16

Philosophy must look at all mirrors to investigate these and other questions (1), such as why curved mirrors distort reflections (2), why mirror images are reversed (3), how parabolic mirrors can burn kindling (4), and why rainbows are multicolored (5). Archimedes dealt with all this in his work on optics (6), which, if you read it, Aemilianus, would make you want to look in a mirror (7). Your face is as ugly as your character (8), but I had no idea who you were until recently (9), since you lurk in rural obscurity while I act openly in full public view (10-13).

(1)

vel ūda vel sūda: If the text is correct, this is perhaps a “polar” expression, meaning “any at all” (Jones). 

[sōlī]: this is probably the most frequently discussed textual point in the Apology and many emendations have been proposed. Scholars who refrain from emendation have interpreted it either as the genitive singular of solum "soil"; or as the dative singular or nominative plural of solus "only"  or as the dative singular of sol "sun," but none of these will do. Most likely, the word is an interpolation. A scribe did not understand suda and added soli above su, to make the perfectly normal solida, which was then taken into the text. The same solution has been defended by Traina, and is now adopted by modem Italian editors. I follow these scholars in deleting soli (Hunink).

vidēre: "to look into” (B/O).

(2)

Quibus: "for whom,” i.e., philosophers, implied from philosophia above; dative with the adjective necessāria.

ista quae dīxī: the arguments about how mirrors function.

illa ratiōcinātiō: "the following theorizing," setting up the series of indirect questions:

cūr ... optūtūs et imāginēs videantur (16.2)

ubi et cūr laeva ... permūtentur (16.3)

quandō ... imāgō ... tum (sē) recondat ... tum (sē) exerat (16.3)

cūr cava specula ... accendant (16.4)

quī fiat ut arcūs (et) duo solēs (et) alia plūrima ... visāntur (16.5).

fermē parēs: "generally equal," "almost identical" in size. Unevenness on the surface of the mirror, such as would be far more pronounced in Apuleius' day than now, would prevent exact reproduction" (B/O).

optūtūs et imāginēs: "objects and their reflections" (Jones).

tumidīs: "convex." 

omnia dēfectiōra: "everything (seems) smaller,” LS deficio II.B.β ad fin.

in cavīs auctiōra: in cavīs (speculīs) auctiōra (omnia videantur): translate in parallel to omnia dēfectiōra (videantur).

(3)

ubi: "at what point," in the process of reflection.

laeva: "things that are on the left side."

dexterīs: "things that are on the right side."

quandō sē imāgō eōdem speculō tum recondat penitus, tum forās exerat: "at which time our reflection retires into the depths of the mirror when we retire, and approaches once more when we approach?" (B/O).

exerat: = exserat > exserō, "protrudes."

(4)

exadversum sōlī: "opposite to the sun." The accusative would be more regular after exadversum.

retineantur: "are positioned" (OLD retineo 4).

appositum: "held in front (of the mirror)."

(5)

quī fīat ut: “how it happens that,” (LS qui2). Indirect questions continue.

arcūs in nūbibus variē: supply vīsantur from following clause: "how it is that rainbows look multicolored" (Jones), see OLD variē 1, "with varied or changing colors."

duo solēs: the phenomenon known as sun dogs or parhelion. Seneca discusses this phenomenon in Natural Questions 1.11.2-14.6. 

aemulā similitūdine: "of rivaling likeness," so one can't tell which is the real sun.

alia ... plūrima: supply vīsantur.

(6)

tractat: "handles," "deals with" in his book. The work referred to does not survive. Later tradition claimed that Archimedes used mirrors acting collectively as a parabolic reflector to burn ships attacking Syracuse.

in omnī quidem geōmetriā: "in the entire field of geometry, at least."

multum: adverbial, modifying ante aliōs.

propter hoc: "because of this," looking forward to the quod clause.

vel maximē: "or more especially," a common expression in Cicero. See LS maxime A.2.

memorandus: "noteworthy" (OLD memorandus) or "ought to be mentioned" by me in this context (> memorō -āre). Order: sed haud sciam an (Archimēdēs) (mihi) memorandus (sit) propter hoc vel maximē (mihi) memorandus est quod īnspexerat speculum saepe et dīligenter.

(7)

Quem ... librum: connecting relative, referring to the work by Archimedes mentioned above.

nōssēs: nōvissēs.

campō et glēbīs: i.e., agricultūrae.

abacō: the Roman abacus for numerical calculation, a development of Egyptian and Roman models, was typically a bronze tablet with 8 small slots in the upper third of the tablet and 9 larger slots in the lower third, with metal studs being pushed along the slots as required. But the pairing of the word with sand (pulvisculo) in this passage may suggest another kind of abacus, a tablet covered with fine sand or powder for particular technical, geometrical, astronomical or geographical drawings or sketches, known in late antiquity from Martianus Capella. See Brill, abacus.

pulvisculō: the calculating board sprinkled with sand is an ancient instrument for mathematics and geometry. Apuleius cleverly connects it with the foregoing campo et glebis, which alludes to Aemilianus' rusticity. The diminutive pulvisculo posed a problem for B/O, but it seems functional: it underscores the contrast between the rustic's rude clods of earth and the scholar's fine dust (Hunink).

mihi istud crēde: "trust me on this," with istud as an accusative of respect or internal accusative.

tēterrimum: also spelled taeterrimum > taeter, "foul."

minimum ... dēmūtet: "barely differs." This intransitive use of the verb is attested in Apuleius only. See OLD demuto 2.

Thyestā tragicō: "the Thyestes of tragedy.” The reference must be to the mask worn by Thyestes in the scene where he discovers that he has eaten his own children. There were fixed types of masks, of which this must have been one (B/O).

relictō arātrō: "having left your plough" and hence the furrows you're making with it in the soil. This sets up the joke about the other "furrows" Aemilianus would see in the mirror.

mīrārēre: mīrārēris.

tot … sulcōs: supply esse, indirect statement after mīrārēre.

(8)

bonī cōnsulis: "you think (that it is characteristic) of (a) good (outcome, circumstance (that)," = "you are content that," "you prefer that," (LS consulo II.B), followed by accusative (mē) and two infinitives (dīcere ... reticēre). Aemilianus would prefer to be insulted for his appearance than called out for his behavior.

multō truculentiōribus: "far more violent."

(9)

Ea rēs est: "The fact is this," looking forward to ignōrāvī.

praeter quod: "apart from the fact that."

etiam libenter tē nūper usque albus an āter essēs ignōrāvī: "I was happy enough not to know a thing about you." Usque albus an āter essēs is literally, "even just whether you were white or black," i.e., even just the most basic piece of information. 

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This was a proverbial expression according to Pomponius Porphyrion (commentary on Horace's Epistles 2.2.189), who glosses it as follows: Albvs et ater. Prouerbialiter. Hoc est: bonus et malus.  Catullus (93.2) uses the same words of Julius Caesar. Garrison's commentary on this passage in Catullus, says, "not a matter of skin color in a racial sense, but a reference to Greek jargon for homosexuals who played a passive or active role in sex. A 'white' man is pale, and plays the passive role."  But this connotation may be specific to the Catullus poem in question, given Caesar's rumored proclivities. Hunink says, "Usually, the proverb expresses merely unfamiliarity and has nothing to do with color. But Apuleius, again, takes up the basic meaning, by placing the phrase in a context of 'light versus dark.'" While most modern commentators say this has nothing to do with skin color or race, in a multicultural Roman Empire, "I don't even know what skin color he has," might be useful as a general phrase for never having even seen a person in passing, and therefore knowing nothing about them.

(10)

Id adeō factum: "It was this way up until now."

obscūrus: "little known," "insignificant," "undistinguished" (OLD obscurus 5). The word also means "dark or dingy in color" (OLD 2.b), and so could be another play on albus/āter. Aemilianus is metaphorically obscure in public life because he spends his time farming, but also possibly so encrusted with the grime of the farming life that nobody knows his actual skin color.

occupātus: supply sum.

(11)

Ita et tibi umbra ignōbilitātis ā probātōre obstitit: obstāre literally means "to stand in front of" something, and by extension "to act as a defense or protection" for it, or "to shield" it from something (OLD obsto 4.b), in this case "from a critic" ( ā probātōre), that is, from public censure. This cover has been provided to Aemilianus, says Apuleius, by the "shadow" (umbra) cast over him by his "obscurity of birth" (ignobilitatis). Ita et points back to the previous sentence and amplifies the point. Jones's translation brings out the snobbery and the metaphor nicely: "Hence your inferiority was a shadow protecting you from investigation."

potius dūxī: "thought it preferable," LS potis II.B.

(12)

hoc mihi ... ūsū vēnit ... quod: "the same thing happened to me which." See LS ūsus I.A.5. 

adversum tē: "with regard to you."

quod quī: supply ūsū venit hominī: “which (happens to a person) who.”

atque eum alter ē tenebrīs prōspectat: "and another person sees him from the shadows."

(13)

Nam … cōnspicuus: order: nam tū quidem, ad eundem modum, facile ē tenebrīs tuīs arbitrāris ("witness") quid ego in prōpatulō et celebrī agam, cum (tū) ipse nōn sīs mūtuō cōnspicuus mihi, humilitāte abditā et lūcifugā.

in prōpatulō et celebrī: supply locō: "in an open and populated space," i.e., openly and not in private.

lūcifugā: Aemilianus is said to be hiding in the dark, invisible to Apuleius, who himself always acts in public. 

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The combination of invective motifs here has led some scholars to assume that Aemilianus is pictured as a Christian. From early Christian apologetic writings we know that similar charges were brought forward against Christians. Especially the word lucifugus is remarkable, since it is used in anti-Christian polemics; see Minucius Felix, Octavius 8.4: latebrosa et lucifuga natio ("a secret tribe that shuns the light"); Rutilius Namatianus, De reditu suo 440: squalet lucifugis insula plena viris ("an ill-kept isle full of men who shun the light," referring to a community of monks on the island of Capraria). However, it remains impossible to establish whether Aemilianus actually was a Christian. At best, we can say that the words that Apuleius uses to describe him could be interpreted in that way, like several other passages in the rest of the speech (e. g. 56.4). Meanwhile, other negative associations may be intended, too; for instance, hiding and darkness also carry the association of magic (see 47.3) (Hunink).

arbitrāris: "witness," "observe," an ante- and post-classical sense of word (see OLD arbitror 1).  

mūtuō: adv., "equally."