Complete Works of Apuleius, Vol. IV

ility, and learning, and most flourishing in his friendships; when she was a widow, and declining in age, and wounded in her internal organs due to the lack of a husband, and certainly against so many schemers and the impiety of her sons, she was in need not so much of a husband as of a guardian and defender. And it is sufficiently established, and inculcated quite often in this Apologia, that the crime of Magic was introduced by the enemies of Apuleius for no other reason than out of envy and pain because they saw that the goods of Pudentilla, which they had devoured in empty hope, were possessed by Apuleius as her husband. For this reason, Servilius Taurus, the Proconsul of Africa, was once struck; when Agrippina coveted his gardens, she subjected him to an accuser, Tarquitius Priscus, his legate, who objected to him a few crimes of extortion, but otherwise magical superstitions, says Tacitus in Book 12 of the Annals.

The accusers of Apuleius were Pudens, his stepson, still a boy, and Sicinnius Aemilianus, and Herennius Rufinus; the latter was the father-in-law of Pudens, the former his uncle and guardian. But only Pudens acted openly and at close range, the others from a distance; they were instigators and plotters of the slander rather than accusers or subscribers. They primarily objected two things: magical arts, and that he possessed Pudentilla's house against the interests of her stepsons and had overturned it. Indeed, Pudentilla had had two sons from Sicinnius Clarus: Pudens, whom I mentioned, and Pontianus, the older, who had died before this accusation, having a hostile mind toward his stepfather, and who would have dared the same thing had he lived. He eludes the crime of magic most eloquently in many words, and spends a large part of the defense in refuting it; because, with that refuted, the other would be easily refuted. In Book 5 of the Anthology of Greek Poets, there exists an elegant epigram by Christodorus, the Theban poet, in praise of our Apuleius, with this inscription: Εἰς Ἀπουλήϊον τὸν μάγον To Apuleius the magician, so that it appears this as it were nickname

had adhered to him. But what magic he understands, he demonstrates in the epigram itself, when he calls him μύστην ἀῤῥήτου σοφίης an initiate of unspeakable wisdom, a mystic and priest of arcane wisdom, which Christodorus had read in this Apologia, where it is explained in more words. Commonly this speech is inscribed as if there were two; and thus it is cited everywhere by everyone, even by most learned men, as "Apologia the first" and "Apologia the second," which seems to have been done rashly, as P. Colvius first suspected, and the most learned Casaubon later proved. For it was one speech or Apology. And thus Saint Augustine mentions it, calling it a most copious speech, which certainly would not be most copious if it were divided into two. Nor is there any reason for this division. It is better and more learnedly called a book, as Erasmus calls it "the book on Magic": for it was not written as it was said, if I am not mistaken. That he said it once, not twice, is apparent from the whole series, and from those words: "But I will not so much indulge your kindness as to permit myself, now almost weary, in a cause entirely inclined toward the end, to begin now at last to speak of his excellent virtues; but rather I shall save them for when I have full strength and free time." How ineptly would these things be said if it were another act or speech, whose beginning they drag from that place: "Now is the time to turn to Pudentilla's letters." How absurd is this, that without any little preface, and without even addressing the name of the inquisitor, Claudius Maximus, one would approach a second and new act with full strength! Rather, as our Caius says, for those speaking in the forum, it seems a sin to lay out the matter to the judge without having made any preface. I do not, however, deny that Apuleius, or anyone else who defends himself, could have spoken twice. For we also read in the book of the ancient Greek orators two Apologies written about the same matter. But I deny that Apuleius did so. Nor long-