83

(1)

recognōsce: used in the context of documents of checking the contents again in order to ascertain the accuracy of the contents.

et haec: "these words, too," in addition to the little excerpt he had shown around town.

mēcum: construe with  dēscrīpseris: they both wrote down a copy of the same text in preparation for the trial (see ch. 78).

testātō: adv, "in the presence of witnesses," for more discussion on the procedure in question, see chapter 78. LS testor II.2.

dēscrīpseris: "you transcribed," pf. subj. in indirect question. I cut-and-pasted this from Martos.     thank you!

βουλομένην γάρ με ... ἔτι σωφρονῶ: "I wanted to be married for the reason I have said, you yourself having persuaded me to choose this man above all others, wondering at the man and eager for him to be made family to us through me. But now, since our accusers are maliciously misleading you, suddenly Apuleius has become a mage and I have been enchanted by him and love him. Come to me right away, while I still am in my right mind."

τοίνυν: introducing a reply, "well then … .”

(2)

Apuleius personifies the words of Pudentilla's letter, imagining the suppressed words shouting out in the forum that they have been wrongfully detained.

Ōrō tē: "I ask you," setting up the question beginning most expressly with nonne tunc in ch. 83.3, which is also the apodosis of the conditional introduced here (si litterae ... si verba).

Litterae:  means both "a letter and "letters (of the alphabet)," and the Latin for vowels (vocales) also means "vocal"; there may be an additional allusion to the idea that letters were a conversation conducted by other means (e.g. Demetrius, On Style 223) note 141.(Jones).

ita ut: "just as," here almost "inasmuch as.”

partim: "in part," "some of them,"

vōcālēs: "voiced," referring to vowels.  In Latin, vowels were called vocales which literally means 'having/using a voice.' the wordplay is in Apuleius' fantastical proposition of a world in which letters ("after all, we call some of them 'voice-users'") could actually use a voice and speak for themselves.

[el]I don't understand what this really means. Butler refers to its own page lvii, which discusses Apuleius's tendency to put (e.g., here with words that are cognates)

Hunink has a lengthy note: vocalesdicuntur: an ostentatious note on linguistic theory: the common distinction of vocals and other letters, such as consonants. The literate elite is likely to have been familiar with this notion, but the same cannot be expected from the rest of the audience. Undoubtedly the remark is meant as a display of the speaker's erudition. At the same time it prepares for the following, elaborate personification of letters: the litterae, now taken in the senseof 'letter', are literally given' a voice',1.

Apuleius combines this with a literary reference to the Homeric 'winged words'. On winged words within the Homeric epics see VIVANTE 1975. A similar Homeric reference is Fl. 15,23 uerbaque quae uolantia poetae appellant, ea uerba detractis omnis intra murum candentium dentium premere; for the latter element, see the note on 7, 4.

[em]in Latin, vowels were called 'vocales' which literally means 'having/using a voice.'  the wordplay is inApuleius' fantastical proposition of a world in which letters ("after all, we call some of them 'voice-users'") could actually use a voice and speak for themselves.

etiam propriam vōcem ūsūrpārent: "could even use their own voice," i.e., if letters could make noise on their own, which adynaton Apuleius justifies by noting that some of them are called "voiced,".

ita ut poētae aiunt: "a literary reference to the Homeric 'winged words'. On winged words within the Homeric epics see VIVANTE 1975. A similar Homeric reference is Fl. 15, 23 verbaque quae volantia poetae appellant, ea verba detractis omnis intra murum candentium dentium premere." Hunink.

pinnīs apta: "equipped with wings," modifying verba.

vulgō volārent: "could fly at large".

nōnne: a preview of the question which will begin in earnest after the cum clause at nōnne tunc.

cum prīmum: "when he first..." "the minute he started..." the cum clause governs three verbs: excerperet, legeret, and reticēret, which should be read as a list.

epistolam istam ... excerperet: either excerperet must mean something like "take excerpts from" here or else epistolam istam refers only to the small portion of the letter Rufinus had been showing people.

excerperet: "was taking extracts from" + acc.

legeret: "was reciting," LS lego II.B.2.b.α. https://logeion.uchicago.edu/lego.

meliōra: i.e., more favorable to Apuleius' case.

sciēns: "knowingly," fully aware of what he was doing.

reticēret: functionally the opposite of legeret: "did not read," "suppressed.".

tunc: "at that point," referring back to cum prīmum.

cēterae litterae: the ones that hadn't been selected by Rufinus to share.

scelestē: construe with sē dētinērī.

prōclāmāssent: prōclāmāvissent.

[fe]Plupf. subj. in a past contrary-to-fact condition.

dē: this passage helpfully illustrates the difference between the prepositions dē, ab, and ex: dē suggests "the going out, departure, removal, or separating of an object from any fixed point. Accordingly, it occupies a middle place between ab, away from, which denotes a mere external departure, and ex, out of, which signifies from the interior of a thing." (LS s.v. dē init.).

ēvolāssent: ēvolāvissent.

forās ēvolāssent: "would have flown forth".

tumultū: "with their uproar," the notion that the words themselves are shouting is that upon which the following indirect discourse in 83.4-5 depends:.

se (i.e., litterās) ... missās esse (ind. stat.)

(ea) ... mandāta esse (ind. stat.)

ne ... auscultārent (ind. comm.)

(ut) ... audīrent (ind. comm.)

Apuleium ... non accūsātum (esse) (ind. stat.)

(Apuleium) ... absolūtum (esse) (ind. stat.)

complēssent: complēvissent.

? (4) ': mah, this punctuation is wonky.  we need, like, one of those question commas, since we're going into indirect statement, we don't want these quotation marks.

Sē: i.e., litterās.

[fl]se quoque is emphatic.

quoque: emphatic, "they they ALSO" (and not just the ones Rufinus had selected).

missās: supply esse.

sibi etiam: "also to them," not just to the letters in that part of the letter which were actually shown.

[fp]emphatic

quae: supply ea to be the subject of mandāta (esse): "things which".

quae dīcerent: "which they were to say," "which they had to say," expressing purpose.

mandāta: supply esse for the infinitive form; the subject is the unexpressed antecedent of quae: "that things were also entrusted to them which they had to say,".

nec auscultārent: = "et ne auscultārent," Apuleius switches from indirect statement to indirect command, the personified letters and words are now pictured encouraging people not to listen to Rufinus' lies.

sibi: "to them," i.e., the suppressed sections of the letter represented by the personified words.

potius: "but rather".

audīrent: supply ut to continue the (now positive) indirect command: the letters want people to listen to them, instead.

accūsātum: supply esse.

accūsante Rufīnō: "while RUFINUS was the one doing the accusing," the repetition of accusante after accusatum highlights the contrast between Rufinus' assertion that Pudentilla was levelling this accusation and Apuleius pointing out that it was Rufinus all along.

[fz]"Rufinus accused him, and she acquitted him" (Jones)

absolūtum: supply esse.

Quae omnia: "all of which (facts, words in the letter, vel sim.)".

tum: "at that point," at which Rufinus was showing the offending excerpt around town.

magis prōsunt: "they are (even) more beneficial".

[ge]Here, cunning, artifice, fraud, stratagem

ōlim interversa: "once tucked away" where no one could find it -- maybe a reference to how Rufinus hid the other portions of the letter?.

Loeb: Truth, once hoodwinked, now rises up and emerges from slander as from a deep abyss.

[gh]"defrauded, swindled, cheated" (OLD interverto 1)

sē effert: "brings itself forth," "comes forth," from where it was tucked away/.

velut altō barathrō: "as if from a deep chasm".

ēmergit: "gets clear of" "rises from".

"gets clear of" + acc., see OLD emergo 5.a. Others emend to calumnia se mergit: "emerges from slander" (Jones). This is Helm's text, based on an emendation of Elmenhorst, and is a more normal use of the verb emergo.