[Footnote 43: qui vulgo.]

[Footnote 44: Anacreonteum vulgo.]

[Footnote 45: ceterum multum abest (MSS.).]

[Footnote 46: Omitting illa before Indiae gens est.]

[Footnote 47: statos ambitus (Krueger).]

[Footnote 48: mortalibus MSS. late pecuniis (Stewech).]

An oration of thanks to Aemilianus Strabo and the senate of Carthage for decreeing a statue in his honour.

16. Before I begin, illustrious representatives of Africa, to thank you for the statue, with the demand for which you honoured me while I was still with you, setting the seal upon your kindness by actually decreeing its erection during my absence, I wish first to explain to you why I absented myself for a considerable number of days from the sight of my audience and betook myself to the Persian baths, where the healthy may find delightful bathing, and the sick a no less welcome relief. For I have resolved to make it clear to you, to whose service I have dedicated myself irrevocably and for ever, that every moment of my life is well spent. There shall be no action of mine, important or trivial, but you shall be informed of it and pass judgement upon it. Well then! to come to the reason for my sudden departure from the presence of this most distinguished assembly, I will tell you a story of the comic poet Philemon which is not so very unlike my own and will serve to show you how sudden and unexpected are the perils that threaten the life of man. You all are well acquainted with his talents, listen then to a few words concerning his death, or perhaps you would like a few words on his talents as well.

This Philemon was a poet, a writer of the middle comedy, and composed plays for the stage in competition with Menander and contested against him. He may not have been his equal, he was certainly his rival. Nay, on not a few occasions—I am almost ashamed to mention it—he actually defeated him. However this may be, you will certainly find his works full of humour: the plots are full of wittily contrived intrigue, the denouements clear, the characters suited to the situations, the words true to life, the jests never unworthy of true comedy, the serious passages never quite on the level of tragedy. Seductions are rare in his plays; if he introduces love affairs, it is as a concession to human weakness. That does not, however, prevent the presence in his plays of the faithless pander, the passionate lover, the cunning slave, the coquetting mistress, the jealous wife whose word is law, the indulgent mother, the crusty uncle, the friend in need, the warlike soldier, aye and hungry parasites, skinflint parents, and saucy drabs. One day, long after these excellences had made him famous as a writer of comedy, he happened to give a recitation of a portion of a play which he had just written. He had reached the third act, and was beginning to arouse in his audience those pleasurable emotions so dear to comedy, when a sudden shower descended and forced him to put off the audience gathered to hear him and the recitation which he had just begun. A similar event befell me, you will remember, quite recently when I was addressing you. However, Philemon, at the demand of various persons, promised to finish his recitation the next day without further postponement. On the morrow, therefore, a vast crowd assembled to hear him with the utmost enthusiasm. Everybody who could do so took a seat facing the stage and as near to it as he could get. Late arrivals made signs to their friends to make room for them to sit: those who sat at the end of a row complained of being thrust off their seat into the gangway; the whole theatre was crammed with a vast audience. A hum of conversation[49] arose. Those who had not been present the previous day began to ask what had been recited; those who had been present began to recall what they had heard, and finally when everybody had made themselves acquainted with what had preceded, all began to look forward to what was to come. Meanwhile the day wore on and Philemon failed to come at the appointed time. Some blamed the poet for the delay, more defended him. But when they had sat there for quite an unreasonable length of time and still Philemon did not make his appearance, some of the more active members of the audience were sent to fetch him. They found him lying in his bed—dead. He had just breathed his last, and lay there upon the couch stiff and stark in the attitude of one plunged in meditation. His fingers still were twined about his book, his mouth still pressed against the page he had been reading. But the life had left him; he had forgotten his book, and little recked he now of his audience. Those who had entered the room stood motionless for a space, struck dumb by the strange suddenness of the blow and the wondrous beauty of his death. Then they returned and reported to the people that the poet Philemon, for whom they were waiting that there in the theatre he might finish the drama of his imagination, had finished the one true play, the drama of life, in his own home. To this world he had said 'farewell' and 'applaud', but to his friends 'weep and make your moan'. 'The shower of yesterday,' they continued, 'was an omen of our tears; the comedy has ended in the torch of funeral or ever it could come to the torch of marriage. Nay, since so great a poet has laid aside the mask of this life, let us go straight from the theatre to perform his burial. 'Tis his bones we now must gather to our hearts; his verse must for awhile take second place.'

[Footnote 49: loqui (Van der Vliet).]

It was long ago that I first learned the story I have just told you, but the peril I have undergone during the last few days[50] has brought it afresh to my mind. For when my recitation was—as I am sure you remember—interrupted by the rain, at your desire I put it off till the morrow, and in good truth it was nearly with me as it was with Philemon. For on that same day I twisted my ankle so violently at the wrestling school that I almost tore the joint from my leg. However, it returned to its socket, though my leg is still weak with the sprain. But there is more to tell you. My efforts to reduce the dislocation were so great that my body broke out into a profuse sweat and I caught a severe chill. This was followed by agonizing pain in my bowels, which only subsided when its violence was on the point of killing me. A moment more and like Philemon I should have gone to the grave, not to my recital, should have finished not my speech but my destiny, should have brought not my tale but my life to a close. Well then, as soon as the gentle temperature and still more the soothing medical properties of the Persian baths had restored to me the use of my foot—for though it gave naught save the most feeble support, it sufficed me in my eagerness to appear before you—I set forth to perform my pledge. And in the interval you have conferred such a boon upon me that you have not only removed my lameness but have made me positively nimble.

[Footnote 50: The reading is uncertain. Van der Vliet's suggestion seems to give the outline of the sense desired.]

Was I not right to make all speed that I might express my boundless gratitude for the honour which you have conferred unasked. True, Carthage is so illustrious a city that it were an honour to her that a philosopher should beg to be thus rewarded, but I wished the boon you have bestowed on me to have its full value with no taint of detraction, to suffer no loss of grace by any petition on my part, in a word to be wholly disinterested. For he that begs pays so heavily, and so large is the price that he to whom the petition is addressed receives, that, where the necessaries of life are concerned, one had rather purchase them one and all than ask them as a gift. Above all, this principle applies to cases where honours are concerned. He to whom they come as the result of importunate petition owes[51] no gratitude for his success to any save himself. On the other hand, he who receives honours without descending to vexatious canvassing is obliged to the givers for two reasons; he has not asked and yet he has received. The thanks, therefore, which I owe you are double or rather manifold, and my lips shall proclaim them at all times and places. But on the present occasion I will, as is my wont, make public protestation of my gratitude from a written address which I have specially composed in view of this distinction. For assuredly that is the method in which a philosopher should return thanks to a city that has decreed him a public statue. My discourse will, however, depart slightly from this method as a mark of respect to the exalted character and position of Aemilianus Strabo. I hope that I may be able to compose a suitable discourse if only you will permit me to submit it to your approbation[52] to-day. For Strabo is so distinguished a scholar, that his own talents bring him even greater honour than his noble rank and his tenure of the consulate. In what terms, Aemilianus Strabo, who of all men that have been, are, or yet shall be, are most renowned among the virtuous, most virtuous among the renowned, most learned amongst either, in what terms can I hope to thank or commemorate the gracious thoughts you have entertained for me? How may I hope adequately to celebrate the honour to which your kindness has prompted you? How may my speech repay you worthily for the glory conferred by your action? It baffles my imagination. But I will seek earnestly and strive to find a way

While breath still rules these limbs and memory Is conscious of its being.

[Footnote 51: unam gratiam vulgo.]

[Footnote 52: vobis comprobari (Krueger).]

For at the present moment, I will not deny it, the gladness of my heart is too loud for my eloquence, I cannot think for pleasure, delight is master of my soul and bids me rejoice rather than speak. What shall I do? I wish to show my gratitude, but my joy is such that I have not yet leisure to express my thanks. No one, however sour and stern he be, will blame me if the honour bestowed on me makes me no less nervous[53] than appreciative, if the testimony to my merits, delivered by a man of such fame and learning, has transported me with exultation. For he delivered it in the senate of Carthage, a body whose kindness is only equalled by its distinction; and he that spoke was one who had held the consulship, one by whom it were an honour even to be known. Such was the man who appeared before the most illustrious citizens of the province of Africa to sing my praise!

[Footnote 53: non minus uereor quam intellego (Krueger).]

I have been told that two days ago he sent a written request in which he demanded that my statue should be given a conspicuous place, and above all told of the bonds of friendship which began under such honourable circumstances, when we served together beneath the banner of literature and studied under the same masters; he then recorded[54] all the good wishes for his success with which I had welcomed each successive step of his advance in his official career. He had already done me a compliment in remembering that I had once been his fellow student: it was a fresh compliment that so great a man should record my friendship for him as though I were his equal. But he went further. He stated that other peoples and cities had decreed not only statues, but other distinctions as well in my honour. Could anything be added to such a panegyric as this, delivered by the lips of an ex-consul? Yes: for he cited the priesthood I had undertaken, and showed that I had attained the highest honour that Carthage can bestow. But the greatest and most remarkable compliment[55] paid me was this: after producing such a wealth of flattering testimonials he commended me to your notice by himself voting in my favour. Finally, he, a man in whose honour every province rejoices through all the world to erect four or six horse chariots, promised that he would erect my statue at Carthage at his own expense.

[Footnote 54: nunc postea vota omnia mea (MSS.).]

[Footnote 55: om. honos following MSS.]

What lacks there to sanction and establish my glory and to set it on the topmost pinnacle of fame? I ask you, what is there lacking? Aemilianus Strabo, who has already held the consulship and is destined, as we all hope and pray, soon to be a proconsul, proposed the resolution conferring these honours upon me in the senate-house of Carthage. You gave your unanimous assent to the proposal. Surely in your eyes this was more than a mere resolution, it was a solemn enactment of law. Nay more, all the Carthaginians gathered in this august assembly showed such readiness in granting a site for the statue that they might make it clear to you that, if they put off a resolution for the erection of a second statue, as I hope,[56] to the next meeting of the senate, they were influenced by the desire to show the fullest reverence and respect to their honourable consular, and to avoid seeming to emulate rather than imitate his beneficence. That is to say, they wished to set apart a whole day for the business of conferring on me the public honour still in store. Moreover, these most excellent magistrates, these most gracious chiefs of your city, remembered that the charge with which you men of Carthage had entrusted them was in full harmony with their desires. Would you have me be ignorant, be silent, as to these details? It would be rank ingratitude. Far from that, I offer my very warmest thanks to the whole assembly for their most lavish favour. I could not be more grateful. For they have honoured me with the most flattering applause in that senate-house, where even to be named is the height of honour. And so I have in some sense achieved—pardon my vanity—that which was so hard to achieve, and seemed indeed not unnaturally to be beyond my powers. I have won the affections of the people, the favour of the senate, the approbation of the magistrates and the chief men of the city. What lacks there now to the honour of my statue, save the price of the bronze and the service of the artist? These have never been denied me even in small cities. Much less shall Carthage deny it, Carthage, whose senate, even where greater issues are at stake, decrees and counts not the cost. But I will speak of this more fully at a later date, when you have given fuller effect to your resolution. Moreover, when the time comes for the dedication of my statue, I will proclaim my gratitude to you yet more amply in another written discourse, will declare it to you, noble senators, to you, renowned citizens, to you, my worthy friends. Yes, I will commit my gratitude to the retentive pages of a book, that it may travel through every province and, worlds and ages hence, record my praises of your kindness to all peoples and all time.

[Footnote 56: quantum spero (MSS.).]

Fragment of a panegyric on Scipio Orfitus.

17. I leave it to those who are in the habit of obtruding themselves upon their proconsul's leisure moments[57] to attempt to commend their wits by the exuberance of their speech, and to glorify themselves by affecting to bask in the smiles of your friendship. Both of these offences are far from me, Scipio Orfitus. For on the one hand my poor wit, such as it is, is too well known to all men to have any need of further commendation; on the other hand, I prefer to enjoy rather than to parade the friendship of yourself and such as you; I desire such friendship, but I do not boast of it, for desire can in no case be other than genuine, whereas boasting may always be false. With this in view I have ever cultivated the arts of virtue, I have always sought both here in Africa and when I moved among your friends in Rome to win a fair name both for my character and studies, as you yourself can amply testify, with the result that you should be no less eager to court my friendship than I to long for yours. Reluctance to excuse the rarity of a friend's appearances is a sign that you desire his continual presence; if you delight in the frequency of his visits or are angry with him for neglecting to come, if you welcome his company and regret its cessation, it is clear proof of love, since it is obvious that his presence must be a pleasure whose absence is a pain. But the voice, if it be refrained in continued silence, is as useless as the nostrils when choked by a cold in the head, the ears when they are blocked with dirt, the eyes when they are sealed by cataract. What can the hands do, if they are fettered, or what the feet, if they are shackled? What can[58] the mind that rules and directs us do, if it be relaxed in sleep or drowned in wine or crushed beneath the weight of disease? Nay, as the sword acquires its sheen by usage, and rusts if it lie idle, so the voice is dulled by its long torpor if it be hidden in the sheath of silence. Desuetude must needs beget sloth, and sloth decay. If the tragic actor declaim not daily, the resonance of his voice is dulled and its channels grow hoarse. Wherefore he purges his huskiness by loud and repeated recitation. However, it is vain toil and useless labour[59] for a man to attempt to improve the natural quality of the human voice. There are many sounds that surpass it. The trumpet's blare is louder, the music of the lyre more varied, the plaint of the flute more pleasing, the murmurs of the pipe sweeter, the message of the bugle further heard. I forbear to mention the natural sounds of many animals which challenge admiration by their different peculiarities, as, for instance, the deep bellow of the bull, the wolf's shrill howl, the dismal trumpeting of the elephant, the horse's lively neigh, the bird's piercing song, the angry roar of the lion, together with the cries of other beasts, harsh or musical, according as they are roused by the madness of anger or the charms of pleasure. In place of such cries the gods have given man a voice of narrower compass; but if it give less delight to the ear, it is far more useful to the understanding. Wherefore it should be all the more cultivated by the most frequent use, and that nowhere else[60] than in the presence of an audience presided over by so great a man, and in the midst of so numerous and distinguished a gathering of learned men who come kindly disposed to hear. For my part, if I were skilled to make ravishing music on the lyre, I should never play save before crowded assemblies. It was in solitude that

Orpheus to woods, to fish Arion sang.

[Footnote 57: om. et negotiosis following MSS.]

[Footnote 58: quid si etiam (Krueger).]

[Footnote 59: cassus labor supervacaneo studio. Plurifariam superatur, (MSS.). The reading is uncertain, but the above punctuation will yield adequate sense.]

[Footnote 60: om. usquam libentius with MSS.]

For if we may believe legend, Orpheus had been driven to lonely exile, Arion hurled from his ship. One of them soothed savage beasts, the other charmed beasts that were compassionate: both musicians were unhappy, inasmuch as they strove not for honour nor of their free choice, but for their safety and of hard necessity. I should have admired them more if they had pleased men, not beasts. Such solitude were far better suited to birds, to blackbird and nightingale and swan. The blackbird whistles like a happy boy in distant wilds, the nightingale trills its song of youthful passion in the lonely places of Africa, the swan by far-off rivers chants the music of old age. But he who would produce a song that shall profit boys, youths, and greybeards, must sing it in the midst of thousands of men, even as now I sing the virtues of Orfitus. It is late, perhaps, but it is meant in all earnestness, and may prove no less pleasing than profitable to the boys, the youths, and the old men of Carthage. For all have enjoyed the indulgence of the best of all proconsuls: he has tempered their desires and restrained them with gentle remedies, he has given to boys the boon of plenty, to young men merriment, and to the old security. But now, Scipio, that I have come to touch on your merits, I fear lest either your own noble modesty or my own native bashfulness may close my mouth. But I cannot refrain from touching on a very few of the many virtues which we so justly admire in you. Citizens whom he has saved, show with me that you recognize them!

A discourse pronounced before the Carthaginians, incidentally treating of Thales and Protagoras.

18. You have come in such large numbers to hear me that I feel I ought rather to congratulate Carthage for possessing so many friends of learning among her citizens than demand pardon for myself, the professed philosopher who ventures to speak in public. For the crowd that has collected is worthy of the grandeur of our city, and the place chosen for my speech is worthy of so great a multitude. Moreover, in a theatre we must consider, not the marble of its pavements, not the boards of the stage, nor the columns of the back-scene, nay, nor yet the height of its gables, the splendour of its fretted roofs, the expanse of its tiers of seats; we need not call to mind that this place is sometimes the scene for the foolery of the mime, the dialogue of comedy, the sonorous rant of tragedy, the perilous antics of the rope-walker, the juggler's sleight of hand, the gesticulation of the dancer, with all the tricks of their respective arts that are displayed before the people by other artists. All these considerations may be put on one side; all that we need consider is this, the discourse of the orator and the reasons for the presence of the audience. Wherefore, just as poets in this place shift the scene to various other cities—take, for instance, the tragic poet who makes his actor say

Liber, that dwellest on these heights august Of famed Cithaeron

or the comic poet who says

Plautus but asks you for a tiny space Within the circuit vast of these fair walls, Whither without the aid of architect He may transport old Athens,—

even so I beg your leave to shift my scene, not, however, to any distant city overseas, but to the senate-house or public library of Carthage. I ask you, therefore, if any of my utterances be worthy of the senate-house, to imagine that you are listening to me within the very walls of the senate-house; if my words reveal learning, I beg you to regard them as though you were reading them in the public library. Would that I could find words enough to do justice to the magnitude of this assembly and did not falter just when I would be most eloquent. But the old saying is true, that heaven never blesses any man with unmixed and flawless prosperity; even in the keenest joys there is ever some slight undertone of grief, some blend of gall and honey; there is no rose without a thorn. I have often experienced the truth of this, and never more than at the present moment. For the more I realize how ready you are to praise me, the more exaggerated becomes the awe in which I stand of you, and the greater my reluctance to speak. I have spoken to strange audiences often, and with the utmost fluency, but now that I am confronted with my own folk, I hesitate. Strange to say, I am frightened by what should allure, curbed by what should spur me on, and restrained by what should make me bold. There is much that should give me courage in your presence. I have made my home in your city which I knew well as a boy, and where my student days were spent. You know my philosophic views, my voice is no stranger to you, you have read my books and approved of them. My birthplace is represented in the council of Africa, that is, in your own assembly; my boyhood was spent with you, you were my teachers, it was here that my philosophy found its first inspiration, though 'twas Attic Athens brought it to maturity, and, during the last six years, my voice, speaking in either language, has been familiar to your ears. Nay more, my books have no higher title to the universal praise that is theirs, than the fact that you have passed a favourable judgement upon them. All these great and varied allurements, appealing as they do to you as well as to me, hamper and intimidate me just in proportion as they attract you to the pleasure of hearing me. I should find it far easier to sing your praises before the citizens of some other city than to your face. To such an extent is it true that modesty is a serious obstacle to one confronted by his fellow citizens, while truth may speak unfettered in the presence of strangers. But always and everywhere I praise you as my parents and the first teachers of my youth, and do my best to repay my debt. But the reward I offer you is not that which the sophist Protagoras stipulated to receive and never got, but that which the wise Thales got without ever stipulating for it. What is it you want? Ah! I understand. I will tell you both stories.

Protagoras was a sophist with knowledge on an extraordinary number of subjects, and one of the most eloquent among the first inventors of the art of rhetoric. He was a fellow citizen and contemporary of the physicist Democritus, and it was from Democritus he derived his learning. The story runs that Protagoras made a rash bargain with his pupil Euathlus, contracting for an exceptionally high fee on the following conditions. The money was to be paid if Euathlus was successful in the first suit he pleaded in court. The young man therefore first learned all the methods employed to win the votes of the jurors, all the tricks of opposing counsel, and all the artifices of oratory. This he did with ease, for he was a very clever fellow with a natural aptitude for strategy. When he had satisfied himself that he had learned all he desired to know, he began to show reluctance to perform his part of the contract. At first he baffled his teacher's requests for payment by interposing various ingenious delays, and for a considerable time refused either to plead in court or to pay the stipulated fee. At last Protagoras called him into court, set forth the conditions under which he had accepted him as a pupil, and propounded the following dilemma. 'If I win,' he said, 'you must pay the fee, for you will be condemned to do so. If you win, you will still have to pay under the terms of your contract. For you will have won the first suit you have ever pleaded. So if you win, you lose under the terms of the contract: if you are defeated, you lose by the sentence of the court.' What more would you have? The jury thought the argument a marvel of shrewdness and quite irrefutable. But Euathlus showed himself a very perfect pupil of so cunning a master, and turned back the dilemma on its inventor. 'In that case,' he replied, 'I owe your fee under neither count. For either I win and am acquitted by the court, or lose and am released from the bargain, which states that I do not owe you the fee if I am defeated in my first case in court. And this is my first case! So in any case I come off scot free; if I lose, I am saved by the contract; if I win, by the verdict of the jury.' What think you? Does not the opposition of these sophistic arguments remind you of brambles, that the wind has entangled one with another? They cling together; thorns of like length on either side, each penetrating to an equal depth, each dealing wound for wound. So we will leave Protagoras' reward to shrewd and greedy folk. It involves too many thorny difficulties. Far better is that other reward, which they say was suggested by[61] Thales.

[Footnote 61: Thalem ... suasisse (MSS.).]

Thales of Miletus was easily the most remarkable of the famous seven sages. For he was the first of the Greeks to discover the science of geometry, was a most accurate investigator of the laws of nature, and a most skilful observer of the stars. With the help of a few small lines he discovered the most momentous facts: the revolution of the years, the blasts of the winds, the wanderings of the stars, the echoing miracle of thunder, the slanting path of the zodiac, the annual turnings of the sun, the waxing of the moon when young, her waning when she has waxed old, and the shadow of her eclipse; of all these he discovered the laws. Even when he was far advanced into the vale of years, he evolved a divinely inspired theory concerning the period of the sun's revolution through the circle in which he moves in all his majesty. This theory, I may say, I have not only learned from books, but have also proved its truth by experiment. This theory Thales is said to have taught soon after its discovery to Mandraytus of Priene. The latter, fascinated by the strangeness and novelty of his newly acquired knowledge, bade Thales choose whatever recompense he might desire in return for such precious instruction. 'It is enough recompense,' replied Thales the wise, 'if you will refrain from claiming as your own the theory I have taught you, whenever you begin to impart it to others, and will proclaim me and no other as the discoverer of this new law.' In truth that was a noble recompense, worthy of so great a man and beyond the reach of time. For that recompense has been paid to Thales down to this very day, and shall be paid to all eternity by all of us who have realized the truth of his discoveries concerning the heavens.

Such is the recompense I pay you, citizens of Carthage, through all the world, in return for the instruction that Carthage gave me as a boy. Everywhere I boast myself your city's nursling, everywhere and in every way I sing your praises, do zealous honour to your learning, give glory to your wealth and reverent worship to your gods. Now, therefore, I will begin by speaking of the god Aesculapius. With what more auspicious theme could I engage your ears? For he honours the citadel of our own Carthage with the protection of his undoubted presence. See, I will sing to you both in Greek and Latin a hymn which I have composed to his glory and long since dedicated to him. For I am well known as a frequenter of his rites, my worship of him is no new thing, my priesthood has received the smile of his favour, and ere now I have expressed my veneration for him both in prose and verse. Even so now I will chant a hymn to his glory both in Greek and Latin. I have prefaced it with a dialogue likewise in both tongues, in which Sabidius Severus and Julius Persius shall speak together. They are men who are deservedly bound alike to one another, and to you and the public weal by the closest ties of friendship. Both are equally distinguished for their learning, their eloquence, and their benevolence. It is difficult to say whether they are more remarkable for their great moderation, their ready energy, or the distinction of their career. They are united one to another by the most complete harmony. There is but one point on which rivalry exists between them, namely this: they dispute which has the greater love for Carthage; for this they contend with all their strength and all their soul, and neither is vanquished in the contest. Thinking, then, that you would be most delighted to listen to their converse, and that such a theme suited my powers and would be a welcome offering to the god, I begin at the outset of my book by making one of my fellow students of Athens demand of Persius in Greek what was the subject of the declamation delivered by myself on the previous day in the temple of Aesculapius. As the dialogue proceeds I introduce Severus to their company. His part is written in the language of Rome. For Persius, although a master of Latin, shall yet to-day speak to you in the Attic tongue.

A story of the physician Asclepiades.

19. The famous Asclepiades, who ranks among the greatest of doctors, indeed, if you except Hippocrates, as the very greatest, was the first to discover the use of wine as a remedy. It requires, however, to be administered at the proper moment, and it was in the discovery of the right moment that he showed especial skill, noting most carefully the slightest symptom of disorder or undue rapidity of the pulse. It chanced that once, when he was returning to town from his country house, he observed an enormous funeral procession in the suburbs of the city. A huge multitude of men who had come out to perform the last honours stood round about the bier, all of them plunged in deep sorrow and wearing worn and ragged apparel. He asked whom they were burying, but no one replied; so he went nearer[62] to satisfy his curiosity and to see who it might be that was dead, or, it may be, in the hope to make some discovery in the interests of his profession. Be this as it may, he certainly snatched the man from the jaws of death as he lay there on the verge of burial. The poor fellow's limbs were already covered with spices, his mouth filled with sweet-smelling unguent. He had been anointed and was all ready for the pyre. But Asclepiades looked upon him, took careful note of certain signs, handled his body again and again and perceived that the life was still in him, though scarcely to be detected. Straightway he cried out 'He lives! Throw down your torches, take away your fire demolish the pyre, take back the funeral feast and spread it on his board at home'. While he spoke a murmur arose; some said that they must take the doctor's word, others mocked at the physician's skill. At last, in spite of the opposition offered even by his relations, perhaps because they had already entered into possession of the dead man's property, perhaps because they did not yet believe his words, Asclepiades persuaded them to put off the burial for a brief space. Having thus rescued him from the hands of the undertaker, he carried the man home, as it were from the very mouth of hell, and straightway revived the spirit within him, and by means of certain drugs called forth the life that still lay hidden in the secret places of the body.

[Footnote 62: uti (Beyte) cognosceret more ingenii (MSS.). more ingenii may be corrupt. If it may stand, it must mean 'as his nature prompted him', i.e. to satisfy his curiosity.]

A panegyric on his own talents.

20. There is a remarkable saying of a wise man concerning the pleasures of the table to the effect that, 'The first glass quenches thirst, the second makes merry, the third kindles desire, the fourth madness.' But in the case of a draught from the Muses' fountain the reverse is true. The more cups you drink and the more undiluted the draught the better it will be for your soul's good. The first cup is given by the master that teaches you to read and write and redeems you from ignorance[63], the second is given by the teacher of literature and equips you with learning, the third arms you with the eloquence of the rhetorician. Of these three cups most men drink. I, however, have drunk yet other cups at Athens—the imaginative draught of poetry, the clear draught of geometry, the sweet draught of music, the austerer draught of dialectic, and the nectar of all philosophy, whereof no man may ever drink enough. For Empedocles composed verse, Plato dialogues, Socrates hymns, Epicharmus music, Xenophon histories, and Xenocrates satire. But your friend Apuleius cultivates all these branches of art together and worships all nine Muses with equal zeal. His enthusiasm is, I admit, in advance of his capacity, but that perhaps makes him all the more praiseworthy, inasmuch as in all high enterprises it is the effort that merits praise, success is after all a matter of chance. As an illustration I may remind you, that the law punishes even the premeditation of crime, though the criminal's purpose may never have been carried out; the hand may be pure, but there is blood upon the soul, and that suffices. As, then, to call down the doom of law it suffices to purpose deeds meet for punishment, so to win praise it is sufficient to essay deeds worthy of the voice of fame; and what greater or surer claim to praise may any man have than to glorify Carthage? For you, her citizens, are full of learning to a man, your boys learn, your young men display, and your old men teach all manner of knowledge. Carthage is the venerable instructress of our province, Carthage is the heavenly muse of Africa, Carthage is the fount whence all the Roman world draws draughts of inspiration.

[Footnote 63: litteratoris, ruditate (Krueger).]

An excuse for delay caused by social duties.

21. Sometimes even when haste is most incumbent on us, the delays that slow our progress may bring such honour, that often we shall be glad to have been thwarted of our purpose. For instance, take the case of persons who are compelled to journey in such high haste, that they prefer the perils of the saddle to a seat in a carriage on account of the trouble caused by their baggage, the weight of the vehicle, the delays to progress, the roughness of the track, not to mention the boulders that beset the route, the tree trunks fallen across the way, the rivers that intersect the level, and the steep slopes of the mountains. Well, then, those who wish to avoid all these obstacles select a horse of tried endurance, mettle, and speed, that is to say, one strong to bear and swift to go, like the horse described by Lucilius that

With one sole stride o'erpasses plain and hill.

None the less, if as this horse bears them along on the wings of his speed, they chance to see some great personage, a man of noble birth, high wisdom, and universal fame, then, however pressing their haste, they refrain their speed that they may do him honour, slacken their pace and rein in their horse: then straightway leaping to the ground they transfer to their left hand the switch, which they carry wherewith to beat the horse, and with right hand thus left free approach the great man and salute him. If it please him for a while to ask questions of them, they will walk with him for a while and talk with him: in fact they will gladly suffer any amount of delay in the performance of the duty which they owe him.

On the Virtues of Crates.

22. Crates, the well-known disciple of Diogenes, was honoured at Athens by the men of his own day as though he had been a household god. No house was ever closed to him, no head of a family had ever so close a secret as to regard Crates as an unseasonable intruder: he was always welcome; there was never a quarrel, never a lawsuit between kinsfolk, but he was accepted as mediator and his word was law. The poets tell that Hercules of old by his valour subdued all the wild monsters of legend, beast or man, and purged all the world of them. Even so our philosopher was a very Hercules in the conquest of anger, envy, avarice, lust, and all the other monstrous sins that beset the human soul. He expelled all these pests from their minds, purged households, and tamed vice. Nay, he too went half-naked and was distinguished by the club he carried, aye, and he sprang from that same Thebes, where Hercules, men say, was born. Even before he became Crates pure and simple, he was accounted one of the chief men in Thebes: his family was noble, his establishment numerous, his house had a fair and ample porch: his lands were rich and his clothing sumptuous. But later, when he understood that the wealth which had been transmitted to him, carried with it no safeguard whereon he might lean as on a staff in the ways of life, but that all was fragile and transitory, that all the wealth that is in all the world was of no assistance to a virtuous life....

On the uncertainty of fortune.

23. Imagine some good ship, wrought by skilled hands, well built within and fairly adorned without, with rudder answering to the touch, taut rigging, lofty mast, resplendent tops, and shining sails; in a word, supplied with all such gear as may serve either for use or the delight of the eye. Imagine all this and then think how easily, if the tempest and no helmsman be her guide, the deep may engulf her or the reefs grind her to pieces with all her goodly gear. Again, when physicians enter a sick man's house to visit him, none of them bids the invalid be of good cheer on account of the exquisite balconies with which they see the house to be adorned, nor on account of the fretted ceilings all overlaid with gold, or the multitudes of handsome boys and youths that stand about the couch in his chamber. Rather the physician sits down by the man's bedside, takes his hand, feels it and explores the beat and movements of the pulse. If he discovers any irregularity or disorder, he informs his patient that he is seriously ill. Our rich man is bidden fast: on that day mid all the abundant store of his own house, he touches not even bread: and meanwhile all his slaves feast and are merry, and their servile state makes no difference to them.

An improvisation.

24. You have asked me to give you an improvisation. Listen then. You have heard me speak prepared, now hear me unprepared. I think I risk but little in making an attempt to speak without premeditation in view of the extraordinary approval which I have won by my set speeches. For having pleased you by more serious efforts, I have no fear of displeasing you when I speak on a frivolous subject. But in order that you may know me in all my infinite variety, make trial of me in what Lucilius called

The improviser's formless art,

and see whether I have the same skill at short notice as I have after preparation; if indeed there be any of you who have never heard the trifles I toss off on the spur of the moment. You will listen to them with the same critical exactitude that I have bestowed on their composition, but with greater complaisance, I hope, than I can feel in reciting them. For prudent judges are wont to judge finished works by a somewhat severe standard, but are far more complaisant to improvisations. For you weigh and examine all that is actually written, but in the case of extempore speaking pardon and criticism go hand in hand, as it is right they should. For what we read forth from manuscript will remain such as it was when set down, even though you say nothing, but those words which I must utter now and the travail of whose birth you must share with me, will be just such as your favour shall make them. For the more I modify my style to suit your taste, the more I shall please you.[64] I see that you hear me gladly. From this moment it lies with you to furl or spread my sails, that they hang not slack and drooping nor be reefed and brailed.

[Footnote 64: modificabor, tanto a vobis in maius tolletur. So all editions before Van der Vliet. The words tanto ... tolletur have no MS. support, but some such insertion is necessary for the sense.]

I will try to apply the saying of Aristippus. Aristippus was the founder of the Cyrenaic school of philosophy and was a disciple of Socrates—a fact which he regarded as the greater honour of the two. A certain tyrant asked him what benefit he had derived from so long and so devoted a study of philosophy. 'It has given me the power,' replied Aristippus, 'to converse with all men without fear or concern.'

My speech has begun with a certain abruptness of expression due to the suddenness with which the subject suggested itself to me. It is as though I were building a loose wall in which one must be content to pile the stones haphazard without filling the interior with rubble, levelling the front, or making all lines true to rule. For in building up this speech I shall not bring stones from my own quarry, hewn foursquare and planed on all sides with their outer edge cut smooth and level, so that the nail slips lightly over it. No! at every point I must fit in material that is rough and uneven, or slippery and smooth, or jagged, projecting and angular, or round and rolling. There will be no correction by rule, no measure or proportion, no attention to the perpendicular. For it is impossible to produce a thing on the spur of the moment and to give it careful consideration, nor is there anything in the world that can hope at one and the same time to be praised for its care and admired for its speed.

The fable of the fox and the crow.

25. I have complied with the desire of certain persons who just now begged me to speak extempore. But, by Hercules, I fear that I may suffer the fate that befell the crow in Aesop's fable: namely, that in the attempt to win this new species of glory I may lose the little I have already acquired. What is this parable, you ask me? I will gladly turn fabulist for awhile. A crow and a fox caught sight of a morsel of food at the same moment and hurried to seize it. Their greed was equal, but their speed was not. Reynard ran, but the crow flew, with the result that the bird was too quick for the quadruped, sailed down the wind on extended pinions, outstripped and forestalled him. Then, rejoicing at his victory in the race for the booty, the crow flew into a neighbouring oak and sat out of reach on the topmost bough. The fox being unable to hurl a stone, launched a trick at him and reached him. For coming up to the foot of the tree, he stopped there, and seeing the robber high above him exulting in his booty, began to praise him with cunning words. 'Fool that I was thus vainly to contend with Apollo's bird! For his body is exquisitely proportioned, neither exceeding small nor yet too large, but just of the size demanded by use and beauty; his plumage is soft, his head sharp and fine, his beak strong. Nay, more, he has wings with which to follow, keen eyes with which to see, and claws with which to seize his prey. As for his colour, what can I say? There are two transcendent hues, the blackness of pitch and the whiteness of snow, the colours that distinguish night and day. Both of these hues Apollo has given to the birds he loves, white to the swan and black to the crow. Would he had given the latter a voice like the sweet song he has conferred upon the swan, that so fair a bird, so far excelling all the fowls of the air, might not live, as now he lives, voiceless, the darling of the god of eloquence, but himself mute and tongueless.' When the crow heard that, though possessed of so many qualities, there yet lacked this one, he was seized with a desire to utter as loud a cry as possible, that the swan might not have the advantage of him in this respect at any rate, and forgetting the morsel which he held in his beak, he opened his mouth to its widest extent, and thus lost by his song what his wings had won him, while the fox recovered by craft what his feet had lost him. Let us reduce this fable to the smallest number of words possible. The crow, to prove himself musical—for the fox pretended that this, the absence of a voice, was the sole slur on such exquisite beauty—began to croak, and delivered over the spoil which he carried in his mouth to the enemy who had thus ensnared him.

A transition from Greek to Latin.

26. I have known for a long time what it is your demonstrations demand: namely, that I should deal with the rest of my material in Latin. For I remember that at the very beginning, when you were divided in opinion, I promised that neither party among you, neither those who insisted on Greek nor those who insisted on Latin, should go away without hearing the language he desired. Wherefore, if it seems good to you, let us consider that my speech has been Attic long enough. It is time to migrate from Greece to Latium. For we are now almost half through our inquiry and, as far as I can see, the second half does not yield to the first part which I have delivered in Greek. It is as strong in argument, as full of epigram, as rich in illustration and as admirable in style.



NOTES

THE APOLOGIA

CHAPTER 1. Claudius Maximus, proconsul of Africa, is spoken of as having succeeded Lollianus Avitus. Lollianus Avitus was consul in 144 A.D. As ten to thirteen years usually elapsed between tenure of the consulate and proconsulate, Lollianus Avitus may have been proconsul 154-7 A.D., and Claudius Maximus 155-8 A.D.

gentlemen who sit beside him on the bench. The governor of the province, when holding his assize, would be assisted by a consilium of assessors drawn partly from his staff, partly from the local conventus civium Romanorum.

Granii. Nothing is known of this suit. Granii are mentioned as connexions of Lollius Urbicus (C.I.L. viii. 6705).

CHAPTER 2. Lollius Urbicus is described a few lines lower down as praefectus urbi, which is borne out by an inscription (C.I.L. vi. 28). The lawsuit of Aemilianus must therefore have been heard at Rome. The explanation of the words quam quidem vocem, &c., which follow, imply that Lollius was now in Numidia. This is possible enough since an inscription (C.I.L. viii. 6705) proves him to have been a native of Tiddis in Numidia. The praefectus urbi was assisted by a consilium, not by iudices. Here the members of the consilium are described as consulares. [Cp. Karlowa, Roem. Rechtgesch., p. 551.]

CHAPTER 4. not merely in Latin but also in Greek. Cp. Florida, chaps. 18 and 26.

Tannonius Pudens, an advocatus of the accusers and, presumably, a relative.

Homer, sc. Il. iii. 65.

Pythagoras, inventor of the term [Greek: philosophia]; cp. Diog. Laert. i, proem. 12. He was a native of Samos and migrated to Croton. See Florida, chap. 15. Floruit circa 530 B.C.

Zeno of Velia or Elea in Lucania was the founder of dialectic. Floruit circa 450 B.C.

self inconsistency. The phrase argumenta ambifariam dissolvere is very obscure. I am indebted to Professor Cook Wilson for the following note. 'A comparison of the passage with the captious argument of Protagoras (Florida, chap. 17, ambifariam proposuit), which is in the form of a dilemma, might suggest that ambifariam in both places means "by dilemma". But this is not a natural way of describing the method of Zeno. The characteristic of his philosophy was, according to tradition, that he tried to prove the thesis of Parmenides negatively by disproving the hypothesis contradictory to it. The disproof consisted in showing that the hypothesis in question involved a contradiction. If, therefore, ambifariam means "by dilemma" it would appear that Apuleius did not understand the true characteristic of Zeno's method; for dissolvere should refer to Zeno's method of disproof, which is not properly called dilemma.

'But perhaps it is not necessary to assume such a mistake on the part of Apuleius. Ambifariam may mean "ambiguously" in the sense of involving both sides of a contradiction (i.e. both of two contradictory propositions). This would suit the Protagoras passage well, for the argument, as the context shows, involves a contradiction. Zeno's argumentation also could be correctly described as ambifariam dissolvere, because he refuted the thesis opposed to that of Parmenides by showing that it involves a contradiction. Then the meaning of the passage would be that Zeno's cleverness (sollertissimum artificium) lay in the use of the reductio ad absurdum argument. In that case the translation would be as given in the text.' I find a confirmation of Professor Cook Wilson's view in the following line, cited from Timon of Phlius by Diog. Laert. ix. v. 2, where the word [Greek: amphoteroglossos] is used with reference to Zeno's methods of argument, sc. [Greek: amphoteroglossou te mega sthenos ouk alapadnon].

Plato, sc. Parmenides, 127b.

capital charge. There is an untranslatable pun here, capitalis bearing the double meaning 'capital' and 'pertaining to the head'.

CHAPTER 5. Statius Caecilius, one of the most famous writers of comedy. He died 168 B.C.

CHAPTER 6. tooth-powder, clearly a magical compound according to the accusers.

Catullus, sc. xxxix. 17-21.

CHAPTER 7. the barrier of the teeth. Homer, Odyss. i. 64.

CHAPTER 8. the crocodile. See Herodotus ii. 68.

CHAPTER 9. Teian, sc. Anacreon, circa 520 B.C.

Lacedaemonian, sc. Alcman, circa 650 B.C.

Cean, sc. Simonides, circa 520 B.C.

Lesbian, sc. Sappho, circa 600 B.C.

Aedituus, Porcius, Catulus, erotic epigrammatists of the Republican period, 130-100 B.C. The latter was Marius' colleague in the Cimbrian wars.

Solon. The line ascribed to Solon is almost too gross in the original to be genuine.

Diogenes, the founder of the Cynic school (died 324 B.C.), wrote 'concerning marriage and the begetting of children' in an erotic fashion. Diog. Laert. vi. 2. 12.

Zeno of Citium, founder of the Stoic school (died 264 B.C.), wrote an 'art of love'. Diog. Laert. vii. 21. 29.

CHAPTER 10. Ticidas, an erotic poet, contemporary with Catullus and, like him, belonging to the Alexandrian school.

Lucilius, the first of Rome's great satirists (148-103 B.C.), famous for the extraordinary vigour with which he lashed the vices of the age. The allusion in the present passage is unknown, though a fragment is preserved containing the name of Macedo and possibly also of Gentius (cp. Baehrens, Fragm. Poet. Rom., p. 168).

the Mantuan poet. Vergil, Ecl. ii.

Serranus, the cognomen of Atilius Regulus, consul 257 B.C., the famous Regulus of the first Punic war.

Curius Dentatus, thrice consul, and victor over the Samnites and Pyrrhus.

Fabricius, general in the war against Pyrrhus. Consul in 282 and 278 B.C. These three great soldiers were selected as types of Roman virtue. Cp. Verg. Aen. vi. 485.

Dion, brother-in-law and son-in-law of Dionysius II, tyrant of Syracuse, the friend and pupil of Plato, and for a brief space tyrant of Syracuse.

CHAPTER 11. Catullus xvi. 5.

Hadrian, Emperor, 117-138 A.D.

Voconius, mentioned here only.

CHAPTER 12. Venus is not one goddess but two. For this doctrine see Plato's Symposium, p. 181.

Afranius, the most famous writer of purely Roman comedy (fabulae togatae), floruit circa 110 B.C.

CHAPTER 13. Ennius (239-169 B.C.), the 'father of Roman Poetry'. Cp. Cic. de Or. ii. 156 'ac sic decrevi philosophari potius ut Neoptolemus apud Ennium "paucis: nam omnino haud placet"'.

the mirror, clearly regarded by the accusers, though Apuleius does not say so, as a magical instrument.

CHAPTER 15. The Lacedaemonian Agesilaus, the greatest of the Spartan kings, 440-360 B.C. Cp. Cic. ad Fam. v. 12.

Socrates. Cp. Diog. Laert. ii. 5, 33.

Demosthenes and Plato. Cp. Quint. xii. 2. 22 and 10. 23.

Eubulides, a sophist of Miletus. Cp. Diog. Laert. ii. 10. 4.

the orator when he wrangles, &c. The pun on iurgari, 'wrangles,' and obiurgari, 'rebukes,' can scarcely be reproduced. 'Disproves' and 'disapproves' would weaken the translation.

Epicurus of Samos, born 342 B.C. For his views on vision cp. Lucret. iv. 156, on mirrors, 293.

Plato. Cp. Timaeus, p. 46 A, 'Within the eyes they (the gods) planted that variety of fire which does not burn, but it is called light homogeneous with the light without. We are enabled to see in the daytime, because the light within our eyes pours out through the centre of them and commingles with the light without. The two being thus confounded together transmit movements from every object they touch through the eye inward to the soul, and thus bring about the sensation of the sight.' Grote's Plato iii. 265.

Archytas of Tarentum, a Pythagorean (circa 400 B.C.). The Stoics—believed that sight consisted in a refined fluid or visual effluence proceeding from the central intelligence through the eyes. 'In the process of seeing, the [Greek: horatikon pneuma] (visual effluence) coming into the eyes from the [Greek: hegemonikon] (central intelligence) gives a spherical form to the air before the eye by virtue of its [Greek: tonike kinesis] (i.e. the tension it sets up), and by means of the sphere of air comes in contact with things; and since by this process rays of light emanate from the eye, darkness must be visible.' Zeller, The Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics, p. 209, note. Cp. Plut. Plac. Phil. iv. 15.

CHAPTER 16. two rival images of the sun. Apparently an allusion to the phenomenon of mock suns. Archimedes had, according to Apuleius, treated of the rainbow and the mock sun in connexion with his researches into mirrors.

CHAPTER 17. Marcus Antonius, the orator, born 143 B.C., Consul 99 B.C.

Carbo, consul 85-82 B.C., one of the leaders of the Marian party and the chief opponent of Sulla after Marius' death.

Manius Curius. See note on chap. 10.

Marcus Cato, consul in 195 B.C., conducted a successful campaign in Spain in that and the following year.

CHAPTER 18. Aristides, the Athenian statesman and general, surnamed the just, died circa 468 B.C.

Phocion, an Athenian general and statesman, born 402 B.C., died 317 B.C. He was famous for his virtue and his poverty.

Epaminondas, the great Theban general who fell at Mantinea, 362 B.C. He was of noble birth but poor.

Fabricius. See note on chap. 10.

Gnaeus Scipio. Cp. Val. Max. iv. 4. 10. 'In the second Punic war Gnaeus Scipio wrote to the senate from Spain, begging that he might be replaced in his command. For his daughter was now of marriageable age, but could not be provided with a dowry during his absence from Rome.'

Publicola (Valerius), colleague of Brutus in the consulship in the first year of the Republic.

Agrippa, Menenius, consul 503 B.C., mediator between the plebs and the nobles in 493 B.C., in which year he died.

Atilius Regulus. See note on Serranus, chap. 10.

CHAPTER 20. Philus, a sceptical academician, one of the circle of Scipio Africanus the younger.

Laelius, the intimate friend of the younger Africanus.

Crassus, the famous financier, triumvir with Caesar and Pompey.

CHAPTER 22. Crates. See Florida 14 for some account of him. The rest of the poem on his wallet is preserved by Diog. Laert. vi. 5. 1, but is scarcely worth quoting.

Antisthenes, the founder of the Cynic school of philosophy, flourished circa 366 B.C. He was the teacher of Diogenes.

CHAPTER 24. Lollianus Avitus. See note on Claudius Maximus, chap. 1.

Anacharsis, a Scythian prince who travelled far in search of knowledge. He came to Athens in the time of Solon and created a great impression by his wisdom.

Meletides (or more properly Melitides) was an Athenian of proverbial stupidity, whose name was synonymous for blockhead. Eustathius on Odyss. x. 552, says that he could not count above five or distinguish between his father and mother!

Syphax, king of the Massaesyli in W. Numidia, fought for the Carthaginians during the second Punic war, and was finally defeated and captured by Scipio in 203 B.C. After his fall Masinissa, King of the Massyli, was left supreme in Numidia.

duumvir. The chief magistrates in a colonia were styled duumviri iure dicundo.

the dignity of my position. This is generally interpreted as meaning that Apuleius himself had become duumvir. It is more likely, considering his age and his continued absences from Madaura, that it means merely the position acquired for him by his father's distinguished office.

CHAPTER 25. Magician is the Persian word for priest. 'The name magi applied to all workers of miracles, strictly designates the priests of Mazdeism, and well-attested tradition made certain Persians the inventors of genuine magic, the magic which the Middle Ages styled the black art. If they did not invent it, for it is as old as humanity, they were at least the first to give magic a doctrinal basis and to assign it a place in a well-defined theological system.... By the Alexandrian period, books attributed to Zoroaster, Hostanes, and Hystaspes were translated into Greek.' Cumont, Les Religions Orientales dans le Paganisme Romain, p. 227. Cp. Pliny, N.H. xxx. 7. Plato, Alcibiades i. 121 E.

Zoroaster, son of Oromazes, the founder of the ancient religion of Persia (Mazdeism).

CHAPTER 26. Plato. The allusion is to Charmides, p. 157 A. Socrates offers Charmides a charm to cure the headache. But the charm will do more than cure the headache. 'I learnt it, when serving with the army, of one of the physicians of the Thracian King Zamolxis. He was one of those who are said to give immortality. This Thracian said to me ... "Zamolxis, our king, who is also a god, says that as you ought not to attempt to cure the eyes without the head or the head without the eyes, so neither ought you to attempt to cure the body without the soul," ... "For all good and evil, whether in the body or in human nature, originates, as he declared, in the soul, and overflows from thence, as from the head into the eyes. And therefore if the head and body are to be well, you must begin by curing the soul; that is the first thing. And the cure has to be effected by the use of certain charms, and these charms are fair words; and by them temperance is implanted in the soul, and where temperance is, there health is speedily implanted, not only to the head, but to the whole body."' (Jowett's Translation.) Apuleius scarcely makes a fair use of Plato's words, which he has so far detached from their context as to give them almost entirely a new meaning.

Zamolxis, probably an indigenous deity of the Getae. Greek legend made him a Getan slave of Pythagoras, who on manumission went home, became priest of the chief deity of the Getae, and taught the Pythagorean doctrine of the immortality of the soul.

CHAPTER 27. Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, born about 499 B.C. He came to Athens and had great influence there, being the friend of Pericles and Euripides. He was, however, banished for unorthodoxy and died at Lampsacus aged 72.

Leucippus, the founder of the atomic theory. His exact date and place of birth are uncertain.

Democritus of Abdera, born about 450 B.C. He developed the atomic theory of Leucippus.

Epicurus, like Democritus and Leucippus, maintained the atomic theory. Cp. note on chap. 15.

Epimenides, a seer and prophet of Crete who purified Athens of the plague with which she was afflicted in consequence of the crime of Cylon, circa 596 B.C.

Ostanes, or Hostanes, a famous semi-fabulous magician of Persia.

the 'purifications' of Empedocles. Empedocles of Agrigentum (flourished circa 450 B.C.) wrote a poem of 3,000 lines, entitled 'purifications' ([Greek: katharmoi]). In this he recommended good moral conduct as a means of averting epidemics and other evils. But as a fragment quoted by Diog. Laert. viii. 59, shows, he claimed also to have power over the winds.

the 'demon' of Socrates, the divine sign or voice [Greek: daimonion], which is represented by Socrates as having guided his actions, is never spoken of by him in terms that would lead us to suppose that he regarded it as a familiar spirit, though it is so treated by later writers (e.g. Plutarch, de genio Socratis, and Apuleius, de deo Socratis).

the 'good' of Plato. The reference is probably to the identification of [Greek: to agathon] with the [Greek: demiourgos] the creator spoken of in the Timaeus.

CHAPTER 30. Vergil. Cp. Ecl. viii. 64-82. Aen. iv. 513-16.

the wondrous talisman. The allusion is to the hippomanes or growth said to be found on the forehead of a new-born foal. Unless the mother was prevented she devoured it.

Theocritus, sc. Id. ii.

Homer, e.g. the adventures with Circe.

Orpheus. See the Orphica (Abel), Fr. 172; Argonaut. 955 sqq. Lithica 172 sqq.

Laevius. The MSS. give Laelius. But no poet Laelius is known. There was, however, a poet Laevius at the beginning of the first century B.C.

the lover's knot. The Latin is antipathes, explained by Abt (Apologie des Apuleius, p. 103) as quod mutuum affectum provocat.

the magic wheel spun rapidly to draw the beloved to the lover. Cp. Theocr. ii. 30. 'And as this brazen wheel spins, so may Delphis be spun by Aphrodite to my door.'

nails. Portions of the beloved were valuable ingredients in charms. Cp. Apul. Metamorph. bk. iii, 16, 17, where hair from the beloved's head is required.

ribbons used as fillets during the ritual. Cp. chap. 30, 'soft garlands.'

the two-tailed lizard. Theocr. ii. 57, testifies to the use of the lizard as a love charm. A magic papyrus from Egypt (Griffiths Thompson, col. xiii (23), p. 97) mentions a two-tailed lizard as an ingredient in a charm to cause death.

the charm that glads, &c., sc. hippomanes; see note on preceding page.

CHAPTER 31. Homer. Iliad xi. 741. Odyssey iv. 229.

Proteus. Odyssey iv. 364.

Ulysses. Odyssey xi. 25.

Aeolus. Odyssey x. 19.

Helen. Odyssey iv. 59.

Circe. Odyssey x. 234.

Venus. Iliad xiv. 214.

Mercury. Cp. the magic hymn contained in a magical papyrus (Papyr. Lond. 46. 414). 'Thou art told of as foreknower of the fates and as the godlike dream sending oracles both by day and night.'

Trivia = Hecate.

Salacia, a Roman sea-goddess, the wife of Neptune.

Portumnus, the Roman harbour-god.

CHAPTER 32. Menelaus. Hom. Odyss. iv. 368.

CHAPTER 35. A shell for the making of a will. The pun testa ad testamentum cannot be reproduced in English.

seaweed for an ague. Here again there is an untranslatable jest. Alga (seaweed) suggests algere, 'to be cold,' one of the symptoms of the ague (querceram).

CHAPTER 36. Theophrastus of Eresus, the favourite pupil of Aristotle.

Eudemus of Rhodes, also a disciple of Aristotle.

Lycon of Troas, a distinguished Peripatetic philosopher (floruit circa 272 B.C.).

CHAPTER 39. Quintus Ennius, 239-169 B.C. The lines which follow are all that survive of the Hedyphagetica. They seem to be closely imitated from the Gastronomia of Archestratus quoted by Athenaeus iii, pp. 92. 300. 318. There is great uncertainty as to the text, and but few of the fish mentioned can be identified with any certainty.

CHAPTER 40. Homer. Odyssey xix. 456.

CHAPTER 41. And yet it is a greater crime, &c. An allusion to the vegetarianism of the Pythagoreans and others.

Nicander of Colophon, an Alexandrian didactic poet. The [Greek: theriaka] survives, is over 1,000 lines long, and deals with the bites of wild beasts.

Plato. The words are not actually found in Plato's extant works; Apuleius is probably slightly misquoting Timaeus 59c.

CHAPTER 42. Varro (Marcus Terentius), 116-28 B.C. The most learned and voluminous of Roman authors.

an image of Mercury. Clearly the reference is to some such practice as that of 'screeing' in the ink-pool. Cp. Kinglake, Eothen, chap. 18.

Cato (the famous Marcus Cato, see chap. 17, note) was priest of Apollo and received offerings to the god.

CHAPTER 43. Plato. Sympos. 202, where [Greek: daimones] are spoken of as powers 'which interpret and convey to the gods the prayers and sacrifices of men and to men the commands and rewards of gods.' Also cp. de deo Socratis, chap. 6.

fair and unblemished of body. Beauty and virginity are insisted on in various passages in the magical papyri (see Abt op. cit., p. 185) as necessary in the boy through whom the god is to speak. Cp. also Benvenuto Cellini's Autobiography (Symond's Translation, p. 126, ed. 1901).

Pythagoras. 'I think also it was said by the Pythagoreans respecting those who teach for the sake of reward, that they show themselves to be worse than statuaries or those artists who perform their work sitting. For these, when some one orders them to make a statue of Hermes, search for wood adapted to the reception of the proper form; but those pretend that they can readily produce the works of virtue from every nature.' Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras, chap. 34 (Taylor's Translation).

CHAPTER 44. as might fairly be produced at a sacrifice, &c. The divination is preceded by sacrifice just as in Benvenuto Cellini (loc. cit.) the sorcerer first burns incense. The head is touched as being the source from which the oracle is to proceed (arx et regia, chap. 50). The clean robe is necessary, to ritual purity and is mentioned more than once in the magic papyri.

CHAPTER 45. Gagates is, according to Pliny, N.H. xxxvi. 141, 2, a black smooth stone, resembling pumice. It is light and fragile and differs but little from wood. When powdered it emits a strong odour; when burned it smells sulphurous, and, wonderful to relate, it is kindled by water and extinguished by oil.

CHAPTER 47. Twelve Tables. In this, the earliest Roman code, punishment was imposed on any person qui fruges excantassit, or qui malum carmen incantassit. Pliny, N.H. xxviii. 2. 17.

Quindecimvirs. The quindecimviri sacris faciundis were priests of Apollo and had charge of the Sibylline books.

CHAPTER 49. The Timaeus, pp. 82-6.

The three powers that make up the soul are those mentioned in the Timaeus, 35 sqq., i.e. Same, Other, and Essence.

CHAPTER 50. The Comitial sickness, so called because, if a case of epilepsy occurred during the meeting of the comitia, the assembly was immediately broken up.

CHAPTER 51. The Problems. Aristot. Fr. ed. Rose, p. 181.

Theophrastus, cp. fragm. 175w. Diog. Laert. v. 2. 13.

CHAPTER 52. Thallus contracts his hands, &c. 'Thallus manus contrahit, tu patronos.' The pun is (a) bad and (b) untranslatable into reasonably good English. The literal meaning is 'Thallus contracts his hands, you collect advocates'.

CHAPTER 55. The comrades of Ulysses, &c. Odyss. x. 28-55.

Aesculapius. Cp. Florida 18.

the mysteries of father Liber. The mysterious object is probably the mystic casket (cista) containing the [Greek: phallos], emblem of fertility.

CHAPTER 56. The followers of Orpheus and Pythagoras abstained from the slaying of animals for the service of man. Cp. Herodotus ii. 81.

Mezentius. Cp. Verg. Aen. vii. 647 'contemptor divom'.

CHAPTER 57. Ulysses. Odyss i. 58.

CHAPTER 62. High and low through all the town. The pun on oppido, 'exceedingly,' and oppido, 'town,' does not admit of reproduction.

CHAPTER 64. The Phaedrus, 247. 'For the immortal souls, when they are at the end of their course, go out and stand upon the back of heaven, and the revolution of the spheres carries them round and they behold the world beyond. Now of the heaven which is above the heavens, no earthly poet has sung or ever will sing in a worthy manner. But I must tell, for I am bound to speak truly when speaking of the truth. The colourless and formless and intangible essence is visible to the mind, which is the only lord of the soul. Circling around this in the region above the heavens is the place of true knowledge.' (Jowett's Translation).

The King. The passage quoted is from Plato, Epist. ii, p. 312 (403). It goes on to say 'and he is the cause of all things that are beautiful'. Compare the [Greek: nous basileus] identified with the cosmic soul in the Philebus 29E-30A.

CHAPTER 65. The Laws, pp. 955, 6. It is possible that [Greek: monoxylon] may mean 'of one wood only'.

CHAPTER 66. Marcus Antonius, Cnaeus Carbo, &c. Of these causes celebres nothing is known worthy of mention here. Apuleius errs in saying that Mucius accused Albucius. As a matter of fact Albucius accused Mucius on the ground of extortion. Cp. Cic. Brut. 26. 102. For the suit between Metellus and Curio cp. Ascon. in Cornel. 63. Cnaeus Norbanus should probably be Caius Norbanus, and Caius Furius, Lucius Fufius. Cp. Cic. de Off. ii. 14. 49, de Or. ii. 21. 89, and Cic. Brut. 62. 222, de Off. ii. 14. 50.

CHAPTER 73. A discourse in public. Fragments of such discourses are to be found in the Florida.

CHAPTER 75. His gold rings. By the time of Hadrian the wearing of a gold ring (ius anuli aurei) was no more than a sign of free birth, and the only privilege conferred was that of obtaining office. See Anulus, Dict. Ant.

CHAPTER 78. When you dance in those characters. Tragedy proper had been replaced on the Roman stage by the saltica fabula, in which the pantomimus executed a mimetic dance illustrating a libretto sung by a chorus.

CHAPTER 81. Palamedes was famous for having detected the pretended madness of Ulysses, by which he sought to avoid going upon the expedition to Troy. Ulysses was ploughing and Palamedes placed the infant Telemachus in front of the ploughshare. Ulysses revealed his sanity by stopping the plough.

Sisyphus, King of Corinth, was famous as a master of all manner of deceit, outwitting even the arch-thief Autolycus. He was finally cast into Tartarus for having discovered the amour of Zeus with the nymph Aegina.

Eurybates (or Eurybatus) coupled with Phrynondas by Plato (Protagoras 327). He was an Ephesian sent by Croesus to Greece with a large sum of money to hire mercenaries. He betrayed his trust and went over to Cyrus.

Phrynondas, a stranger (probably a Boeotian) who lived at Athens during the Peloponnesian war and became proverbial as a scoundrel.

clowns and pantaloons. Maccus and Bucco were stock characters in the Atellan farce.

CHAPTER 85. The viper. This superstition arises from the fact that the viper does not lay eggs, but is viviparous.

a well-known line. The author is unknown.

CHAPTER 87. Quite at home in Greek. See note on chap. 4.

CHAPTER 88. The line so well known in comedy. The reading nearest to the MSS. would be [Greek: paidon ep' apoto, gnesion epi spora] (Van der Vliet). Unless, however, the phrase [Greek: paidon ep' apoto gnesion] is a stock phrase which occurred in more than one comedy, which might perhaps be argued from the plural comoediis, there can be no doubt that the words [Greek: epi spora] are interpolated, inasmuch as the line occurs in the fragment of the [Greek: perikeiromene] of Menander, discovered at Oxyrhynchus by Drs. Greenfell and Hunt (Ox. Pap. ii, No. 211, p. 11 sqq.), and runs as follows

[Greek: tauten gnesion paidon ep' apoto soi didomi. Pol. lambano].

Serranus. See note on chap. 10.

CHAPTER 89. Multiplying by four. The pun in the word quadruplator cannot be reproduced in English. The name was given to a public informer who sued for a fourfold penalty.

a slip in the gesture. Bede (Op. Colon., MDCXII, vol. i, p. 132 b) says, 'When you say ten, you will place the nail of the forefinger against the middle joint of the thumb, when you say thirty, you will join the nails of thumb and forefinger in a gentle embrace.' Here the MSS. read adperisse, which suggests aperuisse. But aperuisse does not naturally express the gesture described by Bede, and Helm's emendation adgessisse seems necessary.

CHAPTER 90. Carmendas, Damigeron, &c. Carmendas is unknown. Damigeron is mentioned elsewhere as a magician (Tertull. de Anima, 57), but nothing is known of him. Moses appears as a magician in the magical papyri (Griffiths Thompson pap. col. v, p. 47 (13)). The miracles wrought by Moses in Egypt sufficiently account for this. Jannes, one of the Egyptian magicians worsted by Moses. Cp. Epistle to Timothy ii. 3. 8. Apollobex, a magician named Apollobeches is mentioned by Pliny, N.H. xxx. 9, as also is Dardanus. For Ostanes and Zoroaster see chaps. 25 and 27, notes.

CHAPTER 95. Cato, the earliest of the great orators of Rome: for his excellences see Cicero, Brutus, 65 sqq. (Cp. note on chap. 17).

Laelius, see note on chap. 20. Cicero selects lenitas as the chief characteristic of his style (de Orat. iii. 7. 28).

Gracchus (Caius Sempronius) was famous for the fire of his oratory (cp. Cic. Brut. 125, 126, de Orat. iii. 56. 214).

Caesar is generally praised chiefly for elegantia in his oratory, rather than for his warmth (cp. Cic. Brut. 252, 261, Quint. x. 1. 114).

Hortensius, Cicero's chief rival: a master of the Asiatic style (cp. Cic. Brut. 228, 9. 302, 3. 325-8).

Calvus, a contemporary of Cicero. One of the chief representatives of the Attic style (cp. Cic. Brut. 283).

Sallust, the famous historian.

CHAPTER 98. The garb of manhood. He had already assumed the toga virilis, cp. chap. 88. This must be taken metaphorically = 'You let him behave like a man.'

CHAPTER 101. He who can plead in court, &c. There is a play on perorare (= to plead in court) and exorare (= to win over his mother by prayer).

CHAPTER 102. What a criminal use of love-philtres, &c. There is a pun on veneficium and beneficium which cannot be reproduced.

THE FLORIDA

CHAPTER 2. Plautus. Truculentus, ii. 6. 8.

the great poet. Homer, Iliad, iii. 12.

CHAPTER 3. Vergil. Ecl. iii. 27.

CHAPTER 4. Antigenidas, a famous musician of the first half of the fourth century B.C. Others attribute the grievance to his pupil Ismenias. This story is also told by Dio Chrysostom xlix.

CHAPTER 6. Nabataea, a district at the north-east end of the Red Sea.

Arsaces, a king of Persia (perhaps Artaxerxes II, 379 B.C.) from whom the Parthian kings traced their descent. Here Arsacidae = Parthians.

Ityraea, a district under Mount Hermon to the north of Bashan.

Ganges. The quotation is from Statius, Silvae, ii. 4. 25.

wash gold. Lat. colare = to strain, sift.

CHAPTER 7. Alexander. This story of his portraits is told by many writers, though Lysippus is substituted for Polycletus by the more accurate, inasmuch as Polycletus was a sculptor of the fifth century, and contemporary with Pheidias! This is quite characteristic of Apuleius.

Apelles, the greatest of Greek painters, floruit circa 332 B.C.

Pyrgoteles, one of the most famous gem-engravers of Greece. Little is known of him beyond this story.

the professor's gown. Cp. Aulus Gellius, ix. 2, where a man with a long beard and huge cloak tries to persuade Herodes Atticus that he is a philosopher. Herodes replies, 'I see the cloak and the gown, but not the philosopher.'

CHAPTER 9. Hippias of Elis, one of the early sophists (middle of the fifth century B.C.); cp. Plat. Hipp. Min. 368 B.

the reciter's wand. It was the custom in Greece for a reciter to hold in his hand a wand or [Greek: rhabdos].

Severianus, proconsul of Africa between 161 and 169 A.D., as is shown by the words the two Caesars, M. Aurelius and L. Verus.

CHAPTER 10. The Sun. The passage quoted is from some unknown tragedy, perhaps a Phoenissae, cp. Eur. Phoen. 1.

Mercury. Those born under Mercury had a 'mercurial' disposition, those under Mars a 'martial' temper (cp. ignita).

other divine influences that lie midway. Cp. note on Apologia, chap. 43.

CHAPTER 11. darnel. The quotation is from Vergil, Georgic i. 154. Cp. also Ecl. v. 37.

CHAPTER 14. Crates. Cp. Florida 22, and Apologia, chap. 22.

CHAPTER 15. Polycrates, floruit circa 530 B.C.

Pythagoras. See note on Apologia, chap. 4.

Pherecydes. See note on Apologia, ch. 27.

Anaximander, an Ionian philosopher, born 610 B.C.

Epimenides. See note on Apologia, chap. 27.

Creophylus, an early epic poet, reputed author of the 'Capture of Oechalia', which he was said to have received from Homer as the dowry of the latter's daughter.

Leodamas. Nothing is known of this Leodamas. Apuleius may have made a slip and written Leodamas for Hermodamas, who is mentioned by Diog. Laert. viii. 2, as the descendant of Creophylus.

CHAPTER 16. Philemon was a writer of the 'new', not the 'middle' comedy.

'farewell' and 'applaud'. Cp. the well-known epitaph:—'iam mea peracta, mox vestra agetur fabula: valete et plaudite.'

Aemilianus Strabo was consul suffectus in 156 A.D. See Prosopographia imp. Rom. part 3. nr. 674, p. 275.

while breath still, &c., from Vergil, Aeneid iv. 336.

priesthood of the province of Africa. See Introduction, p. 12.

CHAPTER 17. Scipio Orfitus, proconsul of Africa, 163, 4 A.D. See Prosopographia imp. Rom. part 1, nr. 1184, p. 464.

Orpheus to woods, &c., from Vergil, Eclogue vii. 56.

CHAPTER 18. the tragic poet. Unknown.

Plautus. Truculentus, prologue 1-3.

no rose without a thorn. The Latin is ubi uber, ibi tuber. Wherever you get rich soil, there you will find pignuts.

the council of Africa was theoretically an association for the worship of the imperial house. It had some political importance, however, inasmuch as it might criticize the governor and forward its criticisms to the Emperor at Rome.

Protagoras, a famous sophist of Abdera (latter half of fifth century).

dilemma. See note on Apologia, chap. 9, self-inconsistency. A closely parallel story is told of Corax and Tisias, rhetoricians slightly earlier in date.

Thales of Miletus, the first of the great mathematicians and physical philosophers of Greece: one of the seven sages. He flourished towards the end of the seventh century B.C.

CHAPTER 19. Asclepiades, a famous physician from Bithynia, of the first half of the first century B.C.

CHAPTER 20. The first cup, &c. The wise author of this saying was, according to Diog. Laert, i. 72, Anacharsis.

Empedocles. See note on Apologia, chap. 27.

Epicharmus, a famous comic poet of Megara in Sicily. He flourished early in the fifth century B.C.

Xenocrates. Diog. Laert. mentions five writers of this name, none of them of any great importance. It is possible that we should read Xenophanes, who, according to Diog. Laert. ix. 10, wrote silli, a form of lampoon or satire. He was the founder of the Eleatic school and probably flourished about 500 B.C.

CHAPTER 22. Crates pure and simple, i.e. by his renunciation of the world described in chap. 15.

CHAPTER 24. The MSS. give this as a prologue to the de deo Socratis. It belongs, however, manifestly to the Florida.

Aristippus, founder of the Cyrenaic school, a friend and younger contemporary of Socrates.

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OXFORD PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS BY HORACE HART, M.A. PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY