The Apologia and Florida of Apuleius of Madaura

24. You have asked me to give you an improvisation. Listen then. You have heard me speak prepared, now hear me unprepared. I think I risk but little in making an attempt to spea...

_Pythagoras_, inventor of the term [Greek: philosophia]; cp. Diog. Laert. i, proem. 12. He was a native of Samos and migrated to Croton. See Florida, chap. 15. Floruit circa 530...

_Plato._ Cp. Timaeus, p. 46 A, 'Within the eyes they (the gods) planted that variety of fire which does not burn, but it is called light homogeneous with the light without. We a...

offers Charmides a charm to cure the headache. But the charm will do more than cure the headache. 'I learnt it, when serving with the army, of one of the physicians of the Thrac...

_the 'purifications' of Empedocles._ Empedocles of Agrigentum (flourished circa 450 B.C.) wrote a poem of 3,000 lines, entitled 'purifications' ([Greek: katharmoi]). In this he...

_the magic wheel_ spun rapidly to draw the beloved to the lover. Cp. Theocr. ii. 30. 'And as this brazen wheel spins, so may Delphis be spun by Aphrodite to my door.'

of as powers 'which interpret and convey to the gods the prayers and sacrifices of men and to men the commands and rewards of gods.' Also cp. de deo Socratis, chap. 6.

_Meletides_ (or more properly Melitides) was an Athenian of proverbial stupidity, whose name was synonymous for blockhead. Eustathius on Odyss. x. 552, says that he could not co...

are at the end of their course, go out and stand upon the back of heaven, and the revolution of the spheres carries them round and they behold the world beyond. Now of the heave...

_Lucilius_, the first of Rome's great satirists (148-103 B.C.), famous for the extraordinary vigour with which he lashed the vices of the age. The allusion in the present passag...

_Gnaeus Scipio._ Cp. Val. Max. iv. 4. 10. 'In the second Punic war Gnaeus Scipio wrote to the senate from Spain, begging that he might be replaced in his command. For his daught...

madness of Ulysses, by which he sought to avoid going upon the expedition to Troy. Ulysses was ploughing and Palamedes placed the infant Telemachus in front of the ploughshare....

_the council of Africa_ was theoretically an association for the worship of the imperial house. It had some political importance, however, inasmuch as it might criticize the gov...

_magi_ applied to all workers of miracles, strictly designates the priests of Mazdeism, and well-attested tradition made certain Persians the inventors of genuine magic, the mag...

the MSS. would be [Greek: paidon ep' apoto, gnesion epi spora] (Van der Vliet). Unless, however, the phrase [Greek: paidon ep' apoto gnesion] is a stock phrase which occurred in...

writers, though Lysippus is substituted for Polycletus by the more accurate, inasmuch as Polycletus was a sculptor of the fifth century, and contemporary with Pheidias! This is...

having succeeded Lollianus Avitus. Lollianus Avitus was consul in 144 A.D. As ten to thirteen years usually elapsed between tenure of the consulate and proconsulate, Lollianus A...

_a slip in the gesture._ Bede (Op. Colon., MDCXII, vol. i, p. 132 _b_) says, 'When you say ten, you will place the nail of the forefinger against the middle joint of the thumb,...

_praefectus urbi_, which is borne out by an inscription (C.I.L. vi. 28). The lawsuit of Aemilianus must therefore have been heard at Rome. The explanation of the words _quam qui...

_Leodamas._ Nothing is known of this Leodamas. Apuleius may have made a slip and written Leodamas for Hermodamas, who is mentioned by Diog. Laert. viii. 2, as the descendant of...

_Xenocrates._ Diog. Laert. mentions five writers of this name, none of them of any great importance. It is possible that we should read _Xenophanes_, who, according to Diog. Lae...

_Damigeron_ is mentioned elsewhere as a magician (Tertull. de Anima, 57), but nothing is known of him. _Moses_ appears as a magician in the magical papyri (Griffiths Thompson pa...

celebres_ nothing is known worthy of mention here. Apuleius errs in saying that Mucius accused Albucius. As a matter of fact Albucius accused Mucius on the ground of extortion....

_Mercury._ Cp. the magic hymn contained in a magical papyrus (Papyr. Lond. 46. 414). 'Thou art told of as foreknower of the fates and as the godlike dream sending oracles both b...

divination is preceded by sacrifice just as in Benvenuto Cellini (loc. cit.) the sorcerer first burns incense. The head is touched as being the source from which the oracle is t...

all that survive of the Hedyphagetica. They seem to be closely imitated from the Gastronomia of Archestratus quoted by Athenaeus iii, pp. 92. 300. 318. There is great uncertaint...

black smooth stone, resembling pumice. It is light and fragile and differs but little from wood. When powdered it emits a strong odour; when burned it smells sulphurous, and, wo...