30

There is nothing unusual in purchasing fish. Or do you have some special magical expertise, Aemilianus? As the poets Vergil and Laevius show, other things are useful to arousing love, not fish.

(1)

quī: "a person who."

nōn magis: "no more so," i.e., magus sum.

altilia:  fattened fowl, an item that occurs repeatedly in passages on luxuries of the table, sometimes together with apri. See Petronius, Satyricon 40, Juvenal, Satires 5.114-6 (Hunick).

(2)

An sōlī piscēs: "Or is it that only fish ...?"

aliquit:  aliquid.

Hoc: the supposed magical property belonging to fish, known only to mages.

cōnfiteāris necesse est id tē accūsāre quod nescīs: necesse est (ut) cōnfiteāris tē accūsāre id quod nescīs.

(3)

rudēs: "ignorant of," + gen., LS rudis II.γ.

vōs esse: "are you all ...?" exclamatory infinitive AG 462.

denique: "even," LS denique II.B.2.

ista: crimina, "those charges of yours," or possibly "these (current) charges" (post-Classical istud = hoc).

vērisimiliter: "plausibly." 

(4)

Quid: "in what respect?"  "how?"

competit: "is relevant," OLD competo 5.

omnīnō rēs: "(any) thing at all."

hoc ... quod: "this ... (namely) the fact that."

exorta: supply esse.

(5)

sīs: =  sī vīs "if you please,"  insulting mock politeness.

quam multa nescieris: "how many things you do not know," indirect question, with a perfect subjunctive reflecting the current state resulting from his past (lack of) education.

quī: "(you) who," "as you," or "since you."

argūmentum ... recēpistī: "deduced a proof of," + gen.

(6)

scīssēs: scīvissēs.

ad hanc rem: "for this purpose," i.e., love potions or spells.

(7)

quantum sciō: "as far as I know."

vittās mollīs et verbēnās pinguīs et tūra macula: Vergil, Eclogues 8.64-65:

Effer aquam et molli cinge haec altaria vitta        

verbenasque adole pinguis et mascula tura.

The ribbons or bands of wool (vittae) are for decorating the altar or the head, or for the apotropaic protection of the altar on which the offering is laid. The "blooming boughs" (verbenas pingues) are boughs of any tree or aromatic shrub used for religious purposes. The incense (tura mascula) is burned on the altar. The multicolored threads licia discolora were used as amulets, worn around the wrist.

mascula: following a remark in Pliny, Natural History 12.61, scholars remark that mascula refers to incense in a coarse shape, like round drops; B/0 add that ‘superiority' as such can also be indicated. It may be added that the word also evokes the notion of men as opposed to women, a point not absurd in the context of love magic (Hunink).

līcia discolōra: Eclogues 8.73-75.

terna tibi haec primum triplici diversa colore        

licia circumdo, terque haec altaria circum        

effigiem duco.

līmum dūrābilem, cēram liquābilem: Eclogue 8.80-82. These are symbols of a magical role reversal: the beloved man must melt as the wax, while the female speaker (Amaryllis in Eclogue 8) wishes to become harder than clay (Hunink).

opere sēriō: i.e., the Aeneid, a "more serious" work than the Eclogues. He goes on to quote Aeneid 4.513-516.

quaeruntur ... quaeritur: a well-chosen passage with the repetition of the verb he's been using constantly in his fish arguments.

(8)

This sentence quotes Vergil, Aeneid 4.513‒6 (Dido beseeching Anna to collect items for love magic): "Herbs reaped with bronze sickles by moonlight and bursting with a black poisonous milk were gathered there and with them a love-charm ripped from the brow of a baby foal before the mother could take it." Similarly to the passage from the Eclogues, this citation shows the magical employment of components which are not obtained from sea animals. (Costantini 2019, 88-89).

quaeruntur ... quaeritur: a well-chosen passage with the repetition of the verb he's been using constantly in his fish arguments.

pūbentēs: "full of sap," "vigorous" (OLD pubens).

lacte: > lac lactis (n.), "juice."

praereptus: taken away before the mother can eat it.

amor: the hippomanes (see below on the Laevius passage).

(9)

tu piscium insimulator: "you with your allegations against fish" (Jones). Objective genitive AG 348. 

longē dīversa īnstrūmenta: "a far different set of instruments."

fundō: "from the ground."

(10)

Postrēmō: "To sum up."

in maleficiō ... nōminat: "reports (as involved) in sorcery," LS maleficium I.B.2.

ille: Vergilius.

pulmentum: any sauce or relish to put on bread, presumably here he means a fish-based one like garum. A small portion of fish eaten at the start of a meal. The word adds another gastronomical note, now at the expense of Aemilianus (Hunink).                                              

prātum dēcerpit: "plucks the meadow," a rephrasing of Vergil's falcibus et messae ad lūnam quaeruntur aēnīs.

(11)

Memorāssem: memorāvissem, contrary-to-fact.

Theocritī paria: "equal (things from the works) of Theocritus," one of the main literary models for Vergil in the Eclogues. 

ni: nīsī.

dūdum: "a little bit ago," i.e. in the course of the trial. 

nī ... animadvertissem: the delayed protasis of the contrary-to-fact conditional, introduced an indirect statement: tē ... nequīvisse. Even though Apuleius has prepared more citations, he'll skip them on an ad hoc basis due to the apparent deficiencies in Greek of his accusers.

Graecam Pudentillae epistulam: a critical piece of evidence in this case. See below, sections 66-70. 

(12)

ūnum etiam: "one more."

quī: "those who."

Laevius: Laevius was a poet of the early first century BC, notable for his word coinages and varied meters (Jones).

lēgēre: lēgērunt.

(13)

This passage is the source for this fragment, Laevius 27 (Courtney, FLP 140) (Blänsdorf, FPL2 148). The meter is iambic dimeter, and the title of the work is listed as Erotopaegnia.

Philtra: "love-potions." See Ovid, Ars Amatoria 2.105. Juv. 6.611.

antipathes: a charm, perhaps for arousing mutual love (OLD, antipathes, based only on this passage). Pliny (Natural History 7.135) mentions antipathes nigra, a precious stone supposed to act as a charm against witchraft (OLD antipathēs). See LSJ ἀντιπαθές, τό, "remedy for suffering; a black kind of coral."  

trochiscīlī: trochiscilus is not found elsewhere, though trochiscus and τροχίσκος are. It means a wheel, such as was often used in magic; τροχίσκος glosses ῥόμβος in the scholia to Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 1.1139 (Courtney FLP).

unguēs: Nail-clippings, like hair, could be used against the victim. (Courtney).

taeniae: Ribbons and cords were often used in magic (Vergil, Eclogues 8.64; Propertius 3.6.30); associated with the wheel. Ovid, Amores 1.8.7-8 links gramen, licia, and hippomanes (Courtney, FLP).

rādīculae: radicula quite often appears in medicinal contexts; sorcerers are ῥιζοτόμοι (Courtney, FLP).

saūrae: Gow notes that the two-tailed lizard is one whose tail has grown again double after an accident, and mentions a dangerous unguent, known from a demotic papyrus, made by cooking a two-tailed lizard. The Greek word (Latin lacerta) is not used again until Isidore, though the masculine appears as a fish name (Courtney, FLP).

inlicēs: "the seductresses."

bicōdulae: Courtney (FLP) gives this as an example of Laevius' characteristic "bizarre novelty" -- a Latin diminutive of a Greek word.

hīnnientium dulcēdinēs: i.e. hippomanes, whether conceived as an excrescence on the forehead of a new-born pony, or a discharge from the mare before she is mounted; see RE s.v., Abt 92, Gow on Theocr. 2.48. It cannot here be the third possibility, a plant which drives mares wild, since Laevius has covered first inanimate things, then plants, and is now in the animal kingdom. Hinnientium (TLL vi.3.2009.21 quotes Apuleius, Sidonius, Fulgentius) meaning equarum is a so-called 'kenning' (see Index s.v. and Tiberianus 1 intr.). I think that the very rare plural dulcedines, cf. TLL v. 1.2182.74, is due to an equation with deliciae; TLL 2184.71 suggests rather the sense of the medical 'scabies'. (Courtney)