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My accusers have also lied about Pudentilla's age, saying she was sixty, when in fact she was under forty when we were married, as the official records show. What ridiculous and inept lies!

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There was also a legal aspect to this: the Lex lulia de maritandis ordinibus (see 88.3) and the Lex Poppaea nuptialis (of 9 AD) prohibited marriage for women over fifty, and for men over sixty. If marriage took place beyond those limits, it caused a scandal, since the partners, held to be sterile by then, obviously did not marry to have children but only ad libidinem. We may go still one step farther here: if a young man married a rich old woman, the man could properly be considered a legacy hunter. Typically, Apuleius does not waste a single word on this clear implication.  Instead, he concentrates on one specific element, her exact age, and so turns the entire argument into an easy matter of counting (Hunink).

(1)

ista: other, earlier lies.

satis cōnfīdenter: "confidently enough," setting up the result clause ut ... dīcerēs.

sexāgintā annōs nātam: "when she was 60 years old."

Pudentilla at the time of the trial (AD 155-8) was slightly over 40. She must therefore have been about 38 at the time of her marriage with Apuleius (B/O, Introduction, p. xix). 

eā: aetāte.

paucīs: supply verbīs, "in a few words," "briefly."

plūribus: supply verbīs, "at greater length."

(2)

nātam sibi fīliam: supply esse in indirect statement after professus est.

mōre cēterōrum: "in the custom of all the others," "the same way that everyone else does."

professus est: "registered" OLD profiteor 2.c.

The father of a child was bound within thirty days of his child's birth to declare its name and the day of its birth, if at Rome to the praefectus aerarii, if in the provinces to the tabularii publici. Copies of this declaration were made, one being kept by the parent, one preserved in the tabularium (B/O).

Tabulae: records.

tibi ob os obiciuntur: "are being rubbed in your face," with a dual sense of obicio being to literally offer something up and figuratively to reproach someone with something.

(3)

tū: a court clerk.

līnum: the linen tape or thread passed through holes in the tablets after they have been closed. The seal was set over this tape (B/O).

signa: an official seal pressed into wax in order to sign an official document. 

cōnsīderet ... recognōscat ... legat ... computet: jussive subjunctives. Apuleius is instructing Aemilianus to confirm the authenticity of the documents presented and then look at the evidence of Pudentilla's age.

annōs computet: "let him calculate the years," between the documented consular year and today.

quōs sexāgintā mulierī adsignābat: "which (years) he was just assigning as sixty in number to the woman," i.e., Aemilianus had just claimed that Pudentilla was sixty.

(4)

Probet quīnque et quīnquāgintā: Apuleius keeps "graciously" allowing Aemilianus to adjust his estimate of Pudentilla's age downward, only to say that each lower number will also be a lie.

Parum hoc est: "this is too little," "this" being the number of years Apuleius is spotting Aemilianus for 'free' on his guess at Pudentilla's age.

līberālius agam: "let me act more generously" = "let me be more generous," in the number of years he will allow Aemilianus to be off by.

et ipse ... largītus est: "he (Aemilianus) also generously doled out," i.e., in calling Pudentilla sixty years old.

decem annōs: "(an error) of 10 years," i.e., if Pudentilla was at least 50 and within 10 years of Aemilianus's assertion that she was 60.

Mezentius: i.e., Aemilianus. See 56.7.

cum Vlixe errāvit: "has gone astray with Odysseus," i.e., by ten years, punning on the two senses of errō, to wander and to make a mistake.

mulierem: supply esse, "that (Pudentilla is) a woman of at least 50 years."

(5)

Quid multīs: supply verbīs. "Do I need to say more?"

Ut ... agam: "since I am dealing."

cum quadruplātōre: a “fourfolder” was either a professional accuser in cases involving a quadruple penalty (quadruplum) or (less probably) one who received a quarter of the accused’s estate in case of a successful prosecution (Jones).

bis duplum quīnquennium faciam: "let me make the five-year-period double twice." If the math is baffling by now, he will reckon up the sum in the next phrase.

vīgintī annōs semel: "twenty years once," = "a total of twenty years."

dētraham: "let me subtract," from Aemilianus's initial lie. He will still be lying if he had said she was 40, not 60.

cōnsulēs: metonymy for annōs, since years are reckoned by the consuls in each year.

nunc: "(even) now," which, if Pudentilla is just over forty, she may have not been forty yet when she married him. Notice that at the outset of this passage Apuleius is not complaining that Aemilianus says Pudentilla is sixty years old now, but that she was sixty years old when they got married.

haud multō amplius: supply quam "not much more (than)."

īre: "is going (on)," "is passing," LS eo1 II.B.3.

(6)

falsum: substantive, "a lie."

nimium: "excessive."

vīgintī annōrum: could be taken either with mendācium or exiliō.

pūniendum: "which ought to be punished."

Dīmidiō tanta ... mentīris: "you are lying the amount by half" = "you are wrongfully increasing Pudentilla's age by half." If Pudentilla is forty, and half of forty is twenty, Aemilianus is adding that half again to her age by calling her sixty.

falsa audēs sesquealtera: "you are daring (to add) an imaginary one and a half times." Aemilianus has multiplied Pudentilla's current age (forty) by 1.5 in claiming she is sixty.

quōs circulāre dēbueris digitōs aperuisse: "(and) to have opened fingers which you should have formed into a circle," i.e., you pressed your fingers together (= 10) instead of making them form a circle (= 30), thus being off by twenty.

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I would interpret the passage as follows:  "You have made a mistake of twenty years, and your mistake is inexcusable. The only mistake of twenty that would have been excusable would have been a confusion of ten and thirty, inasmuch as the gestures are very similar. But you did actually say sixty when you should have said forty, and the gestures for these two numbers are absolutely distinct" (B/O).

computātiōnis gestū: the ancient gestures can plausibly be reconstructed with the help of a passage in De loquela per gestum digitorum et temporum ratione of Beda Venerabilis (floruit ca. 700 AD). 

(7)

Cum vērō: "but since."

facilius cēterīs: "more easily than the rest (of the numbers that I have mentioned)."

ea quadrāgintā: an emphatic repetition of the earlier quadrāgintā.

trīgintā annōrum Pudentillam ratus: supply esse, "having thought that Pudentilla was 30 years old."

bīnōs cuiusque annī cōnsulēs: "both consuls of each year," a ridiculous mistake, when counting a number of years by who was consul in each year, would be to count each year twice because there are two consuls each year. Firmly in reductio ad absurdum territory.