55

I could simply deny that there was such a napkin and that there was something magical in it. But I will oblige you by discussing these matter of Greek religion which I am familiar with. In fact, I gave a public speech about Asclepius three years ago which many people here have read.  Let it be read aloud now. 

(1)

Haec: crimina, the ones against sorcery which Apuleius imagines proliferating rapidly if his accusers are allowed to charge him with sorcery because of something that might have been inside a napkin.

quanta sint: this and the following indirect questions depend on possum … disputāre, below.

trāmite: "path," i.e., "line" of questioning, a bold metaphor.

sūdōrēs: "trouble," "worry," untranslatable wordplay with sūdāriolō, "napkin."

plūribus: supply verbīs: "at greater length."

(2)

quod īnstituī: supply facere: "what I set out to do," LS instituo II.E.

quod nōn necesse est: "(that) which I need not (concede)," direct object of confitēbor.

(3)

positum: supply esse, indirect statement after negāre below.

ūllum sūdārium meum: "any napkin of mine," subject of positum (esse).

(4)

maximē fuisse: supply sūdārium positum: "that indeed a napkin had been so placed." For maximē as an affirmation (opposite of minimē), see LS maxime B.2 (at the end of the magnus entry).

sī ... concēdam: present subjunctive in a future less vivid conditional.

habeam: "would be able," LS habeo II.A.2.

(5)

quae: connecting relative, referring back to both the admission of the napkin and the denial of any contents therein (55.4).

sī dīcam: present subjunctive in a future less vivid conditional.

revincar: "I would be (able to be) proven wrong."

attigerit ... vīderit: "touched ... saw (the napkin)," perfect subjunctive in a relative clauses of characteristic with an indefinite antecedent (AG 534).

ūnus lībertus: supply est. "there is (only) one freedman."

(6)

per mē: "of my own volition," "through my own agency," LS per II.B.

licet: "it is permitted that," "I will grant that," followed by plain subjunctive (no ut), which is classical (LS licet I.δ).

fuerit refertissimum: supply sūdārium as a subject.

Sīc ... arbitrāre: deponent imperative: "imagine that's how it was" i.e., packed very full of stuff.

repperisse: supply sē (i.e., Ulixī sociī) as a subject of this indirect statement dependent upon arbitrātī sunt: "they imagined that they had discovered."

utrem ventōsissimum: Aeolus's bag of winds, Odyssey 10.19-55. Odysseus' men thought the bag was full of treasure.

manticulārentur: a rare and poetic verb formed on the noun manticula, a purse or wallet. An ancient lexicographer explains that it means "to steal," after people who grope around in other people's purses (Festus, De verborum significatione 133, manticulari dicebantur, qui furandi gratia manticulas attrectabant. inde poetae pro dolose quid agendo usi sunt eo verbo).

(7)

Vīn: Vīsne.

dīcam: supply ut, "that I should say." With vī(s)n(e): "Do you want me to say?"

cuius modī illās rēs: "what sort of things those were which …."

commendārim: commendāverim; "deposited with," + dat.

Mōs tibi gerētur: "I shall humor you." See LS mos I: morem alicui gerere = to do the will of a person, to humor, gratify, obey him.

(8)

initia: secret sacred rites, sacred mysteries, to which only the initiated were admitted, LS initium II.

Eōrum: sacrōrum.

monumenta: "tokens," "souvenirs."

Vel ūnīus Līberī patris mystae:  vel = "for instance" (OLD vel 4.b), and unus lists one of an implied number (OLD unus 9.b): "For instance, merely take the initiates of Liber pater" (Jones), not to speak of the other gods with initiatory cults.

Līberī patris: Liber was an Italic-Roman god of nature, fertility, and wine, equated with Dionysus.

domī: locative, construe with conditum: "hidden at home."

absque: "apart from," "away from."

profānīs: "the uninitiated" who are not allowed to see the sacred items.

(9)

studiō vērī: "with a passion for truth (about the universe)."

officiō: "dutifulness," "reverence," OLD officium 3.d. Normally the word designates an act, not an attitude.

(10)

Nec hoc ad tempus compōnō: "I am not making this (argument) up on the spot" (Jones), LS compono II.A.1.γ. 

abhinc ... cum: "from the time when."

prīmīs diēbus quibus: "in the very first days on which."

Oeam: accusative of place to which, "to Oea."

publīce disserēns: "declaiming publicly," discussing in a public speech." Apuleius acted as a sophist, a lecturer or declaimer of a type familiar in the cities of the Roman Empire in this period. See S.J. Harrison, Apuleius: A Latin Sophist (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

eadem ista: "these same facts (about myself)," that he was dedicated to the cultivation of religious mysteries.

prae mē tulī: "I openly declared," a Ciceronian phrase often combined with a verb of speaking.

quot sacra nōssem: "every rite I was familiar with," LS quot II. nō(vi)ssem.

(11)

disputātiō: "discussion," rather than a debate (OLD disputatio c).

vulgō legitur, in omnibus manibus versātur: the speech was published in written form and found a wide audience. See Tacitus, Dialogus de oratoribus 21.2: at hercule in omnium studiosorum manibus versantur accusationes quae in Vatinium inscribuntur.

(12)

Dīcite aliquis: after this sentence we are to understand that several people present speak up with the beginning of the passage in Apuleius's speech.

sī quī: sī aliquī. The indefinitine quī can be either singular or plural after sī.

huius locī: "of this passage," about Aesculapius, from his published speech.

suggerentēs: "supplying (the prīncipium)."

Immō: "even more than that."

Recitārī: at the end of this sentence we are to understand that a servant of the court reads out the relevant passage from Apuleius's speech.

iubēbō: "I shall ask."

ostendis: "you show that," introducing the indirect statement tē ... nōn grāvārī. tē = Maximus, the judge in the case.

hūmānissimō vultū: "by your most patient expression," LS humanus II.A.

audītiōnem tē istam nōn gravārī: "that you have no objection to hearing them" (Jones). audītiō = "recital," as at Florida 16.