53

You, Aemelianus,  have even charged me with keeping magical equipment in Pontianus's household shrine. When asked by our judge Maximus, you claimed they must be magical although you never set eyes on them. You never saw them and yet stupidly claim they are magic? 

(1)

Quīn etiam ... sunt: "Not only that, but there are even...."

quod praeteriī: "a point which I have so far passed over," a Ciceronian phrase. praeteri(v)ī is a common syncopation. 

quae: "(things) which," direct object of nescīre.

nescīre: supply tē as subject in the indirect statement dependent on fateāris.

et ... rursus: "and yet," indicating a logical contradiction.

crīmināris: with a thing as an object (eadem in this case), the verb means "complain of," "bring up as the accusation of a crime." See Berger, crimen.

(2)

apud larēs Pontiānī: either "among the household gods of Pontianus," i.e., at his lararium (so Hunink) or simply somewhere in his house, lar being a common metonymy for home (LS Lares II.B). As emerges, the object was on a table in a library.

Ea involūta ... nescīsse tē cōnfitēris: order: cōnfitēris tē nescīsse quae et cuius modī ea involūta fuerint.

ea involūta: "the wrapped (items in question)."

neque ... quemquam esse: take the negative force of neque closely with quemquam: "and that there was nobody …," continuing the indirect statement begun with cōnfitēris.

contendis: "you assert," + accusative subject and infinitive, LS contendo II.B.5.α.

(3)

Nēmō tibi blandiātur: jussive: "Let no one flatter you," by telling you otherwise than what I'm about to say.

nē tū arbitrēris: i.e., that there is any versutia or impudentia. Negative purpose clause.

Quid igitur: supply est in accūsandō.

misera īnsānia crūdae senectūtis: when applied to  people, crudus normally means "fierce, wild, savage" (OLD crudus 7, citing this passage). senectus = senex is an example of one of Apuleius's favorite figures, abstract for concrete: "the pathetic madness of a harsh old man" (Jones). Crūdae senectūtis also recalls Vergil's description of the ferryman Charon in Aeneid 6.304, "crūda deō viridisque senectus." Apuleius is using Vergil's phrase to allude to Aemilianus' nickname, Charon, on the origin of which see chapter 23.7.

(4)

ēgistī: "you pleaded (your case)," OLD ago 42.b.

idcircō: "for this reason," looking back to the quoniam clause.

Crēde igitur mihi quod dīcō: "trust me, therefore, about what I'm saying" = "believe, therefore, what I say."

quia id dīcō quod nesciō: "since I am saying what I do not know." Apuleius exploits what was presumably some vagueness or uncertainty in Aemilianus's accusation to reduce it to total absurdity. 

(5)

revincentia: "proving incontestably," "ones which incontestably prove."

Sōlus repertus es: "You are the only man ever discovered."

quī sciās: relative clause of characteristic.

Tantum: “to such a great extent."

stultitiā: ablative of respect, in paradoxical juxtaposition with ēvectus: "exalted in stupidity."

(6)

quippe quī: "in as much as," prefacing an explanatory clause. The quī is adverbial (OLD quippe 2.c). 

nē iīs quidem cōnfīdendum esse aiunt: "say that there should not be trust even in those things...," impersonal passive periphrastic in indirect statement.

dē illīs quoque: "about even those things."

adfirmās: "make confident assertions."

audīstī: audī(vi)stī.

(7)

Pontiānus sī vīveret: on Pontianus' death, see 2.1-2.

involūcrō: another synonym for sudariolum, after linteolo (53.4). Yet another is to follow shortly, linteum (53.8) (Hunink).

(8)

eccille: ecce + ille, an emphatic conversational Latin combination seen in Roman comedy, LS ecce II.D.

eius locī: a private library, given the fact that the servant is called promus librorum ("librarian"); see also 55.3 bybliotheca (Hunink). 

in hodiernum: "to this very day."

ā vōbīs stat: stare ab aliquo = "to stand by someone" either physically or (more commonly) take their side in a dispute (LS sto II.B.3): "is in court on your behalf" (Jones). 

īnspexisse: "looked inside," the napkin should be understood as the direct object.

quanquam: introduces a series of imperfect subjunctives (aperiret et clauderet, intraret, cerneret) in implied indirect discourse.

utpote promus librōrum: utpote introduces an explanation, usually followed by a relative clause, but sometimes, as here, with an adjective or noun phrase, "as (is to be expected since he was) steward of the books."

in mēnsā positum: the object was apparently not stored in a cupboard or locked in some sort of safe, but merely kept on a table in a locked room (Hunink).

(9)

Quidnī enim:  quid enim ("what then?") is a common way of abbreviating a question. The negative version quidnī enim, "why not, then?" is otherwise unattested. It sets up a hypothetical admission which we should only understand as admitted for the sake of argument.

eō: "in that case," LS eo2 (adv) A.

sed enim: "but indeed."

līberē: modifies expōnēbam.

scrūtandum et īnspiciendum ... auferendum: all modify the understood cloth and its contents, which he was leaving out "to be examined and to be looked into ... even to be stolen."

sī libēret: "if anyone wanted to."

temerē: "casually," "recklessly," "at random." Could modify expōnēbam or auferendum.

aliēnae cūstōdiae ... aliēnō arbitriō: "to a stranger's guardianship ... to a stranger's judgment," indirect objects with permittēbam.

(10)

quid ... vīs tibi crēdī: "what do you want to be believed in respect to you" = "what do you want us to believe you about." Tibi is an ethical dative, used to show a certain interest felt by the person indicated (AG 380). Quid vis tibi and variations are common in Plautus. 

This phrase introduces as options three substantive clauses, two using accusative + infinitive and one introduced with ut:

tē scīre (53.10)

tē ... vīdisse (53.11)

ut ... id ... fuerit (53.12). 

Quodne ... prō tribūnālī?: word order: tē, quem numquam vīderim nisī prō tribūnālī, scīre id, quod Pontiānus, quī indīviduō contuberniō mēcum vīxit, nescierit?

contuberniō: military language transferred to an academic setting, living and studying together as friends, either as master and pupil or as fellow students, a relation which often developed into a lifelong friendship. In the case of Apuleius and Pontianus, the contubernium was not between equals, as appears from the manifest difference of age and social distinction between the two; see 72.3-4 (Hunink).

(11)

An quod ... vīdisse?: order: An tē, quī numquam eō (locō) accesseris, vīdisse (id) quod lībertus adsiduus, cui omnis facultās īnspiciendī fuit, quod is lībertus nōn vīderit? quod is repeated for emphasis and to return us to the syntax after the relative clause.

(12)

quod nōn vīdistī: the antecedent is id, and the clause is fronted for emphasis.

intercēpissēs: "had carried off," "stolen," = abtulissēs, with no sense of intercepting something in motion (TLL intercipio I.A.3).

magicum: supply id esse, "that it was magical," indirect statement after negārem.