64

Aemilianus, I hope Mercury sends all kinds of ghosts and specters to haunt you to repay you for your lie. We Platonists have no truck with such grim bogeymen, but focus on what is heavenly and sublime. Maximus, who has read Plato's Phaedrus, knows that the "king" I refer to is the Platonic supreme being, the eternal and ineffable cause of all nature.

(1)

tibi ... duit deus iste ... malam grātiam: “may that god ... repay you with the ill will” (Jones), or "wrath" (Costantini), or "hatred" (Butler).

duit: an archaic optative > dare, seen also in Roman comedy and Livy. It lends this mock-curse a solemn tone (Costantini p. 220).

superum et īnferum commeātor: "the traveler between (the realms) of (things) above and below," Mercury.

utrōrumque deōrum: "of both (upper and lower) gods," describing malam gratiam.

usquam: "anywhere," i.e., anywhere he is, or else any ghosts that are anywhere.

obviās ... oculīs tuīs oggerat: "may he place in front of your eyes," direct objects: species, quidquid.

(2)

omnia noctium occursācula, omnia bustōrum formīdāmina, omnia sepulchrōrum terriculāmenta: further direct objects of oggerat. Apuleius is generally following the template for goetic curses found in magical papyri and defixiones, but omitting the magica nomina, which would have proved that he was in fact practicing black magic.

read more

Apuleius does not utter a real curse since, by doing so, he would have proved himself the goetic magus he was alleged to be. He omits, in fact, the magica nomina and inserts instead: omnia noctium occursācula ("the sudden coming of specters") omnia bustōrum formīdāmina ("frightening apparitions of tombs"), omnia sepulchrōrum terriculāmenta ("terrifying spirits of the dead"). Each of these expressions, which indicate the ghosts who will haunt Aemilianus, include elegant neologisms such as occursaculum, formidaminum, and terriculamentum, complying with the archaizing fashion of the time. These neologisms would have reminded the learned audience – especially Claudius Maximus – that an urbane rhetorician such as Apuleius would never have been involved in loathsome, criminal practices (Costantini pp. 220-221).

ā quibus tamen ... haud longē abes: "even though you are not far from these things," i.e., Aemilianus is close to death, himself.

aevō et meritō: "due to your age and your just deserts," i.e., Aemilianus is close to death because a) he is old and b) he should be put to death for his behavior.

(3)

Cēterum: adv., "however that may be," OLD ceterus 5.

Platōnica familia: nominative in apposition to the subject of nōvimus, "We, the Platonic school." 

fēstum: indefinite substantive: "the joyful," "(that which is) joyful," as with the following, laetum, sollemne, superum, caeleste.

Quīn: corroborative, "really," LS quin II.C.1.

altitūdinis studiō: "in its pursuit of loftiness," Apuleius proceeds to conflate ethical loftiness with physical loftiness.

secta ista: i.e., Platōnica.

caelō ipsō sublīmiōra quaepiam: "certain things even higher than the sky itself."

vestīgāvit: "have investigated" mentally, through theoretical inquiry.

in extimō mundī tergō: "on the outermost back of the universe," i.e., if the whole universe were conscribed in a shell, on the other side of that shell. 

(4)

τὸν ὑπερουράνιον τόπον: "the super-ouranian place," i.e., beyond the border of Ouranos, the hard shell known to the Romans as aether.

οὐρανοῦ νῶτον: "Ouranos' back," evidently the origin of Apuleius' phrase in extimō mundī tergō above.

Phaedrō: Plato's dialogue, Phaedrus.

(5)

ut dē nōmine etiam vōbīs respondeam: a purpose clause, Apuleius is giving a reason for this digression, as well.

quisnam sit ille: "who on earth that (deity) was," indirect question after intellegit.

nuncupātus: describing ille (deus) in the indirect question, "the one who was called."

(6)

περὶ τὸν πάντων βασιλέα πάντ᾽ ἐστὶ καὶ ἐκείνου ἕνεκα πάντα: "All is connected to the King of All, and all exists because of him," Plato, Epistles 2.312E.

(7)

This section concisely summarizes Middle Platonist thought about the supreme being. A similar description can be found in Apuleius's De Platone et Eius Dogmate 1.5.

read more

In Plato’s own dialogues, the “first principle” is variously identified as The Good (Republic VI–VII): the ultimate source of being and intelligibility, beyond being itself; The Demiurge (Timaeus): the divine craftsman who shapes the cosmos after the model of the eternal Forms. Later Platonists tried to reconcile these figures.

By the time of Middle Platonism (1st c. BCE – 2nd c. CE, roughly Apuleius’ milieu), the “Supreme God” had these attributes:

• Transcendence: above time, space, and change.
• Causality: source of all being, order, and soul.
• Ineffability: beyond complete human expression, known only to the purified intellect.
• Providence: preserves and sustains the cosmos without effort, as Apuleius says: “crafts without toil, preserves without anxiety.”

quisnam sit ille basileus: supply Maximus intellegit.

animantum: "of living beings."

mundī suī: "of a world that is entirely his."

propāgātiōne: "begetting."

comprehēnsus: "embraced," "included," limited," OLD comprehendo 7.

eōque: "and for that reason," i.e., because he is never comprehēnsus.

paucīs cōgitābilis: "conceivable (only) to few."

nēminī effābilis: "utterable to no one," i.e., ineffable, beyond the capacity of language to express, a standard attribute of the supreme being in Platonic theology.

(8)

ultrō: "on my own," "unprompted" Apuleius is calling out his own-goal, acknowledging the witchy way his words might sound.

quem colam βασιλέα: "who it is that I worship as basileus."

quīn: "in fact."

prōcōnsul: Maximus.

quid: quid raises a minor smoke screen: at this point the real issue is the name of the God (that is, "who” he is), and one would therefore expect ”quis.” Instead, Apuleius alluded to the ”nature” of the god, which is, as he argued, hidden and ineffable (Hunink).

taceō: the shift from the subjunctive back to the indicative makes the apodosis of this conditional much stronger in force.  "If he should ask me, I am not speaking."