Gaetulia you know I have shown in my my<s> writings, in which I declared myself, when I was discoursing publicly with Lollianus Avitus c.u. present, “a half-Numidian” and “a half-Gaetulian”: (2) I do not see what there is in this matter for me to be ashamed of, no more than for Cyrus the Elder, because by mixed stock he was half-Mede and half-Persian. (3) For it is not where one was begotten, but how one has conducted oneself, that must be regarded; nor in what region, but by what rationale one has entered upon living one’s life, that must be considered. (4) To the greengrocer and the innkeeper it is rightly conceded to commend vegetable and wine by the nobility of the soil—Thasian wine, Phliasian produce; for that nursling of the earth is much helped toward a better savor by a fertile region, a rainy sky, a gentle wind, a sunny sun, and a sappy soil.

(5) Enimuero animo hominis extrinsecus in hospitium corporis immigranti quid ex istis addi uel minui ad uirtutem uel malitiam potest? (6) Quando non in omnibus gentibus uaria ingenia prouenere, quanquam uideantur quaedam stultitia uel sollertia insigniores? Apud socordissimos Scythas Anacharsis sapiens natus est, apud Athenienses catos Meletides fatuus.

(5) Indeed, to the soul of a man immigrating from without into the hospice of the body, what, from these things, can be added or diminished to virtue or to malice? (6) When have not diverse native talents arisen in all peoples, although certain ones seem more conspicuous for stupidity or for cleverness? Among the very slothful Scythians, the wise Anacharsis was born, among the shrewd Athenians, Meletides a fool.

(7) Nec hoc eo dixi, quo me patriae meae paeniteret, etsi adhuc Syfacis oppidum essemus. (8) Quo tamen uicto ad Masinissam regem munere populi R. concessimus ac deinceps ueteranorum militum nouo conditu[s] splendidissima colonia sumus, (9) in qua colonia patrem habui loco principis IIuiralem cunctis honoribus perfunctum. Cuius ego locum in illa re p., exinde ut participare curiam coepi, nequaquam degener pari, spero, honore et existimatione tueor.

(7) Nor did I say this for the reason that I should repent of my fatherland, even if we were still the town of Syphax. (8) When he was, however, conquered, we were handed over to King Masinissa as a gift of the Roman people, and thereafter, by the new foundation of veteran soldiers, we are a most splendid colony; (9) in which colony I had my father in the place of a leading man, a duumviral magistrate, who had discharged all honors. Whose place in that republic, from the time I began to take part in the curia, by no means degenerate, I maintain, I hope, with equal honor and estimation.

(10) Cur ergo illa protuli? Vt mihi tu, Aemiliane, minus posthac suscenseas, potiusque ut ueniam inpertias, si per neglegentiam forte non elegi illud tuum Atticum Zarat, ut in eo nascerer.

(10) Why then did I bring those things forward? So that you, Aemiliane, may be less angry hereafter, and rather that you may impart pardon, if through negligence I perchance did not choose that Attic Zarat of yours, to be born in it.

[25] (1) Nonne uos puditum est haec crimina tali uiro audiente tam adseuerate obiectare, friuola et inter se repugnantia simul promere et utraque tamen reprehendere? (2) At non contraria accusastis? Peram et baculum ob auctoritatem, carmina et speculum ob hilaritatem, unum seruum ut deparci, tris libertos ut profusi, praeterea eloquentiam Graecam, patriam barbaram?

[25] (1) Were you not ashamed, with such a man listening, to object so assertively these charges, to bring forth at the same time frivolous and mutually repugnant [ones], and yet to reprehend both? (2) But did you not accuse contraries? The wallet and staff on account of authority, songs and a mirror on account of hilarity, a single slave as parsimonious, three freedmen as prodigal, moreover Greek eloquence, a barbarian fatherland?

(3) Quin igitur tandem expergiscimini ac uos cogitatis apud Claudium Maximum dicere, apud uirum seuerum et totius prouinciae negotiis occupatum? (4) Quin, inquam, uana haec conuicia aufertis? Quin ostenditis quod insimulauistis: scelera immania et inconcessa maleficia et artis nefandas?

(3) Why then do you not at last wake up and consider that you are speaking before Claudius Maximus, before a stern man and one occupied with the business of the whole province? (4) Why, I say, do you not remove these empty revilings? Why do you not show what you have alleged: inhuman crimes and unlawful malefactions and nefarious arts?

Cur uestra oratio rebus flaccet, strepitu uiget?

Why does your oration grow flaccid in realities, yet wax vigorous with noise?

(5) Aggredior enim iam ad ipsum crimen magiae, quod ingenti tumultu ad inuidiam mei accensum frustrata expectatione omnium per nescio quas anilis fabulas defraglauit. (6) Ecquandone uidisti, Maxime, flammam stipula exortam claro crepitu, largo fulgore, cito incremento, sed enim materia leui, caduco incendio, nullis reliquiis? (7) Em tibi illa accusatio iurgiis inita, uerbis aucta, argumentis defecta, nullis post sententiam tuam reliquiis calumniae permansura.

(5) For I now tackle the very charge of magic, which, kindled with a huge tumult to invidiousness against me, has, with the expectation of all frustrated, burnt itself out through I-know-not-what old-wives’ tales. (6) Have you ever, Maximus, seen a flame sprung from straw, with a clear crackle, a lavish glare, a swift increase, yet, because the fuel is light, with a caducous blaze, with no remains? (7) There you have that accusation, begun with wranglings, augmented with words, deficient in arguments, destined, after your sentence, to leave no remnants of calumny.

(8) Quae quidem omnis Aemiliano fuit in isto uno destinata, me magum esse, et ideo mihi libet quaerere ab eruditissimis eius aduocatis, quid sit magus.

(8) Indeed the whole of it, for Aemilianus, was directed to this one point—that I am a magus; and therefore it pleases me to inquire of his most erudite advocates what a magus is.

(9) Nam si, quod ego apud plurimos lego, Persarum lingua magus est qui nostra sacerdos, quod tandem est crimen, sacerdotem esse et rite nosse atque scire atque callere leges cerimoniarum, fas sacrorum, ius religionum? (10) Si quidem magia id est quod Plato interpretatur, cum commemorat, quibusnam disciplinis puerum regno adulescentem Persae imbuant _ uerba ipsa diuini uiri memini, quae tu mecum, Maxime, recognosce:

(9) For if, as I read among very many, in the Persian tongue a magus is what in ours is a priest, what, at last, is the crime—to be a priest and duly to know and to understand and to be skilled in the laws of ceremonies, the divine law of sacred rites, the law of religions? (10) If indeed magia is what Plato interprets, when he recounts with what disciplines the Persians imbue a boy, a youth for kingship _ I remember the very words of the divine man, which you, Maximus, review with me:

(11) ___ ____ __ _________ ____ ___ _____ _______________ ___ _______ __________ ___________ ___________ô _____ __ ____________ ______ __ _______ ________ __ ______ ________, _ __ _________ ___ _ ___________ ___ _ _____________ ___ _ ____________. __ _ ___ _______ __ ________ ___ __________ ___ _________ô ____ __ _____ ____ ________ô ________ __ ___ __ ________.

[26] (1) Auditisne magiam, qui eam temere accusatis, artem esse dis immortalibus acceptam, colendi eos ac uenerandi pergnaram, piam scilicet et diuini scientem, (2) iam inde a Zoroastre et Oromaze auctoribus suis nobilem, caelitum antistitam, (3) quippe qui inter prima regalia docetur nec ulli temere inter Persas concessum est magum esse, haud magis quam regnare? (4) Idem Plato in alia sermocinatione de Zalmoxi quodam Thraci generis, sed eiusdem artis uiro ita scriptum reliquit:

[26] (1) Do you hear that magic, you who accuse it rashly, is an art acceptable to the immortal gods, most apt for cultivating and venerating them, pious to be sure and knowledgeable of the divine, (2) already from Zoroaster and Oromazes, its authors, noble, the high‑priesthood of the heavenly ones, (3) since it is taught among the first royal matters, nor is it granted lightly to anyone among the Persians to be a magus, any more than to reign? (4) The same Plato, in another dialogue, has left it written thus about a certain Zalmoxis, of Thracian stock but a man of the same art:

___ __ ______ _____ ____ ______ ____ ______.

[illegible] [illegible] [illegible] [illegible] [illegible] [illegible] [illegible] [illegible].

(5) Quod si ita est, cur mihi nosse non liceat uel Zalmoxi bona uerba uel Zoroastri sacerdotia?

(5) But if this is so, why is it not permitted for me to know either the good words of Zalmoxis or the priesthoods of Zoroaster?

(6) Sin uero more uulgari eum isti proprie magum existimant, qui communione loquendi cum deis immortalibus ad omnia quae uelit incredibili[a] quadam ui cantaminum polleat, oppido miror, cur accusare non timuerint quem posse tantum fatentur. (7) Neque enim tam occulta et diuina potentia caueri potest itidem ut cetera. (8) Sicarium qui in iudicium uocat, comitatus uenit; qui uenenarium accusat, scrupulosius cibatur; qui furem arguit, sua custodit.

(6) But if indeed, in the vulgar manner, those men reckon him properly a magus, who, by a communion of speaking with the immortal gods, is endowed with a certain incredible force of incantations for all the things he wishes, I marvel mightily why they did not fear to accuse one whom they confess to have so much power. (7) For a potency so occult and divine cannot be guarded against in the same way as the rest. (8) He who summons an assassin to judgment comes with an escort; he who accuses a poisoner takes food more scrupulously; he who charges a thief guards his own goods.

(9) Enimuero qui magum qualem isti dicunt in discrimen capitis deducit, quibus comitibus, quibus scrupulis, quibus custodibus perniciem caecam et ineuitabilem prohibeat? Nullis scilicet. Et ideo id genus crimen non est eius accusare, qui credit.

(9) Indeed, whoever brings to capital peril a magus such as these describe—with what companions, with what scruples, with what guards can he avert a blind and inevitable ruin? With none, of course. And therefore it is not for the one who believes to accuse a crime of that kind.

[27] (1) Verum haec ferme communi quodam errore imperitorum philosophis obiectantur, ut partim eorum qui corporum causas meras et simplicis rimantur irreligiosos putent eoque aiant deos abnuere, ut Anaxagoram et Leucippum et Democritum et Epicurum ceterosque rerum naturae patronos, (2) partim autem, qui prouidentiam mundi curiosius uestigant et impensius deos celebrant, eos uero uulgo magos nominent, quasi facere etiam sciant quae sciant fieri, ut olim fuere Epimenides et Orpheus et Pythagoras et Ostanes, (3) ac dein similiter suspectata Empedocli catharmoe, Socrati daemonion, Platonis __ ______. (4) Gratulor igitur mihi, cum et ego tot ac tantis uiris adnumeror.

[27] (1) But these things are for the most part objected to philosophers by a certain common error of the unskilled, so that some think irreligious those who probe the mere and simple causes of bodies and therefore say that they deny the gods—such as Anaxagoras and Leucippus and Democritus and Epicurus and the other patrons of the nature of things; (2) but others, who more curiously track out the providence of the world and more earnestly celebrate the gods, these indeed the crowd calls magi, as though they also knew how to do the things which they know take place—as once there were Epimenides and Orpheus and Pythagoras and Ostanes; (3) and then in like manner there were suspected the catharmoe to Empedocles, the daimonion to Socrates, Plato’s __ ______. (4) I congratulate myself, then, since I too am counted among so many and so great men.

(5) Ceterum ea quae ab illis ad ostendendum crimen obiecta sunt uana et inepta, simplicia, uereor ne ideo tantum crimina putes, quod obiecta sunt. (6) 'Cur,' inquit, 'piscium quaedam genera quaesisti?' Quasi id cognitionis gratia philosopho facere non liceat, quod luxurioso gulae causa liceret. (7) 'Cur mulier libera tibi nupsit post annos XIII uiduitatis?' Quasi non magis mirandum sit quod tot annis non nubserit.

(5) Moreover, those things which by them were alleged to demonstrate a crime are empty and inept, simplistic; I fear lest you therefore only think them crimes because they have been alleged. (6) “Why,” he says, “did you inquire into certain genera of fish?” As if it were not permitted for a philosopher for the sake of cognition to do what would be permitted to a luxurious man for the sake of his gullet. (7) “Why did a free woman marry you after 13 years of widowhood?” As if it were not more to be wondered at that for so many years she did not marry.

(8) 'Cur prius, quam tibi nuberet, scripsit nescio quid in epistula quod sibi uidebatur?' Quasi quisquam debeat causas alienae sententiae reddere. (9) 'At enim maior natu non est iuuenem aspernata.' Igitur hoc ipsum argumentum est nihil opus magia fuisse, ut nubere uellet mulier uiro uidua caelibi, maior iuniori. Iam et illa similia: 'Habet quiddam Apuleius domi quod sancte colit'. Quasi non id potius crimen sit, quod colas non habere.

(8) 'Why, before she married you, did she write I know not what in a letter that seemed right to her?' As if anyone ought to render the reasons for another’s opinion. (9) 'But indeed the elder by birth did not spurn the young man.' Therefore this very thing is an argument that there was no need of magic, that a woman should wish to marry a man—a widow a bachelor, the elder the younger. Now there are also those similar points: 'Apuleius has something at home which he worships as sacred.' As though it were not rather an accusation to have nothing that you venerate.

(11) 'Cecidit praesente Apuleio puer.' Quid enim si iuuenis, quid si etiam senex adsistente me corruisset uel morbo corporis impeditus uel lubrico soli prolapsus? (12) Hiscine argumentis magian probatis, casu puerili et matrimonio mulieris et obsonio piscium?

(11) 'The boy fell with Apuleius present.' What if a youth, what if even an old man had collapsed with me standing by, either hampered by disease of the body or having slipped on the slippery ground? (12) With arguments like these do you prove magic—by a childish mishap and a woman's marriage and a fish-course?

[28] (1) Possem equidem bono periculo uel his dictis contentus perorare. Quoniam mihi pro accusationis longitudine largiter aquae superest, cedo, si uidetur, singula consideremus. (2) Atque ego omnia obiecta, seu uera seu falsa sunt, non negabo, sed perinde atque si facta sint fatebor, (3) ut omnis ista multitudo, quae plurima undique ad audiendum conuenit, aperte intellegat nihil in philosophos non modo uere dici, sed ne falso quidem posse confingi, quod non ex innocentiae fiducia, quamuis liceat negare, tamen potius habeant defendere.

[28] (1) I could indeed, with good assurance, perorate, content with these words. Since, in proportion to the length of the accusation, there remains to me abundantly of water, come then, if it seems good, let us consider the particulars one by one. (2) And I, all the objections, whether they are true or false, will not deny, but will confess them just as if they had been done, (3) so that all this multitude, which in very great numbers has gathered from every side to hear, may plainly understand that nothing against philosophers can be said— not only truly, but not even falsely can it be fabricated— which, out of confidence in innocence, although it is permitted to deny, they nevertheless would rather defend.

(4) Primum igitur argumenta eorum conuincam ac refutabo nihil ea ad magian pertinere. Dein etsi maxime magus forem, tamen ostendam neque causam ullam neque occasionem fuisse, ut me in aliquo maleficio experirentur. (5) Ibi etiam de falsa inuidia deque epistulis mulieris perperam lectis et nequius interpretatis deque matrimonio meo ac Pudentillae disputabo, idque a me susceptum officii gratia quam lucri causa docebo.

(4) First, then, I will convict and refute their arguments, that they pertain in no way to the Magian art. Then, even if I were in the highest degree a magus, nevertheless I will show that there was neither any cause nor any occasion for them to try me in any malefice. (5) Thereupon I shall also argue about false ill-will and about the woman’s letters wrongly read and more wickedly interpreted, and about my marriage and Pudentilla’s; and I will show that this was undertaken by me for the sake of duty rather than for the sake of gain.

(6) Quod quidem matrimonium nostrum Aemiliano huic immane quanto angori quantaeque diuidiae fuit. Inde omnis huiusce accusationis obeundae ira et rabies et denique insania exorta est.

(6) Indeed, that marriage of ours was for this Aemilianus a matter of immense anguish and of very great division. From that arose all the wrath and rabid fury, and, finally, insanity, for undertaking this accusation.

(7) Quae si omnia palam et dilucide ostendero, tunc denique te, Claudi Maxime, et omnis qui adsunt contestabor puerum illum Sicinium Pudentem priuignum meum, cuius obtentu et uoluntate a patruo eius accusor, nuperrime curae meae eruptum, (8) postquam frater eius Pontianus et natu maior et moribus melior diem suum obiit, (9) atque ita in me ac matrem suam nefarie efferatum, non mea culpa, desertis liberalibus studiis ac repudiata omni disciplina, scelestis accusationis huius rudimentis patruo Aemiliano potius quam fratri Pontiano similem futurum.

(7) If I shall show all these things openly and clearly, then at last I will call you, Claudius Maximus, and all who are present to witness that that boy, Sicinius Pudens, my stepson, under whose pretext and at whose will I am accused by his paternal uncle, has very lately burst out from my care, (8) after his brother Pontianus, both elder by birth and better in character, departed this life, (9) and thus, made nefariously savage against me and his own mother, not by my fault, with liberal studies deserted and all discipline repudiated, by the criminal rudiments of this accusation will prove to be more like his uncle Aemilianus rather than his brother Pontianus.

[29] (1) Nunc, ut institui, proficiscar ad omnia Aemiliani huiusce deliramenta orsus ab eo, quod ad suspicionem magiae quasi ualidissimum in principio dici animaduertisti, nonnulla me piscium genera per quosdam piscatores pretio quaesisse. (2) Vtrum igitur horum ad suspectandam magian ualet? (3) Quodne piscatores mihi piscem quaesierunt?

[29] (1) Now, as I have undertaken, I will proceed to all the ravings of this Aemilianus, beginning from that which you observed to be asserted at the outset as if most valid for the suspicion of magic: that I procured, for a price, certain kinds of fish through certain fishermen. (2) Which, then, of these avails for suspecting magic? (3) Is it that fishermen procured fish for me?

Scilicet ergo phrygionibus aut fabris negotium istud dandum fuisse atque ita opera cuiusque artis permutanda, si uellem calumniis uestris uitare, ut faber mihi piscem euerreret, ut piscator mutuo lignum dedolaret. (4) An ex eo intellexistis maleficio quaeri pisciculos, quod pretio quaerebantur? Credo, si conuiuio uellem, gratis quaesissem.

of course then this business ought to have been given to the phrygian-embroiderers or to the smiths, and thus the work of each craft bartered, if I wished to avoid your calumnies: that a smith should sweep up a fish for me, that a fisherman in return should plane a piece of wood. (4) Or did you infer that little fishes were being sought for sorcery because they were being procured for a price? I suppose, if I had wanted them for a banquet, I would have had them sought gratis.

(5) Quin igitur etiam ex aliis plerisque me arguitis? Nam saepe numero et uinum et holus et pomum et panem pretio mutaui. (6) Eo pacto cuppedinariis omnibus famem decernis: quis enim ab illis obsonare audebit, si quidem statuitur omnia edulia quae depenso para<n>tur non cenae, sed magiae desiderari?

(5) Why then do you also arraign me on many other counts? For often and repeatedly I have exchanged for a price both wine and vegetables and fruit and bread. (6) By that logic you decree famine for all caterers: for who will dare to buy provisions from them, if indeed it is established that all edibles which are procured by payment are desired not for dinner, but for magic?

(7) Quod si nihil remanet suspicionis, neque in piscatoribus mercede inuitatis ad quod solent, ad piscem capiundum (quos tamen nullos ad testimonium produxere, quippe qui nulli fuerunt), (8) neque in ipso pretio rei uenalis (cuius tamen quantitatem nullam taxauere, ne, si mediocre pretium dixissent, contemneretur, si plurimum, non crederetur) _ (9) si in his, ut dico, nulla suspicio est, respondeat mihi Aemilianus, quo proximo signo ad accusationem magiae sit inductus.

(7) But if nothing of suspicion remains, neither in the fishermen hired for a wage to do what they are accustomed to do, to catch fish (whom, however, they produced none for testimony, inasmuch as there were none), (8) nor in the very price of the thing for sale (the amount of which, however, they assessed not at all, lest, if they had said a moderate price, it be contemned, if a very large one, it not be believed) _ (9) if in these, as I say, there is no suspicion, let Aemilian answer me by what next sign he was induced to the accusation of magic.

[30] (1) 'Pisces,' inquit, 'quaeris.' Nolo negare. Sed, oro te, qui pisces quaerit, magus est? Equidem non magis arbitror quam si lepores quaererem uel apros uel altilia.

[30] (1) 'Fish,' he says, 'you seek.' I do not wish to deny it. But, I beg you, is one who seeks fish a magician? Indeed I do not think so any more than if I were seeking hares or boars or fattened poultry.

(2) An soli pisces habent aliquit occultum aliis, sed magis cognitum? Hoc si scis quid sit, magus es profecto; sin nescis, confitearis necesse est id te accusare quod nescis. (3) Tam rudis uos esse omnium litterarum, omnium denique uulgi fabularum, ut ne fingere quidem possitis ista uerisimiliter?

(2) Or do fish alone possess something occult, hidden from others, yet better known? If you know what this is, you are assuredly a magus; but if you do not know, you must confess that you accuse what you do not know. (3) Are you so rude in all letters, and, in fine, in all the vulgar fables, that you cannot even feign these things verisimilarly?

(4) Quid enim competit ad amoris ardorem accendendum piscis brutus et frigidus aut omnino res pelago quaesita? Nisi forte hoc uos ad mendacium induxit, quod Venus dicitur pelago exorta.

(4) For what has a brutish and frigid fish, or altogether a thing sought from the sea, to do with igniting love’s ardor? Unless perhaps this induced you to the mendacity, that Venus is said to have sprung from the sea.

(5) Audi sis, Tannoni Pudens, quam multa nescieris, qui de piscibus argumentum magiae recepisti. (6) At si Virgilium legisses, profecto scisses alia quaeri ad hanc rem solere. (7) Ille enim, quantum scio, enumerat uittas mollis et uerbenas pinguis et tura mascula et licia discolora; praeterea laurum fragilem, limum durabilem, ceram liquabilem, nec minus quae iam in opere serio scripsit:

(5) Listen, please, Tannoni Pudens, how many things you have not known, you who have taken from fishes an argument for magic. (6) But if you had read Virgil, surely you would have known that other things are wont to be sought for this matter. (7) For he, so far as I know, enumerates soft fillets and fat vervains and masculine incenses and varicolored threads; besides, brittle laurel, durable mud, meltable wax, and no less the things which he has already written in a serious work:

(8) 'Falcibus et messae ad lunam quaeruntur aenis

(8) 'With bronze sickles they are reaped and sought by moonlight

pubentes herbae nigri cum lacte ueneni.

luxuriant herbs together with the black milk of venom.

Quaeritur et nascentis equi de fronte reuulsus

And there is sought also, torn from the forehead of a newborn horse,

et matri praereptus amor.'

and the love snatched from the mother.'

(9) At tu piscium insimulator longe diuersa instrumenta magis attribuis, non frontibus teneris detergenda sed dorsis squalentibus excidenda, nec fundo reuellenda sed profundo extrahenda, nec falcibus metenda sed hamis inuncanda. (10) Postremo in maleficio ille uenenum nominat, tu pulmentum, ille herbas et surculos, tu squamas et ossa, ille pratum decerpit, tu fluctum scrutaris.

(9) But you, imitator of fishes, you rather assign far different instruments, not things to be wiped from tender foreheads but to be cut out from scaly backs, not to be torn up from the bottom but to be drawn out from the deep, not to be reaped with sickles but to be hooked with hooks. (10) Finally, in the misdeed he names it venom, you broth; he [names] herbs and sprigs, you scales and bones; he plucks a meadow, you scrutinize the wave.

(11) Memorassem tibi etiam Theocriti paria et alia Homeri et Orphei plurima, et ex comoediis et tragoediis Graecis et ex historiis multa repetissem, ni te dudum animaduertissem Graecam Pudentillae epistulam legere nequiuisse. (12) Igitur unum etiam poetam Latinum attingam; uersus ipsos, quos agnoscent qui Laeuium legere:

(11) I would have also recalled for you parallel passages of Theocritus and very many other things of Homer and Orpheus, and I would have retrieved much from Greek comedies and tragedies and from histories, if I had not long since noticed that you were unable to read Pudentilla’s Greek epistle. (12) Therefore I will touch upon one Latin poet as well; the very verses themselves, which those who read Laeuium will recognize:

(13) 'Philtra omnia undique eruunt:

(13) 'They unearth all philtres from everywhere:

antipathes illud quaeritur,

that antipathy is sought,

trochiscili, unges, taeniae,

trochisks, ungents, taeniae,

radiculae, herbae, surculi,

radicles, herbs, shoots,

saurae inlices bicodulae, hin-

lizard-lures, double-hooked, hin-

nientium dulcedines.'

the sweetnesses of the neighing ones.'

[31] (1) Haec et alia quaesisse me potius quam pisces longe uerisimilius confinxisses (his etenim fortasse per famam peruulgatam fides fuisset), si tibi ulla eruditio adfuisset. Enimuero piscis ad quam rem facit captus nisi ad epulas coctus? Ceterum ad magian nihil quicquam uidetur mihi adiutare.

[31] (1) You would far more plausibly have fabricated that I inquired into these and other things rather than into fishes (for to these perhaps credence would have been given through pervulgated report), if you had had any erudition. Indeed, to what purpose does a fish, when caught, serve, except, when cooked, for banquets? Otherwise, as to magic, it seems to me that a fish avails nothing at all.

Dicam unde id coniectem.

I will say whence I conjecture it.

(2) Pythagoram plerique Zoroastri sectatorem similiterque magiae peritum arbitrati tamen memoriae prodiderunt, cum animaduertisset proxime Metapontum in litore Italiae suae, quam subsiciuam Graeciam fecerat, a quibusdam piscatoribus euerriculum trahi, (3) fortunam iactus eius emisse et pretio dato iussisse ilico piscis eos, qui capti tenebantur, solui retibus et reddi profundo; (4) quos scilicet eum de manibus amissurum non fuisse[t], si quid[em] in his utile ad magian comperisset. (5) Sed enim uir egregie doctus et ueterum aemulator meminerat Homerum, poetam multiscium uel potius cunctarum rerum adprime peritum, uim omnem medicaminum non mari, sed terrae <a>scripsisse[t], cum de quadam saga ad hunc modum memorauit:

(2) Most have thought Pythagoras a follower of Zoroaster and likewise skilled in magic; yet they have handed down to memory that, when he noticed near Metapontum on the shore of his Italy—which he had made a “reserve Greece”—a dragnet being hauled by certain fishermen, (3) he bought the chance of that cast and, the price having been paid, at once ordered the fish that were held caught to be loosed from the nets and returned to the deep; (4) which, of course, he would not have let slip from his hands, if indeed he had found anything in them useful for magic. (5) But, a man excellently learned and a rival of the ancients, he remembered that Homer, a poet much-knowing—or rather supremely skilled in all things—had ascribed all the power of medicaments not to the sea but to the earth, when he made mention of a certain sorceress in this manner:

_ ____ _______ ___, ___ ______ ______ ____,

[lacuna] [lacuna] [lacuna] [lacuna], [lacuna] [lacuna] [lacuna] [lacuna],

(6) itemque alibi carminum similiter:

(6) and likewise elsewhere, similarly in his poems:

__ _______ _____ ________ ______

[illegible] [illegible] [illegible] [illegible] [illegible]

_______, _____ ___ _____ _________, _____ __ _____,

(7) cum tamen numquam apud eum marino aliquo et piscolento medicauit nec Prot[h]eus faciem nec Vlixes scrobem nec Aeolus follem nec Helena creterram nec Circe poculum nec Venus cingulum. (8) At uos soli reperti estis ex omni memoria, qui uim <h>erbarum et radicum et surculorum et lapillorum quasi quadam colluuione naturae de summis montibus in mare transferatis et penitus piscium uentribus insuatis. (9) Igitur ut solebat ad magorum cerimonias aduocari Mercurius carminum uector et illex animi Venus et Luna noctium conscia et manium potens Triuia, uobis auctoribus posthac Neptunus cum Salacia et Portuno et omni choro Nerei ab aestibus fretorum ad aestus amorum transferentur.

(7) although he never at his place medicated with any marine and fish-reeking stuff—neither Proteus’s face nor Ulysses’s pit nor Aeolus’s bag nor Helen’s mixing-bowl nor Circe’s cup nor Venus’s girdle. (8) But you alone have been found in all memory who transfer the force of <h>erbs and roots and shoots and little stones into the sea from the tops of mountains, as by a kind of colluvion of nature, and sew them deep into the bellies of fish. (9) Therefore, as Mercury, bearer of incantations and Venus, inveigler of the mind, and the Moon, conscious of nights, and Trivia, potent over the Manes, used to be called to the ceremonies of magi, with you as instigators henceforth Neptune with Salacia and Portunus and the whole chorus of Nereus will be transferred from the tides of the straits to the heats of loves.

[32] (1) Dixi cur non arbitrer quicquam negotii esse magis et piscibus. (2) Nunc, si uidetur, credamus Aemiliano solere pisces etiam ad magicas potestates adiutare. Num ergo propterea quicumque quaerit et ipse magus est?

[32] (1) I have said why I do not judge there to be any matter of concern, particularly in regard to fishes. (2) Now, if it seems good, let us believe with Aemilianus that fishes are even wont to aid magical powers. Is it therefore the case that whoever seeks them is himself a magus?

Eo quidem pacto et qui myoparonem quaesierit pirata erit, et qui uectem perfossor, et qui gladium sicarius. (3) Nihil in rebus omnibus tam innoxium dices, quin id possit aliquid aliqua obesse, nec tam laetum, quin possit ad tristitudinem intellegi. (4) Nec tamen omnia idcirco ad nequiorem suspicionem trahuntur, ut si tus et casiam et myrram ceterosque id genus odores funeri tantum emptos arbitreris, cum et medicamento parentur et sacrificio.

By that same line of reasoning, even he who has sought a myoparon will be a pirate, and he who [seeks] a crowbar, a housebreaker, and he who [seeks] a sword, an assassin. (3) You will say that nothing among all things is so innocuous that it cannot in some way do some harm, nor so joyous that it cannot be understood toward sadness. (4) Nor, however, are all things therefore dragged into a worse suspicion, as if you should suppose that frankincense and cassia and myrrh and the other odors of that kind were bought only for a funeral, since they are prepared both for medicament and for sacrifice.

(5) Ceterum eodem piscium argumento etiam Menelai socios putabis magos fuisse, quos ait poeta praecipuus flexis hamulis apud Pharum insulam famem propulsasse. (6) Etiam mergos et delfinos et Scyllam tu eodem referes; etiam gulones omnes, qui inpendio a piscatoribus merguntur; etiam ipsos piscatores, qui omnium generum piscis arte adquirunt.

(5) Moreover, by the same argument from fish you will think the companions of Menelaus were magi as well, whom the chief poet says, with bent hooks, at the island of Pharos, drove off hunger. (6) You will refer even divers and dolphins and Scylla to the same category; likewise all the cormorants, which for a fee are plunged by fishermen; and even the fishermen themselves, who by their art acquire fish of every kind.

(7) 'Cur ergo tu quaeris?' Nolo equidem nec necessarium habeo tibi dicere, sed per te, si potes, ad hoc quaesisse me argue. (8) Vt si elleborum uel cicutam uel sucum papaueris emissem, item alia eiusdem modi quorum moderatus usus salutaris, sed commixtio uel quantitas noxia est, quis aequo animo pateretur, si me per haec ueneficii arcesseres, quod ex illis potest homo occidi?

(7) 'Why then do you ask?' I for my part do not wish, nor do I have it as necessary, to tell you; but on your own, if you can, charge that I inquired for this purpose. (8) As if I had bought hellebore or hemlock or the juice of the poppy, likewise other things of the same kind, the moderated use of which is salutary, but their mixture or quantity is noxious, who would with an even mind endure it, if you were to arraign me for poisoning on account of these, because from them a man can be killed?

[33] (1) Videamus tamen, quae fuerint piscium genera tam necessaria ad habendum tamque rara ad repperiendum, ut merito statuto praemio quaererentur. (2) Tria omnino nominauerunt, unum falsi, duo mentiti; (3) falsi, quod leporem marinum fuisse dixerunt qui alius omnino piscis fuit, quem mihi Themis[c]on seruus noster medicinae non ignarus, ut ex ipso audisti, ultro attulit ad inspiciundum; nam quidem leporem nondum etiam inuenit. (4) Sed profiteor me quaerere et cetera, non piscatoribus modo, uerum etiam amicis meis negotio dato, quicumque minus cogniti generis piscis inciderit, ut eius mihi aut formam commemorent aut ipsum uiuum, si id nequierint uel mortuum ostendant.

[33] (1) Yet let us see what kinds of fish were so necessary to have and so rare to find that they were rightly sought with a prize set. (2) They named three in all: in one they were in error, in two they lied; (3) in error, because they said that it was a sea-hare which was in fact an entirely different fish—one which Themison, our servant not unacquainted with medicine, as you heard from him himself, brought to me of his own accord for inspection; for indeed he has not yet even found the sea-hare. (4) But I profess that I am searching for the rest as well, not only through fishermen, but also by assigning the business to my friends, that whenever a fish of a less-known kind should fall in their way, they either report its form to me, or, if they cannot, show me the fish itself alive—or, failing that, dead.

Quam ob rem id faciam, mox docebo.

For what reason I do this, I will soon explain.

(5) Mentiti autem sunt callidissimi accusatores mei _ ut sibi uidentur _, cum me ad finem calumniae confinxerunt duas res marinas impudicis uocabulis quaesisse. (6) Quas Tannonius ille cum utriusque sexus genitalia intellegi uellet, sed eloqui propter infantiam causidicus summus nequiret, multum ac diu haesitato tandem uirile 'marinum' nescio qua circumlocutione male ac sordide nominauit; (7) sed enim feminal nullo pacto repperiens munditer dicere ad mea scripta confugit et quodam libro meo legit: 'interfeminium tegat et femoris obiectu et palmae uelamento.'

(5) But my most crafty accusers lied — _as they seem to themselves_ — when, to bring calumny to its limit, they fabricated that I had sought two sea-creatures with impudent names. (6) That Tannonius, since he wished the genitals of both sexes to be understood, but, though a top pleader, was unable to utter it on account of inarticulateness, after much and long hesitation at last named the male as “marine” by I know not what circumlocution, badly and sordidly; (7) but indeed, finding by no means any clean way to say the female, he fled to my writings and read in a certain book of mine: ‘let him cover the space-between-the-thighs both by the interposition of the thigh and by the covering of the palm.’

[34] (1) Hic etiam pro sua grauitate uitio mihi uortebat, quod me nec sordidiora dicere honeste pigeret. (2) At ego illi contra iustius exprobrarim, quod qui eloquentiae patrocinium uulgo profiteatur etiam honesta dictu sordide blateret ac saepe in rebus nequaquam difficilibus fringultiat uel omnino ommutescat. (3) Cedo enim, si ego de Veneris statua nihil dixissem neque interfeminium nominassem, quibus tandem uerbis accusasses crimen illud tam stultitiae quam linguae tuae congruens?

[34] (1) Here too, in keeping with his own gravity, he was imputing it to me as a fault that I was not reluctant to speak even the more sordid things with decency. (2) But I, on the contrary, would more justly reproach him, because he, who publicly professes the patronage of eloquence, blathers sordidly even about things honorable to say, and often in matters by no means difficult he sputters or altogether falls mute. (3) Come then: if I had said nothing about the statue of Venus nor named the interfeminium, with what words, pray, would you have accused that charge so congruent to your stupidity as to your tongue?

(4) An quicquam stultius quam ex nominum propinquitate uim similem rerum coniectam?

(4) Or anything more foolish than, from the proximity of the names, conjecturing a similar force of the things?

(5) Et fortasse an peracute repperisse uobis uidebamini, ut quaesisse me fingeretis ad illecebras magicas duo haec marina, ueretillam et uirginal. _ Disce enim nomina rerum Latina, quae propterea uarie nominaui, ut denuo instructus accuses. _ (6) Memento tamen tam ridiculum argumentum fore desiderata ad res uenerias marina obscena, quam si dicas marinum pectinem comendo capillo quaesitum uel aucupandis uolantibus piscem accipitrem aut uenandis apris piscem apriculam aut eliciendis mortuis marina caluaria.

(5) And perhaps you seemed to yourselves to have discovered most shrewdly, ut you should pretend that I had sought for magical allurements these two sea-things, the veretilla and the virginal. _ Learn, in fact, the names of Latin things, which for that reason I named in various ways, so that, instructed anew, you may accuse. _ (6) Remember, however, that it will be just as ridiculous an argument—that obscene sea-things are desired for venereal affairs—as if you were to say that a sea-comb is sought for combing hair, or, for fowling birds, a fish “hawk,” or, for hunting boars, a fish “little boar,” or, for drawing forth the dead, a sea “calvaria.”

(7) Respondeo igitur ad hunc uestrum locum non minus insulse quam absurde commentum me hasce nugas marinas et quiscilias litoralis neque pretio neque gratis quaesisse.

(7) I reply, then, to this passage of yours: it is a fabrication, no less foolish than absurd, that I sought these marine trifles and littoral sweepings, neither for a price nor for free.

[35] (1) Illud etiam praeterea respondeo, nescisse uos, quid a me quaesitum fingeretis. (2) Haec enim friuola quae nominastis pleraque in litoribus omnibus congestim et aceruatim iacent et sine ullius opera quamlibet leuiter motis flucticulis ultro foras euoluuntur. (3) Quin ergo dicitis me eadem opera pretio impenso per plurim[is]os piscatoris quaesisse de litore conchulam striatam, testam hebe[n]tem, calculum teretem; praeterea cancrorum furcas, echinum caliculos, lolliginum ligulas; (4) postremo assulas, festucas, resticulas et ostrea [Pergami] uermiculata; denique muscum et algam, cetera maris eiectamenta, quae ubique litorum uentis expelluntur, salo expuuntur, tempestate reciprocantur, tranquillo deseruntur?

[35] (1) I answer this, moreover, besides: that you did not know what you were pretending had been sought by me. (2) For these trifles which you named for the most part lie on all shores in heaps and piles, and, without anyone’s effort, when the little wavelets are moved ever so lightly, of their own accord roll out ashore. (3) Why then do you not say that, with the same effort and expense laid out, through very many fishermen I sought from the shore a striated little shell, a dulled potsherd, a rounded pebble; besides the forks of crabs, the little cups of sea-urchins, the little straps of squids; (4) finally, slats, straws, little cords, and vermiculated oysters [of Pergamum]; in fine, moss and seaweed, the other ejectamenta of the sea, which everywhere along the shores are driven out by the winds, spat out by the brine, driven back by storm, and in calm are left behind?

(5) Neque enim minus istis quae commemoraui accommodari possunt similiter ex uocabulo suspiciones.

(5) For no less can suspicions drawn from the vocable be similarly accommodated to those things which I have recounted.

(6) Posse dicitis ad res uenerias sumpta de mari spuria et fascina propter nominum similitudinem; qui minus possit ex eodem litore calculus ad uesicam, testa ad testamentum, cancer ad ulcera, alga ad quercerum? (7) Ne tu, Claudi Maxime, nimis patiens uir es et oppido proxima humanitate, qui hasce eorum argumentationes diu hercle perpessus sis. Equidem, cum haec ab illis quasi grauia et uincibilia dicerentur, illorum stultitiam ridebam, tuam patientiam mirabar.

(6) You say that spurious things and phallic charms taken from the sea can be applied to venereal matters because of the similarity of names; why should it be any less possible from that same shore to take a pebble for the bladder, a potsherd for a testament, a crab for ulcers, a seaweed for oak-lichen? (7) Truly, Claudius Maximus, you are a man too patient and very near to the highest humanity, you who, by Hercules, have long endured these people’s arguments. For my part, when these things were being called by them weighty and invincible, I laughed at their stupidity and marveled at your patience.

[36] (1) Ceterum quam ob rem plurimos iam piscis cognouerim, quorundam adhuc nescius esse nolim, discat Aemilianus, quoniam usque adeo rebus meis curat. (2) Quanquam est iam praecipiti aeuo et occidua senectute, tamen, si uidetur, accipiat doctrinam seram plane et postumam. (3) Legat ueterum philosophorum monumenta, tandem ut intellegat non me primum haec requisisse, sed iam pridem maiores meos, Aristotelen dico et Theop<h>rastum et [t]Eudemum et Lyconem ceterosque Platonis minores, (4) qui plurimos libros de genitu animalium deque uictu deque particulis deque omni differentia reliquerunt.

[36] (1) But as to the reason why I have already come to know very many fishes, I should not wish to be still ignorant of some others—let Aemilianus learn, since he is so greatly concerned with my affairs. (2) Although he is now in a precipitous age and in a setting old age, nevertheless, if it seems good, let him receive instruction plainly late and posthumous. (3) Let him read the monuments of the ancient philosophers, so that at last he may understand that I was not the first to have sought these things, but long ago my betters—I mean Aristotelen and Theop<h>rastum and [t]Eudemum and Lyconem and the other lesser men of Plato, (4) who left very many books about the generation of animals and about diet and about parts and about every difference.

(5) Bene quod apud te, Maxime, causa agitur, qui pro tua eruditione legisti profecto Aristotelis ____ ____ ________, ____ ____ ________, ____ ____ ________ multiiuga uolumina, praeterea problemata innumera eiusdem, tum ex eadem secta ceterorum, in quibus id genus uaria tractantur. (6) Quae tanta cura conquisita si honestum et gloriosum illis fuit scribere, cur turpe sit nobis experiri, praesertim cum ordinatius et cohibilius eadem Graece et Latine adnitar conscribere et in omnibus aut omissa adquirere aut defecta supplere?

(5) It is well that the case is being conducted before you, Maximus, who by your erudition have surely read Aristotle’s ____ ____ ________, ____ ____ ________, ____ ____ ________, the manifold volumes, besides the innumerable Problems of the same, then also those of the others from the same sect, in which matters of that kind are variously treated. (6) If things sought out with such care were honorable and glorious for them to write, why should it be shameful for us to make trial—especially since I endeavor to compose the same things more orderly and more restrainedly in Greek and in Latin, and in all points either to acquire what was omitted or to supply what was lacking?

(7) Permittite, si opera est, quaedam legi de magicis meis, ut sciat me Aemilianus plura quam putat quaerere et sedulo explorare. (8) Prome tu librum e Graecis meis, quos forte hic amici habuere sedulique, naturalium quaestionum, atque eum maxime, in quo plura de piscium genere tractata sunt. Interea, dum hic quaerit, ego exemplum rei competens dixero.

(7) Permit, if there is leisure, that certain things be read from my magics, so that Aemilianus may know that I inquire into and sedulously explore more than he thinks. (8) You, bring forth the book from my Greek works—which perhaps the friends here have had and been assiduous with—of Natural Questions, and especially that one in which more has been treated about the genus of fishes. Meanwhile, while he searches here, I will relate an example pertinent to the matter.

[37] (1) Sophocles poeta Euripidi aemulus et superstes _ uixit enim ad extremam senectam _, cum igitur accusaretur a filio suomet dementiae, quasi iam per aetatem desiperet, protulisse dicitur Coloneum suam, peregregiam tragoediarum, quam forte tum in eo tempore conscribebat, (2) eam iudicibus legisse nec quicquam amplius pro defensione sua addidisse, nisi ut audacter dementiae condemnarent, si carmina senis displicerent. (3) Ibi ego comperior om[a]nis iudices tanto poetae adsurrexisse, miris laudibus eum tulisse ob argumenti sollertiam et coturnum facundiae, nec ita multum omnis afuisse quin accusatorem potius dementiae condemnarent.

[37] (1) Sophocles the poet, rival and survivor of Euripides—for he lived to extreme old age—accordingly, when he was being accused by his own son of dementia, as though by reason of age he now raved, is said to have brought out his Coloneus, preeminent among tragedies, which by chance at that time he was composing; (2) he read it to the judges and added nothing further to his defense, except to bid them boldly condemn him of dementia, if the old man’s verses displeased. (3) Thereupon I find that all the judges rose to such a poet, carried him with marvelous praises for the ingenuity of the argument and his buskined eloquence, and that it lacked not much but that they would rather have condemned the accuser himself for dementia.

(4) Inuenisti tu librum? Beasti. Cedo enim experiamur an et mihi possint in iudicio litterae meae prodesse.

(4) Have you found the book? Good. Hand it here then; let us try whether my letters too can be of use to me in court.

Lege pauca de principio, dein quaedam de piscibus. At tu interea, dum legit, [t]aquam[quam] sustine. (...)

Read a few from the beginning, then certain things about fishes. But you meanwhile, while he reads, bear it in silence. (...)

[38] (1) Audisti, Maxime, quorum pleraque scilicet legeras apud antiquos philosophorum. (2) Et memento de solis piscibus haec uolumina a me conscripta, qui eorum coitu progignantur, qui ex limo coalescant, quotiens et quid anni cuiusque eorum generis feminae subent[ant], mares suriant, (3) quibus membris et causis discrerit natura uiuiparos eorum et ouiparos _ ita enim Latine appello quae Graeci _______ et ______ _ (4) et, ne <o>perose animalium genitum pergam, deinde de differentia et uictu et membris et aetatibus ceterisque plurimis scitu quidem necessariis, sed in iudicio alienis.

[38] (1) You have heard, Maximus, most of which of course you had read among the ancient philosophers. (2) And remember that concerning fishes alone these volumes were composed by me: those which are begotten by their coition, those which coalesce from mud, how often and at what time of the year the females of each kind come into heat, the males are in rut; (3) by what parts and causes nature distinguishes their viviparous and oviparous — for thus in Latin I call what the Greeks _______ and ______ — (4) and, so that I may not proceed <o>laboriously about the births of animals, then about the difference and diet and parts and ages and very many other things indeed necessary to know, but foreign to a court.

(5) Pauca etiam de Latinis scribtis meis ad eandem peritiam pertinentibus legi iubebo, in quibus animaduertes cum re<s> cognitu raras, tum nomina etiam Romanis inusitata et in hodiernum quod sciam infecta; ea tamen nomina labore meo et studio ita de Graecis prouenire, ut tamen Latina moneta percussa sint. (6) Vel dicant nobis, Aemiliane, patroni tui, ubi legerint Latine haec pronuntiata uocabula. De solis aquatilibus dicam nec cetera animalia nisi in communibus differentis attingam.

(5) I will also have a few of my Latin writings, pertaining to the same expertise, read out, in which you will notice both matters rare to know and also names unfamiliar to Romans and, so far as I know, uncoined to this very day; yet those names, through my labor and zeal, come forth from the Greek in such a way that nevertheless they are struck with Latin coinage. (6) Or let your patrons, Aemilianus, tell us where they have read these vocables pronounced in Latin. I shall speak of aquatic creatures only, nor will I touch the other animals except in their common differences.

(7) Ausculta igitur quae dicam. Iam me clamabis magica nomina Aegyptio uel Babylonico ritu percensere: (8) ________, ________, ____________, ___________, ____________, ____________, _______, ________, ________, __________, ___________, ______, _____________,

(7) Listen then to what I will say. Soon you will cry out that I am reciting magical names according to the Egyptian or Babylonian rite: (8) ________, ________, ____________, ___________, ____________, ____________, _______, ________, ________, __________, ___________, ______, _____________,

_ (9) possum etiam pergere; sed non est operae in istis diem terere, ut sit mihi tempus adgredi ad cetera. Haec interim quae dixi pauca recita Latine a me enuntiata. (...)

_ (9) I can also proceed; but it is not worth the effort to waste the day on these matters, so that I may have time to approach the rest. In the meantime, recite these few things that I have said, enunciated in Latin by me. (...)

[39] (1) Vtrum igitur putas philosopho non secundum Cynicam temeritatem rudi et indocto, sed qui se Platonicae scolae meminerit _ utrum ei putas turpe scire ista an nescire, neglegere an curare, nosse quanta sit etiam in istis prouidentiae ratio an <de> diis immortalibus matri et patri credere?

[39] (1) Which, then, do you think, for a philosopher not according to Cynic temerity, rough and unlearned, but one who remembers himself to be of the Platonic school _ whether do you think it shameful for him to know these things or not to know, to neglect or to care, to know how great even in these is the rationale of providence, or to believe one’s mother and father <de> the immortal gods?

(2) Q. Ennius hedyphagetica [a] uersibus scribsit. Innumerabilia genera piscium enumerat, quae scilicet curiose cognorat. Paucos uersus memini, eos dicam:

(2) Q. Ennius wrote the hedyphagetica [a] in verses. He enumerates innumerable kinds of fish, which of course he had curiously learned. I remember a few verses; I will say them:

(3) 'Omnibus ut Clipea praestat mustela marina!

(3) 'As the herring surpasses all, so does the sea-weasel!

Mures sunt Aeni, asp[e]ra ostrea plurima Abydi[mus],

Morays are of the Aenus, very many rough oysters at Abydi[mus],

Mytilenae est pecten C<h>aradrumque apud Ambraciai [finis]

At Mytilene is the scallop and the C<h>aradrus at Ambracia [end]

Brundisii sargus bonus est (hunc, magnus si erit, sume).

At Brundisium the sargus is good (take this one, if it is large).

Apriculum piscem scito primum esse Tarenti.

Know that the apriculum fish is best at Tarentum.

Surrenti[a] elopem fac emas glaucumque aput Cumas.

At Surrent[um] buy elops, and glaucus at Cumae.

Quid scarum praeterii cerebrum Iouis paene sup[p]remi

Why did I pass over the scarus, the brain of almost su[p]reme Jove

(Nestoris ad patriam hic capitur magnusque bonusque),

(here, by Nestor’s fatherland, it is caught, both great and good),

melanurum, turdum, merulamque umbramque marinam?

the melanurus, the thrush, the blackbird, and the sea-umbram?

Polypus Corcyrae, caluaria pinguia <a>carnae,

Octopus of Corcyra, fat skulls of <a>carnae,

purpura[m], mu[r]riculi, mures, dulces quoque echini.'

purple, little murexes, mice, and also sweet sea urchins.'

(4) Alios etiam multis uersibus decorauit, et ubi gentium quisque eorum, qualiter assus aut iurulentus optime sapiat, nec tamen ab eruditis reprehenditur; ne ego reprehendar, qui res paucissimis cognitas Graece et Latine propriis et elegantibus uocabulis conscribo.

(4) He has also adorned others with many verses, and where in the world each of them, and how—whether roasted or gravy-rich—tastes best; nor, however, is he censured by the erudite; lest I be censured, I who compose, in Greek and in Latin, matters known to very few, with proper and elegant terms.

[40] (1) Cum hoc satis dixi, tum aliud accipe. Quid enim tandem, si medicinae neque instudiosus neque imperitus quaepiam remedia ex piscibus quaero? (2) Vt sane sunt plurima cum in aliis omnibus rebus eodem naturae munere interspersa atque interseminata, tum etiam nonnulla in piscibus.

[40] (1) With this I have said enough; now take another point. What, then, pray, if, being neither unstudious of nor unskilled in medicine, I seek certain remedies from fishes? (2) As indeed very many things, in all other matters as well, are scattered and intersown by the same gift of nature, so too are some among fishes.

(3) An remedia nosse et ea conquirere magi potius esse quam medici, quam denique philosophi putas, qui illis non ad quaestum, sed ad suppetias usuru<s> est? (4) Veteres quidem medici etiam carmina remedia uulnerum norant, ut omnis uetustatis certissimus auctor Homerus docet, qui facit Vlixi de uulnere sanguinem profluentem sisti cantamine. Nihil enim quod salutis ferendae gratia fit, criminosum est.

(3) Or do you think it to be the part of magicians rather than of physicians, or finally of philosophers, to know remedies and to seek them out—who use them not for profit, but for assistance? (4) Indeed, the ancient physicians even knew songs as remedies for wounds, as Homer, the most trustworthy author of all antiquity, teaches, who makes the blood flowing from Ulysses’ wound be stanched by an incantation. For nothing that is done for the sake of bringing health is criminal.

(5) 'At enim,' inquit, 'piscem cui rei nisi malae proscidisti, quem tibi Themis[c]on seruus attulit?' Quasi uero non paulo prius dixerim me de particulis omnium animalium, de situ earum de[ni]que numero de[ni]que causa conscribere ac libros ________ Aristoteli et explorare studio et augere. (6) Atque adeo summe miror quod unum a me pisciculum inspectum sciatis, cum iam plurimos, ubicumque locorum oblati sunt, aeque inspexerim, (7) praesertim quod nihil ego clanculo sed omnia in propatulo ago, ut quiuis uel extrarius arbiter adsistat, more hoc et instituto magistrorum meorum, qui aiunt hominem liberum et magnificum debere, si queat, in primori fronte animum gestare. (8) Hunc adeo pisciculum, quem uos leporem marinum nominatis, plurimis qui aderant ostendi.

(5) 'But indeed,' he says, 'for what purpose other than a bad one did you cut up a fish, which the slave Themis[c]on brought you?' As though I had not said somewhat earlier that I am composing about the small parts of all animals, about their position and finally their number and finally their cause, and to ________ books for Aristotle and to explore with zeal and to augment them. (6) And indeed I am exceedingly amazed that you know of one little fish as having been inspected by me, since already very many, wherever in whatever places they have been offered, I have inspected likewise, (7) especially since I do nothing in secret but everything in the open, ut anyone, even an outsider, may stand by as arbiter, in this custom and institution of my teachers, who say that a free and magnificent man ought, if he can, to carry his mind on the foremost front of his brow. (8) This very little fish, which you designate the sea-hare, I showed to very many who were present.

(9) Necdum etiam decerno quid uocent, nisi quaeram sane accuratius, quod nec apud ueteres philosophos proprietatem eius piscis reperio, quanquam sit omnium rarissima et hercule memoranda. (10) Quippe solus ille, quantum sciam, cum sit cetera exossis, duodecim numero ossa ad similitudinem talorum suillorum in uentre eius conexa et catenata sunt. (11) Quod Aristoteles numquam profecto omisisset scribto prodere, qui aselli piscis solius omnium in medio aluo corculum situm pro maximo memorauit.

(9) I do not yet even decide what to call it, unless indeed I should inquire more accurately; for neither among the ancient philosophers do I find the peculiarity of this fish, although it is of all the most rare and, by Hercules, memorable. (10) For it alone, so far as I know—whereas the others are boneless—has twelve bones, fashioned in the likeness of swine knucklebones, connected and chained together in its belly. (11) Which Aristotle would certainly never have omitted to publish in writing—he who recorded as of the greatest moment that in the middle of the belly of the asellus fish, alone of all, there is situated a little heart.

[41] (1) 'Piscem,' inquit, 'proscidisti.' Hoc quis ferat philosopho crimen esse, quod lanio uel coquo non fuisset? (2) 'Piscem proscidisti.' Quod crudum, id accusas? Si cocto uentrem rusparer, hepatia suffoderem, ita ut apud te puerulus ille Sicinius Pudens suomet obsono discit, eam rem non putares accusandam.

[41] (1) 'You have cut up a fish,' he says. Who could endure that to be a charge against a philosopher, which would not have been one against a butcher or a cook? (2) 'You have cut up a fish.' Do you accuse what was raw? If, when it was cooked, I were to scrape the belly, to dig into the hepatics, just as with you that little boy Sicinius Pudens learns at his own obsono, you would not think that matter accusable.

Atqui maius crimen est philosopho comesse piscis quam inspicere. (3) An hariolis licet iocinera rimari, philosopho contemplari non licebit, qui se sciat omnium animalium haruspicem, omnium deum sacerdotem? (4) Hoc in me accusas, quod ego et Maximus in Aristotele miramur?

And yet it is a greater crime for a philosopher to eat fish than to inspect them. (3) Or is it permitted to soothsayers to probe livers, and will it not be permitted to a philosopher to contemplate, he who knows himself to be the haruspex of all animals, the priest of all the gods? (4) Is this what you accuse in me, that which I and Maximus admire in Aristotle?

Cuius nisi libros bibliothecis exegeris et studiosorum manibus extorseris, accusare me non potes. Sed de hoc paene plura quam debui.

Unless you have driven his books out of the libraries and wrested them from the hands of the studious, you cannot accuse me. But about this I have said almost more than I ought.

(5) Nunc praeterea uide, quam ipsi sese reuincant. Aiunt mulierem magicis artibus, marinis illecebris a me petitam eo in tempore, quo me non negabunt in Gaetuliae mediterranis montibus fuisse, ubi pisces per Deucalionis diluuia repperientur. (6) Quod ego gratulor nescire istos legisse me Theophrasti quoque ____ _______ ___ ____<__>__ et Nicandri _______, ceterum me etiam ueneficii reum postularent; (7) at quidem hoc negotium ex lectione et aemulatione Aristoteli nactus sum, nonnihil et Platone meo adhortante, qui ait eum, qui ista uestiget, ____________ _______ __ ___ _______.

(5) Now moreover see how they refute themselves. They say that a woman, by magical arts, by marine allurements, was solicited by me at that time when they will not deny that I was in the inland mountains of Gaetulia, where fish will be found by Deucalion’s deluges. (6) I for my part congratulate myself that those men do not know that I have read Theophrastus’ also ____ _______ ___ ____<__>__ and Nicander’s _______, otherwise they would even arraign me as a defendant on a charge of poisoning; (7) and indeed I took up this pursuit from the reading and emulation of Aristotle, with my Plato too somewhat exhorting me, who says that he who investigates such things, ____________ _______ __ ___ _______.

[42] (1) Nunc quoniam pisces horum satis patuerunt, accipe aliud pari quidem stultitia, sed multo tanta uanius et nequius excogitatum. (2) Scierunt et ipsi argumentum piscarium futile et nihil futurum, praeterea nouitatem eius ridiculam (quis enim fando audiuit ad magica maleficia disquamari et exdorsari piscis solere?), potius aliquid de rebus peruulgatioribus et iam creditis fingendum esse. (3) Igitur ad praescriptum opinionis et famae confinxere puerum quempiam carmine cantatum remotis arbitris, secreto loco, arula et lucerna et paucis consciis testibus, ubi incantatus sit, corruisse, postea nesciente<m> sui excitatum _ (4) nec ultra isti quidem progredi mendacio ausi.

[42] (1) Now, since their fish-stories have been sufficiently laid open, receive another devised with equal stupidity, but by much so much more vain and more wicked. (2) They themselves knew the fishy argument to be futile and to come to nothing, and moreover its novelty to be ridiculous (for who, by report, has ever heard that for magical maleficia a fish is wont to be de-scaled and de-backed?), that rather something from matters more pervulgate and already believed ought to be fabricated. (3) Therefore, according to the prescript of opinion and rumor, they concocted that some boy, sung over with a charm, the onlookers removed, in a secret place, with a little altar and a lamp and a few privy witnesses, where he was enchanted, collapsed, afterwards, not knowing himself, was roused _ (4) nor did those men even dare to proceed further with the lie.

Enim fabula ut impleretur, addendum etiam illud fuit, puerum eundem multa praesagio praedixisse.

Indeed, in order that the fable might be filled out, it had to be added as well that the same boy had foretold many things by presage.

(5) Quippe hoc emolumentum canticis accipimus, praesagium et diuinationem, nec modo uulgi opinione, uerum etiam doctorum uirorum auctoritate hoc miraculum de pueris confirmatur. (6) Memini me apud Varronem philosophum, uirum accuratissime doctum atque eruditum, cum alia eiusdem modi, tum hoc etiam legere: Trallibus de euentu Mithridatici belli magica percontatione consultantibus puerum in aqua simulacrum Mercuri contemplantem quae futura erant CLX uersibus cecinisse. (7) Itemque Fabium, cum quingentos denarium perdidisset, ad Nigidium consultum uenisse; ab eo pueros carmine instinctos indicauisse, ubi locorum defossa esset crumina cum parti eorum, ceteri ut forent distributi; (8) unum etiam denarium ex eo numero habere M. Catonem philosophum; quem se a pedisequo in stipe Apollinis accepisse Cato confessus est.

(5) For this emolument we receive from incantations: presage and divination; and not only by the opinion of the crowd, but even by the authority of learned men this miracle concerning boys is confirmed. (6) I remember that in Varro the philosopher, a man most scrupulously taught and erudite, among other things of the same kind I read this as well: that at Tralles, when people were consulting by a magical interrogation about the outcome of the Mithridatic War, a boy, gazing upon an image of Mercury in the water, sang in 160 verses the things that were to be. (7) Likewise that Fabius, when he had lost five hundred denarii, came to Nigidius for consultation; and that by him boys, instigated by a charm, indicated where the purse had been buried, with a portion of them to be kept, the rest to be distributed; (8) that Marcus Cato the philosopher even had one denarius from that number; which Cato confessed he had received from his footman out of the offerings of Apollo.

[43] (1) Haec et alia apud plerosque de magiis et pueris lego equidem, sed dubius sententiae sum, dicamne fieri posse an negem, (2) quamquam Platoni credam inter deos atque homines natura et loco medias quasdam diuorum potestates intersitas, easque diuinationes cunctas et magorum miracula gubernare. (3) Quin et illud mecum reputo: posse animum humanum, praesertim puerilem et simplicem, seu carminum auocamento siue odorum delenimento soporari et ad obliuionem praesentium externari et paulisper remota corporis memoria redigi ac redire ad naturam suam, quae est immortalis scilicet et diuina, atque ita uelut quodam sopore futura rerum praesagare.

[43] (1) These and other things about magics and boys I indeed read among many, but I am doubtful in judgment whether I should say they can happen or deny it, (2) although I could believe Plato that between gods and men there are certain powers of the divi intercalated by nature and place, and that these govern all divinations and the miracles of magi. (3) Nay, I also reckon this with myself: that the human mind, especially boyish and simple, can be lulled by the avocation of chants or the blandishment of odors, and be carried outside itself into forgetfulness of present things, and for a little while, with the body’s memory removed, be brought back and return to its own nature, which is of course immortal and divine, and thus, as it were, in a kind of sopor to presage the future of things.

(4) Verum enimuero, ut ista sese habent, si qua fides hisce rebus impertienda est, debet ille nescio qui puer prouidus, quantum ego audio, et corpore decorus atque integer deligi et animo sollers et ore facundus, (5) ut in eo aut diuina potestas quasi bonis aedibus digne diuersetur (si tamen ea pueri corpore includitur), an ipse animus expergitus cito ad diuinationem suam redigatur, quae ei prompte insita et nulla obliuione saucia et hebes facile resumatur. (6) Non enim ex omni ligno, ut Pythagoras dicebat, debet Mercurius exculpi.

(4) But indeed, as these matters stand, if any credence is to be imparted to these things, that some boy or other, so far as I hear, ought to be chosen provident, and comely and sound in body, skilled in mind and eloquent in speech, (5) so that in him either the divine power may, as in good quarters, lodge worthily (if indeed it is enclosed within a boy’s body), or his own soul, once awakened, may quickly be brought back to its proper divination, which, promptly inborn in him and hurt by no oblivion and not dull, may be easily resumed. (6) For a Mercury, as Pythagoras used to say, ought not to be carved out of every wood.

(7) Quod si ita est, nominate, quis ille fuerit puer sanus, incolumis, ingeniosus, decorus, quem ego carmine dignatus sim initiare. (8) Ceterum Thallus, quem nominastis, medico potius quam mago indiget. (9) Est enim miser morbo comitiali ita confectus, ut ter an quater die saepe numero sine ullis cantaminibus corruat omniaque membra conflictationibus debilitet, facie ulcerosus, fronte et occipitio conquassatus, oculis hebes, naribus hiulcus, pedibus caducus.

(7) But if it is so, name who that boy was—sound, unharmed, ingenious, handsome—whom I deigned to initiate with a chant. (8) But Thallus, whom you named, needs a physician rather than a magus. (9) For the poor wretch is so worn down by the comitial disease (epilepsy) that three or four times a day, often enough, without any incantations he collapses and, with convulsions, weakens all his limbs—ulcerous in face, battered in forehead and occiput, dull in the eyes, gaping at the nostrils, unsteady on his feet.

(10) Maximus omnium magus est, quo praesente Thallus diu steterit: ita plerumque morbo ceu somno uergens inclinatur.

(10) The greatest magician of all is the one in whose presence Thallus has stood for a long time; for he generally, verging because of his disease as if into sleep, slumps.

[44] (1) Eum tamen uos carminibus meis subuersum dixistis, quod forte me coram semel decidit. (2) Conserui eius plerique adsunt, quos ex<h>iberi denuntiastis. Possunt dicere omnes quid in Thallo despuant, cur nemo audeat cum eo ex eodem catino cenare, eodem poculo bibere.

[44] (1) Yet you said that he was overthrown by my incantations, because by chance he once fell down in my presence. (2) Many of his fellow-servants are present, whom you ordered to be produced ex<h>iberi. They can all say what they spit at—what they abominate—in Thallus, and why no one dares to dine with him from the same dish, to drink from the same cup.

(3) Et quid ego de seruis? Vos ipsi uidetis. Negate Thallum multo prius quam ego Oeam uenirem corruere eo morbo solitum, medicis saepe numero ostensum!

(3) And what am I to say about the slaves? You yourselves see. Deny that Thallus, long before I came to Oea, was accustomed to collapse from that disease, having been shown to the physicians many times!

(4) Negant hoc conserui eius, qui sunt in ministerio uestro?

(4) Do his fellow-slaves, who are in your service, deny this?

Omnium rerum conuictum me fatebor, nisi rus adeo iam diu ablegatus est in longinquos agros, ne familiam contaminaret. Quod ita factum nec ab illis negari potest. (5) Eo nec potuit hodie a nobis exhiberi.

I will confess myself convicted of all things, unless he has been sent off to the country for so long already into distant acres, lest he contaminate the household. That it was done thus cannot be denied even by them. (5) For that reason he could not be produced by us today.

Nam ut omnis ista accusatio temeraria et repentina fuit, nudius tertius nobis Aemilianus denuntiauit, ut seruos numero quindecim apud te exhiberemus. (6) Adsunt XIIII, qui in oppido erant. Thallus solus, ut dixi, quod ferme ad centesimum lapidem longe exul est, is Thallus solus abest, sed misimus qui eum curriculo aduehat.

For, as that whole accusation was reckless and sudden, the day before yesterday Aemilianus gave us notice to produce fifteen slaves before you. (6) 14 are present, those who were in the town. Thallus alone, as I said, because he is almost at about the hundredth milestone and far away in exile is, that Thallus alone is absent; but we have sent someone to bring him back at speed by relay.

(7) Interroga, Maxime, XIIII seruos quos exhibemus, Thallus puer ubi sit et quam salue agat, interroga seruos accusatorum meorum. Non negabunt turpissimum puerum, corpore putri et morbido, caducum, barbarum, rusticanum. (8) Bellum uero puerum elegistis, quem quis sacrificio adhibeat, cuius caput contingat, quem puro pallio amiciat, a quo responsum speret.

(7) Interrogate, Maximus, the 14 slaves whom we produce, where the boy Thallus is and how he does in health; interrogate the slaves of my accusers. They will not deny a most disgraceful boy, with a putrid and morbid body, epileptic, a barbarian, a rustic. (8) A fine boy indeed you have chosen, one whom anyone would employ at a sacrifice, whose head he would touch, whom he would cloak with a pure pallium, from whom he would hope for a response.

(9) Velle<m> hercle adesset. Tibi eum, Aemiliane, permisissem, et tenerem, si tu interrogares. Iam in media quaestione hic ibidem pro tribunali oculos trucis in te inuertisset, faciem tuam spumabundus conspuisset, manus contraxisset, caput succussisset, postremo in sinu tuo corruisset.

(9) By Hercules, I wish he were present. I would have handed him over to you, Aemilianus, and I would be holding him, if you were conducting the interrogation. Already, in the midst of the questioning, right there before the tribunal, he would have turned his savage eyes upon you, would have spattered your face, foaming, with spit, would have clenched his hands, would have shaken his head, and at last would have collapsed into your lap.

[45] (1) XIIII seruos quos postulasti exhibeo. Cur illis ad quaestionem nihil uteris? Vnum puerum atque eum caducum requiris, quem olim abesse pariter mecum scis.

[45] (1) I produce the 14 slaves whom you demanded. Why do you make no use of them for interrogation? You ask for one boy—and he epileptic—whom you know has long been absent together with me.

Quae alia est euidentior calumnia? XIIII serui petitu tuo adsunt, eos dissimulas; unus puerulus abest, eum insimulas. (2) Postremo quid uis?

What other calumny is more evident? 14 slaves are present at your request; you feign ignorance of them; one little boy is absent—you accuse him. (2) Finally, what do you want?

Puta Thallum adesse: uis probare eum praesente me concidisse? Vltro confiteor. Carmine id factum dicis?

Suppose Thallus is present: do you wish to prove that he collapsed with me present? Unprompted, I confess it. Do you say that it was done by an incantation?

Hoc puer nescit, ego non factum reuinco. Nam caducum esse puerum nec tu audebis negare. (3) Cur ergo carmini potius quam morbo attribuatur eius ruina?

This the boy does not know; I prove that it was not done. Nay, that the boy is caducous (subject to the falling-sickness) you will not dare to deny. (3) Why, then, should his collapse be attributed to a charm rather than to disease?

An euenire non potuit ut forte praesente me idem pateretur, quod saepe alias multis praesentibus?

Or could it not have come to pass that, by chance, with me present, he suffered the same thing which often on other occasions, with many present?

(4) Quod si magnum putarem caducum deicere, quid opus carmine fuit, cum incensus gagates lapis, ut apud physicos lego, pulchre et facile hunc morbum exploret, cuius odore etiam in uenaliciis uulgo sanitatem aut morbum uenalium experiantur? (5) Etiam orbis a figulo circumactus non difficile eiusdem ualetudinis hominem uertigine sui corripit, ita spectaculum rotationis eius animum saucium debilitat. Ac multo plus ad caducos[e] consternendos figulus ualet quam magus.

(4) But if I thought it a great feat to bring down an epileptic, what need was there of a charm, since the jet stone, when ignited, as I read among the physicians, neatly and easily detects this disease, the odor of which even in the slave markets they commonly use to test the health or sickness of those for sale? (5) Even a wheel set in motion by a potter not with difficulty seizes a man with the same ailment with its own vertigo; thus the spectacle of its rotation debilitates the wounded mind. And a potter is much more effective for prostrating epileptics than a magician.

(6) Tu frustra postulasti, ut seruos exhiberem; ego non de nihilo postulo ut nomines, quinam testes huic piaculari sacro adfuerint, cum ego ruentem Thallum impellerem. (7) Vnum omnino nominas puerulum illum Sicinium Pudentem, cuius me nomine accusas; is enim adfuisse se dicit. Cuius pueritia etsi nihil ad re<li>gionem refragaretur, tamen accusatio fidem deroget.

(6) You demanded in vain that I produce slaves; I, not for nothing, demand that you name who were the witnesses to this piacular sacred rite, when I was impelling Thallus as he was collapsing. (7) You name only one, that little boy Sicinius Pudens, in whose name you accuse me; for he says that he was present. Whose boyhood, even if it would in no way gainsay re<li>gion, nevertheless detracts from the credibility of the accusation.

(8) Facilius fuit, Aemiliane, ac multo grauius, tete ut ipsum diceres interfuisse et ex eo sacro coepisse dementire potius quam totum negotium quasi ludicrum pueris donares: puer cecidit, puer uidit. Num etiam puer aliqui incantauit?

(8) It would have been easier, Aemilianus, and much graver, for you yourself in person to say that you had been present and that from that sacred rite you began to lose your wits, rather than to gift the whole business as though a plaything to boys: a boy fell, a boy saw. Was it even some boy who performed the incantation?

[46] (1) Hic satis ueteratorie Tannonius Pudens, cum hoc quoque mendacium frigere ac prope iam omnium uultu et murmure explosum uideret, ut uel suspiciones quorundam spe moraretur, ait pueros alios producturum, qui sint aeque a me incantati, atque ita ad aliam speciem argumenti transgressus est.

[46] (1) Here, quite trickster-like, Tannonius Pudens, when he saw that this lie too was growing cold and had been almost exploded by the face and murmur of all, in order even to delay the suspicions of some by hope, says he will produce other boys, who are equally enchanted by me; and so he passed over to another species of argument.

(2) Quod quamquam dissimulare potui, tamen ut omnia, ita hoc quoque ultro prouoco. Cupio enim produci eos pueros, quos spe libertatis audio confirmatos ad mentiendum. Sed nihil amplius dico: ut producant.

(2) Although I could have concealed this, yet, as in all things, so in this too I of my own accord challenge it. For I desire those boys to be produced, whom I hear have been fortified by the hope of liberty to lie. But I say nothing more: let them produce.

(3) Postulo igitur et flagito, Tannoni Pudens, ut expleas quod pollicitu's. Cedo pueros istos, quibus confiditis: produc, nomina qui sint. Mea aqua licet ad hoc utare. Dic, inquam, Tannoni.

(3) Therefore I demand and I insist, Tannonius Pudens, that you fulfill what you have promised. Hand over those boys on whom you rely: bring them forward, state their names, who they are. You may use my water for this purpose. Say it, I say, Tannonius.

(4) Quid taces, quid cunctaris, quid respectas? Quod si hic nescit quid dixerit aut nomina oblitus est, at tu, Aemiliane, cede huc, dic quid aduocato tuo mandaueris, exhibe pueros. (5) Quid expalluisti? Quid taces?

(4) Why are you silent, why do you delay, why do you look back? But if this man does not know what he has expressed or has forgotten the names, then you, Aemilianus, come here, say what you have instructed your advocate, produce the boys. (5) Why have you turned pale? Why are you silent?

Hocine accusare est, hocine tantum crimen deferre, an Claudium Maximum, tantum uirum, ludibrio habere, me calumnia insectari?

Is this to accuse, is this to bring forward so great a charge, or to hold Claudius Maximus, so great a man, to derision, to assail me with calumny?

(6) Quod si forte patronus tuus uerbo prolapsus est et nullos pueros habes quos producas, saltem XIIII seruis quos ex<h>ibui ad aliquid utere.

(6) But if by chance your patron has slipped in speech and you have no boys to produce, at least use for something the 14 slaves whom I have exhibited.

[47] (1) Aut cur sisti postulabas tantam familiam? Magiae accusans de XV seruis denuntiasti; quid, si de ui accusares, quot tandem seruos postulares? (2) Sciunt ergo aliquid XV serui et occultum est.

[47] (1) Or why were you demanding that so large a household be produced? Accusing on a charge of magic, you gave notice concerning 15 slaves; what, if you were accusing on a charge of violence, how many slaves, pray, would you demand? (2) Therefore 15 slaves know something, and it is occult.

An occultum non est et magicum est? Alterum horum fatearis necesse est: aut inlicitum non fuisse in quo tot conscios non timuerim, aut si inlicitum fuit, scire tot conscios non debuisse. (3) Magia ista, quantum ego audio, res est legibus delegata, iam inde antiquitus XII tabulis propter incredundas frugum inlecebras interdicta, igitur et occulta non minus quam tetra et horribilis, plerumque noctibus uigilata et tenebris abstrusa et arbitris solitaria et carminibus murmurata, (4) cui non modo seruorum, uerum etiam liberorum pauci adhibentur.

Or is it not secret, and is it magic? One of these two you must confess: either that it was not illicit—in which case I would not have feared so many privy persons—or, if it was illicit, so many privy persons ought not to have known. (3) This magia, as far as I hear, is a matter delegated to the laws, long since interdicted by the 12 Tables on account of the enticements for luring-away of crops; therefore it is hidden no less than it is grim and horrible, for the most part kept vigil in the nights and concealed in darkness, without witnesses, and murmured with incantations; (4) to which not only slaves, but even free persons, few are admitted.

(5) Et tu quindecim seruos uis interfuisse? Nubtiaene illae fuerunt an aliud celebratum officium an conuiuium tempestiuum? XV serui sacrum magicum participant, quasi XV uiri sacris faciundis creati?

(5) And you want fifteen slaves to have been present? Were those nuptials, or was some other ceremony celebrated, or a seasonable banquet? Do 15 slaves take part in a magical rite, as if 15 men created for performing sacred rites?

(6) Cui tamen rei tot numero adhibuissem, si conscientiae nimis multi sunt? XV liberi homines populus est, totidem serui familia, totidem uincti ergastulum. (7) An adiutorio multitudo eorum necessaria fuit, qui diutine hostias lustralis tenerent?

(6) Yet for what matter would I have employed so many in number, if for secrecy they are too many? 15 free men make a people, the same number of slaves a household, the same number of bound men a prison. (7) Or was their multitude necessary for assistance, to hold the lustral victims for a long time?

At nullas hostias nisi gallinas nominastis. An ut grana turis numerarent? An ut Thallum prosternerent?

But you named no sacrificial victims except hens. Or that they might count the grains of incense? Or that they might prostrate Thallus?

[48] (1) Mulierem etiam liberam perductam ad me domum dixistis eiusdem Thalli ualetudinis, quam ego pollicitus sim curaturum, eam quoque a me incantatam corruisse. (2) Vt uideo, uos palaestritam, non magum accusatum uenistis: ita omnis qui me accessere dicitis cecidisse. (3) Negauit tamen quaerente te, Maxime, Themison medicus, a quo mulier ad inspiciendum perducta est, quicquam ultra passam nisi quaesisse me, ecquid illi aures obtinnirent et utra earum magis; (4) ubi responderit dexteram sibi aurem nimis inquietam, confestim discessisse.

[48] (1) You also said that a free woman, of the same ailment as that Thallus, was brought to my house, whom I had promised to cure, and that she too, having been incanted by me, collapsed. (2) As I see it, you have come to accuse a palaestra-trainer, not a magus: thus you say that everyone who approached me fell. (3) Yet, when you were questioning, Maximus, the physician Themison, by whom the woman was brought for inspection, denied that she had suffered anything further, except that I asked whether her ears were ringing and which of them more; (4) when she replied that her right ear was excessively unquiet, I departed forthwith.

(5) Hic ego, Maxime, quanquam sedulo inpraesentiarum a laudibus tuis tempero, necubi tibi ob causam istam uidear blanditus, tamen sollertiam tuam in percontando nequeo quin laudem. (6) Dudum enim, cum haec agitarentur et illi incantatam mulierem dicerent, medicus qui adfuerat abnueret, quaesisti tu nimis quam prudenter, quod mihi emolumentum fuerit incantandi. (7) Responderunt: 'Vt mulier rueret.' 'Quid deinde?

(5) Here I, Maximus, although I diligently for the present refrain from your praises, lest anywhere I seem to have flattered you on account of this case, nevertheless I cannot but laud your skill in questioning. (6) For a while ago, when these matters were being agitated and they were saying that the woman had been enchanted, while the physician who had been present was denying it, you asked—how very prudently—what emolument there would have been to me in incanting. (7) They answered: “That the woman should collapse.” “What then?

Mortua est?' inquis. Negarunt. 'Quid ergo dicitis?

'Is she dead?' you ask. They denied it. 'What then are you saying?

Quod Apulei commodum, si ruisset?'

What advantage for Apuleius, if she had fallen?'

(8) Ita enim pulchre ac perseueranter tertio quaesisti, ut qui scires omnium factorum rationes diligentius examinandas ac saepius causas quaeri, facta concedi, eoque etiam patronos litigatorum causidicos nominari, quod cur quaeque facta sint expediant. (9) Ceterum negare factum facilis res est et nullo patrono indiget; recte factum uel perperam docere, id uero multo arduum et difficile est. Frustra igitur an factum sit anquiritur, quod nullam malam causam habuit ut fieret.

(8) For you have asked a third time, finely and perseveringly, as one who knew that the reasons of all deeds must be examined more diligently and that the causes must be sought more frequently, the deeds themselves being conceded; and that for this reason even the patrons of litigants are called “cause-pleaders,” because they explain why each thing has been done. (9) But to deny that a deed was done is an easy matter and needs no advocate; to show that it was done rightly or wrongly—that indeed is much more arduous and difficult. Therefore, it is asked in vain whether it was done, when it had no evil cause for being done.

(10) Ita facti reus apud bonum iudicem scrupulo quaestionis liberatur, si nulla fuit ei ratio peccandi.

(10) Thus the accused of the deed, before a good judge, is freed from the scruple of inquiry, if there was for him no rationale for offending.

(11) Nunc quoniam neque incantatam neque prostratam mulierem probauerunt et ego non nego petitu medici a me inspectam, dicam tibi, Maxime, cur illud de aurium tinnitu quaesierim, (12) non tam purgandi mei gratia in ea re, quam tu iam praeiudicasti neque culpae neque crimini confinem, quam ut ne quid dignum auribus tuis et doctrinae tuae congruens reticuerim. (13) Dicam igitur quam breuissime potuero; etenim admonendus es mihi, non docendus.

(11) Now, since they have proved neither that the woman was enchanted nor prostrated, and I do not deny that, at the physician’s request, I examined her, I will tell you, Maximus, why I inquired about that matter of the ringing of the ears, (12) not so much for the sake of purging myself in that affair—which you have already prejudged to be contiguous neither to fault nor to crime—as in order that I might not have kept silent about anything worthy of your ears and congruent with your doctrine. (13) I will therefore speak as briefly as I can; for indeed you are to be admonished by me, not taught.

[49] (1) Plato philosophus in illo praeclarissimo Timaeo caelesti quadam facundia uniuersum mundum molitus, (2) igitur postquam de nostri quoque animi trinis potestatibus sollertissime disseruit, et cur quaeque membra nobis diuina prouidentia fabricata sint aptissime docuit, causam morborum omnium trifariam percenset. (3) Primam causam primordiis corporis adtribuit, si ipsae elementorum qualitates, uuida et frigida, et h[i]is duae aduorsae non congruant. Id adeo euenit, cum quaepiam earum modo excessit aut loco demigrauit.

[49] (1) Plato the philosopher, in that most illustrious Timaeus, with a certain celestial eloquence having wrought the entire world, (2) therefore, after he very skillfully discoursed also about the three powers of our soul, and most aptly taught why each of our members has been fashioned for us by divine providence, he reckons the cause of all diseases threefold. (3) He assigns the first cause to the beginnings of the body, if the very qualities of the elements, moist and cold, and the two opposed to these, are not in agreement. This indeed comes about when any one of them has either exceeded its due measure or has shifted from its place.

(4) Sequens causa morborum inest in eorum uitio, quae iam concreta ex simplicibus elementis una tamen specie coaluerunt, ut est sanguinis species et uisceris et ossi et medullae, porro illa quae ex hisce singularibus mixta sunt. (5) Tertio in corpore concrementa uarii fellis et turbidi spiritus et pinguis humoris nouissima aegritudinum incitamenta sunt.

(4) The next cause of diseases lies in the defect of those things which, now concreted from simple elements, have nevertheless coalesced into a single form—such as the form of blood, and of the viscera, and of bone, and of marrow—and furthermore those things which are mixed from these singular constituents. (5) Thirdly, in the body, the concretions of various bile, and of turbid spirit, and of fatty humor are the ultimate incitements of illnesses.

[50] (1) Quorum e numero praecipuast materia morbi comitialis, de quo dicere exorsus sum, cum caro in humorem crassum et spumidum inimico igni conliquescit et spiritu indidem parto ex candore compressi aeris albida et tumida tabes fluit. (2) Ea namque tabes si foras corporis prospirauit, maiore dedecore quam noxa diffunditur. Pectoris enim primorem cutim uitiligine insignit et omnimodis maculationibus conuariat.

[50] (1) Of which number, the chief is the matter of the comitial disease (epilepsy), about which I have begun to speak, when the flesh, by a hostile fire, melts together into a thick and foamy humor, and, with breath gotten from the same place, from the whiteness of compressed air, a whitish and swollen putrescence flows. (2) For if that putrescence has breathed out to the outside of the body, it is diffused with greater disgrace than harm. For it marks the foremost skin of the chest with vitiligo and variegates it with spots of every kind.

(3) Sed cui hoc usu uenerit, numquam postea comitiali morbo adtemptatur. Ita aegritudinem animi grauissimam leui turpitudine corporis compensat.

(3) But whoever has had this happen, is never afterward assailed by the comitial disease. Thus he compensates a most grave sickness of the mind by a slight disgrace of the body.

(4) Enimuero si perniciosa illa dulcedo intus cohibita et bili atrae sociata uenis omnibus furens peruasit, dein ad summum caput uiam molita dirum fluxum cerebro immiscuit, ilico regalem partem animi debilitat, quae ratione pollens uerticem hominis uelut arcem et regiam insedit. (5) Eius quippe diuinas uias et sapientis meatus obruit et obturbat. Quod facit minore pernicie per soporem, cum potu et cibo plenos comitialis morbi praenuntia strangulatione modice angit.

(4) Indeed, if that pernicious sweetness, confined within and allied to black bile, raging has pervaded all the veins, then, having wrought a way to the highest head, it has mixed a dire flux into the brain, straightway it debilitates the regal part of the mind, which, excelling in reason, has sat upon the human crown as a citadel and royal palace as it were. (5) For it overwhelms and perturbs its divine ways and the courses of wisdom. This it does with lesser destruction through sleep, when, by a fore-signifying strangulation of the comitial disease, it moderately throttles those filled with drink and food.

(6) Sed si usque adeo aucta est, ut etiam uigilantium capiti offundatur, tum uero repentino mentis nubilo obtorpescunt et moribundo corpore, cessante animo cadunt. (7) Eum nostri non modo maiorem et comitialem, uerum etiam diuinum morbum, ita ut Graeci _____ _____, uere nuncuparunt, uidelicet quod animi partem rationalem, quae longe sanctissimast, eam uiolet.

(6) But if it has grown to such an extent that it is poured even upon the head of those awake, then indeed, benumbed by a sudden clouding of mind, they become torpid and, with the body in a dying state, the soul ceasing, they fall. (7) Our people have truly named it not only the greater and comitial disease, but even the divine disease, as the Greeks _____ _____, namely because it violates the rational part of the soul, which is by far the most holy.

[51] (1) Agnoscis, Maxime, rationem Platonis quantum potui pro tempore perspicue explicatam. (2) Cui ego fidem arbitratus causam diuini morbi esse, cum illa pestis in caput redu<n>dauit, haudquaquam uideor de nihilo percontatus, an esset mulieri illi caput graue, ceruix torpens, tempora pulsata, aures sonorae. [et] (3) Ceterum, quod dexterae auris crebriores tinnitus fatebatur, signum erat morbi penitus adacti.

[51] (1) You recognize, Maximus, Plato’s rationale set forth as clearly as I could for the moment. (2) Having given credence to this—since I judged the cause of the divine disease to be when that pest overflows back into the head—I do not seem to have inquired to no purpose whether that woman had a heavy head, a torpid neck, temples beaten (throbbing), ears resounding; [and] (3) moreover, the fact that she admitted more frequent tinnitus of the right ear was a sign of a disease driven deep within.

Nam dextera corporis ualidiora sunt eoque minus spei ad sanitatem relinquunt, cum et ipsa aegritudini succumbunt. (4) Aristoteles adeo in problematis scriptum reliquit: quibus aeque caducis a dextero morbus occipiat, eorum esse difficiliorem medelam. (5) Longum est, si uelim Theophrasti quoque sententiam de eodem morbo recensere.

For the right parts of the body are stronger, and therefore they leave less hope for health, when even they themselves succumb to sickness. (4) Aristotle has left it written in the Problems: for those likewise of the falling-sickness, in whom the disease begins from the right side, the remedy is more difficult. (5) It would be lengthy, if I should wish to recount Theophrastus’s opinion also about the same disease.

Est enim etiam eius egregius liber de caducis. (6) Quibus tamen in alio libro, quem de inuidentibus animalibus conscribsit, remedio esse ait exuuias stelionum, quas uelut senium more ceterorum serpentium temporibus statutis exuant; (7) sed nisi confestim eripias, malignone praesagio an naturali adpetentia ilico conuertuntur et deuorant.

For he also has an excellent book on epileptics. (6) Yet for them, in another book which he composed On Envious Animals, he says the exuuiae of stellions are a remedy, which, like “old age,” after the manner of the other serpents they shed at stated times; (7) but unless you snatch them away immediately, whether by a baleful presage or by natural appetite, they straightway turn back to them and devour them.

(8) Haec idcirco commemoraui nobilium philosophorum disputata, simul et libros sedulo nominaui nec ullum ex medicis aut poetis uolui attingere, ut isti desinant mirari, si philosophi suapte doctrina causas morborum et remedia nouerunt.

(8) For this reason I have commemorated the disputations of noble philosophers, and at the same time I have diligently named the books, nor did I wish to touch upon any of the physicians or the poets, so that these men may cease to marvel if philosophers, by their own doctrine, know the causes of diseases and the remedies.

(9) Igitur cum ad inspiciendum mulier aegra curationis gratia ad me perducta sit atque hoc et medici confessione qui adduxit ac mea ratiocinatione recte factum esse conueniat, (10) aut constituant magi et malefici hominis esse morbis mederi, aut, si hoc dicere non audent, fateantur se in puero et muliere caducis uanas et prorsus caducas calumnias intendisse.

(9) Therefore, since for inspection a sick woman was brought to me for the sake of treatment, and it is agreed, both by the confession of the physician who brought her and by my reasoning, that this was rightly done, (10) let the magi and the sorcerers either establish that it pertains to a man to heal diseases; or, if they do not dare to say this, let them confess that against the boy and the woman with the falling-sickness they have leveled vain and utterly caducous calumnies.

[52] (1) Immo enim, si uerum uelis, Aemiliane, tu potius caducus qui iam tot calumniis cecidisti. Neque enim grauius est corpore quam corde collabi, pede potius quam mente corruere, in cubiculo despui quam in isto splendidissimo coetu detestari. (2) At tu fortasse te putas sanum, quod non domi contineris, sed insaniam tuam, quoquo te duxerit, sequeris.

[52] (1) Rather indeed, if you want the truth, Aemilianus, you are the epileptic instead, you who have already fallen by so many calumnies. For it is not more grievous to collapse in body than in heart, to fall with the foot rather than with the mind, to be spat upon in a bedchamber rather than to be detested in that most splendid assembly. (2) But you perhaps think yourself sound, because you are not kept at home, but you follow your madness, wherever it may lead you.

Atqui contende, si uis, furorem tuum cum Thalli furore: inuenies non permultum interesse, nisi quod Thallus sibi, tu etiam aliis furis. (3) Ceterum Thallus oculos torquet, tu ueritatem; Thallus manus contrahit, tu patronos; Thallus pauimentis inliditur, tu tribunalibus. Postremo ille quidquid agit in aegritudine facit, ignorans peccat; (4) at tu, miser, prudens et sciens delinquis, tanta uis morbi te instigat.

But then contend, if you wish, your frenzy with Thallus’s frenzy: you will find there is not very much difference, except that Thallus rages at himself, you also at others. (3) Moreover, Thallus twists his eyes, you the truth; Thallus contracts his hands, you your patrons; Thallus is dashed against the pavements, you against the tribunals. Finally, whatever he does he does in sickness, he sins in ignorance; (4) but you, wretch, prudently and knowingly you transgress, so great a force of disease instigates you.

Falsum pro uero insimulas; infectum pro facto criminaris; quem innocentem liquido scis, tamen accusas ut nocentem.

You charge the false as the true; you criminate the undone as the done; him whom you know clearly to be innocent, nevertheless you accuse as guilty.

[53] (1) Quin etiam _ quod praeterii _ sunt quae fatearis nescire, et eadem rursus, quasi scias, criminari<s>. (2) Ais enim me habuisse quaedam sudariolo inuoluta apud lares Pontiani. Ea inuoluta quae et cuius modi fuerint, nescisse te confiteris, neque praeterea quemquam esse qui uiderit; tamen illa contendis instrumenta magiae fuisse. (3) Nemo tibi blandiatur, Aemiliane: non est in accusando uersutia ac ne impudentia quidem, ne tu arbitreris.

[53] (1) Nay even — _ which I passed over _ — there are things which you confess you do not know, and the same things again, as though you knew, you criminate<s>. (2) For you say that I had certain things wrapped in a little handkerchief at the Lares of Pontianus. Those wrapped-up things, what they were and of what sort they were, you confess you did not know, nor, moreover, is there anyone who saw; nevertheless you contend that those were instruments of magic. (3) Let no one flatter you, Aemilianus: there is in accusing no craft, not even impudence, lest you suppose it.

Quid igitur? Furor infelix acerbi animi et misera insania crudae senectutis.

What then? An unhappy fury of a bitter mind, and the wretched insanity of crude old age.

(4) His enim paene uerbis cum tam graui et perspicaci iudice egisti: 'Habuit Apuleius quaepiam linteolo inuoluta apud lares Pontiani. Haec quoniam ignoro quae fuerint, iccirco magica fuisse contendo. Crede igitur mihi quod dico, quia id dico quod nescio.' (5) O pulchra argumenta et aperte crimen reuincentia!

(4) For with almost these words you pleaded before so grave and perspicacious a judge: 'Apuleius had certain things wrapped in a little linen cloth at the Lares of Pontianus. Since I do not know what these were, therefore I contend they were magical. Believe me, then, in what I say, because I say that which I do not know.' (5) O fine arguments, and ones that openly refute the charge!

'Hoc fuit, quoniam quid fuerit ignoro.' Solus repertus es, Aemiliane, qui scias etiam illa quae nescis. Tantum super omnis stultitia euectus es, (6) quippe qui sollertissimi et acerrimi philosophorum ne is quidem confidendum esse aiunt quae uidemus, at tu de illis quoque adfirmas, quae neque conspexisti umquam neque audisti.

'This was it, since I do not know what it was.' You alone have been found, Aemilianus, who know even those things which you do not know. So far are you borne aloft beyond all stupidity, (6) for even the most skillful and most acute of the philosophers say that not even in the things which we see ought confidence to be placed, yet you affirm also about those things which you have neither ever beheld nor heard.

(7) Pontianus si uiueret atque eum interrogares, quae fuerint in illo inuolucro, nescire se responderet. (8) Libertus eccille, qui clauis eius loci in hodiernum habet et a uobis stat, numquam se ait inspexisse, quanquam ipse aperiret utpote promus librorum qui illic erant conditi, paene cotidie et clauderet, saepe nobiscum, multo saepius solus intraret, linteum in mensa positum cerneret sine ullo sigillo, sine uinculo. (9) Quidni enim?

(7) If Pontianus were alive and you were to ask him what things had been in that wrapping, he would answer that he did not know. (8) Look—there is the freedman, who to this very day has the keys of that place and stands by you: he says he never inspected it, although he himself would open it, as the steward of the books that were stored there, almost every day and would close it; he would enter often with us, much more often alone; he would see the linen cloth set on the table without any seal, without any fastening. (9) Why indeed not?

Magicae res in eo occultabantur: eo neglegentius adseruabam, sed enim libere scrutandum et inspiciendum si liberet, etiam auferendum temere exponebam, alienae custodiae commendabam, alieno arbitrio permittebam!

Magical things were hidden in it: therefore I kept it all the more negligently; but indeed I was freely exposing it to be searched and inspected, if it pleased, even to be carried off, recklessly; I was entrusting it to another’s custody, I was permitting it to another’s discretion!

(10) Quid igitur inpraesentiarum uis tibi credi? Quodne Pontianus nescierit, qui indiuiduo contubernio mecum uixit, id te scire, quem numquam uiderim nisi pro tribunali? (11) An quod libertus adsiduus, cui omnis facultas inspiciendi fuit, quod is libertus non uiderit, te qui numquam eo accesseris uidisse?

(10) What then do you wish at present to be believed? That what Pontianus did not know, who lived with me in indivisible cohabitation, that you know—whom I have never seen except before the tribunal? (11) Or that what the assiduous freedman, to whom there was every faculty of inspecting, that that freedman did not see, you, who have never approached that place, have seen?

(12) Denique ut quod non uidisti, id tale fuerit quale dicis. Atqui, stulte, si hodie illud sudariolum tu intercepisses, quicquid ex eo promeres, ego magicum negarem. [54] (1) Tibi adeo permitto, finge quiduis, [r]eminiscere, excogita, quod possit magicum uideri: tamen de eo tecum decertarem.

(12) Finally, suppose that what you did not see was of the sort you say. But, fool, if today you had intercepted that little sweat-cloth, whatever you brought out of it, I would deny was magical. [54] (1) To such a degree do I permit you: imagine whatever you please, [r]emember, devise, whatever could seem magical; nevertheless I would contest it with you.

(2) Aut ego subiectum dicerem aut remedio acceptum aut sacro traditum aut somnio imperatum. Mille alia sunt quibus possem more communi et uulgatissima obseruationum consuetudine uere refutare. (3) Nunc id postulas, ut, quod reprehensum et detentum tamen nihil me apud bonum iudicem laederet, id inani suspicione incertum et incognitum condemnet.

(2) Or I would say it had been subjected, or received as a remedy, or handed down by a sacred rite, or enjoined by a dream. There are a thousand other things by which I could truly refute it, in the common manner and by the most widely diffused custom of observances. (3) Now you demand this: that what, even if reprehended and detained, would nevertheless not harm me before a good judge, he should condemn, on empty suspicion, as uncertain and unknown.

(4) Haud sciam an rursus, ut soles, dicas: 'Quid ergo illud fuit, quod linteo tectum apud lares potissimum deposuisti?' Itane est, Aemiliane? Sic accusas, ut omnia a reo percontere, nihil ipse adferas cognitum? (5) 'Quam ob rem piscis quaeris?' 'Cur aegram mulierem inspexisti?' 'Quid in sudario habuisti?' Vtrum tu accusatum an interrogatum uenisti?

(4) I hardly know whether, again, as you are wont, you will say: 'What then was that which, covered with a linen, you deposited above all at the Lares?' Is that it, Aemilianus? Do you prosecute thus, that you inquire everything from the defendant, and yourself bring forward nothing known? (5) 'For what reason do you seek fish?' 'Why did you inspect a sick woman?' 'What did you have in the sudary?' Whether did you come to prosecute or to interrogate?

Si accusatum, tute argue quae dicis; si interrogatum, noli praeiudicare quid fuerit, quod ideo te necesse est interrogare, quia nescis.

If to accuse, yourself argue what you say; if to interrogate, do not prejudge what it was—for this very reason it is necessary for you to question, because you do not know.

(6) Ceterum hoc quidem pacto omnes homines rei constituentur, si ei, qui nomen cuiuspiam detulerit, nulla necessitas sit probandi, omnis contra facultas percontandi. Quippe omnibus sic, ut forte negotium magiae facessitur, quicquid omnino egerint obicietur. (7) Votum in alicuius statuae femore signasti: igitur magus es. Aut cur signasti?

(6) Moreover, by this arrangement indeed all men will be constituted defendants, if for him who has denounced the name of someone there be no necessity of proving, but on the contrary every faculty of interrogating. Indeed, thus for everyone, as perhaps the business of magic is being got up, whatever at all they have done will be objected. (7) You marked a vow on the thigh of someone’s statue: therefore you are a magus. Or why did you mark it?

Tacitas preces in templo deis allegasti: igitur magus es. Aut quid optasti? Contra, nihil in templo precatus es: igitur magus es. Aut cur deos non rogasti? Similiter, si posueris donum aliquod, si sacrificaueris, si uerbenam sumpseris.

You have addressed silent prayers in the temple to the gods: therefore you are a magus. Or what did you wish for? Conversely, you have prayed for nothing in the temple: therefore you are a magus. Or why did you not ask the gods? Similarly, if you have set down any gift, if you have sacrificed, if you have taken verbena.

(8) Dies me deficiet, si omnia uelim persequi, quorum rationem similiter calumniator flagitabit. Praesertim quod conditum cumque, quod obsignatum, quod inclusum domi adseruatur, id omne eodem argumento magicum dicetur aut e cella promptaria in forum atque in iudicium proferetur.

(8) The day will fail me, if I should wish to go through everything, the account of which the calumniator will likewise demand. Especially since whatever has been stored away, whatever has been sealed, whatever enclosed is kept at home, all that by the same argument will be called magical, or will be brought out from the storeroom into the forum and into court.

[55] (1) Haec quanta sint et cuius[ce] modi, Maxime, quantusque campus calumniis hoc Aemiliani tramite aperiatur, quantique sudores innocentibus hoc uno sudariolo adferantur, possum equidem pluribus disputare, (2) sed faciam quod institui: etiam quod non necesse est confitebor et interrogatus ab Aemiliano respondebo. (3) Interrogas, Aemiliane, quid in sudario habuerim.

[55] (1) How great these things are and of what sort, Maximus, and how vast a field for calumnies is opened by this pathway of Aemilianus, and how much sweating is brought upon the innocent by this single little handkerchief, I could indeed argue at greater length; (2) but I will do what I have undertaken: I will even confess what is not necessary, and, when questioned by Aemilianus, I will answer. (3) You ask, Aemilianus, what I had in the handkerchief.

At ego, quanquam omnino positum ullum sudarium meum in bybliotheca Pontiani possim negare (4) ac, <si> maxime fuisse concedam, tamen habeam dicere nihil in eo inuolutum fuisse _ (5) quae si dicam, neque testimonio aliquo neque argumento reuincar; nemo est enim qui attigerit, unus libertus, ut ais, qui uiderit _, (6) tamen, inquam, per me licet fuerit refertissimum. Sic enim, si uis, arbitrare, ut olim Vlixi socii thesaurum repperisse arbitrati sunt, cum utrem uentosissimum manticularentur. (7) Vin dicam, cuius modi illas res in sudario obuolutas laribus Pontiani commendarim?

But I, although I could absolutely deny that any handkerchief of mine was placed in the library of Pontianus (4) and, even if I should most concede that it was there, yet I could say that nothing was wrapped up in it _ (5) and if I were to say this, I would be refuted neither by any testimony nor by any argument; for there is no one who touched it, one freedman only, as you say, who saw it _, (6) still, I say, for my part let it have been stuffed full. For thus, if you wish, suppose, as once the companions of Ulysses supposed they had found a treasure, when they were rummaging a most windy wineskin. (7) Do you want me to say what sort of things those were, wrapped in the handkerchief, which I entrusted to the Lares of Pontianus?

Mos tibi geretur.

Your wish will be carried out.

(8) Sacrorum pleraque initia in Graecia participaui. Eorum quaedam signa et monumenta tradita mihi a sacerdotibus sedulo conseruo. Nihil insolitum, nihil incognitum dico.

(8) I have participated in most of the initiations of sacred rites in Greece. Some of their signs and monuments, transmitted to me by the priests, I sedulously conserve. I say nothing unusual, nothing unknown.

Vel unius Liberi patris mystae qui adestis, scitis quid domi conditum celetis et absque omnibus profanis tacite ueneremini. (9) At ego, ut dixi, multiiuga sacra et plurimos ritus et uarias cerimonias studio ueri et officio erga deos didici. (10) Nec hoc ad tempus compono, sed abhinc ferme triennium est, cum primis diebus quibus Oeam ueneram p[l]ublice disserens de Aesculapii maiestate eadem ista prae me tuli et quot sacra nossem percensui.

Even you, mystae of Father Liber who are present, know what, kept at home, you conceal, and, with all the profane excluded, you silently venerate. (9) But I, as I said, by zeal for truth and duty toward the gods have learned manifold sacra and very many rites and various ceremonies. (10) Nor do I compose this for the moment, but it is now about three years since, when in the first days after I had come to Oea, speaking p[l]ublicly about the majesty of Aesculapius, I put forward those same things and enumerated how many sacra I knew.

(11) Ea disputatio celebratissima est, uulgo legitur, in omnibus manibus uersatur, non tam facundia mea quam mentione Aesculapii religiosis Oeensibus commendata.

(11) That disputation is most celebrated, is commonly read, is in everyone’s hands, commended to the religious Oeans not so much by my eloquence as by the mention of Aesculapius.

(12) Dicite aliquis, si qui forte meminit, huius loci principium. (...) Audisne, Maxime, multos suggerentis? Immo, ecce etiam liber offertur.

(12) Let someone say, if anyone perchance remembers, the beginning of this passage. (...) Do you hear, Maximus, many prompting? Nay rather, look, even a book is being offered.

Recitari ipsa haec iubebo, quoniam ostendis humanissimo uultu auditionem te istam non grauari. (...)

I shall order these very things to be recited, since you display, with your most humane countenance, that you are not burdened by that audition. (...)

[56] (1) Etiamne cuiquam mirum uideri potest, cui sit ulla memoria religionis, hominem tot mysteriis deum conscium quaedam sacrorum crepundia domi adseruare atque ea lineo texto inuoluere, quod purissimum est rebus diuinis uelamentum? (2) Quippe lana, segnissimi corporis excrementum, pecori detracta, iam inde Orphei et Pythagorae scitis profanus uestitus est. Sed enim mundissima lini seges inter optumas fruges terra exorta non modo indutui et amictui sanctissimis Aegyptiorum sacerdotibus, sed opertui quoque rebus sacris usurpatur.

[56] (1) Can it really seem a marvel to anyone who has any memory of religion, that a man, by so many mysteries made privy to the god, should keep at home certain trinkets of the rites and wrap them in a linen web, which is the purest veil for divine things? (2) For indeed wool, the excrement of a most sluggish body, torn from the flock, has, from the tenets of Orpheus and Pythagoras onward, been a profane vesture. But, conversely, the very clean crop of flax, sprung from the earth among the best fruits, is employed not only for wearing and for cloaking by the most holy priests of the Egyptians, but also for covering sacred things.

(3) Atque ego scio nonnullos et cum primis Aemilianum istum facetiae sibi habere res diuinas deridere. (4) Nam, ut audio partim Oe<e>nsium qui istum nouere, nulli deo ad hoc aeui supplicauit, nullum templum frequentauit, si fanum aliquod praetereat, nefas habet adorandi gratia[m] manum labris admouere. (5) Iste uero nec dis rurationis, qui eum pascunt ac uestiunt, segetis ullas aut uitis aut gregis primitias impertit.

(3) And I know that some, and especially that Aemilianus, count it a piece of facetiousness to deride divine matters. (4) For, as I hear from some of the Oe<e>nses who have known that man, he has supplicated no god up to this age, he has frequented no temple; if he passes by any shrine, he holds it impious, for the sake of adoration, to move his hand to his lips. (5) This man indeed not even to the gods of tillage, who feed and clothe him, imparts any first-fruits of cornfield or vine or flock.

Nullum in uilla eius delubrum situm, nullus locus aut lucus consecratus. (6) Ecquid ego de luco et delubro loquor? Negant uidisse se qui fuere unum saltem in finibus eius aut lapidem unctum aut ramum coronatum.

No shrine is situated on his estate, no place or grove consecrated. (6) But what am I saying of grove and shrine? Those who have been there deny that they have seen even one single thing within his boundaries, either a stone anointed or a branch crowned.

(7) Igitur adgnomenta ei duo indita: Charon, ut iam dixi, ob oris et animi diritatem, sed alterum, quod libentius audit, ob deorum contemptum, Mezentius. (8) Quapropter facile intellego hasce ei tot initiorum enumerationes nugas uideri, et fors anne ob hanc diuini contumaciam non inducat animum uerum esse quod dixi, me sanctissime tot sacrorum signa et memoracula custodire.

(7) Accordingly two bynames were bestowed on him: Charon, as I have already said, on account of the grimness of his countenance and spirit; but the other, which he more gladly answers to, Mezentius, for his contempt of the gods. (8) Wherefore I easily understand that to him these enumerations of so many initiations seem trifles; and perhaps indeed, on account of this contumacy toward the divine, he will not bring himself to believe that what I have said is true, that I most religiously keep so many tokens and memorials of sacred rites.

(9) Sed ego, quid de me Mezentius sentiat, manum non uorterim, ceteris autem clarissima uoce profiteor: si qui forte adest eorundem sollemnium mihi particeps, signum dato, et audias licet quae ego adseruem. (10) Nam equidem nullo umquam periculo compellar, quae reticenda accepi, haec ad profanos enuntiare.

(9) But as for me, what Mezentius may think of me, I would not turn a hand; but to the rest I profess with a most clear voice: if by chance there is present someone who is a participant in the same solemnities with me, give the sign, and you may hear what I keep. (10) For indeed I will never be compelled by any peril to divulge to the profane what I have received as to be kept silent.

[57] (1) Vt puto, Maxime, satis uideor cuiuis uel iniquissimo animum explesse et, quod ad sudarium pertineat, omnem criminis maculam detersisse, ac bono iam periculo ad testimonium illud Crassi, quod post ista quasi grauissimum legerunt, a suspicionibus Aemiliani transcensurus.

[57] (1) As I think, Maximus, I seem to have satisfied the mind of anyone, even the most hostile, and, so far as pertains to the sudarium, to have wiped away every stain of the accusation; and, the case now going well, I am about to pass over from Aemilianus’s suspicions to that testimony of Crassus, which after these matters they read out as though most weighty.

(2) Testimonium ex libello legi audisti gumiae cuiusdam et desperati lurconis Iuni Crassi, me in eius domo nocturna sacra cum Appio Quintiano amico meo factitasse, qui ibi mercede deuersabatur. Idque se ait Crassus, quamquam in eo tempore uel Alexandreae fuerit, tamen taedae fumo et auium plumis comperisse. (3) Scilicet eum, cum Alexandreae symposia obiret _ est enim Crassus iste, qui non inuitus de die in ganeas conrepat _, in illo cauponio nidore pinnas de penatibus suis aduectas aucupatum, fumum domus suae adgnouisse patrio culmine longe exortum.

(2) You heard testimony read from the pamphlet of a certain gumia and a desperate lurco, Junius Crassus, that I used to perform nocturnal rites in his house with my friend Appius Quintianus, who was lodging there for pay. And Crassus says that, although at that time he may have been in Alexandria, nevertheless he discovered it by the smoke of the torch and by the feathers of birds. (3) Of course he, while he was making the rounds of symposia at Alexandria — for this is that Crassus who is not unwilling to creep into cookshops in broad daylight — in that inn-stench, as a fowler, trapped the feathers carried from his own Penates, and recognized the smoke of his house, arisen far off from his ancestral rooftop. _ est enim Crassus iste, qui non inuitus de die in ganeas conrepat _

(4) Quem si oculis uidit, ultra Vlixi uota et desideria hic quidem est oculatus. Vlixes fumum terra sua emergentem compluribus annis e litore prospectans frustra captauit; Crassus in paucis quibus afuit mensibus eundem fumum sine labore in taberna uinaria sedens conspexit. (5) Sin uero naribus nidorem domesticum praesensit, uincit idem sagacitate odorandi canes et uulturios.

(4) If he saw it with his eyes, then he is keen‑sighted beyond Ulysses’ vows and desires. Ulysses, for many years watching from the shore, strove in vain to catch sight of smoke from his own land emerging; Crassus, in the few months during which he was away, sitting without effort in a wine‑shop, beheld that same smoke. (5) But if indeed he sensed with his nostrils the domestic reek, then he surpasses dogs and vultures in the sagacity of smelling.

Cui enim cani, cui uulturio Alexandrini caeli quicquam abusque Oeensium finibus oboleat? (6) Est quidem Crassus iste summus helluo et omnis fumi non imperitus, sed profecto pro studio bibendi, quo solo censetur, facilius ad eum Alexandria<m> uini aura quam fumi perueniret.

Cui enim dog, cui vulture would anything of the Alexandrian sky be smelled from all the way from the borders of the Oeenses? (6) This Crassus, indeed, is a consummate glutton and not unskilled in every kind of smoke; but assuredly, in view of his zeal for drinking, by which alone he is appraised, more easily would a waft of wine from Alexandria<m> reach him than one of smoke.

[58] (1) Intellexit hoc et ipse incredibile futurum. Nam dicitur ante horam diei secundam ieiunus adhuc et abstemius testimonium istud uendidisse. (2) Igitur scripsit haec se ad hunc modum comperisse: postquam Alexandria reuenerit, domum suam recta contendisse, qua iam Quintianus migrarat; ibi in uestibulo multas auium pinnas offendisse, praeterea parietes fuligine deformatos; quaesisse causas ex seruo suo, quem Oeae reliquerit, eumque sibi de meis et Quintiani nocturnis sacris indicasse.

[58] (1) He himself understood that this too would be incredible. For it is said that before the second hour of the day, still fasting and abstemious, he had sold that testimony. (2) Accordingly he wrote that he had ascertained these things in this way: after he had returned from Alexandria, he had made straight for his house, from which Quintianus had already moved; there in the vestibule he had come upon many birds’ feathers, and, besides, the walls disfigured with soot; he had asked the reasons from his slave, whom he had left at Oea, and that man had indicated to him about my and Quintianus’s nocturnal rites.

(3) Quam uero subtiliter compositum et uerisimiliter commentum me, si quid eius facere uellem, non domi meae potius facturum fuisse! (4) Quintianum istum, qui mihi assistit, quem ego pro amicitia quae mihi cum eo artissima est proque eius egregia eruditione et perfectissima eloquentia honoris et laudis gratia nomino, (5) hunc igitur Quintianum, si quas auis in cena habuisset aut, quod aiunt, magiae causa interemisset, puerum nullum habuisse, qui pinnas conuerreret et foras abiceret! (6) Praeterea fumi tantam uim fuisse, ut parietes atros redderet, eamque deformitatem, quoad habitauit, passum in cubiculo suo Quintianum!

(3) How very subtly composed and verisimilarly contrived—if I wished to do anything of that sort, would I not have done it rather in my own house! (4) That Quintianus there, who stands by me, whom I, for the friendship which is most intimate between us and for his outstanding erudition and most perfect eloquence, name for the sake of honor and praise, (5) this Quintianus, then—if he had had any birds at dinner or, as they say, had killed them for the sake of magic—would he have had no boy to sweep up the feathers and throw them outside! (6) Moreover, that the smoke had such force as to render the walls black, and that Quintianus endured that disfigurement in his own bedroom as long as he resided there!

(7) Nihil dicis, Aemiliane, non est ueri simile, nisi forte Crassus non in cubiculum reuersus perrexit, sed suo more recta ad focum.

(7) You say nothing, Aemilianus; it is not likely, unless perhaps Crassus did not go back into the bedroom, but, in his usual manner, went straight to the hearth.

(8) Vnde autem seruus Crassi suspicatus est noctu potissimum parietes fumigatos? An ex fumi colore? Videlicet fumus nocturnus nigrior est eoque diurno fumo differt. (9) Cur autem suspicax seruus ac tam diligens passus est Quintianum migrare prius quam mundam domum redderet?

(8) But whence did Crassus’s slave suspect that the walls were made smoky especially at night? Was it from the color of the smoke? Evidently night-time smoke is blacker and in that way differs from daytime smoke. (9) And why did the suspicious and so diligent slave allow Quintianus to move out before he made the house clean again?

Cur illae plumae quasi plumbeae tam diu aduentum Crassi manserunt? (10) Non insimulet Crassus seruum suum: ipse haec potius de fuligine et pinnis mentitus est, dum non potest nec in testimonio dando discedere longius a culina.

Why did those plumes, as if plumbeous, wait so long for the arrival of Crassus? (10) Let Crassus not accuse his servant: he himself rather fabricated these things about soot and pinions, since he cannot, not even in giving testimony, go any farther away from the kitchen.

[59] (1) Cur autem testimonium ex libello legistis? Crassus ipse ubi gentium est? An Alexandriam taedio domus remeauit?

[59] (1) But why did you read the testimony from a booklet? Where in the world is Crassus himself? Or has he gone back to Alexandria out of weariness of home?

An parietes suos detergit? An, quod uerius est, ex crapula helluo adtemptatur? (2) Nam equidem hic Sabratae eum hesterna die animaduerti satis notabiliter in medio foro tibi, Aemiliane, obructantem.

Or is he wiping his own walls? Or, what is truer, is the glutton being assailed by a hangover? (2) For indeed, here at Sabratha, yesterday I observed him quite conspicuously in the middle of the forum, vomiting toward you, Aemilianus.

Quaere a nomenclatoribus tuis, Maxime, quamquam est ille cauponibus quam nomenclatoribus notior _ tamen, inquam, interroga, an hic Iunium Crassum Oeensem uiderint. Non negabunt. (3) Exhibeat nobis Aemilianus iuuenem honestissimum, cuius testimonio nititur.

Ask your nomenclators, Maximus, although he is more known to innkeepers than to nomenclators _ nevertheless, I say, question them whether they have seen this Junius Crassus of Oea. They will not deny it. (3) Let Aemilianus produce for us the most honorable young man, on whose testimony he relies.

Quid sit diei uides: dico Crassum iam dudum ebrium stertere, aut secundo lauacro ad repotia cenae obeunda uinulentum sudorem in balneo desudare. (4) Is tecum, Maxime, praesens per libellum loquitur, non quin adeo sit alienatus omni pudore, ut etiam, sub oculis tuis si foret, sine rubore ullo mentiretur, sed fortasse nec tantulum potuit ebria sibi temperare, ut hanc horam sobrie expectaret.

You see what time of day it is: I say that Crassus, long since drunk, is snoring, or at a second bath, in order to attend the after-drinkings of the dinner to be undergone, is sweating out in the bath a wine-soaked sweat. (4) He speaks with you, Maximus, as present through a little book—not but that he is so alienated from all shame that even, if he were under your eyes, he would lie without any blush—but perhaps, being drunk, he could not restrain himself even so far as to wait for this hour sober.

(5) Aut potius Aemilianus de consilio fecit, ne eum sub tam seueris oculis tuis constitueret, (6) ne tu beluam illam uulsis maxillis foedo aspectu de facie improbares, cum animaduertisses caput iuuenis barba et capillo populatum, madentis oculos, cilia turgentia, rictum <...>, saliuosa labia, uocem absonam, manuum tremorem, ructus <po>pinam. (7) Patrimonium omne iam pridem abligurriuit, nec quicquam ei de bonis paternis superest, nisi una domus ad calumniam uenditandam, quam tamen numquam carius quam in hoc testimonio locauit; (8) nam temulentum istud mendacium tribus milibus nummis Aemiliano huic uendidit, idque Oeae nemini ignoratur.

(5) Or rather Aemilianus acted by counsel, so as not to set him under your eyes so severe, (6) lest you condemn that beast by his face, with torn jaws and of foul aspect, when you had noticed a young man’s head ravaged by beard and hair, eyes dripping, swollen eyelashes, a gape <...>, salivous lips, a dissonant voice, a tremor of the hands, belches of the <po>pinam. (7) He has long since gobbled up his whole patrimony, and nothing of his paternal goods remains to him, except a single house to be hawked for calumny, which nevertheless he never let at a dearer rate than in this testimony; (8) for he sold that drunken lie to this Aemilianus for 3,000 coins, and this is unknown to no one at Oea.

[60] (1) Omnes hoc, antequam fieret, cognouimus, et potui denuntiatione impedire, nisi scirem mendacium tam stultum potius Aemiliano, qui frustra redimebat, quam mihi, qui merito contemnebam, obfuturum. Volui et Aemilianum damno adfici et Crassum testimonii sui dedecore prostitui. (2) Ceterum nudiustertius haudquaquam occulta res acta est in Rufini cuiusdam domo, de quo mox dicam, intercessoribus et deprecatoribus ipso Rufino et Calpurniano.

[60] (1) We all learned this before it happened, and I could have prevented it by a denunciation, had I not known that so foolish a lie would be harmful rather to Aemilianus, who was fruitlessly buying it off, than to me, who was rightly contemning it. I wished both that Aemilianus be subjected to damages and that Crassus be prostituted by the disgrace of his own testimony. (2) Moreover, the day before yesterday a matter by no means secret was transacted in the house of a certain Rufinus, of whom I shall speak soon, the intercessors and deprecators being Rufinus himself and Calpurnianus.

Quod eo libentius Rufinus perfecit, quod erat certus ad uxorem suam, cuius stupra sciens dissimulat, non minimam partem praemii eius Crassum relaturum.

Which Rufinus accomplished all the more willingly, because he was certain that Crassus would render to his wife—whose debaucheries he knowingly dissimulates—no small part of that reward.

(3) Vidi te quoque, Maxime, coitionem aduersum me et coniurationem eorum pro tua sapientia suspicatum, simul libellus ille prolatus est, totam rem uultu aspernantem. (4) Denique quamquam sunt <in>solita audacia et importuna impudentia praediti, tamen testimonio Crassi, cuius oboluisse faecem uidebant _ nec ipsi ausi sunt perlegere nec quicquam eo niti. (5) Verum ego ista propterea commemoraui, non quod pinnarum formidines et fuliginis maculam te praesertim iudice timerem, sed ut ne impunitum Crasso foret, quod Aemiliano, homini rustico, fumum uendidit.

(3) I saw you too, Maximus, suspecting, by your wisdom, a coalition against me and their conspiracy, as soon as that little pamphlet was produced, spurning the whole matter with your expression. (4) Finally, although they are endowed with <un>usual boldness and importunate impudence, yet, because of the testimony of Crassus, whose dregs they saw had gone musty _ not even they themselves dared to read it through nor to rely on it in any way. (5) But I have recalled those things for this reason, not that I feared the bugbears of quills and the blot of soot, especially with you as judge, but so that it might not go unpunished for Crassus that he sold smoke to Aemilianus, a rustic man.

[61] (1) Vnde etiam crimen ab illis, cum Pudentillae litteras legerent, de cuiusdam sigilli fabricatione prolatum est, (2) quod me aiunt ad magica maleficia occulta fabrica ligno exquisitissimo comparasse et, cum sit <s>celeti forma turpe et horribile, tamen impendio colere et Graeco uocabulo _______ nuncupare. (3) Nisi fallor, ordine eorum uestigia persequor et singillatim apprehendens omnem calumniae textum retexo.

[61] (1) Whence also an accusation by them, when they were reading Pudentilla’s letters, was brought forward concerning the fabrication of a certain seal, (2) namely that, for magical malefices, by a secret fabrication I had procured it from most choice wood, and, although it is, in the form of a <s>keleton, foul and horrible, nevertheless I esteem it exceedingly and denominate it by a Greek vocable _______. (3) Unless I am mistaken, in order I track their vestiges and, taking hold of each point singly, I unweave the entire texture of the calumny.

(4) Occulta fuisse fabricatio sigilli quod dicitis qui potest, cuius uos adeo artificem non ignorastis, ut ei praesto adesset denuntiaueritis? (5) En adest Cornelius Saturninus artifex, uir inter suos et arte laudatus et moribus comprobatus, qui tibi, Maxime, paulo ante diligenter sciscitanti omnem ordinem gestae rei summa cum fide et ueritate percensuit: (6) me, cum apud eum multas geometricas formas e buxo uidissem subtiliter et adfabre factas, inuitatum eius artificio quaedam mechanica ut mihi elaborasset petisse, simul et aliquod simulacrum cuiuscumque uellet dei, cui ex more meo supplicassem, quacumque materia, dummodo lignea, exculperet. (7) Igitur primo buxeam temptasse[t]. Interim dum ego ruri ago, Sicinium Pontianum priuignum meum, qui mihi factum uolebat, impetratos hebeni loculos a muliere honestissima Capitolina ad se attulisse, ex illa potius materia rariore et durabiliore uti faceret adhortatum; id munus cum primis mihi gratum fore.

(4) How could the fabrication of the seal, as you allege, have been secret, when you were so far from being ignorant of its artisan that you even gave notice for him to be present? (5) Behold, here is Cornelius Saturninus, an artisan, a man among his own praised for his art and approved for his morals, who, when you, Maximus, a little before were carefully inquiring, reviewed for you with the highest good faith and truth the whole order of what was done: (6) that I, when at his place I had seen many geometric forms out of boxwood, made delicately and skillfully, being invited by his craftsmanship, asked that he work out for me certain mechanical pieces, and at the same time that he carve some simulacrum of whatever god he wished, to whom, according to my custom, I might make supplication, from whatever material, provided it was wooden. (7) Therefore at first he tried boxwood. Meanwhile, while I was living in the country, Sicinius Pontianus, my stepson, who wanted it done for me, had brought to him ebony little caskets, obtained from a most honorable woman, Capitolina, and urged him to use that material instead, rarer and more durable; that gift would be among the first to be pleasing to me.

(8) Secundum ea se fecisse, proinde ut loculi[s] suppetebant. Ita minutatim ex tabellis compacta crassitudine Mercuriolum expediri potuisse.

(8) He did accordingly in line with these things, to the extent that the loculi[s] supplied. Thus, little by little, from small tablets, with the thickness compacted together, a little Mercury could be fashioned.

[62] (1) Haec ut dico omnia audisti. Praeterea a filio Capitolinae probissimo adulescente, qui praesens est, sciscitante te eadem dicta sunt: Pontianum loculos petisse, Pontianum Saturnino artifici detulisse. (2) Etiam illud non negatur, Pontianum a Saturnino perfectum sigillum recepisse, postea mihi dono dedisse.

[62] (1) You have heard all these things as I say. Moreover, when you were inquiring, the same things were said by Capitolina’s son, a most upright adolescent, who is present: that Pontianus asked for the cases, that Pontianus delivered them to Saturninus the craftsman. (2) Even this is not denied: that Pontianus received from Saturninus the completed seal, and afterward gave it to me as a gift.

(3) His omnibus palam atque aperte probatis quid omnino superest, in quo suspicio aliqua magiae delitescat? Immo quid omnino est, quod uos manifesti mendacii non reuincat? (4) Occulte fabricatum esse dixistis quo<d> Pontianus splendidissimus eques fieri curauit, quod Saturninus uir grauis et probe inter suos cognitus in taberna sua sedens propalam exculpsit, quod ornatissima matrona munere suo adiuuit, quod et futurum et factum multi cum seruorum tum amicorum qui ad me uentitabant scierunt.

(3) With all these things proved openly and plainly, what at all remains in which any suspicion of magic might lurk? Rather, what is there at all that does not convict you of manifest mendacity? (4) You said that it was fabricated secretly—something which Pontianus, a most splendid eques, took care to have made, which Saturninus, a serious man and well known among his own, sitting in his shop, openly carved, which a most distinguished matron aided with her gift, which many, both of the slaves and of the friends who kept coming to me, knew both would be and was.

(5) Lignum a me toto oppido et quidem oppido quaesitum non piguit uos commentiri, quem [quem] afuisse in eo tempore scitis, quem ius<s>isse fieri qualicumque materia probatum est.

(5) You did not scruple to fabricate that I had sought wood through the whole town—and indeed, very much so—wood which [which] you know to have been absent at that time, and which it has been proved he ordered to be made of whatever material.

[63] (1) Tertium mendacium uestrum fuit macilentam uel omnino euisceratam formam diri cadaueris fabricatam, prorsus horribilem et larualem. (2) Quodsi compertum habebatis tam e[n]uidens signum magiae, cur mihi ut exhiberem non denuntiastis? An ut possetis in rem absentem libere mentiri?

[63] (1) Your third lie was that a macilent, or even altogether eviscerated, form of a dire corpse had been fabricated, utterly horrible and larval. (2) But if you had ascertained so evident a sign of magic, why did you not serve notice on me to produce it? Or was it so that you could lie freely about a thing that was absent?

Cuius tamen falsi facultas opportunitate quadam meae consuetudinis uobis adempta est. (3) Nam morem mihi habeo, qu<o>quo eam, simulacrum alicuius dei inter libellos conditum gestare eique diebus festis ture et mero et aliquando uictima[s] supplicare. (4) Dudum ergo cum audire<m> sceletum perquam impudenti mendacio dictitari, iussi curriculo iret aliquis et ex hospitio meo Mercuriolum afferret, quem mihi Saturninus iste Oeae fabricatus est.

Yet the possibility of that falsehood was taken from you by a certain opportuneness of my custom. (3) For I have as a practice, wher<e>ver I go, to carry a simulacrum of some god stowed among my little books, and to make supplication to it on feast-days with incense and unmixed wine and sometimes with victim[s]. (4) Some time ago, therefore, when I hea<r>d that a skeleton was being bandied about by a very shameless lie, I ordered someone to go posthaste and bring from my lodging the little Mercury, which that Saturninus of Oea made for me.

(5) Cedo tu eum, uideant, teneant, considerent. Em uobis, quem scele<s>tus ille sceletum nominabat. Auditisne reclamationem omnium qui adsunt?

(5) Hand it over, you; let them see it, hold it, examine it. Here you are, the one that scoundrel was calling a skeleton. Do you hear the outcry of all who are present?

Auditisne mendacii uestri damnationem? Non uos tot calumniarum tandem dispudet? (6) Hiccine est sceletus, haeccine est larua, hoccine est quod appellitabatis daemonium?

Do you hear the condemnation of your mendacity? Are you not at last ashamed of so many calumnies? (6) Is this the skeleton, is this the larva (phantom), is this what you kept calling a daemon?

Magicumne istud an sollemne et commune simulacrum est?

Is that a magical simulacrum, or a solemn and common one?

Accipe quaeso, Maxime, et contemplare; bene tam puris et tam piis manibus tuis traditur res consecrata. (7) Em uide, quam facies eius decora et suci palaestrici plena sit, quam hilaris dei uultus, ut decenter utrimque lanugo malis deserpat, ut in capite crispatus capillus sub imo pillei umbraculo appareat, (8) quam lepide super tempora pares pinnulae emineant, quam autem festiue circa humeros uestis substricta sit. (9) Hunc qui sceletum audet dicere, profecto ille simulacra deorum nulla uidet aut omnia neglegit.

Accept, I pray, Maximus, and contemplate; well is the consecrated thing handed over to your hands so pure and so pious. (7) Lo, see how decorous his face is and how full of palestric vigor, how cheerful the countenance of the god, how becomingly on both sides the down creeps along his cheeks, how on the head the curled hair appears beneath the lowest little shade of the cap; (8) how charmingly above the tempora matching little winglets stand out, and how jauntily the garment is girt around the shoulders. (9) Whoever dares to call this a skeleton, assuredly that man either sees no simulacra of the gods or disregards them all.

Hunc denique qui laruam putat, ipse est laruans.

Finally, the one who thinks this a larva is himself larva-ridden.

[64] (1) At tibi, Aemiliane, pro isto mendacio duit deus iste superum et inferum commeator utrorumque deorum malam gratiam semperque obuias species mortuorum, quidquid umbrarum est usquam, quidquid lemurum, quidquid manium, quidquid larbarum, oc[c]ulis tuis oggerat, (2) omnia noctium occursacula, omnia bustorum formidamina, omnia sepulchrorum terriculamenta, a quibus tamen aeuo et merito haud longe abes[t].

[64] (1) But for you, Aemilianus, for that lie, may that god—the go-between of the supernal and the infernal, the commeator of both orders of gods—grant ill favor, and may he ever thrust before your eyes the ever-encountered apparitions of the dead, whatever shades there are anywhere, whatever Lemures, whatever Manes, whatever Larvae; (2) all the nocturnal encounters, all the dreads of burial-mounds, all the terrifications of sepulchers, from which, however, by your age and by your desert you are not far away.

(3) Ceterum Platonica familia nihil nouimus nisi festum et laetum et sollemne et superum et caeleste. Quin altitudinis studio secta ista etiam caelo ipso sublimiora quaepiam uesti<ga>uit et in extimo mundi tergo stetit. (4) Scit me uera dicere Maximus, qui ___ ____________ _____ et _______ _____ legit in Phaedro diligenter.

(3) But as for the Platonic family, we know nothing except what is festal and glad and solemn and supernal and celestial. Indeed, by a zeal for altitude, that sect even investi<ga>ted certain things loftier than the sky itself and stood on the extreme back of the world. (4) Maximus knows I speak true things, who ___ ____________ _____ et _______ _____ read in the Phaedrus diligently.

(5) Idem Maximus optime intellegit, ut de nomine etiam uobis respondeam, quisnam sit ille non a me primo, sed a Platone ________ nuncupatus: (6) ____ ___ ______ _______ ____' ____ ___ _______ _____ _____, (7) quisnam sit ille basileus, totius rerum naturae causa et ratio et origo initialis, summus animi genitor, aeternus animantum sospitator, assiduus mundi sui opifex, sed enim sine opera opifex, sine cura sospitator, sine propagatione genitor, neque loco neque tempore neque uice ulla comprehensus eoque paucis cogitabilis, nemini effabilis. (8) En ultro augeo magiae suspicionem: non respondeo tibi, Aemiliane, quem colam _______; quin si ipse proconsul interroget quid sit deus meus, taceo.

(5) The same Maximus understands most excellently, so that I may also answer you about the name, who that one is, not first by me, but by Plato ________ named: (6) ____ ___ ______ _______ ____' ____ ___ _______ _____ _____, (7) who that king is, the cause and reason and initial origin of the whole nature of things, the highest begetter of mind, the eternal preserver of living beings, the assiduous craftsman of his world—yet indeed a craftsman without work, a preserver without care, a begetter without propagation—comprised by neither place nor time nor any change, and therefore thinkable by few, speakable to no one. (8) Behold, I even of my own accord augment the suspicion of magic: I do not answer you, Aemiliane, whom I worship _______; indeed, if the proconsul himself should ask what my god is, I keep silent.

[65] (1) De nomine ut inpraesentiarum satis dixi. Quod superest, nec ipse sum nescius quosdam circumstantium cupere audire, cur non argento uel auro, sed potissimum ex ligno simulacrum fieri uoluerim, (2) idque eos arbitror non tam ignoscendi quam cognoscendi causa desiderare, (3) ut hoc etiam scrupulo liberentur, cum uideant omnem suspicionem criminis abunde confutatam. (4) Audi igitur cui cura cognoscere est, sed animo quantum potes erecto et attento, quasi uerba ipsa Platonis iam senis de nouissimo legum libro auditurus:

[65] (1) As to the name, I have said enough for the present. What remains, I am not myself unaware that some of those standing around wish to hear why I wanted the simulacrum to be made not of silver or gold, but most especially out of wood, (2) and I think that they desire this not so much for the sake of pardoning as of knowing, (3) so that they may be freed from this scruple as well, when they see that every suspicion of a crime has been abundantly refuted. (4) Hear then, you whose concern it is to know, but with your mind as uplifted and attentive as you can, as though you were about to hear the very words of Plato, now an old man, from the last book of the Laws:

(5) _______ __ _________ _____ _______ ___ _______ _____ __________ _________. __ ___ ___ _____ __ ________ ____ ____ ______ ____ô ______ ___ ________ ____ __________ _____.

(6) Hoc eo prohibet, ut delubra nemo audeat priuatim constituere. Censet enim satis esse ciuibus ad immolandas uictimas templa publica. Deinde subnectit:

(6) He prohibits this for this reason, so that no one dare to establish shrines privately. For he deems public temples to be sufficient for the citizens for immolating victims. Then he subjoins:

(7) ______ __ ___ _______ __ ______ _______ ____ ___ __ ______ _____ _________ _____, ______ __ ___ __________ _____ _______ ___ ______ _______, _______ __ ___ ______ _______ ______ô _____ __ _________ _ __ __ ____ ___ _________, ___ _____ _______.

(7) [The text here is not legible in the source (redacted/missing), so it cannot be translated.]

(8) Vt omnium assensus declarauit, Maxime quique in consilio estis, competentissime uideor usus Platone ut uitae magistro, ita causae patrono, cuius legibus obedientem me uidetis.

(8) As the assent of all has declared, especially you who are on the council, I seem to have used Plato most competently—as a master of life, so also as the patron of my cause—whose laws you see me obeying.

[66] (1) Nunc tempus est ad epistulas Pudentillae praeuerti, uel adeo totius rei ordinem paulo altius petere, ut omnibus manifestissime pateat me, quem lucri cupiditate inuasisse Pudentillae domum dictitant, si ullum lucrum cogitarem, fugere semper a domo ista debuisse; (2) quin et in ceteris causis minime prosperum matrimonium, nisi ipsa mulier tot incommoda uirtutibus suis repensaret, inimicum.

[66] (1) Now it is time to turn to Pudentilla’s epistles, or rather to seek the order of the whole affair a little higher up, so that it may lie most manifestly open to all that I—whom they keep saying seized upon Pudentilla’s house from a greed for gain—if I were thinking of any gain, ought always to have fled from that house; (2) indeed, on other grounds as well, marriage, by no means prosperous—unless the woman herself counterbalances so many inconveniences by her virtues—is inimical.

(3) Neque enim ulla alia causa praeter cassam inuidiam repperiri potest, quae iudicium istud mihi et multa antea pericula uitae conflauerit. Ceterum cur Aemilianus commoueretur, etsi uere magum me comperisset, qui non modo ullo facto, sed ne tantulo quidem dicto meo laesus est, ut uideretur se merito ultum ire? (4) Neque autem gloriae causa me accusat, ut M. Antonius Cn. Carbonem, C. Mucius A. Albucium, P. Sulpicius Cn. Norbanum, C. Furius M. Aquilium, C. Curio Q. Metellum.

(3) For indeed no other cause besides hollow envy can be found which has fanned into flame that judgment against me and many earlier perils to my life. But why should Aemilianus have been stirred, even if he had truly discovered me to be a magus, he who has been harmed not only by no deed, but not even by the least word of mine, so as to seem to be taking vengeance rightly? (4) Nor, moreover, does he accuse me for the sake of glory, as M. Antonius prosecuted Cn. Carbo, C. Mucius A. Albucius, P. Sulpicius Cn. Norbanus, C. Furius M. Aquilius, C. Curio Q. Metellus.

(5) Quippe homines eruditissimi iuuenes laudis gratia primum hoc rudimentum forensis operae subibant, ut aliquo insigni iudicio ciuibus suis noscerentur. Qui mos incipientibus adulescentulis ad illustrandum ingenii florem apud antiquos concessus diu exoleuit. (6) Quod si nunc quoque frequens esset, tamen ab hoc procul abfuisset.

(5) For in fact very erudite young men, for the sake of praise, used at first to undertake this rudiment of forensic work, in order that in some notable trial they might be known to their fellow citizens. That custom, granted among the ancients to beginning youths for the illustrating of the flower of their genius, long ago died out. (6) But even if it were frequent now as well, yet he would have been far away from this absent.

Nam neque facundiae ostentatio rudi et indocto neque gloriae cupido rustico et barbaro neque inceptio patrociniorum capulari seni congruisset. (7) Nisi forte Aemilianus pro sua seueritate exemplum dedit et ipsis maleficiis infensus accusationem istam pro morum integritate suscepit. (8) At hoc ego Aemiliano, non huic Afro, sed illi Africano et Numantino et praeterea Censorio uix credidissem; ne huic frutici credam non modo odium peccatorum sed saltem intellectum inesse.

For neither the ostentation of facundity would have suited a rude and unlearned man, nor the desire for glory a rustic and barbarian, nor the undertaking of patronages a bier‑ready old man. (7) Unless perhaps Aemilianus, in accordance with his own severity, set an example and, being hostile to the very misdeeds, took up this accusation for the integrity of morals. (8) At this I would scarcely have believed of Aemilianus—not of this African, but of that African and Numantine and, moreover, Censorial one; let me not believe that in this shrub there resides not only a hatred of sins but at least understanding.

[67] (1) Quid igitur est? Cuiuis clare dilucet aliam rem inuidia nullam esse quae hunc et Herennium Rufinum, impulsorem huius, de quo mox dicam, ceterosque inimicos meos ad nectendas magiae calumnias prouocarit.

[67] (1) What then? It is clearely evident to anyone that there is no other thing than envy which has provoked this man and Herennius Rufinus, the instigator of this, of whom I shall soon speak, and the rest of my enemies, to weave calumnies of magic.

(2) Quin<que> igitur res sunt, quas me oportet disputare. Nam si probe memini, quod ad Pudentillam attinet, haec obiecere: (3) una res est, quod numquam eam uoluisse nubere post priorem maritum, sed meis carminibus coactam dixere; altera res est de epistulis eius, quam confessionem magiae putant; deinde sexagesimo anno aetatis ad lubidinem nubsisse, et quod in uilla ac non in oppido tabulae nubtiales sint consignatae, tertio et quarto loco obiecere; (4) nouissima et eadem inuidiosissima criminatio de dote fuit. Ibi omne uirus totis uiribus adnixi effundere, ibi maxime angebantur, atque ita dixere me grandem dotem mox in principio coniunctionis nostrae mulieri amanti remotis arbitris in uilla extorsisse.

(2) Therefore five matters are those which I must argue. For if I remember well, as it pertains to Pudentilla, they alleged these: (3) one matter is that she never wished to marry after her former husband, but they said she was compelled by my incantations; the second matter is about her letters, which they take as a confession of magic; then that in the sixtieth year of her age she married for lust, and that the nuptial tablets were signed in a villa and not in a town—they objected these in the third and fourth place; (4) the newest and likewise the most invidious accusation was about the dowry. There they strove to pour out all their venom with all their forces; there they were most tormented, and thus they said that I, soon at the beginning of our union, extorted a large dowry from a loving woman, with the arbiters removed, in a villa.

(5) Quae omnia tam falsa, tam nihili, tam inania ostendam adeoque facile et sine ulla controuersia refutabo, ut medius fidius uerear, Maxime quique in consilio estis, ne demissum et subornatum a me accusatorem putetis, ut inuidiam meam reperta occasione palam restinguerem. (6) Mihi credite, quod reabse intelle<ge>tur: oppido quam mihi laborandum est, ne tam friuolam accusationem me potius callide excogitasse quam illos stulte suscepisse existimetis.

(5) All of which I will show to be so false, so worthless, so empty, and I will refute so easily and without any controversy, that, by my faith, I fear, Maximus and you who are on the council, lest you think the accuser was sent down and suborned by me, so that, the opportunity having been found, I might openly extinguish the ill will against me. (6) Believe me, as will in fact be understo<od>: I have, indeed, no small labor to keep you from thinking that I, rather than they, devised so frivolous an accusation cleverly, instead of their having foolishly undertaken it.

[68] (1) Nunc dum ordinem rei breuiter persequor et efficio, ut ipse Aemilianus re cognita falso se ad inuidiam meam inductum et longe a uero aberrasse necesse habeat confiteri, quaeso, uti adhuc fecistis uel si quo magis etiam potestis, ipsum fontem et fundamentum iudicii huiusce diligentissime cognoscatis.

[68] (1) Now, while I briefly pursue the order of the matter and effect that Aemilianus himself, once the matter is known, must needs confess that he was falsely led into ill-will against me and has strayed far from the truth, I ask that, as you have still done, or even more if in any way you can, you most diligently acquaint yourselves with the very fount and foundation of this trial.

(2) Aemilia Pudentilla, quae nunc mihi uxor est, ex quodam Sicinio Amico, quicum antea nubta fuerat, Pontianum et Pudentem filios genuit eosque pupillos relictos in potestate paterni aui _ nam superstite patre Amicus decesserat _ per annos ferme quattuordecim memorabili pietate sedulo aluit, (3) non tamen libenter in ipso aetatis suae flore tam diu uidua. (4) Sed puerorum auus inuita<m> eam conciliare studebat [ceterum] filio[s] suo[s] Sicinio Claro eoque ceteros procos absterrebat. Et praeterea minabatur, si extrario nubsisse<t>, nihil se filiis eius ex paternis eorum bonis testamento relicturum.

(2) Aemilia Pudentilla, who is now my wife, from a certain Sicinius Amicus, to whom she had previously been married, bore sons Pontianus and Pudens, and these, left as wards under the power of their paternal grandfather — for Amicus had died with his own father still surviving — she sedulously nourished for almost fourteen years with memorable piety, (3) yet not willingly, so long a widow in the very flower of her age. (4) But the boys’ grandfather was striving to procure her, though unwillingm, for his son Sicinius Clarus, and by that [moreover] he was frightening off the other suitors of his [own] son[s]. And in addition he used to threaten that, if she were to marry an outsidert, he would leave nothing to her sons from their paternal goods by his testament.

(5) Quam condicione<m> cum obstinate propositam uideret mulier sapiens et egregie pia, ne quid filiis suis eo nomine incommodaret, facit quidem tabulas nubtiales cum quo iubebatur, cum Sicinio Claro, (6) uerum enimuero uanis frustrationibus nuptias eludit eo ad dum puerorum auus fato concessit, relictis filiis eius heredibus ita ut Pontianus, qui maior natu erat, fratri suo tutor esset.

(5) When the woman, wise and excellently pious, saw that condition obstinately proposed, in order not to inconvenience her sons in that regard, she indeed draws up a nuptial contract with him to whom she was being commanded, with Sicinius Clarus; (6) but in very truth she evades the wedding by vain procrastinations until the boys’ grandfather yielded to fate, leaving her sons as heirs, in such a way that Pontianus, who was elder by birth, was guardian to his brother.

[69] (1) Eo scrupulo liberata cum a principibus uiris in matrimonium peteretur, decreuit sibi diutius in uiduitate non permanendum. Quippe ut solitudinis taedium perpeti posset, tamen aegritudine<m> corporis ferre non poterat. (2) Mulier sancte pudica, tot annis uiduitatis sine culpa, sine fabula, assuetudine coniugis torpens et diutino situ uiscerum saucia, uitiatis intimis uteri saepe ad extremum uitae discrimen doloribus obortis exanimabatur.

[69] (1) Freed from that scruple, since she was being sought in marriage by principal men, she decreed that she should not remain longer in widowhood. For although she could endure the tedium of solitude, yet she could not bear the sickness of the body. (2) A woman sacredly chaste, through so many years of widowhood without fault, without scandal, torpid from the habituation of a husband and wounded in her viscera by long stagnation, with the inmost parts of the uterus vitiated, she was often rendered almost lifeless to the extreme crisis of life when pains arose.

(3) Medici cum obstetricibus consentiebant penuria matrimonii morbum quaesitum, malum in dies augeri, aegritudinem ingrauescere; dum aetatis aliquid supersit, nubtiis ualitudinem medicandum.

(3) The physicians, together with the midwives, agreed that from the penury of matrimony the disease had been contracted, that the malady was increasing day by day, the sickness growing more grievous; while any portion of her age remained, her health must be treated by nuptials.

(4) Consilium istud cum alii approbant, tum maxime Aemilianus iste, qui paulo prius confidentissimo mendacio adseuerabat numquam de nubtiis Pudentillam cogitasse, priusquam foret magicis maleficiis a me coacta, me solum repertum, qui uiduitatis eius uelut quandam uirginitatem carminibus et uenenis uiolarem. (5) Saepe audiui non de nihilo dici mendacem memorem esse oportere; at tibi, Aemiliane, non uenit in mentem, priusquam ego Oeam uenirem, te litteras etiam, uti nuberet, scribsisse ad filium eius Pontianum, qui tum adultus Romae agebat.

(4) This counsel some approve, and most especially this Aemilianus, who a little earlier with the most confident mendacity was asserting that Pudentilla had never thought about nuptials before she was compelled by magical malefices by me, that I alone had been found to violate, as it were, a certain virginity of her widowhood by incantations and poisons. (5) I have often heard it said not without cause that a liar ought to be mindful; but it did not come into your mind, Aemilianus, that before I came to Oea, you had even written letters, that she should marry, to her son Pontianus, who at that time, adult, was living at Rome, agebat.

(6) Cedo tu epistulam, uel potius da ipsi: legat, sua sibi uoce suisque uerbis sese reuincat. (7) Estne haec tua epistula? Quid palluisti?

(6) Hand over the letter, or rather give it to him: let him read, let him be convicted by his own voice and his own words. (7) Is this your letter? Why have you turned pale?

Nam erubescere tu quidem non potes. Estne tua ista subscribtio? (8) _ Recita quaeso clarius, ut omnes intellegant quantum lingua eius manu discrepet, quantumque minor illi[s] sit mecum quam secum dissensio. (...)

For you, indeed, cannot blush. Is that your signature? (8) _ Read it out, please, more clearly, so that all may understand how much his tongue disagrees with his hand, and how much less hi[s] disension is with me than with himself. (...)

[70] (1) Scripsistine haec, Aemiliane, quae lecta sunt? 'Nubere illam uelle et debere scio, sed quem eligat nescio.' Recte tu quidem: nesciebas. Pudentilla enim tibi, cuius infesta<m> malignitatem probe norat, de ipsa re tantum, ceterum de petitore nihil fatebatur.

[70] (1) Did you write these things, Aemilianus, which have been read? ‘I know that she wants to marry and ought to, but whom she may choose I do not know.’ Quite right indeed: you did not know. For Pudentilla, well aware of your hostile malignity, was admitting to you only about the matter itself, but about the suitor she was saying nothing.

(2) At tu dum eam putas etiamnum Claro fratri tuo denubturam, falsa spe inductus filio quoque eius Pontiano auctor adsentiendi fuisti.

(2) But you, while you supposed that she would still remarry your brother Clarus, led on by false hope, were the instigator that his son Pontianus too should assent.

(3) Igitur si Claro nubsisset, homini rusticano et decrepito seni, sponte eam diceres sine ulla magia iam olim nubturisse; quoniam iuuenem talem qualem dicitis elegit, coactam fecisse ais, ceterum semper nubtias aspernatam. (4) Nescisti, improbe, epistulam tuam de ista re teneri, nescisti te tuomet testimonio conuictum iri. Quam tamen epistolam Pudentilla testem et indicem tuae uoluntatis, ut quae te leuem et mutabilem nec minus mendacem et inpudentem scire<t>, maluit retinere quam mittere.

(3) Therefore, if she had married Claro—a rustic fellow and a decrepit old man—you would say that long ago she had married of her own accord without any magic; since she chose a young man such as you describe, you say she did it under compulsion, whereas otherwise she always spurned nuptials. (4) You did not know, shameless man, that your letter about this matter is being held; you did not know that you would be convicted by your very own testimony. Which letter, however—Pudentilla, as witness and index of your intention, as one who knew you to be flighty and changeable, and no less mendacious and impudent—preferred to keep rather than to send.

(5) Ceterum ipsa de ea re Pontiano suo Romam scripsit, etiam causas consilii sui plene allegauit. (6) Dixit illa omnia de ualetudine: nihil praeterea esse, cur amplius deberet obdurare, hereditatem auitam longa uiduitate cum despectu salutis suae quaesisse, eandem summa industria auxisse; (7) iam deum uoluntate ipsum uxori, fratrem eius uirili togae idoneos esse; tandem aliquando se quoque paterentur solitudini[s] suae et aegritudini subuenire; (8) ceterum de pietate sua et supremo iudicio nihil metuerent; qualis uidua eis fuerit, talem nuptam futuram. Recitari iubebo exemplum epistolae huius ad filium missae.

(5) Moreover, she herself wrote to her Pontianus at Rome about this matter, and even fully alleged the reasons for her counsel. (6) She said all those things about her health: that there was nothing besides for which she ought to be obdurate any longer; that she had acquired the ancestral inheritance by a long widowhood, with a disregard for her own health, and had augmented the same with utmost industry; (7) that now, by the will of the gods, he himself was fit for a wife, and his brother for the virile toga; that at last they should also allow her to bring relief to her solitude and sickness; (8) moreover, that they should fear nothing regarding her piety and the supreme judgment; as she had been to them as a widow, such she would be as a married woman. I shall order a copy of this letter, sent to her son, to be read aloud.

(...)

[71] (1) Satis puto ex [h]istis posse cuiuis liquere Pudentillam non meis carminibus ab obstinata uiduitate compulsam, sed olim sua sponte a nubendo non alienam <uti>quam me fortasse prae ceteris maluisse. (2) Quae electio tam grauis feminae cur mihi crimini potius quam honori danda sit, non reperio; nisi tamen miror quod Aemilianus et Rufinus id iudicium mulieris aegre ferant, cum hi, qui Pudentillam in matrimonium petiuerunt, aequo animo patiantur me sibi praelatum.

[71] (1) I think it is enough from these things for anyone to see that Pudentilla was not driven from her obstinate widowhood by my spells, but that long ago of her own accord she was not averse to marrying, and perhaps preferred me above the rest. (2) Why the choice of so dignified a woman should be set down to me as a crime rather than an honor, I do not find; only I marvel that Aemilianus and Rufinus take ill this judgment of the woman, when those who sought Pudentilla in marriage bear with an even mind that I was preferred to them.

(3) Quod quidem illa ut faceret, filio suo potius quam animo obsecuta est. Ita factum nec Aemilianus poterit negare. (4) Nam Pontianus acceptis litteris matris confestim Roma[m] aduolauit metuens ne, si quem auarum uirum nacta esset, omnia, ut saepe fit, in mariti domum conferret.

(3) As for her doing this, she complied rather with her son than with her own spirit. Thus done, not even Aemilianus will be able to deny it. (4) For Pontianus, having received his mother’s letters, immediately flew to Rome, fearing lest, if she had gotten some greedy husband, she would, as often happens, transfer everything into the husband’s house.

(5) Ea sollicitudo non mediocriter animum angebat, omnes illi fratrique diuitiarum spes in faculta<ti>bus matris sitae erant. (6) Auus modicum reliquerat, mater sestertium quadragies po<s>sidebat, ex quo sane aliquantam pecuniam nullis tabulis, sed, ut aequum erat, mera fide acceptam filiis debebat. (7) Hunc ille timorem mus<s>itabat.

(5) That solicitude was by no means moderately distressing his mind; all his and his brother’s hopes of riches were situated in their mother’s faculties. (6) The grandfather had left a modest amount; the mother possessed 4,000,000 sesterces, of which, indeed, she owed to her sons a certain sum of money, received on no tablets, but, as was equitable, on mere trust. (7) This fear he kept muttering.

A<d>uersari propalam non audebat, ne uideretur diffidere.

He did not dare to oppose openly, lest he seem to distrust.

[72] (1) Cum in hoc statu res esset inter precationem matris et metum fili, fortene an fato ego aduenio pergens Alexandream. Dixissem hercule 'quod utinam numquam euenisset', ni me uxoris meae respectus prohiberet. (2) Hiemps anni erat.

[72] (1) When the matter was in this state between the mother’s prayer and the son’s fear, whether by fortune or by fate, I arrive, journeying to Alexandria. By Hercules, I would have said ‘would that it had never come to pass,’ if regard for my wife did not restrain me. (2) It was the winter of the year.

Ego ex fatigatione itineris aduectus apud Appios i<s>tos amicos meos, quos honoris et amoris gratia nomino, aliquam multis diebus decumbo. (3) Eo uenit ad me Pontianus. Nam fuerat mihi non ita pridem ante multos annos Athenis per quosdam communis amicos conciliatus et arto postea contubernio intime iunctus.

I, carried in by the fatigue of the journey, put up among the Appii, those friends of mine—whom I name for the sake of honor and love—for a good many days. (3) There came to me Pontianus. For not so very recently—indeed many years before—at Athens he had been introduced to me through certain mutual friends, and afterwards, by close companionship, had been intimately joined to me.

(4) Facit omnia circa ho<no>rem meum obseruanter, circa salutem sollicite, circa amorem callide. Quippe etenim uidebatur sibi peridoneum maritum matri repperisse, cui bono periculo totam domus fortunam concrederet. (5) Ac primo quidem uoluntatem meam uerbis inuersis periclitabundus, quoniam me uiae cupidum et conuersum ab uxoria re uidebat, orat saltem paulisper manerem: uelle se mecum proficisci; hiemem alteram propter Syrtis aestus et bestias opperiendam, quod illam mihi infirmitas exemisset.

(4) He does everything observantly with regard to my honor, solicitously with regard to my safety, shrewdly with regard to love. For indeed he seemed to himself to have found a very suitable husband for his mother, to whom, at good risk, he might entrust the whole fortune of the household. (5) And at first, indeed, making trial of my will with oblique words, since he saw me desirous of the road and turned away from a matrimonial affair, he begs that I at least remain for a little while: that he wishes to set out with me; that another winter must be awaited on account of the heats of the Syrtis and the beasts, because illness had taken that one from me.

(6) Multis etiam precibus meis Appiis aufert, ut ad sese in domum matris suae transferar: salubriorem mihi habitationem futuram; praeterea prospectum maris, qui mihi gratissimus est, liberius me ex ea fruiturum.

(6) With many entreaties he even carries me off from my Appii friends, that I be transferred to him, into his mother’s house: that a healthier habitation would be mine; besides, that I would more freely enjoy from it the prospect of the sea, which is most pleasing to me.

[73] (1) Haec omnia adnixus impenso studio persuadet, matrem suam suumque fratrem, puerum istum, mihi commendat. Non nihil a me in communibus studiis adiuuantur, augetur oppido familiaritas. (2) Interibi reualesco; dissero aliquid postulantibus amicis publice.

[73] (1) Striving with intense zeal, he persuades all this; he commends to me his mother and his brother, that boy. They are helped not a little by me in our common studies; our familiarity is greatly increased. (2) Meanwhile I grow strong again; I deliver some discourse publicly at the request of friends.

Omnes qui aderant ingenti celebritate basilicam, qui locus auditorii erat, complentes inter alia pleraque congruentissima uoce 'insigniter' adclamant petentes ut remanerem, fierem ciuis Oeensium. (3) Mox auditorio misso Pontianus eo principio me adortus consensum publicae uocis pro diuino auspicio interpretatur aperitque consilium sibi esse, si ego non nolim, matrem suam, cui plurimi inhient, mecum coniungere; mihi quoniam soli ait rerum omnium confidere sese et credere. (4) Ni id onus recipiam, quoniam non formosa pupilla, sed mediocri facie mater liberorum mihi offeratur, _ si haec reputans formae et diuitiarum gratia me ad aliam condicionem reseruarem, neque pro amico neque pro philosopho facturum.

All who were present, filling the basilica, which was the place of the auditorium, with a huge throng, among other very fitting things acclaim with the word ‘insigniter,’ asking that I remain, that I become a citizen of the Oeans. (3) Soon, the audience having been dismissed, Pontianus, addressing me with this beginning, interprets the agreement of the public voice as a divine auspice, and he discloses that his plan is, if I am not unwilling, to join his mother, at whom very many are gaping, with me; since, he says, he trusts and entrusts all things to me alone. (4) Unless I accept that burden—since not a beautiful maiden, but a mother of children of moderate face is being offered to me— _ if, considering these things, for the sake of beauty and riches I should reserve myself for another condition, I would be acting neither as a friend nor as a philosopher.

(5) Nimis multa oratio est, si uelim memorare quae ego contra responderim, (6) quam diu et quotiens inter nos uerbigeratum sit, quot et qualibus precibus me aggressus haud prius omiserit quam de<ni>que impetrarit, (7) non quin ego Pudentillam iam anno perpeti adsiduo conuictu probe spectassem et uirtutium eius dotes explorassem, sed utpote peregrinationis cupiens impedimentum matrimoni aliquantisper recusaueram. (8) Mox tamen talem feminam nihilo segnius uolui quam si ultro appetissem. Persuaserat idem Pontianus matri suae, ut me aliis omnibus mallet, et quam primum hoc perficere incredibili studio auebat.

(5) It is far too long an oration, if I should wish to recount what I replied in counter, (6) how long and how often there was verbiage between us, how many and with what sorts of supplications he assailed me, not ceasing before he had fi<nal>ly obtained it, (7) not that I had not already for a full year, by assiduous companionship, thoroughly inspected Pudentilla and explored the endowments of her virtues, but, as one desirous of peregrination, I had for a while refused the impediment of matrimony. (8) Soon, however, I wanted such a woman no whit less eagerly than if I had sought her of my own accord. That same Pontianus had persuaded his mother to prefer me to all others, and he was yearning with incredible zeal to bring this about as soon as possible.

(9) Vix ab eo tantulam moram impetramus, dum prius ipse uxorem duceret, frater eius uirilis togae usum auspicaretur: tunc deinde ut nos coniungeremur.

(9) We scarcely obtained from him so slight a delay, until first he himself should take a wife, his brother should inaugurate the use of the virile toga: then thereafter that we should be joined.

[74] (1) Vtinam hercule possem quae deinde dicenda sunt sine maximo causae dispendio tran<s>gredi, ne Pontiano, cui [h]errorem suum deprecanti simpliciter ignoui, uidear nunc leuitatem exprobrare. (2) Confiteor enim _ quod mihi obiectum est _ eum, postquam uxorem duxerit, a compecti fide desciuisse ac derepente animi mutatum quod antea nimio studio festinarat pari pertinacia prohibitum isse, denique ne matrimonium nostrum coalesceret, quiduis pati, quiduis facere paratum fuisse, (3) quamquam omnis illa tam foeda animi mutatio et suscepta contra matrem simultas non ipsi uitio uortenda sit, sed socero eius eccilli Herennio Rufino, qui unum neminem in terris uiliorem se aut improbiorem aut inquinatiorem reliquit. (4) Paucis hominem, quam modestissime potero, necessario demonstrabo, ne, si omnino de eo reticuero, operam perdiderit, quod negotium istud mihi ex summis uiribus conflauit.

[74] (1) Would that, by Hercules, I could pass over what must next be said without the greatest loss to the case, lest I seem now to reproach Pontianus with levity, to whom, as he was deprecating his [h]error, I simply granted pardon. (2) For I confess — _what is alleged against me_ — that, after he took a wife, he fell away from the faith of the compact, and, suddenly changed in mind, went to prevent with equal pertinacity what before he had hastened with excessive zeal; finally, in order that our marriage might not coalesce, he was prepared to suffer anything, to do anything. (3) Yet all that so foul change of mind and the enmity undertaken against his mother ought not to be turned to his own fault, but to his father-in-law — that very fellow Herennius Rufinus — who has left not a single person on earth viler than himself, or more depraved, or more polluted. (4) In a few words I will, as modestly as I can, of necessity set forth the man, lest, if I should keep wholly silent about him, he should have lost his labor, since it is he who has contrived this business against me with all his might.

(5) Hic est enim pueruli huius instigator, hic accusationis auctor, hic aduocatorum conductor, hic testium coemptor, hic totius calumniae fornacula, hic Aemiliani huius fax et flagellum, idque apud omnis intemperantissime gloriatur, me suo machinatu reum postulatum. (6) Et sane habet in [h]istis quod sibi plaudat. Est enim omnium litium depector, omnium falsorum commentator, omnium simulationum architectus, omnium malorum seminarium, nec non idem libidinum ganearumque locus, lustrum, lupanar; iam inde ab ineunte aeuo cunctis probris palam notus, (7) olim in pueritia, priusquam isto caluitio deformaretur, emasculatoribus suis ad omnia infanda morigerus, mox in iuuentute saltandis fabulis exossis plane et eneruis, sed, ut audio, indocta et rudi mollitia.

(5) For this man is the instigator of this little boy, he the author of the accusation, he the hirer of advocates, he the buyer-up of witnesses, he the forge of the whole calumny, he the torch and scourge of this Aemilianus; and he boasts among all most intemperately that by his contrivance I have been arraigned as the defendant. (6) And truly he has in [h]istis something over which to applaud himself. For he is the devourer of all lawsuits, the commentator of all falsehoods, the architect of all simulations, the seedbed of all evils, and likewise the very place of lusts and of glutton-shops, a sink, a brothel; from the very outset of his life openly known for every disgrace, (7) once in boyhood, before he was disfigured by that baldness, compliant to his emasculators in all unspeakable things; soon in youth, in dancing plays, plainly boneless and nerveless, but, as I hear, with an unlearned and crude softness.

Negatur enim quicquam histrionis habuisse praeter impudicitiam.

For it is denied that he had anything of the histrion save impudicity.

[75] (1) In hac etiam aetate qua nunc est _ qui istum di perduint! Multus honos auribus praefandus est _ domus eius tota lenonia, tota familia contaminata; ipse propudiosus, uxor lupa, filii similes. (2) Prorsus diebus ac noctibus ludibrio iuuentutis ianua calcibus propulsata, fenestrae canticis circumstrepitae, triclinium comisatoribus inquietum, cubiculum adulteris peruium.

[75] (1) Even in the very age he is now in _ may the gods destroy that man! Much honor must be proclaimed to his ears _ his whole house a brothel, his whole household contaminated; he himself disgraceful, his wife a she-wolf, the sons similar. (2) Altogether, by day and by night, a plaything for the youth: the door driven back by kicks, the windows resounding all around with songs, the triclinium unquiet with revellers, the bedroom pervious to adulterers.

Neque enim ulli ad introeundum metus est, nisi qui pretium marito non attulit. (3) Ita ei lecti sui contumelia uectigalis est. Olim sollers suo, nunc coniugis corpore uulgo meret.

Nor indeed has anyone any fear of entering, except the one who did not bring the price to the husband. (3) Thus for him the contumely of his own bed is a source of revenue. Formerly skilled in his own craft, now by his wife’s body he earns openly.

Cum ipso plerique _ nec mentior! _ cum ipso, inquam, de uxoris noctibus paciscuntur. (4) Iam illa inter uirum et uxorem no[n]ta[m] conlusio: qui amplam stipem mulieri detulerunt, nemo eos obseruat, suo arbitratu discedunt; qui inaniores uenere, signo dato pro adulteris deprehenduntur, et quasi ad discendum uenerint, non prius abeunt quam aliquid scripserint.

With the man himself many _ and I do not lie! _ with the man himself, I say, they make bargains for the nights with his wife. (4) Now that well-known collusion between husband and wife: those who have brought a ample fee to the woman, no one watches them; they depart at their own discretion; those who have come more empty-handed, a signal having been given, are caught as adulterers, and as though they had come to learn, they do not go away before they have written something.

(5) Quid enim faciat homo miser ampliuscula fortuna deuolutus, quam tamen fraude patris ex inopinato inuenerat? Pater eius plurimis creditoribus defaeneratus maluit pecuniam quam pudorem. (6) Nam cum undique uersum tabulis flagitaretur et quasi insanus ab omnibus obuiis teneretur, (7) 'pax' inquit, negat posse dissoluere, anulos aureos et omnia insignia dignitatis abicit, cum creditoribus depaciscitur.

(5) For what indeed should a wretched man do, cast down from a somewhat ample fortune, which, however, he had unexpectedly found by his father’s fraud? His father, indebted to very many creditors, preferred money to modesty. (6) For when on every side he was being dunned by account‑books, and, as if insane, was being seized by all who met him, (7) 'peace,' he says, he says he cannot pay, he throws away his gold rings and all the insignia of dignity, he comes to terms with the creditors.

(8) Pleraque tamen rei familiaris in nomen uxoris callidissima fraude confert. Ipse egens, nudus et ignominia sua tutus reliquit Rufino huic _ non mentior! _, sestertium XXX deuorandum.

(8) Nevertheless he transfers the greater part of the household estate into his wife's name by a most crafty fraud. He himself, needy, naked, and safe by his own ignominy, left to this Rufinus _ I am not lying! _, 30,000 sesterces to be devoured.

Tantum enim ad eum ex bonis matris liberum uenit, praeter quod ei uxor sua cotidianis dotibus quaesiuit. (9) Quae tamen omnia in paucis annis ita hic degulator studiose in uentrem condidit et omnimodis conlurchinationibus dilapidauit, ut crederes metuere ne quid habere ex fraude paterna diceretur. (10) Homo iustus et morum dedit operam, quod male partum erat ut male periret, nec quicquam ei relictum est ex largiore fortuna praeter ambitionem miseram et profundam gulam.

For only so much came to him, free and clear, from his mother’s goods, besides what his wife procured for him by daily dotal allowances. (9) Yet all these things, within a few years, this guzzler so zealously stowed into his belly and dilapidated by every sort of swindle, that you would have believed he feared lest he be said to have anything from his father’s fraud. (10) A just man and of morals, he took pains that what was ill-gotten should perish ill, and nothing was left to him from the ampler fortune except wretched ambition and profound gluttony.

[76] (1) Ceterum uxor iam propemodum uetula et effeta totam domum contumeliis adnuit. (2) Filia autem per adulescentulos ditiores inuitamento matris suae nequicquam circumlata, quibusdam etiam procis ad experiundum permissa, nisi in facilitatem Pontiani incidisset, fortasse an adhuc uidua ante quam nubta domi sedisset. (3) Pontianus ei multum quidem dehortantibus nobis nuptiarum titulum falsum et imaginarium donauit, non nescius eam paulo ante quam duceret a quodam honestissimo iuuene, cui prius pacta fuerat, post satietatem derelictam.

[76] (1) Moreover, the wife, now almost a little old woman and spent, nodded at the whole household with contumelies. (2) The daughter, however, carried round in vain among richer young men by her mother’s invitation, even handed over to certain suitors to be tried out, had she not fallen upon the pliancy of Pontianus, perhaps would even now be sitting at home a widow before rather than a bride. (3) Pontianus, though we strongly dissuaded him, bestowed upon her a false and imaginary title of marriage, not unaware that a little before he should lead her she had been abandoned after satiety by a most honorable young man, to whom she had previously been betrothed.

(4) Venit igitur ad eum noua nupta secura et intrepida, pudore dispoliato, flore exsoleto, flammeo obsoleto, uirgo rursum post recens repudium, nomen potius adferens puellae quam integritatem. (5) Vectabatur octaphoro; uidistis profecto qui adfuistis, quam improba iuuenum circumspectatrix, quam inmodica sui ostentatrix. Quis non disciplina<m> matris agnouit, cum in puella uideret i<m>medicatum os et purpurissatas genas et inlices oculos.

(4) So the new bride came to him, secure and unafraid, with modesty stripped off, her bloom worn out, her flammeum obsolete, a virgin again after a recent repudiation, bringing rather the name of “maiden” than the integrity. (5) She was carried in an octaphoron; you who were present surely saw how shameless a looker-around at young men, how immoderate an exhibitor of herself she was. Who did not recognize the mother’s disciplina when he saw in the girl an incurable mouth and cheeks rouged purple and enticing eyes?

(6) Dos erat a creditore omnis ad teruncium pridie sumpta et quidem grandior, quam domus exhausta et plena liberis postulabat.

(6) The dowry had been taken from a creditor the day before, to the last teruncius, and indeed was larger than an exhausted household, full of children, required.

[77] (1) Sed enim iste, ut est rei modicus, spei immodicus, pari auaritia et egestate totum Pudentillae quadragiens praesumptione cassa deuorarat eoque me amoliendum ratus, quo facilius Pontiani facilitatem, Pudentillae solitudinem circumueniret, (2) infit generum suum obiurgare, quod matrem suam mihi desponderat. Suadet quam primum ex tanto periculo, dum licet, pedem referat, rem matris ipse potius habeat quam homini extrario sciens transmittat. (3) Ni ita faciat, inicit scrupulum amanti adulescentulo ueterator, minatur se filiam abducturum.

[77] (1) But indeed that fellow, being, as he is, moderate in resources, immoderate in hope, with equal avarice and destitution had gulped down in empty anticipation the whole four million sesterces of Pudentilla, and therefore, thinking that I must be removed, so that he might the more easily circumvent Pontianus’s facility and Pudentilla’s solitude, (2) begins to upbraid his son-in-law because he had betrothed his own mother to me. He urges that, as soon as possible, out of so great a danger, while it is permitted, he should draw back his foot, that he himself should rather keep his mother’s estate than knowingly transfer it to a stranger. (3) Unless he do so, the old trickster plants a scruple in the loving young man, threatening that he will carry off his daughter.

(4) Quid multis? Iuuenem simplicem, praeterea nouae nuptae inlecebris obfrenatum suo arbitratu de uia deflectit. (5) It ille ad matrem uerborum Rufini gerulus, sed nequicquam temptata eius grauitate ultro ipse leuitatis et inconstantiae increpitus reportat ad socerum haud mollia: (6) matri suae praeter ingenium placidissimum immobili iram quoque sua expostulatione accessisse, non mediocre pertinaciae alumentum; (7) respondisse eam denique non clam se esse Rufini exoratione secum expostulari; eo uel magis sibi auxilium mariti aduersum eius desperatam auaritiam comparandum.

(4) What need of many words? He diverts, at his own discretion, the simple youth—moreover, reined-in by the allurements of a new bride—from the path. (5) He goes off to his mother as the bearer of Rufinus’s words; but, her gravity tested in vain, he himself, rebuked in turn for levity and inconstancy, carries back to his father-in-law no gentle tidings: (6) that, contrary to her most placid disposition, an immobili anger too had been added to his mother by his expostulation—a no‑mean nourishment of pertinacity; (7) that she had answered, finally, that it was not hidden from her that, at Rufinus’s entreaty, he was remonstrating with her; for that reason all the more the help of a husband must be procured for herself against his desperate avarice.

[78] (1) Hisce auditis exacerbatus aquariolus iste uxoris suae ita ira extumuit, ita exarsit furore, ut in feminam sanctissimam et pudicissimam praesente filio eius digna cubiculo suo diceret, (2) amatricem eam, me magum et ueneficum clamitaret multis audientibus (quos, si uoles, nominabo); se mihi sua manu mortem allaturum. (3) Vix hercule possum irae moderari, ingens indignatio animo oboritur. Tune, effeminatissime, tua manu cuiquam uiro mortem minitari<s>? (4) At qua tandem manu?

[78] (1) On hearing this, that little water-monger of a husband, exacerbated, so swelled with anger, so blazed up with fury, that in the presence of her son he said things befitting his own bedchamber against a most holy and most chaste woman; (2) he kept shouting that she was a mistress, and that I was a magician and a poisoner, with many listening (whom, if you wish, I will name); that he would bring death upon me by his own hand. (3) By Hercules, I can scarcely moderate my anger; immense indignation rises in my mind. Do you, most effeminate creature, threaten death by your own hand to any man<s>? (4) But with what hand, pray?

Philomelae an Medeae an Clytemnestrae? Quas tamen cum saltas _ tanta mo<l>litia animi, tanta formido ferri est _, sine cludine saltas.

Philomela’s or Medea’s or Clytemnestra’s? Which, however, when you brandish them _ so great the softness of spirit, so great is the dread of iron _, you brandish without a sword.

(5) Sed ne longius ab ordine digrediar: Pudentilla postquam filium uidet praeter opinionem contra suam esse sententiam deprauatum, rus profecta scripsit ad eum obiurgandi gratia illas famosissimas litteras, quibus, ut isti aiebant, confessa est sese mea magia in amorem inductam dementire. (6) Quas tamen litteras tabulario Pontiani praesente et contra scribente Aemiliano nudius tertius tuo iussu, Maxime, testato describsimus; in quibus omnia contra praedicationem istorum pro me reperiuntur.

(5) But lest I digress further from the order: after Pudentilla saw that her son, beyond expectation, had been corrupted into a view contrary to her own, having set out for the countryside she wrote to him, for the sake of objurgating, those most notorious letters, in which, as they said, she confessed that she, induced into love by my magic, was raving. (6) Which letters, however, with Pontianus’s record-keeper present and Aemilianus writing in opposition, the day before yesterday, at your order, Maximus, under attestation we transcribed; in which everything, against their proclamation, is found in my favor.

[79] (1) Quamquam, etsi destrictius magum me dixisset, posset uideri excusabunda se filio uim meam quam uoluntatem suam causari maluisse. An sola Phaedra falsum epistolium de amore commenta est? At non omnibus mulieribus haec ars usitata est, ut, cum aliquid eius modi uelle coeperunt, malint coactae uideri?

[79] (1) Although, even if she had called me a magician more sharply, she could seem, in excusing herself to her son, to have preferred to allege my force rather than her own will. Or was Phaedra alone the one who concocted a forged little epistle about love? But is not this art customary among all women, that, when they have begun to want something of that sort, they prefer to seem coerced?

(2) Quod si etiam animo ita putauit, me magum esse, idcircone magus habear, quia hoc scripsit Pudentilla? Vos tot argumentis, tot testibus, tanta oratione magum me non probatis: illa uno uerbo probaret? Et quanto tandem grauius habendum est quod in iudicio subscribitur quam quod in epistola scribitur!

(2) But if even she thus thought in her mind, that I was a magus, should I on that account be held a magus because Pudentilla wrote this? You, with so many arguments, so many witnesses, so great an oration, do not prove me a magus: would she prove it with a single word? And how much, pray, more weighty is that to be held which is subscribed in court than that which is written in an epistle!

(3) Quin tu me meismet factis, non alienis uerbis reuincis?

(3) Why don't you convict me by my very own deeds, not by others' words?

Ceterum eadem uia multi rei cuiusuis maleficii postulabuntur, si ratum futurum est quod quisque in epistola sua uel amore uel odio cuiuspiam scripserit. (4) 'Magum te scripsit Pudentilla: igitur magus es.' Quid si consulem me scripsisset: consul essem? Quid enim si pictorem, si medicum, quid denique, si innocentem?

But by the same way many will be prosecuted on the charge of any wrongdoing, if what anyone has written in his epistle either out of love or out of hatred for someone is going to be held valid. (4) 'Pudentilla wrote that you are a magus: therefore you are a magus.' What if she had written me consul: would I be consul? What then if a painter, if a medic, what, finally, if innocent?

Num aliquid horum putares idcirco, quod illa dixisset? Nihil scilicet. (5) Atqui periniurium est ei fidem in peioribus <habere, cui in melioribus> non haberes, posse litteras eius ad perniciem, non posse ad salutem.

Would you think any of these things for that reason, because she had said them? Nothing, of course. (5) Yet it is a gross injustice to give credence to her in worse matters <to whom in better matters> you would not give it, that her letters can avail to perdition, cannot to salvation.

(6) 'Sed inqui<e>t animi fuit, efflictim te amabat.' Concedo interim. Num tamen omnes qui amantur magi sunt, si hoc forte qui amat scripserit? C<r>edo nunc quod Pudentilla me in eo tempore non amabat, siquidem id foras scripsit, quod palam erat mihi obfuturum.

(6) 'But, you say, she was of a restless mind; she loved you to distraction.' I grant it for the moment. Yet are all who are loved magicians, if perchance the one who loves has written this? I now believe that Pudentilla at that time did not love me, since she wrote abroad what was plainly going to be to my detriment.

[80] (1) Postremo quid uis: sanam an insanam fuisse, dum scriberet? Sanam dices? Nihil ergo erat magicis artibus passa.

[80] (1) Finally, what do you wish: that she was sane or insane while she was writing? You will say “sane”? Therefore she had suffered nothing from magical arts.

Insanam respondebis? Nesciit ergo quid scribserit, eoque ei fides non habenda est; immo etiam, si fuisset insana, insanam se esse nescisset. (2) Nam ut absurde facit qui tacere se dicit, quod ibidem dicendo tacere sese non tacet et ipsa professione quod profitetur infirmat, ita uel magis hoc repugnat: 'ego insanio', quod uerum non est, nisi sciens dicit; porro sanus est, qui scit quid sit insania, quippe insania scire se non potest, non magis quam caecitas se uidere.

You will answer “insane”? She did not know, then, what she had written, and therefore no trust is to be given to her; nay even, if she had been insane, she would not have known herself to be insane. (2) For just as he acts absurdly who says that he is keeping silence, because by speaking there he does not keep silence and by the very profession he infirms what he professes, so, or even more, this is repugnant: 'I am insane,' which is not true unless he says it knowingly; moreover, he is sane who knows what insanity is, since insanity cannot know itself, no more than blindness can see itself.

(3) Igitur Pudentilla compos mentis fuit, si compotem mentis se non putabat. Possum, si uelim, pluribus, sed mitto dialectica.

(3) Therefore Pudentilla was of sound mind, if she did not think herself compos mentis. I can, if I wish, say more at greater length, but I waive dialectics.

Ipsas litteras longe aliud clamantis et quasi dedita opera ad iudicium istud praeparatas et accommodatas recitabo. Accipe tu et lege, usque dum ego interloquar. (...)

I will read aloud the letters themselves, loudly proclaiming quite another thing, and as if with deliberate effort prepared and accommodated for this trial. You, receive and read, until I interject. (...)

(4) Sustine paulisper quae secuntur; nam ad deuerticulum rei uentum est. (5) Adhuc enim, Maxime, quantum equidem animaduerti, nusquam mulier magiam nominauit, sed ordinem repetiuit eundem, quem ego paulo prius, de longa uiduitate, de remedio ualetudinis, de uoluntate nubendi, de meis laudibus, quas ex Pontiano cognouerat, de suasu ipsius, ut mihi potissimum nuberet.

(4) Bear for a little while the things that follow; for we have come to a by‑way of the matter. (5) For up to now, Maximus, so far as I have observed, nowhere has the woman named magic, but she has repeated the same order which I a little before did: about her long widowhood, about the remedy of her health, about the will to wed, about my praises, which she had learned from Pontianus, about his persuasion, that she should marry me above all.

[81] (1) Haec usque adhuc lecta sunt. Superest ea pars epistulae, quae similiter pro me scripta in memet ipsum uertit cornua, ad expellendum a me crimen magiae sedulo [o]missa memorabili laude Rufini uice<m> mutauit et ultro contrariam mihi opinionem quorundam Oeensium quasi mago quaesiuit.

[81] (1) These things have been read up to this point. There remains that part of the letter which, though likewise written on my behalf, turns its horns against myself; to expel from me the charge of magic, with the memorable praise of Rufinus diligently omitted, it changed sides and, of its own accord, sought the contrary opinion of certain Oeans about me, as if I were a magus.

(2) Multa fando, Maxime, audisti, etiam plura legendo didicisti, non pauca experiendo comperisti, sed enim uersutiam tam insidiosam, tam admirabili scelere conflatam negabis te umquam cognouisse. (3) Quis Palamedes, qui<s> Sisyphus, quis denique Eurybates aut Phrynondas talem excogitasset? (4) Omnes isti quos nominaui et si qui praeterea fuerunt dolo memorandi, si cum hac una Rufini fallacia contendantur, macc[h]i prorsus et bucc[h]ones uidebuntur.

(2) Much by speaking, Maximus, you have heard; even more by reading you have learned; not a few by experiencing you have found out; but you will deny that you have ever known a craftiness so insidious, so compounded by such astonishing wickedness. (3) What Palamedes, what Sisyphus, what, finally, Eurybates or Phrynondas would have devised such a thing? (4) All those whom I have named, and if there were besides any to be remembered for guile, if they be matched with this one trick of Rufinus, will seem outright simpletons and boobies.

(5) O mirum commentum! O subtilitas digna carcere et robore! Quis credat effici potuisse, ut quae defensio fuerat, eadem manentibus eisdem litteris in accusationem transuerteretur?

(5) O wondrous contrivance! O subtlety worthy of prison and the oaken stocks! Who would believe it could have been brought about, that what had been a defense, with the same letters remaining the same, was converted into an accusation?

Est hercule incredibile. Sed hoc incredibile qui sit factum, probabo.

It is, by Hercules, incredible. But I will prove how this incredible thing was done.

[82] (1) Obiurgatio erat matris ad filium, quod me, talem uirum qualem sibi praedicasset, nunc de Rufini sententia magum dictitaret. (2) Verba ipsa ad hunc modum se habebant:

[82] (1) It was a rebuke of a mother to her son, that me—such a man as she had proclaimed to herself—he now, on Rufinus’s judgment, kept calling a magician. (2) The very words were as follows:

_________ _____, ___ ___ __' _____ __________ ___ ___. ____ ______ ____ ___, ___ ___ _______.

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(3) Haec ipsa uerba Rufinus quae Graece interposui sola excerpta et ab ordine suo seiugata quasi confessionem mulieris circumferens et Pontianum flentem per forum ductans uulgo ostendebat, ipsas mulieris litteras illatenus qua dixi legendas praebebat, (4) cetera supra et infra scribta occultabat. Turpiora esse quam ut ostenderentur dictitabat; satis esse confessionem mulieris de magia cognosci.

(3) These very words—which I inserted in Greek—Rufinus, excerpted alone and disjoined from their order, carrying them about as if they were the woman’s confession, and leading Pontianus weeping through the forum, was displaying to the crowd; he provided the woman’s very letters to be read only thus far as I have said, (4) but he concealed the other things written above and below. He kept saying they were too shameful to be shown; that it was enough that the woman’s confession about magic be known.

(5) Quid quaeris? Verisimile omnibus uisum. Quae purgandi mei gratia scripta erant, eadem mihi immanem inuidiam apud imperitos conciuere.

(5) What can you ask? It seemed plausible to everyone. The very things that had been written for my purgation stirred up against me monstrous envy among the unlearned.

(6) Turbabat impurus hic in medio foro bacchabundus, epistulam saepe aperiens proquiritabat: 'Apuleius magus: dicit ipsa quae sentit et patitur. Quid uultis amplius?' (7) Nemo erat qui pro me ferret ac sic responderet: 'Totam sodes epistulam cedo, sine omnia inspiciam, <a> principio ad finem perlegam. (8) Multa sunt, quae sola prolata calumniae possint uideri obnoxia.

(6) This impure fellow was throwing everything into turmoil in the middle of the forum, raging in bacchic frenzy, and, repeatedly opening the letter, kept loudly proclaiming: ‘Apuleius a magus: she herself says what she feels and suffers. What more do you want?’ (7) There was no one to take my side and answer thus: ‘Please, hand over the whole letter; allow me to inspect everything, <a> I will read it through from the beginning to the end. (8) There are many things which, produced by themselves, can seem subject to calumny.

Cuiauis oratio insimulari potest, si ea quae ex prioribus nexa sunt principio sui defrudentur, si quaedam ex ordine scriptorum ad lubidinem supprimantur, si quae simulationis causa dicta sunt adseuerantis pronuntiatione quam exprobrantis legantur.' (9) Haec et id genus ea quam merito tunc dici potuerunt! Ipse ordo epistulae ostendat.

Any discourse can be accused, if those things which are linked to what precedes are deprived of their own beginning, if certain items from the order of the writings are suppressed at whim, if statements spoken for the sake of feigning are read with the delivery of one asseverating rather than of one upbraiding.' (9) These, and things of that sort, could most justly have been said then! Let the very order of the letter show it.

[83] (1) At tu, Aemiliane, recognosce, an et haec mecum testato descripseris:

[83] (1) But you, Aemilianus, review whether you also have set these things down with me, as attested:

__________ ___ __ __' __ _____ ______ _________, _____ _______ ______ ____ ______ _________, ________ ___ _____ ___ _________ _____ _______ ____ __' ____ _________. ___ __ __ ___<__>____ ____ _________ __ ____________, _________ _______ _________ _____, ___ ___ __________ __' _____ ___ ___. ____ ______ ____ ___, ___ ___ _______.

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(2) Oro te, Maxime, si litterae, ita ut partim uocales dicuntur, etiam propriam uocem usurparent, si uerba, ita ut poetae aiunt, pinnis apta uulgo uolarent, (3) nonne, cum primum epistolam istam Rufinus mala fide excerperet, pauca legeret, multa et meliora sciens reticeret, nonne tunc ceterae litterae sceleste se detineri proclamassent, uerba suppressa de Rufini manibus foras euolassent, totum forum tumultu complessent? (4) 'Se quoque a Pudentilla missas, sibi etiam quae dicerent mandata; improbo ac nefario homini per alienas litteras falsum facere temptanti nec auscultarent, sibi potius audirent; (5) Apuleium magiae non accusatum a Pudentilla, sed accusante Rufino absolutum.' (6) Quae omnia etsi tum dicta non sunt, tamen nunc, cum magis prosunt, luce inlustrius apparent. Patent artes tuae, Rufine, fraudes hiant, detectum mendacium est.

(2) I beg you, Maximus, if letters, just as some are called vowels, were also to appropriate their own voice, if words, as the poets say, fitted with wings were to fly about the crowd, volarent, (3) would it not be that, when Rufinus first in bad faith was excerpting that epistle, reading a few, knowingly keeping silence about many and better things, then the remaining letters would have proclaimed that they were being wickedly detained, the suppressed words would have flown out from Rufinus’s hands, would have filled the whole forum with tumult? (4) 'That they too had been sent by Pudentilla, that to them also had been entrusted what they should say; that they would not listen to a wicked and nefarious man attempting to commit a falsehood through other people’s letters, but would rather give ear to themselves; (5) that Apuleius was not accused of magic by Pudentilla, but, with Rufinus as accuser, was acquitted.' (6) All which things, although they were not then spoken, nevertheless now, since they profit more, appear more conspicuously in the light. Your arts lie open, Rufinus, the frauds gape, the lie has been unmasked.

(7) Veritas olim interuersa nun<c> se <ef>fert et uelut alto barathro calumnias emergit.

(7) Truth, once overturned, now brings itself forth and, as if from a deep abyss, brings the calumnies to light.

[84] (1) Ad litteras Pudentillae prouocastis: litteris uinco, quarum si uultis extremam quoque clausulam audire, non inuidebo. Dic tu, quibus uerbis epistulam finierit mulier obcantata, uecors, amens, amans: (2)

[84] (1) You have appealed to Pudentilla’s letters: by letters I win; of which, if you wish to hear even the final clausula, I shall not begrudge it. You tell, with what words the letter was ended by the woman—spell-charmed, witless, mad, in love: (2)

____ ____ __________ __[__]_' ___. ___ __________ ___.

Etiamne amplius? Reclamat uobis Pudentilla et sanitatem suam a uestris calumniis quodam praeconio uindicat. (3) Nubendi autem seu rationem seu necessitatem fato adscribit, a quo multum magia remota est uel potius omnino sublata.

Even more? Pudentilla cries out in answer to you and, by a certain proclamation, vindicates her sanity from your calumnies. (3) As for marrying, she ascribes either the rationale or the necessity to fate, from which magic is very far removed, or rather altogether abolished.

Quae enim relinquitur uis cantaminibus et ueneficiis, si fatum rei cuiusque ueluti uiolentissimus torrens neque retineri potest neque impelli? (4) Igitur hac sententia sua Pudentilla non modo me magum, sed omnino esse magiam negauit. (5) Bene, quod integras epistolas matris Pontianus ex more adseruauit; bene, quod uos festinatio iudicii anteuortit, ne quid in istis litteris ex otio nouaretis.

For what power is left to incantations and venefices, if the fate of each thing, like a most violent torrent, can neither be held back nor driven? (4) Therefore by this her opinion Pudentilla denied not only that I am a magus, but that magic exists at all. (5) Good, that Pontianus, according to custom, preserved his mother’s letters intact; good, that the haste of the trial forestalled you, lest you, out of leisure, alter anything in those letters.

(6) Tuum hoc, Maxime, tuaeque prouidentiae beneficium est, quod a principio intellectas calumnias, ne corroborarentur tempore, praecipitasti et nulla[m] impertita mora subneruiasti.

(6) This, Maximus, is your benefaction and that of your providence: that from the beginning, having understood the calumnies, you precipitated them, lest they be corroborated by time, and hamstrung them, imparting no delay.

(7) Finge nunc aliquid matrem filio secretis litteris de amore, uti adsolet, confessam. Hocine uerum fuit, Rufine, hoc non dico pium, sed saltem humanum, prouulgari eas litteras et potissimum fili praeconio puplicari? (8) Sed sum<ne> ego inscius, qui postulo ut alienum pudorem conserues qui tuum perdideris?

(7) Imagine now that a mother, in secret letters to her son, confessed something about love, as is customary. Was this true, Rufinus—this, I do not say pious, but at least humane—that those letters be promulgated, and above all made public by the son’s proclamation? (8) But am I unknowing, I who demand that you conserve another’s modesty when you have lost your own?

[85] (1) Cur autem praeterita conqueror, cum non sint minus acerba praesentia? Hocusque a uobis miserum istum puerum deprauatum, ut matris suae epistulas, quas putat amatorias, (2) pro tribunali procons. recitet apud uirum sanctissimum Cl. Maximum, ante has imp.

[85] (1) But why do I complain of things past, since present things are no less bitter? To this point that wretched boy has been corrupted by you, that he should recite his mother’s letters, which he thinks are amatory, (2) before the tribunal of the proconsul, in the presence of the most holy man Claudius Maximus, before these imp.

Pii statuas filius matri suae pudenda exprobret stupra et amores obiectet? (3) Quis tam est mitis quin exacerbescat? Tune, ultime, parentis tuae animum in istis scrutaris, oculos obseruas, suspiritus numeras, adfectiones exploras, tabulas intercipis, amorem reuincis?

Would you set up statues to a “Pious” man, that a son should upbraid his own mother with shameful things, and object to her debaucheries and loves? (3) Who is so mild as not to be exacerbated? You, vilest man, do you probe your parent’s mind in these matters, watch her eyes, count her sighs, explore her affections, intercept her tablets, convict her of love?

(4) Tune quid in cubiculo agat perquiris, ne mater tua non dico amatrix, sed ne omnino femina sit? <Nihil>ne tu in ea cogitas nisi unam parentis religionem? (5) O infelix uterum tuum, Pudentilla, o sterilitas liberis potior, o infausti decem menses, o ingrati XIIII anni uiduitatis! Vipera, ut audio, exeso matris utero in lucem proserpit atque ita parricidio gignitur; at enim tibi a filio iam adulto acerbiores morsus uiuenti et uidenti offeruntur.

(4) Do you inquire what she does in her bedchamber, so that your mother may be—not to say a mistress, but not be a woman at all be? Do you think <Nothing> in her except the single duty of a parent? (5) O unhappy your womb, Pudentilla, O barrenness preferable to children, O ill-omened ten months, O ungrateful 14 years of widowhood! A viper, as I hear, crawls forth into the light after eating through its mother’s womb and thus is begotten by parricide; but for you, from a son already adult, while you live and see it, harsher bites are offered.

(6) Silentium tuum laniatur, pudor tuus carpitur, pectus tuum foditur, uiscera intima protrahuntur.

(6) Your silence is lacerated, your modesty is carped at, your breast is stabbed, your inmost viscera are dragged forth.

(7) Hascine gratias bonus filius matri rependis ob datam uitam, ob adquisitam hereditatem, ob XIIII annorum longas alimonias? Hiscine te patruus disciplinis erudiuit, ut, si compertum habeas filios tibi similes futuros, non audeas ducere uxorem? (8) Est ille poetae uersus non ignotus:

(7) Are these the thanks a good son repays to his mother for life given, for an inheritance acquired, for the long alimonies of 14 years? Is it with such disciplines that your uncle educated you, that, if you should have ascertained that sons were going to be like you, you would not dare to take a wife? (8) That verse of the poet is not unknown:

'odi puerulos praecoqui sapientia.'

'I hate little boys precocious in wisdom.'

Sed enim malitia praecoqui puerum quis non auersetur atque oderit, cum uideat uelut monstrum quoddam prius robustum scelere quam tempore, ante nocentem quam potentem, uiridi pueritia, cana malitia, (9) uel potius hoc magis noxium, quod cum uenia perniciosus est et nondum poenae, iam iniuriae sufficit _ iniuriae dico? Immo enim sceleri aduersum parentem nefando, immani, impetibili.

But indeed, who would not avert and hate a boy precocious in malice, when he sees, as it were, a certain monster, earlier robustum in crime than in time, sooner a wrongdoer than powerful, youth green, malice hoary, (9) or rather this more noxious: that, even with indulgence, he is pernicious, and, not yet sufficient for punishment, already sufficient for injury _ do I say injury? Nay rather for a crime against a parent—nefarious, immense, irresistible.

[86] (1) Athenienses quidem propter commune ius humanitatis ex captiuis epistulis Philippi Macedonis hostis sui unam epistulam, cum singulae publice legerentur, recitari prohibuerunt, quae erat ad uxorem Olympiadem conscripta. Hosti potius pepercerunt, ne maritale secretum diuulgarent, praeferendum rati fas commune propriae ultioni. (2) Tales hostes aduersum hostem; tu qualis filius aduersum matrem?

[86] (1) The Athenians, indeed, on account of the common right of humanity, from the captured letters of Philip the Macedonian, their enemy, forbade one letter to be recited, as the individual ones were being read publicly, which had been composed to his wife Olympias. They spared an enemy rather, lest they divulge a marital secret, judging that the common fas was to be preferred to their own vengeance. (2) Such enemies against an enemy; you—what kind of son against your mother?

Vides quam similia contendam. Tu tamen filius matris epistulas de amore, ut ais, scriptas in isto coetu legis, in quo si aliquem poetam lasciuiorem iubereris legere, profecto non auderes: pudore tamen aliquo impedirere. (3) Immo enim nunquam matris tuae litteras attigisses, si ullas alias litteras attigisses.

You see how similar things I contend. Yet you, a son, read your mother’s epistles about love, as you say, written, in that assembly in which, if you were ordered to read some more lascivious poet, you would surely not dare: you would, however, be impeded by some modesty. (3) Nay rather, indeed, you would never have touched your mother’s letters, if you had touched any other letters.

(4) At quam ausus es tuam ipsius epistulam legendam dare, quam nimis irreuerenter, nimis contumeliose et turpiter de matre tua scriptam, cum adhuc in eius sinu alerere, miseras clanculo ad Pontianum, scilicet ne semel peccasses ac tam bonum tuum factum optutu capesseret. (5) Miser, non intellegis iccirco patruum tuum hoc fieri passum, quod se hominibus purgaret, si ex litteris tuis nosceretur te etiam prius quam ad eum commigrasses, etiam cum matri blandirere, tamen iam tum uolpionem et impium fuisse. [87] (1) Ceterum nequeo in animum inducere tam stultum Aemilianum esse, ut arbitretur mihi litteras pueri et eiusdem accusatoris me offuturas.

(4) But how did you dare to give your own letter to be read, which had been written about your mother far too irreverently, far too contumeliously and shamefully, when you were still being nourished in her bosom, you sent it secretly to Pontianus—of course, so that you might not have sinned only once, and so that at a glunce someone might seize upon your so fine deed. (5) Wretch, do you not understand that for this reason your uncle allowed this to be done, so that he might clear himself before men, if from your letters it were known that you, even before you had moved over to him, even when you were flattering your mother, nevertheless already then had been a little fox and impious. [87] (1) Moreover, I cannot bring myself to think Aemilianus so foolish as to suppose that a boy’s letters and those of that same accuser of mine will muzzle me.

(2) Fuit et illa commenticia epistula neque mea manu scripta neque uerisimiliter conficta, qua uideri uolebant blanditiis a me mulierem sollicitatam. Cur ego blandirem, si magia confidebam? (3) Qua autem uia ad istos peruenit epistula, ad Pudentillam scilicet per aliquem fidelem missa, ut in re tali accurari solet?

(2) That too was a concocted letter, neither written by my own hand nor plausibly fabricated, by which they wanted it to seem that the woman had been solicited by me with blandishments. Why should I flatter, if I was trusting in magic? (3) And by what way did the letter reach those men, sent, namely, to Pudentilla through some faithful person, as in a matter of this kind it is wont to be accurately managed?

(4) Cur praeterea tam uitiosis uerbis, tam barbaro sermone ego scriberem, quem idem dicunt nequaquam Graecae linguae imperitum? Cur autem tam absurdis tamque tabernariis blanditiis subigitarem, quem idem aiunt uersibus amatoriis satis scite lasciuire? (5) Sic est profecto, cuiuis palam est: hic, qui epistulam Pudentillae Graecatiorem legere non potuerat, hanc ut suam facilius legit et aptius commendauit.

(4) Why, moreover, should I write with such vicious words, in such barbarous speech, I whom these same men say are by no means unskilled in the Greek tongue? Why, furthermore, should I be trying to subdue with such absurd and tavern-keeper blandishments, I whom these same men say know quite cleverly how to frolic in amatory verses? (5) So it is indeed, it is clear to anyone: this fellow, who had not been able to read Pudentilla’s more Grecizing letter, read this one more easily as his own and commended it more aptly.

(6) Sed iam de epistulis satis dictum habebo, si hoc unum addidero: Pudentillam, quae scribserat dissimulamenti causa et deridiculi:

(6) But now I shall have said enough about the letters, if I add this one thing: that Pudentilla, who had written for the sake of dissimulation and of ridicule:

____ ______, ___ ___ _______,

post hasce litteras euocasse ad se filios et nurum, cum his ferme duobus mensibus conuersatam. (7) Dicat hic pius filius, quid in eo tempore sequius agentem uel loquentem matrem suam propter insaniam uiderit; neget eam rationibus uilliconum et upilionum et equisonum sollertissime subscripsisse; (8) neget fratrem suum Pontianum grauiter ab ea monitum, ut sibi ab insidiis Rufini caueret; neget uere obiurgatum, quod litteras, quas ad eum miserat, uulgo circumtulisset nec tamen bona fide legisset; (9) neget post ista quae dixi matrem suam mihi apud uillam iam pridem condicto loco nubsisse.

after these letters she had called to herself her sons and her daughter-in-law, and for about two months consorted with them. (7) Let this dutiful son say what in that time he saw his mother, on account of insanity, doing or speaking more amiss; let him deny that she most skillfully subscribed to the accounts of the farm-stewards and the shepherds and the grooms; (8) let him deny that his brother Pontianus was gravely admonished by her to beware for himself of the ambushes of Rufinus; let him deny that he was truly objurgated because he had carried about publicly the letters which she had sent to him and yet had not read them bona fide; (9) let him deny that after those things which I have said his mother married me at the villa, long since, at an appointed place.

(10) Quippe ita placuerat, in suburbana uilla potius ut coniungeremur, ne ciues denuo ad sportulas conuolarent, cum haud pridem Pudentilla de suo quinquaginta milia nummum <in> populum expunxisset ea die, qua Pontianus uxorem duxit et hic puerulus toga est inuolutus, (11) praeterea, ut conuiuiis multis ac molestiis supersederemus, quae ferme ex more nouis maritis obeunda sunt.

(10) For indeed it had been so decided, that we should be joined rather in a suburban villa, lest the citizens should flock again for sportulae, since not long ago Pudentilla out of her own had disbursed fifty thousand coins <in> to the people on the day on which Pontianus took a wife and this little boy was wrapped in the toga, (11) furthermore, in order that we might forgo the many banquets and annoyances which, according to custom, are for the most part to be undergone by new husbands.

[88] (1) Habes, Aemiliane, causam totam, cur tabulae nubtiales inter me ac Pudentillam non in oppido sint sed in uilla suburbana consignatae: ne quinquaginta milia nummum denuo profundenda essent nec tecum aut apud te cenandum. Estne causa idonea?

[88] (1) You have, Aemilianus, the whole reason why the nuptial tablets between me and Pudentilla were executed not in the town but in a suburban villa: so that 50,000 coins would not have to be poured out again, and so that there might be no dining with you or at your place. Is the reason adequate?

(2) Miror tamen, quod tu a[m] uilla[m] tantopere abhorreas, qui plerumque rure uersere. (3) Lex quidem Iulia de maritandis ordinibus nusquam sui ad hunc modum interdicit: 'uxorem in uilla ne ducito.' (4) Immo, si uerum uelis, uxor ad prolem multo auspicatius in uilla quam in oppido ducitur, in solo uberi quam in loco sterili, in agri cespite quam in fori silice. (5) Mater futura in ipso materno si<nu> nubat, in segete adulta, super fecundam glebam, uel enim sub ulmo marita cubet, in ipso gremio terrae matris, inter suboles herbarum et propagines uitium et arborum germina.

(2) I marvel, however, that you abhor the villa so greatly, you who for the most part are occupied in the countryside. (3) The Julian Law on the marrying of the orders nowhere forbids, to this effect: ‘do not take a wife in a villa.’ (4) Nay rather, if you would have the truth, a wife is led for offspring much more auspiciously in a villa than in a town, on fertile soil than in a barren place, on the turf of the field rather than on the flint of the forum. (5) Let the future mother wed in the very maternal bosom, in a ripened crop, upon a fecund clod; or indeed let the married woman lie beneath an elm, in the very lap of mother Earth, among the offspring of herbs and the shoots of vines and the buds of trees.

(6) Ibi et ille celeberrimus in comoediis uersus de proximo congruit:

(6) There too that most celebrated line in the comedies fits right to the point:

______ __' _____, _______ ___ _____.

(7) Romanorum etiam maioribus Quintis et Serranis et multis aliis similibus non modo uxores, uerum etiam consulatus et dictaturae in agris offerebantur. Cohibe[b]am me in tam prolixo loco, ne tibi gratum faciam, si uillam laudauero.

(7) To the ancestors of the Romans as well—the Quintii and the Serrani and many others like them—not only wives, but even consulships and dictatorships were offered in the fields. I was restraining myself in so long a passage, lest I should please you if I were to praise a villa.

[89] (1) De aetate uero Pudentillae, de qua post ista satis confidenter mentitus es, ut etiam sexaginta annos natam diceres nubsisse, de ea tibi paucis respondebo: nam necesse non est in re tam perspicua pluribus disputare.

[89] (1) As for the age indeed of Pudentilla, about which, after these things, you have lied quite confidently, to the point that you even said that she, sixty years old, had married, about that I will answer you in a few words; for it is not necessary, in a matter so perspicuous, to dispute at greater length.

(2) Pater eius natam sibi filiam more ceterorum professus est. Tabulae eius partim tabulario publico, partim domo adseruantur, quae iam tibi ob os obiciuntur. (3) Porrige tu Aemiliano tabulas istas: linum consideret, signa quae impressa sunt recognoscat, consules legat, annos computet, quos sexaginta mulieri adsignabat.

(2) Her father professed, in the manner of the rest, that a daughter had been born to him. Her tablets are kept partly in the public record office, partly at home, which are now being thrust before your face. (3) Hold out those tablets to Aemilianus: let him examine the linen-thread, let him recognize the seals that have been impressed, let him read the consuls, let him compute the years, which he was assigning to the woman as sixty.

(4) Probet quinque et quinquaginta: lustro mentitus sit. Parum hoc est, liberalius agam; nam et ipse Pudentillae multos annos largitus est. Redonabo igitur uicissim decem annos: Mezentius cum Vlixe errauit.

(4) Let him make it fifty-five: let him have lied by a lustrum. This is too little; I will deal more liberally, for he too has bestowed many years upon Pudentilla. Therefore I will in turn give back ten years: Mezentius wandered with Ulysses.

Quinquaginta saltem annorum mulierem ostendat.

Let him at least show a woman of fifty years.

(5) Quid multis? Vt cum quadruplatore agam, bis duplum quinquennium faciam, uiginti annos semel detraham. Iube, Maxime, consules computari.

(5) What need of many words? As if I were dealing with a quadruplator, I will make twice the double quinquennium, and I will subtract twenty years at a single stroke. Order, Maximus, that the consuls be computed.

Nisi fallor, inuenies nunc Pudentillae haud multo amplius quadragensimum annum aetatis ire. (6) O falsum audax et nimium! O mendacium uiginti annorum exilio puniendum!

Unless I am mistaken, you will find that now Pudentilla’s age goes not much beyond the fortieth year. (6) O audacious and excessive falsehood! O mendacity to be punished with an exile of twenty years!

Dimidio tanta, Aemiliane, mentiris, falsa audes sesquealtera. Si triginta annos pro decem dixisses, posses uideri computationis gestu errasse, quos circulare debueris digitos aperuisse. (7) Cum uero quadraginta, quae facilius ceteris porrecta palma significantur, ea quadraginta tu dimidio auges, non potes[t] digitorum gestu errasse, nisi forte triginta annorum Pudentillam ratus binos cuiusque anni consules numerasti.

By half as much again, Aemilianus, you are lying; you dare falsehoods of the sesquialter. If you had said thirty years instead of ten, you might seem to have erred by the gesture of computation, in that you ought to have opened up your fingers circularly. (7) But since forty, which are signified more easily than the rest by an outstretched palm, you increase those forty by a half, you cannot have erred in the gesture of the fingers, unless perhaps, thinking Pudentilla to be of thirty years, you counted the two consuls of each year.

[90] (1) Missa haec facio. Venio nunc ad ipsum stirpem accusationis, ad ipsam causam maleficii. Respondeat Aemilianus et Rufinus, ob quod emolumentum, etsi maxime magus forem, Pudentillam carminibus et uenenis ad matrimonium pellexissem.

[90] (1) I dismiss these matters. I now come to the very root of the accusation, to the very cause of the malefice. Let Aemilianus and Rufinus answer, for what emolument, even if I were the greatest magus, I would have lured Pudentilla to marriage by incantations and poisons.

(2) Atque ego scio plerosque reos alicuius facinoris postulatos, si fuisse quaepiam causae probarentur, hoc uno se tamen [h]abunde defendisse, uitam suam procul ab huiusmodi sceleribus abhorrere nec id sibi obesse debere, quod uideantur quaedam fuisse ad maleficiundum inuitamenta; (3) non enim omnia quae fieri poterint pro factis habenda, rerum uices uarias euenire; certum indicem cuiusque animum esse; qui semper eodem ingenio ad uirtutem uel malitiam moratus firmum argumentum est accipiendi criminis aut respuendi.

(2) And I know that very many defendants prosecuted for some crime, even if certain motives were proved to have existed, have nevertheless amply defended themselves by this one plea: that their life recoils far from crimes of this sort, and that it ought not to prejudice them that there seem to have been certain inducements to wrongdoing; (3) for not everything that could have been done is to be accounted as a deed; the vicissitudes of affairs turn out in various ways; the mind of each person is a sure index; one who has always remained of the same disposition toward virtue or toward malice is a firm argument for accepting or rejecting the charge.

(4) Haec ego quamquam possim merito dicere, tamen uobis condono, nec satis mihi duco, si me omnium quae insimulastis abunde purgaui, si nusquam passus sum uel exiguam suspicionem magiae consistere. (5) Reputate uobiscum, quanta fiducia innocentiae meae quantoque despectu uestri agam: si una causa uel minima fuerit inuenta, cur ego debuerim Pudentillae nubtias ob aliquod meum commodum appetere, si quamlibet modicum emolumentum probaueritis, (6) ego ille sim Carmendas uel Damigeron uel _ his Moses uel Iohannes uel Apollobex uel ipse Dardanus uel quicumque alius post Zoroastren et Hostanen inter magos celebratus est.

(4) Although I could with merit say these things, nevertheless I make you this concession, nor do I count it sufficient for myself, even if I have abundantly cleared myself of all that you have accused me of, if I have nowhere allowed even the slightest suspicion of magic to stand. (5) Consider with yourselves with what great confidence in my innocence and with what great contempt of you I proceed: if a single cause, even the least, shall have been found why I ought to have sought Pudentilla’s nuptials for some advantage of my own, if you shall have proved any emolument, however small, (6) then let me be that Carmendas or Damigeron or _ his Moses or Iohannes or Apollobex or Dardanus himself, or whoever alius after Zoroaster and Hostanes has been celebrated among the magi.

[91] (1) Vide quaeso, Maxime, quem tumultum suscitarint, quoniam ego paucos magorum nominatim percensui. Quid faciam tam rudibus, tam barbaris? (2) Doceam rursum haec et multo plura alia nomina in bybliothecis publicis apud clarissimos scriptores me legisse?

[91] (1) See, I pray, Maximus, what a tumult they have stirred up, since I have enumerated a few of the magi by name. What am I to do with men so rude, so barbarous? (2) Am I to show again that I have read these and many far more other names in the public libraries in the works of most illustrious writers?

An disputem longe aliud esse notitiam nominum, aliud artis eiusdem communionem, nec debere doctrinae instrumentum et eruditionis memoriam pro confessione criminis haberi? (3) An, quod multo praestabilius est, tua doctrina, Claudi Maxime, tuaque perfecta eruditione fretus contemnam stultis et impolitis ad haec respondere? (4) Ita potius faciam; quid illi existiment, nauci non putabo.

Or shall I argue that acquaintance with names is one thing far different, and sharing in that same art another, and that the instrument of learning and the memory of erudition ought not to be held as a confession of crime? (3) Or, what is much more preferable, relying on your teaching, Claudius Maximus, and on your perfected erudition, shall I disdain to make reply to these matters for the foolish and the unpolished? (4) So rather will I do; what they think, I shall count as nothing.

Quod institui pergam disputare: nullam mihi causam fuisse Pudentillam ueneficiis ad nuptias prolectandi. (5) Formam mulieris et aetatem ipsi ultro improbauerunt idque mihi uitio dederunt, talem uxorem causa auaritiae concupisse atque adeo primo dotem in congressu grandem et uberem rapuisse.

I will proceed to argue what I have undertaken: that I had no cause to entice Pudentilla to marriage by sorceries/poisonings. (5) They themselves, of their own accord, disapproved the woman’s beauty and age, and they laid this to my charge as a fault: that I had coveted such a wife for the sake of avarice, and indeed had, at the very first meeting, seized a large and ample dowry.

(6) Ad haec, Maxime, longa oratione fatigare te non est consilium. Nihil uerbis opus est, cum multo disertius ipsae tabulae loquantur, in quibus omnia contra quam isti ex sua rapacitate de me quoque coniectauerunt facta impraesentiarum et prouisa in posterum deprehendis: (7) iam primum mulieris locupletissimae modicam dotem neque eam datam, sed tantum modo <promissam>; (8) praeter haec ea condicione factam coniunctionem, nullis ex me susceptis liberis <si> uita demigrasset, uti dos omnis apud filios eius Pontianum et Pudentem maneret, sin uero uno unaue superstite diem suum obisset, uti tum diuidua pars dotis posteriori filio, reliqua prioribus cederet.

(6) To these points, Maximus, it is not my plan to weary you with a long speech. There is no need of words, since the tablets themselves speak far more eloquently, in which you detect everything—contrary to what those men, from their own rapacity, also conjectured about me—done for the present and provided for the future: (7) first of all, that for a very wealthy woman a moderate dowry, and not even given, but only <promised>; (8) besides this, that the conjunction was made on this condition, that, with no children begotten by me, if she had departed from life, the whole dowry should remain with her sons Pontianus and Pudens; but if, with only one or the other surviving, she had met her day, then a divided part of the dowry should pass to the younger son, the remainder to the elder.

[92] (1) Haec, ut dico, tabulis ipsis docebo. Fors fuat an ne sic quidem credat Aemilianus sola trecenta milia nummum scripta eorumque repetitionem filiis Pudentillae pacto datam. (2) Cape sis ipse tu manibus tuis tabulas istas, da impulsori tuo Rufino: legat, pudeat illum tumidi animi sui et ambitiosae mendicitatis.

[92] (1) These things, as I say, I will demonstrate by the tablets themselves. Perhaps it may be that not even thus will Aemilianus believe that only three hundred thousand coins were recorded, and that the claim for their recovery was by agreement given to Pudentilla’s sons. (2) Take, if you please, you yourself with your own hands those tablets; give them to your instigator Rufinus: let him read, let him be ashamed of his swollen spirit and ambitious mendicancy.

Quippe ipse egens, nudus CCCC milibus nummum a creditore acceptis filiam dotauit; (3) Pudentilla locuples femina trecentis milibus dotis fuit contenta, et maritum habet et multis saepe et ingentibus dotibus spretis inani nomine tantulae dotis contentum, (4) ceterum praeter uxorem suam nihil computantem, omnem supellectilem cunctasque diuitias in concordia coniugis et multo amore ponentem.

For indeed he himself, needy, bare, having received 400 thousand coins from a creditor, endowed his daughter; (3) Pudentilla, a wealthy woman, was content with 300 thousand as a dowry, and she has a husband who, with many and huge dowries often spurned, is content with the empty name of so tiny a dowry, (4) but otherwise reckoning nothing besides his own wife, placing all household gear and all riches in the concord of marriage and in much love.

(5) Quamquam quis omnium uel exigue rerum peritus culpare auderet, si mulier uidua et mediocri forma, at non aetate mediocri, nubere uolens longa dote et molli condicione inuitasset iuuenem neque corpore neque animo neque fortuna paenitendum? (6) Virgo formosa etsi sit oppido pauper, tamen [h]abunde dotata est; affert quippe ad maritum nouum animi indolem, pulchritudinis gratiam, floris rudimentum. Ipsa uirginitatis commendatio iure meritoque omnibus maritis acceptissima est.

(5) Although who of all, even slightly skilled in affairs, would dare to censure, if a woman, a widow and of mediocre form, but not of mediocre age, wishing to marry, had invited a young man with a large dowry and with a soft condition, one not to be repented of in body nor in mind nor in fortune? (6) A beautiful maiden, even if altogether poor, is nevertheless [h]abundantly endowed with a dowry; for she brings to her husband a new temperament of spirit, the grace of beauty, the rudiment of her bloom. The very commendation of virginity is by right and by desert most acceptable to all husbands.

(7) Nam quodcumque aliud in dotem acceperis, potes, cum libuit, ne sis beneficio obstrictus, omne ut acceperas retribuere: pecuniam renumerare, mancipia restituere, domo demigrare, praediis cedere; sola uirginitas cum semel accepta est, reddi nequitur, sola apud maritum ex rebus dotalibus remanet.

(7) For whatever else you may have received into the dowry, you can, whenever you please, so as not to be bound by a benefaction, return everything as you had received it: repay the money, restore the slaves, move out of the house, cede the estates; virginity alone, once it has been received, cannot be given back; it alone, among the dotal goods, remains with the husband.

(8) Vidua autem qualis nuptiis uenit, talis diuortio digreditur. Nihil affert inreposcibile, sed uenit iam ab alio praeflorata, certe tibi ad quae uelis minime docilis, non minus suspectans nouam domum quam ipsa iam ob unum diuortium suspectanda; (9) siue illa morte amisit maritum, ut scaeui ominis mulier et infausti coniugii minime appetenda, (10) seu repudio digressa est, utramuis habe<n>s culpam mulier, quae aut tam intolerabilis fuit ut repudiaretur, aut tam insolens ut repudiaret. (11) Ob haec et alia uiduae dote aucta procos sollicitant.

(8) But a widow goes forth from divorce such as she came to the nuptials. She brings nothing irreclaimable, but comes already deflowered by another, certainly for you least docile to what you may wish, no less suspicious of the new house than she herself is already to be suspected on account of one divorce; (9) whether she lost her husband by death, as a woman of baleful omen and of ill-starred marriage, least to be sought after, (10) or she departed by repudiation, the woman hav<n>ing blame in either case, who either was so intolerable as to be repudiated, or so insolent as to repudiate. (11) On account of these and other things, widows, with the dowry augmented, court suitors.

Quod Pudentilla quoque in alio marito fecisset, si philosophum spernentem dotis non reperisset.

Which Pudentilla likewise would have done with another husband, if she had not found a philosopher who scorned a dowry.

[93] (1) Age uero, si auaritiae causa mulierem concupissem, quid mihi utilius ad possidendam domum eius fuit quam simultatem inter matrem et filios serere, alienare ab eius animo liberorum caritatem, quo liberius et artius desolatam mulierem solus possiderem? (2) Fuitne hoc praedonis, quod uos fingitis?

[93] (1) Come now, if for the sake of avarice I had coveted the woman, what was more advantageous to me for possessing her household than to sow enmity between mother and sons, to alienate from her mind the affection of her children, so that I might more freely and more closely possess the desolate woman alone? (2) Was this the conduct of a brigand, which you feign?

Ego uero quietis et concordiae et pietatis auctor, conciliator, fauisor non modo noua odia non serui, sed uetera quoque funditus extirpaui. (3) Suasi uxori meae, cuius, ut isti aiunt, iam uniuersas opes transuoraram, suasi, inquam, ac denique persuasi, ut filiis pecuniam suam reposcentibus _ de quo supra dixeram _ ut eam pecuniam sine mora redderet in praedis uili aestimatis et quanto ipsi uolebant, (4) praeterea ex re familiari sua fructuosissimos agros et grandem domum opulente ornatam magnamque uim tritici et ordei et uini et oliui ceterorumque fructuum, seruos quoque haud minus CCCC, pecora amplius neque pauca neque abiecti pretii donaret, (5) ut eos et ex ea parte quam tribuisset securos haberet et ad cetera hereditatis bona spe[i] inuitaret. (6) Haec ergo ab inuita Pudentilla _ patietur enim me, uti res fuit, ita dicere _ aegre extudi, ingentibus precibus inuitae et iratae extorsi, matrem filiis reconciliaui, priuignos meos primo hoc uitrici beneficio grandi pecunia auxi.

But I, indeed, an author of quiet, concord, and piety, a conciliator, a favorer, not only did not sow new hatreds, but also extirpated the old ones from the root. (3) I urged my wife—whose entire wealth, as those men say, I had already devoured—I urged her, I say, and at length persuaded her, that when her sons were demanding back their money — as I said above — she should return that money without delay in estates assessed at a cheap valuation and at whatever amount they themselves wished; (4) furthermore, from her household resources she should gift the most fruitful fields and a large house richly adorned, and a great quantity of wheat and barley and wine and oil and the other produce, and slaves not fewer than 400, and herds in greater number, neither few nor of base value; (5) so that she might both hold them secure with respect to the part she had granted, and invite them by hope to the remaining goods of the inheritance. (6) These things, then, from an unwilling Pudentilla — for she will allow me to speak as the matter was — I with difficulty hammered out, I wrung from her, unwilling and angry, by vast entreaties; I reconciled the mother to her sons; I aided my stepsons with this first step-fatherly benefaction with a large sum of money.

[94] (1) Cognitum hoc est tota ciuitate. Rufinum omnes execrati me laudibus tulere. (2) Venerat ad nos, priusquam istam donationem perficeret, cum dissimili isto fratre suo Pontianus, pedes nostros aduolutus ueniam et obliuionem praeteritorum omnium postularat, flens et manus nostras osculabundus ac dicens paenitere quod Rufino et similibus auscultarit.

[94] (1) This was known to the whole city. All, having execrated Rufinus, extolled me with praises. (2) Pontianus had come to us, before he completed that donation, together with that dissimilar brother of his, having flung himself at our feet he had petitioned pardon and oblivion of all past things, weeping and kissing our hands and saying that he repented that he had listened to Rufinus and to men of like sort.

(3) Petit postea suppliciter, uti se Lolliano quoque Auito C. V. purgem, cui haud pridem tirocinio orationis suae fuerat a me commendatus. (4) Quippe compererat ante paucos dies omnia me, ut acta erant, ad eum perscripsisse. (5) Id quoque a me impetrat.

(3) Afterwards he begs submissively that I also clear him with Lollianus Avitus, a most distinguished man, to whom not long before, at the outset of his oratory, he had been commended by me. (4) For indeed he had learned a few days earlier that I had written in full to him about everything, just as the acts had occurred. (5) This too he obtains from me.

Itaque acceptis litteris Carthaginem pergit, ubi iam prope exacto consulatus sui munere Lollianus Auitus te, Maxime, opperiebatur. (6) [h]Is epistulis meis lectis pro sua eximia humanitate gratulatus Pontiano, quod cito [h]errorem suum correxisset, rescripsit mihi per eum quas litteras, di boni, qua doctrina, quo lepore, qua uerborum amoenitate simul et iucunditate, prorsus ut 'uir bonus dicendi peritus'!

Accordingly, having received the letters, he proceeds to Carthage, where, with the function of his consulship now nearly completed, Lollianus Avitus was awaiting you, Maximus. (6) Upon reading these my letters, in accordance with his exceptional humanity, congratulating Pontianus because he had quickly corrected his error, he wrote back to me through him letters—good gods, with what learning, with what charm, with what amenity of words and at the same time pleasantness—altogether like ‘a good man skilled in speaking’!

(7) Scio te, Maxime, libenter eius litteras auditurum, et quide<m>, si praelegam, mea uoce pronuntiabo. Cedo tu Auiti epistulas, ut quae semper ornamento mihi fuerunt sint nunc etiam saluti. (8) At tu licebit aquam sinas fluere; namque optimi uiri litteras ter et quater aueo quantouis temporis dispendio lectitare.

(7) I know that you, Maximus, will gladly listen to his letter, and indee<d>, if I pre-read it, I will deliver it in my own voice. Come, hand over Avitus’s letters, so that what has always been an ornament to me may now also be for my safety. (8) But you may allow the water to flow; for I am eager to read and re-read the letters of a most excellent man three and four times, at whatever loss of time.

(...)

[95] (1) Non sum nescius debuisse me post istas Auiti litteras perorare. Quem enim laudatorem locupletiorem, quem testem uitae meae sanctiorem producam, quem denique aduocatum facundiorem? (2) Multos in uita mea Romani nominis disertos uiros sedulo cognoui, sed sum [m]aeque neminem ammiratus.

[95] (1) I am not unaware that I ought to have perorated after those letters of Avitus. For what praiser could I produce richer, what witness of my life more holy, what advocate, finally, more eloquent? (2) In my life I have assiduously come to know many eloquent men of the Roman name, but I have admired no one equally.

(3) Nemo est hodie, quantum mea opinio fert, alicuius in eloquentia laudis et spei, (4) quin Auitus esse longe malit, si cu<m> eo se remota inuidia uelit conferre. Quippe omnes fandi uirtutes paene diuersae in illo uiro congruunt. (5) Quamcumque ora<tio>nem struxerit Auitus, ita illa erit undique sui perfecte absoluta, ut in illa neque Cato grauitatem requirat neque Laelius lenitatem nec Gracchus impetum nec Caesar calorem nec <H>ortensius distributionem nec Caluus argutias nec parsimoniam Salustius nec opulentiam Cicero.

(3) There is no one today, so far as my opinion bears, of any praise and hope in eloquence, (4) who would not be far inferior to Avitus, if he should wish to compare himself with him, envy set aside. Indeed, almost all the virtues of speaking, though diverse, come together in that man. (5) Whatever oration Avitus may have constructed, it will be on every side perfectly complete in itself, such that in it neither would Cato require gravity, nor Laelius gentleness, nor Gracchus impetus, nor Caesar heat, nor Hortensius distribution, nor Calvus subtleties, nor Sallust parsimony, nor Cicero opulence.

(6) Prorsus, inquam, ne omnis persequar, si Auitum audias, neque additum quicquam uelis neque detractum neque autem aliquid commutatum.

(6) Absolutely, I say, not to go through everything, should you hear Avitus, you would wish nothing added, nothing detracted, nor, moreover, anything changed.

(7) Video, Maxime, quam benigne audias, quae in amico tuo Auito recognosces. Tua me comitas, ut uel pauca dicerem de eo, inuitauit. (8) At non usque adeo tuae beneuolentiae indulgebo, ut mihi permittam iam propemodum fesso in causa prorsus ad finem inclinata de egregiis uirtutibus eius nunc demum incipere, quin potius eas integris uiribus et tempori libero seruem.

(7) I see, Maximus, how benignly you listen to the things which you will recognize in your friend Avitus. Your comity has invited me to say even a few things about him. (8) But I will not so far indulge your benevolence as to allow myself—now well-nigh weary, with the cause altogether inclined toward its end—to begin only now about his outstanding virtues; rather I will reserve them for unimpaired strength and for free time.

[96] (1) Nunc enim mihi, quod aegre fero, a commemoratione tanti uiri ad pestes istas oratio reuoluenda est. (2) Audesne te ergo, Aemiliane, cum Auito conferre? Quemne ille bonum uirum ait, cuius animi disputationem tam plene suis litteris collaudat, eum tu magiae, maleficii criminis insectabere?

[96] (1) For now—which I bear with difficulty—my discourse must be turned back from the commemoration of so great a man to those pests. (2) Do you then dare, Aemilianus, to compare yourself with Avitus? The man whom he declares to be a good man, whose reasoning of mind he so fully extols in his own letters—will you harry him with the charge of magic, the crime of malefice?

(3) An inuasisse me domum Pudentillae et concipilare bona eius tu magis dolere debes quam doluisset Pontianus, qui mihi ob paucorum dierum uestro scilicet instinctu ortas simultates etiam absenti apud Auitum satisfecit, qui mihi apud tantum uirum gratias egit?

(3) Or are you to grieve more than Pontianus would have grieved, that I had invaded Pudentilla’s house and pillaged her goods—he who, on account of the feuds that arose for a few days at, to be sure, your instigation, even when I was absent made satisfaction to me before Avitus, and gave thanks to me in the presence of so great a man?

(4) Puta me acta apud Auitum, non litteras ipsius legisse. Quid posses uel _ quas quis in isto negotio accusare? Pontianus ipse quod a matre donatum acceperat meo muneri acceptum ferebat, Pontianus me uitricum sibi contigisse intimis affectionibus laetabatur.

(4) Suppose that I read the proceedings before Avitus, not his own letter. What could you, or _ whom could anyone, accuse in this business? Pontianus himself credited to my favor what he had received as a donation from his mother; Pontianus rejoiced with inmost affections that I had fallen to him as a stepfather.

(5) Quod utinam incolumis Carthagine reuertisset! Vel, quoniam sic ei fuerat fato decretum, utinam tu, Rufine, supremum eius iudicium non impedisses! Quas mihi aut coram aut denique in testamento gratias egisset!

(5) Would that he had returned safe to Carthage! Or, since thus it had been decreed to him by fate, would that you, Rufinus, had not impeded his final judgment! What thanks he would have given me either in person or at least in his will!

(6) Litteras tamen, quas ad me Carthagine[m] uel iam adueniens ex itinere praemisit, quas adhuc ualidus, quas iam aeger, plenas honoris, plenas amoris, quaeso, Maxime, paulisper recitari sinas, (7) ut sciat frater eius, accusator meus, quam in omnibus Mineruae curriculum cum fratre optumae memoriae uiro[c] currat. (...)

(6) Nevertheless, the letters which he sent to me to Carthage, or, already arriving, sent ahead from the journey—those while still in full health, those when already sick—full of honor, full of love, I beg, Maximus, that you allow to be read for a little while, (7) so that his brother, my accuser, may know how in all things he runs Minerva’s course together with his brother, a man of most excellent memory. (...)

[97] (1) Audistine uocabula, quae mihi Pontianus frater tuus tribuerat, me parentem suum, me dominum, me magistrum cum saepe alias, tum in extremo te<m>pore uitae uocans? Postquam <...> (2) tuas quoque paris epistulas promerem, si uel exiguam moram tanti putarem. Potius testamentum illud recens tui fratris quamquam inperfectum tamen proferri cuperem, in quo mei officiosissime et honestissime meminit.

[97] (1) Have you heard the vocabula which Pontianus, your brother, had bestowed on me—calling me his parent, his lord, his teacher—both often at other times and at the last ti<m>e of life? After <...> (2) I too would bring out your matching letters, if I deemed even a slight delay worth so much. Rather, I would prefer that that recent testament of your brother, although imperfect, nevertheless be produced, in which he makes mention of me most dutifully and most honorably.

(3) Quod tamen testamentum Rufinus neque comparari neque perfici passus est pudore perditae hereditatis, quam paucorum mensium, quibus socer Pontiani fuit, magno quidem pretio noctium computarat. (4) Praeterea nescio quos Chaldaeos consuluerat, quo lucro filiam collocaret; qui, ut audio, _ utinam illud non uere respondissent! _ primum eius maritum in paucis mensibus moriturum.

(3) Which testament, however, Rufinus allowed neither to be procured nor to be completed, out of shame at the squandered inheritance, which he had computed, for the few months during which he was Pontianus’s father-in-law, at a great price of nights. (4) Moreover, he had consulted I-know-not-what Chaldaeans, with what profit he might settle his daughter; who, as I hear, _ would that they had not answered that truly! _ that her first husband would die in a few months.

Cetera enim de hereditate, ut adsolent, ad consulentis uotum confinxerunt.

For the rest, regarding the inheritance, as they are accustomed, they fabricated things to the wish of the inquirer.

(5) Verum, ut dii uoluere, quasi caeca bestia in cassum hiauit. Pontianus enim filiam Rufini male compertam non modo heredem non reliquit, sed ne honesto quidem legato impertiuit, (6) quippe qui ei ad ignominiam lintea adscribi ducentorum fere denariorum iusserit, ut intellegeretur iratus potius aestimasse eam quam oblitus praeterisse. (7) Scribsit autem heredes tam hoc testamento quam priore, quod lectum est, matrem cum fratre; cui, ut uides, admodum puero eandem illam filiae suae machinam Rufinus admouet ac mulierem aliquam multo natu maiorem, nuperrime uxorem fratris, misero puero obicit et obsternit.

(5) But, as the gods willed, he gaped in vain like a blind beast. For Pontianus, having found Rufinus’s daughter to be of ill repute, not only did not leave her as heir, but did not even bestow upon her an honorable legacy; (6) indeed, he ordered linens to be entered for her, to her ignominy, worth nearly 200 denarii, so that it might be understood that, in anger, he had rather appraised her than passed her by in forgetfulness. (7) Moreover, he named as heirs, both in this testament and in the prior one that was read, the mother together with the brother; upon whom, as you see, being a mere boy, Rufinus applies that same machination he used for his own daughter, and he foists upon and lays upon the wretched boy a certain woman much older in years, very recently the wife of his brother.

[98] (1) A[i]t ille puellae meretricis blandimentis et lenonis patris illectamentis captus et possessus, exinde ut frater eius animam edidit, relicta matre ad patruum commigrauit, quo facilius remotis nobis coepta perficerentur. (2) Fauet enim Rufino Aemilianus et prouentum cupit. (...) Ehem, recte uos ammonetis: etiam suam spem bonus patruus temperat in isto ac fouet, qui sciat intestati pueri legitimum magis quam iustum heredem futurum.

[98] (1) But he, captured and possessed by the blandishments of the girl, a meretrix, and the enticements of her leno-father, thereafter, when her brother gave up the ghost, with his mother left behind migrated to his uncle, so that more easily, with us removed, the undertakings might be brought to completion. (2) For Aemilianus favors Rufinus and desires the profit. (...) Ahem, you rightly admonish: the good uncle also tempers and fosters his own hope in this one, since he knows that of an intestate boy a lawful rather than a just heir will result.

(3) Nollem hercule hoc a me profectum: non fuit meae moderationis tacitas omnium suspiciones palam abrumpere. Male uos, qui sugge<s>sistis!

(3) By Hercules, I would not have this proceed from me: it was not of my moderation to break openly the tacit suspicions of all. You have done ill, you who sugge<s>gested this!

(4) Plane quidem, si [p]uerum uelis, multi mirantur, Aemiliane, tam repentinam circa puerum istum pietatem tuam, postquam frater eius Pontianus est mortuus, cum antea tam ignotus illi fueris, ut saepe ne in occursu quidem filium fratris tui de facie agnosceres. (5) At nunc adeo patientem te ei praebes itaque eum indulgentia corrumpis, adeo ei nulla re aduersare, ut per haec suspicacioribus fidem facias. Inuestem a nobis accepisti; uesticipem ilico reddidisti.

(4) Plainly indeed, if you [p]refer the boy, many marvel, Aemilianus, at your so sudden pietas toward that boy, after his brother Pontianus has died, when before you were so unknown to him that often not even upon meeting would you recognize your brother’s son by his face. (5) But now you present yourself to him so patient and thus you spoil him with indulgence, you oppose him in nothing to such a degree, that by these things you give credence to the more suspicious. You received him from us un-gowned; you straightway rendered him a toga-wearer.

(6) Cum a nobis regeretur, ad magistros itabat; ab iis nunc magna fugela in ganeum fugit, amicos serios aspernatur, cum adulescentulis postremissumis inter scorta et pocula puer hoc aeui conuiuium agitat. (7) Ipse domi tuae rector, ipse familiae dominus, ipse magister conuiuio. In ludo quoque gladiatorio frequens uisitur; nomina gladiatorum et pugnas et uulnera plane quidem ut puer honestus ab ipso lanista docetur.

(6) When he was being guided by us, he used to go to his teachers; from them now, in a grand bout of truancy, he flees into the eating-house, he scorns serious friends, and with the most remiss young lads, among harlots and cups, a boy of this age carries on his carousal. (7) He himself is the ruler in your house, he himself the master of the household, he himself the master of the feast. He is also frequently seen at the gladiatorial school; the names of the gladiators and the bouts and the wounds—quite openly, as though a respectable boy—he is taught by the lanista himself.

(8) Loquitur nunquam nisi Punice et si quid adhuc a matre graecissat; enim Latine loqui neque uult neque potest. (9) Audisti, Maxime, paulo ante _ pro nefas! _ priuignum meum, fratrem Pontiani, diserti iuuenis, uix singulas syllabas fringultientem, cum ab eo quaereres dona<s>setne illis mater quae ego dicebam me adnitente donata.

(8) He never speaks except in Punic, and, if anything, he still Graecizes from his mother; for he neither wants nor is able to speak Latin. (9) You heard, Maximus, a little before _ for shame! _ my stepson, the brother of Pontianus, a well-spoken young man, scarcely stammering out single syllables, when you were asking him whether their mother had given to them the things which I was saying had been bestowed through my efforts.

[99] (1) Testor igitur te, Claudi Maxime, uosque, qui in consilio estis, uosque etiam, qui tribunal mecum adsistitis, haec damna et dedecora morum eius patruo huic et candidato illo socero adsignanda (2) meque posthac boni consulturum, quod talis priuignus curae meae iugum ceruice excusserit, neque postea pro eo matri eius supplicaturum.

[99] (1) Therefore I call you to witness, Claudius Maximus, and you who are on the council, and you also who stand by the tribunal with me, that these damages and disgraces of his morals are to be assigned to this uncle and to that prospective father-in-law; (2) and that I hereafter will take it as a good thing that such a stepson has shaken from his neck the yoke of my care, and that I will not thereafter supplicate his mother on his behalf.

(3) Nam, quod paenissime oblitus sum, nuperrime cum testamentum Pudentilla post mortem Pontiani filii sui in mala ualetudine scrib[s]eret, diu sum aduersus illam renisus, ne hunc ob tot insignis contumelias, ob tot iniurias exheredaret. (4) Elogium grauissimum iam totum medius fidius perscriptum ut aboleret, impensis precibus oraui[t]. Postremo, ni impetrarem, diuersurum me ab ea comminatus sum; mihi hanc ueniam tribueret, malum filium beneficio uinceret, me inuidia omni liberaret. (5) Nec prius destiti quam ita fecit.

(3) For, what I very nearly forgot, most recently when Pudentilla, after the death of her son Pontianus, was writing her will in poor health, I long resisted her, lest she disinherit him on account of so many notable contumelies, on account of so many injuries. (4) The gravest clause, by my faith, already written out in full, I begged with urgent prayers that she erase; at last, if I did not obtain it, I threatened to separate from her—that she grant me this indulgence, conquer the bad son by a benefit, free me from all envy. (5) Nor did I desist until she did so.

Doleo me huncce scrupulum Aemiliano dempsisse, tam inopinatam rem ei indicasse. Specta quaeso Maxime, ut hisce auditis subito obstipuerit, ut oculos ad terram demiserit. (6) Enim longe sequius ratus fuerat, nec inmerito: mulierem filii contumeliis infectam, meis officiis deuinctam sciebat.

I grieve that I have taken this scruple away from Aemilianus, that I have indicated to him such an unexpected matter. Look, please, Maximus, how, on hearing these things, he suddenly was stunned, how he lowered his eyes to the ground. (6) Indeed he had supposed far worse, and not without merit: he knew that the woman, stained by her son’s insults, was bound by my services.

De me quoque fuit quod timeret: quiuis uel aeque ut ego spernens hereditatis tamen uindicari de tam inofficioso priuigno non recusasset. (7) Haec praecipue sollicitudo eos ad accusationem mei stimulauit: hereditatem omnem mihi relictam falso ex sua auaritia coniectauere. Soluo uos in praeteritum isto metu.

There was also, in my case, something for him to fear: anyone, even equally as I, spurning inheritances, would nevertheless not have refused to have so undutiful a stepson punished. (7) This solicitude especially goaded them to my accusation: they falsely conjectured, out of their own avarice, that the whole inheritance had been left to me. I release you, as to the past, from that fear.

Namque animum meum neque hereditatis neque ultionis occasio potuit loco demouere. (8) Pugnaui cum irata matre pro priuigno malo uitricus, ueluti pater pro optimo filio aduersus nouercam, nec satis fuit, ni bonae uxoris prolixam liberalitatem circa me nimio plus aequo coercerem.

For neither the occasion of inheritance nor of vengeance could remove my resolve from its place. (8) I fought with the angry mother on behalf of a bad stepson, as a stepfather—just as a father on behalf of an excellent son would fight against a stepmother—and it was not enough, unless I restrained the prolix liberality of my good wife toward me far more than is equitable.

[100] (1) Cedo tu testamentum iam inimico filio a matre factum me, quem isti praedonem dicunt, uerba singula cum precibus praeeunte[m]. (2) Rumpi tabulas istas iube, Maxime: inuenies filium heredem, mihi uero tenue nescio quid honoris gratia legatum, ne, si quid ei humanitus attigisset, nomen maritus in uxoris tabulis non haberem. (3) Cape ist[a]ut matris tuae testamentum, uere hoc quidem inofficiosum. Qui<d>ni, in quo obsequentissimum maritum exheredauit, inimicissimum filium scribsit heredem, (4) immo enimuero non filium, sed Aemiliani spes et Rufini nuptias, set temulentum illud collegium, parasitos tuos?

[100] (1) Come then, produce the testament made by the mother for the now hostile son—with me, whom those men call a robber—prompting each word with prayers. (2) Order those tablets to be broken open, Maximus: you will find the son as heir, but to me, in truth, some slight I-know-not-what legacy for the sake of honor, so that, if anything had befallen him in the human way, I should not lack the name of “husband” in my wife’s tablets. (3) Take this as your mother’s testament—truly, this indeed is undutiful. Why not, in which she disinherited the most compliant husband, and enrolled as heir the most hostile son, (4) nay rather indeed, not the son, but the hopes of Aemilianus and the nuptials of Rufinus, but that drunken college—your parasites?

(5) Accipe, inquam, filiorum optime, et positis paulisper epistulis amatoriis matris lege potius testamentum. Si quid quasi insana scripsit, hic reperies et quidem mox a principio: 'Sicinius Pudens filius meus mihi heres esto.' Fateor, qui ho<c> legerit insanum putabit. (6) Hicine filius heres, qui te in ipso fratris sui funere aduocata perditissimorum iuuenum manu uoluit excludere e domo quam ipsa donaueras, qui te sibi a fratre coheredem relictam grauiter et acerbe tulit, (7) qui confestim te cum tuo luctu et maerore deseruit et ad Rufinum et Aemilianum de sinu tuo aufugit, (8) qui <t>ibi plurimas postea contumelias dixit coram et adiuuante patruo fecit, qui nomen tuum pro tribunalibus uentilauit, qui pudorem tuum tuismet litteris conatus est publice dedecorare, (9) qui maritu<m> tuum, quem elegeras, quem, ut ipse obiciebat, efflictim amabas, capitis accusauit?

(5) Take it, I say, best of sons, and, putting aside for a little while your mother’s amatory letters, read rather her will. If she wrote anything as though insane, you will find it here, and indeed straight off from the beginning: ‘Sicinius Pudens, my son, be my heir.’ I admit, whoever reads this will think her insane. (6) Is this man the son-heir, who at his own brother’s very funeral, having called in a band of most profligate youths, wanted to shut you out of the house which you yourself had given, who took it grievously and bitterly that you had been left by his brother as coheir with him, (7) who immediately abandoned you in your mourning and grief and fled from your bosom to Rufinus and Aemilianus, (8) who afterwards hurled very many insults at you to your face and, with his uncle assisting, acted against you, who aired your name before the tribunals, who tried by your own letters to disgrace publicly your modesty, (9) who brought a capital accusation against your husband, whom you had chosen, whom, as he himself used to taunt, you loved to distraction?

(10) Aperi quaeso, bone puer, aperi testamentum: facilius insaniam matris sic probabis. [101] (1) Quid abnuis, quid recusas, postquam sollicitudinem de hereditate materna reppulisti?

(10) Open, I beg, good boy, open the testament: thus you will more easily prove your mother’s insanity. [101] (1) Why do you refuse, why do you reject, after you have repelled solicitude concerning the maternal inheritance?

At ego hasce tabulas, Maxime, hic ibidem pro pedibus tuis abicio testorque me deinceps incuriosius habiturum, quid Pudentilla testamento suo scribat. (2) Ipse iam, ut libet, matrem suam de cetero exoret: (3) mihi, ut ultra pro eo deprecer, locum non reliquit. Ipse iam, ut sui potens ac uir, acerbissimas litteras matri dictet, iram eius deleniat: qui potuit perorare, poterit exorare.

But I throw these tablets, Maximus, down here and now right before your feet, and I attest that henceforth I shall be more unconcerned about what Pudentilla writes in her testament. (2) Let him himself now, as he pleases, entreat his mother hereafter; (3) for me, so that I should further intercede for him, he has left no room. Let him himself now, as master of himself and a man, dictate the most bitter letters to his mother, let him soften her anger: he who could perorate will be able to win by entreaty.

Mihi iam dudum satis est, si non modo crimina obiecta plenissime dilui, uerum etiam radicem iudicii huius, id est hereditatis quaesitae inuidiam, funditus sustuli.

For my part, it has long been enough if I have not only most fully refuted the charges brought, but have also utterly uprooted the root of this trial—namely, the ill will over the sought inheritance.

(4) Illud etiam, [c] ne quid omnium praeteream, priusquam peroro, falso obiectum reuincam. Dixistis me magna pecunia mulieris pulcherrimum praedium meo nomine emisse. (5) Dico exiguum herediolum LX milibus nummum, id quoque non me, sed Pudentillam suo nomine emisse, Pudentillae nomen in tabulis esse, Pudentillae nomine pro eo agello tributum dependi.

(4) This too, [c] so that I omit nothing of all, before I perorate, I will refute as falsely alleged. You said that, with a great sum of money, I bought in my own name the most beautiful estate of the woman. (5) I say a small hereditary plot for 60,000 coins, and that too not I, but Pudentilla bought it in her own name; that Pudentilla’s name is in the tablets; that in Pudentilla’s name I paid the tax for that little field.

(6) Praesens est quaestor publicus, cui depensum est, Coruinius Celer, uir ornatus. Adest etiam tutor auctor mulieris, uir grauissimus et sanctissimus, omni cum honore mihi nominandus, Cassius Longinus. (7) Quaere, Maxime, cuius emptionis auctor fuerit, quantulo pretio mulier locuples agellum suum praestinarit.

(6) Present is the public quaestor, to whom the payment was made, Coruinius Celer, a distinguished man. Also present is the woman’s guardian as auctor, a most grave and most saintly man, to be named by me with every honor, Cassius Longinus. (7) Ask, Maximus, of which purchase he was the auctor, at how very small a price the wealthy woman contracted for her little plot.

(Testimonium Cassi Longini tutoris et Coruini Clementis qR)

(The testimony of Cassius Longinus, the guardian, and of Coruinus Clemens, qR)

(8) Estne ita ut dixi? Vspiam in hac emptione nomen meum ascriptum est? Num ipsum heredioli pretium inuidiosum est, num uel hoc saltem in me collatum?

(8) Is it so as I said? Is my name written anywhere in this purchase? Is the very price of the little heir invidious, is even this at least imputed to me?

[102] (1) Quid etiam est, Aemiliane, quod non te iudice refutauerim? Quod pretium magiae meae repperisti? Cur ergo Pudentillae animum ueneficiis flecterem?

[102] (1) What further is there, Aemilianus, that I have not refuted with you as judge? What price for my magic have you discovered? Why then should I bend Pudentilla’s mind by sorceries?

Quod ut ex ea commodum caperem? Vti dotem mihi modicam potius quam a[m]mpla<m> diceret? O praeclara carmina!

That, so that I might take a benefit from it? That she should call the dowry for me modest rather than ample? O splendid incantations!

(2) An ut eam dotem filiis suis magis restipularetur quam penes me sineret? Quid addi ad hanc magiam potest? (3) An uti rem familiarem suam meo adhortatu pleramque filiis condonasset, quae nihil illis ante me maritum fuerat largita, mihi quicquam impertiret?

(2) Or was it that she should re-stipulate that dowry for her own sons rather than allow it to remain in my hands? What can be added to this magic? (3) Or that by my exhortation she had donated most of her family estate to her sons—she who before me as husband had bestowed nothing on them—would she impart anything to me?

O graue ueneficium dicam an ingratum beneficium?! (4) An ut testamento, quod irata filio scribebat, filium potius, cui offensa erat, quam me, cui deuincta, heredem relinqueret? Hoc quidem multis cantaminibus difficile impetraui.

O shall I call it a grave sorcery or an ungrateful benefaction?! (4) Or that by a will, which she was writing in anger against her son, she should leave as heir the son—against whom she was offended—rather than me—to whom she was bound? This indeed I obtained with difficulty by many incantations.

(5) Putate uos causam non apud Cl. Maximum agere, uirum aequum et iustitiae pertinacem, sed alium aliquem prauum et saeuum iudicem substituite, accusationum fautorem, cupidum condem[p]nandi: (6) date ei quod sequatur, ministrate uel tantulam uerisimilem occasionem secundum uos pronuntiandi. Saltim fingite aliquid, eminiscimini quod respondeatis, qui uos ita rogarit.

(5) Suppose you are not pleading your case before Cl. Maximus, a fair man and steadfast in justice, but substitute some other judge, depraved and savage, a favorer of accusations, greedy to condemn: (6) give him something to follow; furnish even the slightest plausible occasion for pronouncing according to you. At least invent something, devise what you would answer to someone who asked you thus.

(7) Et quoniam omnem conatum necesse est quaepiam causa praecedat, respondete qui Apuleium dicitis animum Pudentillae magicis illectamentis ad[h]ortum, quid ex ea petierit, cur fecerit. (8) Formam eius uoluerat? Negatis.

(7) And since it is necessary that some cause precede every attempt, answer, you who say that Apuleius exhorted Pudentilla’s mind by magical enticements, what he sought from her, why he did it. (8) Did he desire her form—her beauty? You deny it.

Diuitias saltim concupierat? Negant tabulae dotis, negant tabulae donationis, negant tabulae testamenti, in quibus non modo non cupide appetisse, uerum etiam dure reppulisse liberalitatem suae uxoris [h]ostenditur. (9) Quae igitur alia causa est?

Had he at least coveted riches? The dowry tablets deny it, the donation tablets deny it, the testament tablets deny it—in which it is shown not only that he did not greedily seek them, but even that he sternly repelled his wife’s liberality. (9) What, then, is the other cause?

Quid ommutuistis? Quid tacetis? Vbi illud libelli uestri atrox principium nomine priuigni mei form[orm]atum: 'hunc ego, domine Maxime, reum apud te facere institui'? [103] (1) Quin igitur addis: 'reum magistrum, reum uitricum, reum deprecatorem'? Sed quid deinde?

Why have you fallen mute? Why are you silent? Where is that atrocious beginning of your libel, framed in the name of my stepson: 'this man, Lord Maximus, I have resolved to make a defendant before you'? [103] (1) Why then do you not add: 'defendant as teacher, defendant as stepfather, defendant as intercessor'? But what then?

'Plurimorum maleficiorum et manifestissimorum'. Cedo unum de plurimis, cedo dubium uel saltem obscurum de manifestissimis.

'Of very many malefactions and the most manifest.' Produce one of the very many; produce something doubtful, or at least obscure, from among the most manifest.

(2) Ceterum ad haec, quae obiecistis, numera an binis uerbis respondeam. 'Dentes sp<l>endidas': ignosce munditiis. 'Specula inspicis': debet philosophus.

(2) But as to these things which you have objected, shall I answer in single words or in pairs? 'Splendid teeth': pardon the neatness. 'You inspect mirrors': a philosopher ought to.

'Versus facis': licet fieri. 'Pisces exploras': Aristoteles docet. 'Lignum consecras': Plato suadet.

'You make verses': it is permitted. 'You explore fish': Aristotle teaches. 'You consecrate wood': Plato advises.

(3) 'Vxorem ducis': leges iubent. 'Prior natu'st': solet fieri. 'Lucrum sectatu's': dotalis accipe, donationem recordare, testamentum lege.

(3) 'You take a wife': the laws bid it. 'He is elder by birth': it is wont to happen. 'You pursue profit': accept the dotal portion, remember the donation, read the testament.

(4) Quae si omnia affatim retudi, si calumnias omnes refutaui, si me in omnibus non modo criminibus, uerum etiam maledictis procul a culpa [philosophiae] tutus sum, si philosophiae honorem, qui mihi salute mea antiquior est, nusquam minui, immo contra ubique si cum septem pennis eum tenui: (5) si haec, ut dico, ita sunt, possum securus existimationem tuam reuereri quam potestatem uereri, quod minus graue et uerendum mihi arbitror a[c] procons. damnari quam si a tam bono tamque emendato uiro improber.

(4) If I have amply beaten all these back, if I have refuted every calumny, if in all matters I have kept myself not only against criminal charges but even against slanders safe and far from blame [of philosophy], if I have nowhere diminished the honor of philosophy, which is to me prior to my own safety, nay rather, on the contrary, if everywhere I have held it up with seven feathers: (5) if these things, as I say, are so, I can securely revere your estimation rather than fear your power, because I judge it less grave and less to be feared to be condemned by the proconsul than to be reproved by so good and so upright a man.

Dixi.

I have spoken.

The text in this edition is basically that of Helm (Teubner-ed., with Addenda et corrigenda (Add.). The following list refers to all places where a different reading has been chosen. Changes in punctuation, lay-out, and division into paragraphs are not specified; see Introduction E.1 (2). The subdivision of chapters is that of Vallette.

This edition / Helm

1,1 Cl. Cl(audi)

2,2 tacere tacere[m]

2,2 to be silent I would be silent[m]

3,4 maledicta male dicta

3,4 maledictions badly said

4,8 omnium sollertissimo omnium.....sollertissimo

4,8 of all most skillful of all.....most skillful

5,1 ualetudinis valetudinis

5,1 of health of health

7,2 apertum immundum aperti immundum

7,2 apert immund aperti immund

7,7 humile est et humile et

7,7 humble is and humble and

9,3 tam similem tam <ueri>similem

9,3 so similar so <veri>similar

9,14 (l.7) da das

9,14 (l.7) give you give

9,14 (l.9) redde redde<s>

9,14 (l.9) render render<s>

9,14 (l.11) animum animam

9,14 (l.11) mind soul

9,14 (l.11) dona et iam donaci, iam

9,14 (l.11) dona and now donaci, now

10,4 et quidem e[t]quidem

10,4 and indeed an[d] indeed

12,3 praedita[m] quae sit praeditam [quae sit]

12,3 endowed which is endowed [which is]

13,8 docear doceas

13,8 I may be taught you may teach

14,4 diutino diutina

14,4 long-lasting long-lasting

14,5 uisitur uisi<te>tur

14,5 is visited may be visi<te>ted

14,8 referundum referundam

14,8 reportable reportable

15,14 facti [f]acti

15,14 of the fact [f]of the fact

16,1 suda [soli] suda soli

16,1 sweat [to the sun] sweat to the sun

19,4 etenim omnibus etenim <in> omnibus

19,4 for indeed all for indeed <in> all

19,7 simulate simulata<m>

19,7 feigned feigned<m>

20,1 poscit possit

20,1 “postulates” “may be able”

24,1 ostendi scis ostendistis

24,1 I showed you know you (pl.) showed

27,5 simplicia simpliciter

27,5 simple things simplely

27,12 puerili pueruli

27,12 puerile little-boy’s

28,7 eruptum ereptum

28,7 erupted rescued

30,13 (l. 5-6) hin- / nientium hinnientium

30,13 (lines 5-6) hin- / nientium hinnientium

32,6 Scyllam scillam

32,6 Scylla scilla

32,6 merguntur mercantur

32,6 are submerged mercate

34,2 ommutescat commutescat

34,2 may he fall silent may he change

35,3 hebe[n]tem habentem

35,3 having having

35,3 echinum echi<no>rum

35,3 sea-urchin echi<no>ids

35,4 ostrea [Pergami] ostrea Pergami

35,4 oysters [of Pergamum] oysters of Pergamum

(Add.: ostracoderma)

(Addition: ostracoderma)

36,7 opera est operaest

38,5 cum re<s> cognitu cum me<morabiles res et> cognitu

38,5 since re<s> to be known since me<morable things and> to be known

39,3 (l.3) Ambraciai [finis] Ambraciae sus

39,3 (l.3) of Ambracia [boundary] of Ambracia swine

39,3 (l.6) Surrenti[a] Surrenti t

40,3 usuru<s> est usurust

40,3 usuru<s> is usurust

40,7 quaeat qu<o> eat

40,7 may be able whither he may go

40,11 numquam si <scisset, n>umquam

40,11 never if <he had known, n>ever

41,5 mediterranis mediterran<e>is

41,5 inland inland<e>is

42,2 et iam etiam

42,2 and even now

44,4 negant negent

44,4 they deny they deny

44,4 nisi rus adeo iam nisi rus a _ de omnium

44,4 unless the countryside to such a degree now unless the countryside from _ of all

46,3 pollicitu's pollicitus

46,3 promised promised

46,4 dixerit <di>dicerit

46,4 will have said <di>will have learned

49,2 igitur <is> igitur

49,2 therefore <he> therefore

51,4 quibus aeque quibuscumque

51,4 to whom equally to whomever

51,9 ac mea ad <me et> mea

51,9 and my to <me and> my

54,3 reprehensum deprehensum

54,3 reprehended deprehended

55,1 cuius[ce] cuiusce

55,1 whose[ce] whosece

57,3 cauponio cauponii

57,3 cauponio (to the innkeeper) cauponii (of the innkeeper)

59,4 ebria ebria<mine>

59,4 drunk drunk<mine>

59,6 rictum <...> rictum <latum>

59,6 rictus <...> rictus <broad>

59,6 ructus <po>pinam ructus <s>piram<en>

59,6 belching <po>pinam belching <s>piram<en>

60,5 Crasso foret, quod foret <Crasso>, crassum quod

60,5 for Crassus it would be, because it would be <for Crassus>, crass because

61,1 unde unum

61,1 whence one

64,1 larbarum laruarum

64,1 of larvæ of larvæ

66,4 M. Aquilium M' Aquilium

66,4 Marcus Aquilius Manius Aquilius

67,1 clare dilucet clarius dilucet

67,1 clearly it shines more clearly it shines

68,4 [ceterum] <in> ceterum

68,4 [however] <in> however

68,6 uanis uariis

68,6 vain various

72,1 inter precationem inter procationem

72,1 between precation and procation

76,1 contumeliis adnuit contumeliis <alere> abnuit

76,1 to contumelies he nodded assent to contumelies <to nourish> he refused

76,6 teruncium terruncium

77,6 alumentum adiumentum

77,6 aliment adjument

78,4 Clytemnestrae Clyteme[n]strae

79,1 at non omnibus ac non omnibus

79,1 but not for all and not for all

79,6 inqui<e>t inquit 'animi <furens>

79,6 restl<e>s<s> he says 'of spirit <raging>

83,1 ____ ____

83,7 se <ef>fert se fert

83,7 he carries himself out he carries himself

83,7 calumnias emergit calumnia se mergit

83,7 calumnies emerge calumny submerges itself

85,2 procons. procons(ulari)

85,2 proconsul. procons(ular)

85,2 Cl. Cl(audium)

85,2 Cl. Cl(audius)

85,2 imp. imp(eratoris)

85,2 emp. emp(eror's)

84,8 inscius insci<t>us

84,8 unaware unskil<t>ed

85,4 femina sit femina est (Add.: femina aest<imetur>)

85,4 woman be woman is (Add.: woman be deem<ed>)

87,6 _____, _______ ___ _____ _____ _______ [___ _____]

89,1 necesse non <non> necesse

89,1 necessary not <not> necessary

89,6 aperuisse adgessisse

89,6 to have opened up to have addressed

90,4 si nusquam <ni>si nusquam

90,4 if nowhere <ni> if nowhere

90,6 Iohannes I[oh]annes

90,6 John J[oh]annes

91,7 <promissam> <creditam>

91,7 <promised> <credited>

92,4 coniugis coniugii

92,4 of the spouse of the marriagei

92,4 multo amore mutuo amore

92,4 with much love mutual love

93,3 de quo supra de qua supra

93,3 about which above about whom above

96,2 quemne quemme

96,2 whom? quemme

96,7 Mineruae curriculum minor u<it>ae curriculum

96,7 Minerva’s course the lesser course of life

97,3 quam paucorum quam <praemium> paucorum

97,3 how few how <reward> of a few

98,7 uisitur uisi<ta>tor

98,7 is visitued visi<ta>tor

101,3 ut sui potens ut <qui> sui potens

101,3 as master of himself as <who> master of himself

101,7 qR quaestor(is)

101,7 qR quaestor’s

102,3 mihi quicquam mihi <nihil> quicquam

102,3 to me anything to me <nothing> anything

102,5 Cl. Cl(audium)

102,5 Cl. Cl(audius)

103,3 natu'st natu is<ta> est

103,3 born's by birth he<ta> is

103,3 sectatu's sectatus es

103,3 sectatu's you have followed

103,5 procons. procons(ule).

103,5 procons. procons(ul).

Apuleius of Madauros, Pro se de magia (Apologia), edited with a commentary by Vincent Hunink, (Gieben), Amsterdam 1997; 2 vols. (vol 1.: introduction, text, bibliography, indexes; vol.2 commentary); [169 + 250 p.]

Apuleius of Madauros, On His Own Behalf Concerning Magic (Apology), edited with a commentary by Vincent Hunink, (Gieben), Amsterdam 1997; 2 vols. (vol 1.: introduction, text, bibliography, indexes; vol.2 commentary); [169 + 250 p.]