47

Magic, being illegal, is practiced at night, in secret, and with as few witnesses as possible. Yet you claim fifteen slaves were present? This is absurd.

(1)

sistī: "to be produced in court," LS sisto I.C.

familiam: "group of slaves."

dē XV servīs: (a summons) "concerning 15 slaves."

dēnūntiāstī: dēnūntiāvistī, "you sent a summons (in a criminal trial)." This could be done either by a magistrate or by the accuser. Berger, denuntiare.

quid si: "what if ...?"

vī: "unlawful force or violence," "assault."

tandem ... postulārēs: "would you end up demanding?" Tandem adds an ironic note to the rhetorical question: if Aemilianus demanded fifteen slaves to be produced for a charge of witchcraft, he would no doubt demand hundreds for an actual crime.

(2)

ergō: "So (we're meant to imagine)," (ironically), i.e., these two contradictory things: Either (1) fifteen people knew about this and yet it's still a secret, or (2) it's not a secret and yet it is still magic.

An occultum nōn est et magicum est?: treated as an absurdity because, as is explained in section 3, magical practices were by definition criminal acts done in secret.

Alterum hōrum: "one or the other of the following," setting up two indirect statements: (1) aut inlicitum non fuisse; and (2) aut ... tot conscios non debuisse (scire). In direct speech, it would be aut licitum erat ... aut tot conscii non debebant scire.

fateāris necesse est: necesse est ut fateāris.

inlicitum nōn fuisse: "it (whatever Apuleius did that underlies the accusation) was not illegal."

in quō tot cōnsciōs nōn timuerim: "since I did not fear (to have) so many witnesses to it," a relative clause expressing cause, AG 535.e.

scīre: complementary infinitive after debuisse.

(3)

quantum ego audiō: "as far as I am told."

dēlēgāta: "referred to the jurisdiction of" + dative (OLD dēlēgō 2.b), i.e., liable to punishment under.

iam inde antīquitus:  "from as far back as antiquity," construe with interdicta.

XII tabulīs: with interdicta, "by the Twelve Tables," or else just "on the Twelve Tables."

propter incrēdundās frūgum inlecebrās: "because of the incredible (practice of the) charming of crops." Section 8 of the ancient and (by Apuleius's day) primitive set of laws passed down as the Twelve Tables (451 and 450 BC) prescribed penalties, "If a person puts a hex on someone else’s crops or enchants his harvests."

tētra: taetra > taeter, "abominable, shameful."

noctibus vigilāta: "done while staying awake at night," see OLD vigilo 3.

sōlitāria: "unaccompanied by" + ablative of separation.

(4)

cui: "to which (sort of event)."

servōrum: supply paucī.

adhibentur: "are invited," + dat.

(5)

Et tū ... vīs: "And (on top of that) you claim that," incredulous. See OLD volo 18. Followed by indirect statement.

celebrātum: festive and well-attended.

officium: ceremony or rite (OLD officium 2.c).

convīvium tempestīvum: a dinner party starting at an early hour, hence, an elaborate or luxurious banquet.

quasi ... creātī: "as if they had been elected."

XV virī sacrīs faciundīs: the Board of Fifteen, a group of priests who kept the Sibylline Books, which they consulted and interpreted at the request of the Roman Senate. 

(6)

Cui ... reī: "to this (sort of) thing," connecting relative, referring to the highly illegal and secretive magic rites he is accused of leading.

tot numerō: "so many in number" = "so many people," pleonasm; direct object of adhibuissem.

adhibuissem: "would I have brought?" contrary-to-fact.

cōnscientiae nimis multī: "too many to be accessories" (Jones), literally, "too many for complicity in guilt."

XV līberī hominēs populus est: "(a group of) fifteen freeborn people is (basically) a nation (unto itself)." Hyperbole. The number of est is attracted to that of the predicate.

vīnctī: "shackled (men)," "prisoners."

ergastulum: a prison house where slaves worked in gangs, chained. 

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An ergastulum could be a quarry, or a chain-gang doing field work, but usually it means a rural workshop, above or underground. A farming manual recommends that they be built underground with skylights high enough to be out of reach (Columella 1.6.3). They must have been a fairly common sight in rural Italy in ancient times, common enough at any rate to be a source of metaphor in religious thought. Tertullian (Apology 27.7) compares demons to rebellious ergastula workers who constantly threaten to break out and attack us. Augustine (City of God 12.27) refers to the pagan gods as jailors who chain us up in wretched ergastula.

(7)

adiūtōriō: "for support," dative of purpose, setting up the relative clause of purpose and two subsequent purpose clauses to follow: (1) qui ... tenerent: "to hold;" (2) ut ... numerarent: "to count;” (3) ut ... prosternerent: "to knock over."

quī ... hostiās lūstrālēs tenērent: "to restrain the sacrificial victims," plural, ad sensum, of the people in the crowd.

gallīnās: these would obviously not need to be restrained by fifteen men.

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This farcical context serves to briefly and ironically allude to some suspicious details of the charge: at Apol. 47.7 Apuleius mentions the “sacrificial victims” (hostias lustralis) of the ritual, namely hens (gallinas) and grains of frankincense (grana turis). This reference substantiates my reconstruction of what Apuleius had actually performed: grains of incense were, in fact, customarily offered to Asclepius, and so were hens – according to Prudentius and the epitome of the De verborum significatu – in the same way as cockerels. Given Apuleius's own interest in medicine and the healing hero Asclepius (7.1), it is likely that he might have sacrificed some chickens on an altar (ara) and burnt some grains of incense, attempting a private ritual to purify Thallus, during which Asclepius was invoked (Costantini, pp. 154-155).

An ut grāna tūris numerārent: offered as a more ridiculous alternative, a purpose clause mirroring the function of the relative clause of purpose quī ... tenērent.

An ut Thallum prōsternerent: complete reductio ad absurdum, at this point, "or did I need all these people to help me knock Thallus over?"

Thallus: slave of Apuleius, allegedly used by him in performing magic. See sections 43 ff.