76

Herennius's daughter, trained in the arts of prostitution by her mother, was shopped around to various wealthy potential suitors, and was engaged to one of them before that engagement was broken off. She had extensive sexual experience when she was kindly accepted as a bride by Pontianus, much against my advice. She flaunted her wealth and behaved publicly in a seductive manner. Her dowry was borrowed from creditors.

Cēterum: "However," with adversative force, looking forward to Fīlia autem.

effēta: "worn out," "feeble" from bearing children (fētus -ūs, m.= the bearing of young). As Apuleius says just below, her house was plēna līberīs (76.6), which implies the children were legitimate.

tot iam domus contumeliīs abnuit: "at last gave up these insults to the family" (Jones). This sets up discussion of her daughter, to follow. The text here is disputed. Hunink defends the manuscript's tōtam domum contumēliīs adnuit, but admits that there is no exact parallel for this sense of adnuo = "agreed (to hand over)" in preserved Latin.

(2)

circumlāta: "passed around," "shopped around."

invītāmentō: "at the invitation of."

ad experiundum: "to try her out" (sexually).

facilitātem: "goodwill," "easygoing nature."

fortasse an: forsitan.

vidua ante quam nubta: "widowed before she was wed," a paradoxical statement, signifying that while yet unmarried that Herennius's daughter had experienced marital relations (through prostitution) and then been deprived of them (through not being able to find an actual husband due to her past).

(3)

eī: Herennius's daughter.

nūptiārum titulum: "honor of being married." A titulus is an honorific inscription, hence a "claim to distinction," used with the genitive of thing from which the honor arises (OLD titulus 7.b). Nuptiae -ārum, f. pl. can refer to the state of being married, or to the wedding ceremony itself.

nōn nescius: introduces the indirect statement eam ... dērelictam (esse).

paulō ante quam dūceret: subject is Pontianus.

pacta fuerat: a so-called shifted pluperfect, common in later Latin, > paciscor.

post satietātem: "after he'd had enough of her" (sexually speaking).

(4)

sēcūra et intrepida: "brazen and fearless" (Jones), the opposite of the traditionally approved attitude of a new bride.

flōre: "bloom," a traditional metaphor for virginity. See more in chapter 92.

flammeō obsolētō: "with a threadbare bridal veil," from over-use.

repudium: a repudium is the breaking of an engagement, done through the initiative of one party, either orally or in a letter. The written form became mandatory in the later empire.

nōmen potius ... quam integritātem: "the name rather than the integrity," "the supposed title rather than the actual virgin status."

(5)

octaphorō: "a litter carried by eight bearers," a symbol of luxury and oriental extravagance.

quī adfuistis: "you who were there," the antecedent is the second-person subject of vīdistis.

quam improba ... circumspectātrīx, quam inmodica ... ostentātrīx: supply esset.

iuvenum circumspectātrīx: "a looker-around-of-young-men," "how boldly she surveyed the men" (Jones).

suī ostentātrīx: "a displayer-of-herself," with an objective genitive: she was showing herself off.

disciplīnam: "training" in the arts of prostitution.

(6)

ā crēditōre ... sūmpta: "borrowed." 

The dowry was borrowed on the expectation of preying on Pudentilla's fortune through Pontianus. See ch. 92 cccc milibus nummum a creditore acceptis (B/O).

ad teruncium: "(down) to the (last) quarter of an as," i.e., all of it, "every last penny."

exhausta: "impoverished."

plēna līberīs: "filled with children" that still need financial support.

postulabat: "required," "needed," LS postulo III.B.