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Aemilia Pudentilla was widowed about fourteen years ago. She raised her two young sons, Pontianus and Pudens. The boys' paternal grandfather intended her to marry his other son, Sicinius Clarus, and threatened to disinherit the boys if Pudentilla married anybody else. Though she was unwilling to do so, for the sake of the boys, she made a preliminary marriage contract with Sicinius. But she delayed the actual marriage, and in the meantime, the grandfather died, leaving the boys as heirs to their paternal property.

(1)

ordinem reī: "sequence of events," as in 66.1 tōtīus reī ōrdinem.

efficiō ut: "make it so that," introducing the clause ipse Aemiliānus ... necesse habeat.

rē cognitā: "when the truth is known" (Jones).

falsō: adv. modifying inductum (esse).

sē: acc. in indirect statement after cōnfitērī, subject of inductum (esse) and aberrā(vi)sse.

ad invidiam meam: "to a hatred/envy of me" = "to hate/envy me," as in 67.5.

necesse habeat: "understands that it is necessary to," "will be obliged to" (Jones).

quaesō: parenthetical, used absolutely, LS quaeso II.γ.

sī quō ... potestis: "if to any extent you can."

iūdiciī: "action," "case."

cognōscātis: jussive subjunctive.

(2)

Aemilia Pudentilla: it is not likely that Pudentilla was present at the trial (Hunink). 

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Jane F. Gardner, Being a Roman Citizen (London: Routledge, 1993) 104-105:

"Appearing in a public court, even in one’s own behalf, was not an absolute necessity for most people; they had the choice of appointing a representative. The women who appeared personally in court because they had no choice but to do so were those who for one reason or another belonged among the disgraced (infames) listed in the praetor’s edict . . . the notion of chastity is linked with staying at home, away, that is, from the eye of men other than husbands. Women who voluntarily offer themselves to public view raise doubts, it is suggested, about their morals."

quīcum: quōcum.

pūpillōs relictōs in potestāte paternī avī: "as wards left behind in the control of their paternal grandfather." The boys came under the legal control (potestas) of their grandfather as paterfamilias after the death of their father. A pupillus is one below the age of puberty (impubes) who ceased to be under the power of his father by the latter’s death or through emancipation (Berger p. 662). 

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Jane F. Gardner,  Being a Roman Citizen (London: Routledge, 1993), p. 97:

"It was only by a legal fiction that a woman could be said to be head of a familia; her descent-line stopped with her." 

Eadem, Women in Roman Law and Society (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), p. 76: 

"A woman’s familia consisted solely of herself." 

Ibid., p. 6:

At the death of the pater, "a woman’s children, if legitimate, belonged to the familia of their father."

superstite patre: "with his father surviving him," "while his father was still alive."

per annōs fermē quattuordecim: This refers to the whole period of the widowhood of Pudentilla up to her marriage with Apuleius, as is shown by o ingrati XIIII anni viduitatis (c. 85). In ch. 27 we have post annos tredecim viduitatis. The inconsistency is perhaps to be explained by the fact that in that passage Apuleius is quoting his opponents, who may have made a slight slip (B/O).

(3)

nōn tamen libenter ... vidua: "but not happily widowed" = "but she wasn't happy living as a widow."

aetātis suae flōrē: "the flower of her age" = "the prime of her life."

(4)

invītam: concessive, "even though she didn't want to."

conciliāre: "to match with," "bring (as a wife) to," OLD concilio 1, + dat.

eōque: "and to that end," "and for that reason," i.e., in order to get her to marry Sicinius.

extrāriō: "someone outside of the family."

nūbsisset: nūpsisset, pluperfect subj. in the place of a future perfect indicative in the protasis of a future more vivid conditional in indirect discourse (AG 598).

sē: subject of the infinitive relictūrum (esse) in an indirect statement dependent upon minābātur.

eius: Pudentillae.

ex paternīs eōrum bonīs: "from their (the boys') father's wealth," which their grandfather now controlled.

testāmentō: "in his will," i.e., the grandfather's will, as all the boys' paterna bona have reverted to their grandfather's control.

(5)

Quam condiciōnem cum obstinātē prōpositam vidēret: order: cum vidēret (hanc) condiciōnem obstinātē prōpositam (esse). The condiciōnem is the provision that the children would be cut out of their grandfather's will if Pudentilla failed to marry Sicinius.

nē quid ... incommodāret: "lest she give any disadvantage."

eō nōmine: "on this account," "because of this demand," that she marry Sicinius.

facit: historical present.

tabulās nuptiālēs: apparently not the actual marriage settlement or contract, which was signed at the actual marriage (B/O). 

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B/O ad loc:

"Compare tabulae nuptiales in ch. 88. Here the tabulae are an agreement drawn up on betrothal only. It is, however, possible even here to interpret tabulae nuptiales of the marriage contract, if we suppose facit to mean that she drew up or attested a draft of the marriage settlement which would have been duly signed at the actual marriage before the ten witnesses required by custom."

Jane Gardner, Women in Roman Law and Society (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1986), pp. 49-50:

"In various parts of the Roman empire, from the first century A.D. on, there developed the practice of having signed and witnessed marriage contracts (tabulae nuptiales). These were not ‘marriage contracts’ in our sense, since they did not testify to the performance of any legally required ceremony, nor were they subscribed by an authorized public official. In essence, they were agreements of a financial character, and were not themselves constitutive of marriage, unlike the syngraphai of Greek law. The wealthy widow whom Apuleius eventually married had previously, under pressure, made tabulae nuptiales with Sicinius Clarus, but had managed on various pretexts to avoid marriage."

cum quō iubēbātur: "with (the person with) whom she was being ordered (to do so)."

vānīs frūstrātiōnibus: "with empty delays," i.e., she kept making fake excuses to delay the wedding proper.

eō ad dum: "to the point at which." The phrase, uniquely attested in this passage, is apparently a variation on the slightly more common (usque) adeo dum.

fātō concessit: supply vitā, "died of natural causes." See LS concedo I.B.1. A slightly euphemistic expression for dying may have been chosen here to counter any suspicion that Pudentilla's tricks played a role in his death. (Hunink).

relictīs fīliīs eius hērēdibus: "with the sons left behind (at his death) as heirs." See OLD relinquo 8, "to leave behind at one's death." 

ita ut: "won the condition that."

frātrī suō tūtor esset: Sicinius Pudens had not yet taken the toga virilis, and though sui iuris was incapable of acting as such (B/O).