Complete Works, Vol. III

Milesia, unless one wishes to argue that Milesia can be used as a neuter noun, just as Georgica, argonautica, and other similar terms.

Pag. 3. LEPIDO SUSURRO.] In an elegant manner of speaking, the sound of which, like a gentle and sweet whisper, caresses the ears. It may also seem that he used this term, "whisper," to show that these things are not to be published or openly proclaimed to the profane, but whispered privately in religious ears, like the mysteries which are held in sanctuaries, and as the Greeks say, ἀποῤῥήτοις ineffable/secret. A person is called lepidus if they are polished, according to Donatus, as if from lepis: that is, a scale. Pliny reports that very fine copper scales are called lepidae. Hence, also, the lepidotes gem is so named because it imitates the scales of fish.

Ibid. PAPYRUM AEGYPTIAM.] Papyrus paper. For Papyrum or papyrus (it is said both ways) is a shrub growing in the marshes of Egypt or in the still waters of the Nile, from which the epigrammatic poet called them "Nile-papers." It grows to the thickness of an arm and a length of ten cubits, tapering to a slender point. From the papyrus plant, they weave clothing and covers. Hence that line from the satirist: Once cinched with the first papyrus, Crispinus. From this, many kinds of paper are made. Pliny, in his 13th book, describes clearly—as he is wont to do with everything—how papyrus paper is made. From him, we learn of the Augustan paper, which held the highest rank for letters due to its thinness; in ancient times it was called Hieratica priestly, as if it were consecrated, dedicated only to religious volumes. Emporetica merchant’s paper is so named as if it were for trade, useless for writing, but useful for wrapping goods. Among the principal papers were the Fanniana, the Liviana, and the Claudiana, which was preferred to all others. In papers, one looks for thinness, density, whiteness, and smoothness. Egyptian priests wear papyrus sandals, and it is not permitted for them to wear any other footwear, according to Herodotus. When papers are bequeathed, papyrus prepared for papers is not included, as Ulpian teaches in the 3rd volume On Legacies.

Ibid. ARGUTIA.] With charm, wit, and Egyptian jests. For they were most wicked and soft. Hence that saying:

Let this boy first be born on Nile’s shores,
No land knows how to provide more wickedness.
The same author elsewhere mentions Nile-wits. Flavius Vopiscus writes that the Egyptians are epigrammatic versifiers and prone to public singing. Quintilian explicitly critiques Alexandrian delicacies as the softest of all.

Pag. 4. NILOTICI CALAMI.] They highly approve of Egyptian reeds as suitable for writing, which, as Pliny says in book 16, serve for papers through a certain kinship with the papyrus; however, those from Gnidus are considered more acceptable. But for arrows, no reed is more suitable than that which grows in the Reno, a river of Bologna, which has an abundance of pith. Regarding the Nilotic reeds, the epigrammatist says:

The Memphian land gives reeds suitable for papers.
Let the rest of the marsh be woven into roofs for you.

Pag. 5. IN ALIAS IMAGINES CONVERSAS.] Whether men can be turned into other forms, such as wolves or donkeys, is a great and subtle question among the learned. This rumor is so deeply fixed among the common people that they consider "turn-skins" werewolves to be a curse. From this comes the line of Plautus: He makes himself a turn-skin when he pleases. Pliny asserts that these are the lies and fabrications of Greek vanity. The divine Augustine also believes these to be fables and the deceptions of demons. A man named Praestantius once related that it happened to his father that, having taken a magic poison in cheese, he became a pack-horse and carried grain for soldiers among the other beasts of burden.

Ibid. IN SE RURSUM REFECTAS.] He says this because he was made a donkey from a man, and soon reformed and restored from a donkey back into his original human self.

Ibid. MUTUO NEXU.] Through a certain kind of alternation: namely, that by turns he became a donkey from a man, and a man from a donkey, through a mutual conversion, while the same underlying matter remained.

Pag. 6. QUIS ILLE.] It should be understood externally as someone who has been turned into other forms and restored back into himself. It signifies Apuleius himself.

Ibid. HYMETTOS ATTICA.] After the introduction of the epigram, he enters into the narrative in prose, teaching that he has cultivated his tongue more in the Greek language than in the Latin. He reviews the famous places of Greece, just as one would a pedigree: as if he were born in Africa, but originated in Greece. Hymettus is a mountain in Attica famous for marble and honey. The orator L. Crassus owned six Hymettian columns, twelve feet in length. Hymettian honey, which is also called Attic, holds the primary rank of quality: hence Pliny and Galen highly approve of Attic honey for medicines. Strabo also, in his 9th book, preferring Hymettian honey to the rest, says that the most approved is that which they call acapnon without smoke, as if it were untainted by any smoke, by which both bees and honey are often spoiled. And therefore our Pliny says that this honey, which they call acapnon, is preserved, as if to say "without smoke." Solinus writes these things about Hymettus: The primacy is deservedly attributed to Hymettus because it is exceedingly flowery, and surpasses all foreign and domestic honey in its exquisite flavor.

Ibid. ISTHMOS EPHYRAEA.] The narrows of the Peloponnese, restrained between two seas, the Aegean and the Ionian, are called the Isthmus. In the middle of the Isthmus is Corinth, which Cicero calls the light of all Greece, formerly called Ephyra: hence the poet said Ephyraean bronze, wishing it to be understood as Corinthian. The Isthmus is said to be famous for the five-yearly games and the temple of Neptune. These games, according to Solinus, are said to have been instituted for this reason, because five