A note on Apuleius' "Metamorphoses"

Exemplaria Classica 8, 2004, 83-87. A NOTE ON APULEIUS’ METAMORPHOSES1 When the story of the wicked stepmother in Metamorphoses 10.2-12 is about to conclude with the death of the virtuous son, a member of the jury, an old physician, stands up and states what he knows about the case. It is worth recalling how Apuleius introduces the man: unus e curia senior prae ceteris compertae fidi atque auctoritatis praecipuae medicus. A textual problem arises when he begins his speech with this sentence: ‘Quod aetatis sum, uobis adprobatum me dixisse gaudeo...’ This is the reading of all the manuscripts without exception, but most editors modify the infinitive —dixisse— and print Beroaldus’ uixisse. From a paleographical point of view, the differences between these words —d/u or d/b— are so slight that it might seem very easy to accept that they had been interchanged; there are not, however, many instances of this confusion2. Both dixisse and uixisse are such common words that to speak of lectio difficilior in this case is simply of no advantage. The meaning of the text after this minimal correction is perfect: 1 This note attempts to explain a passage which presents some textual problems in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses; although this reading has recently been maintained (see J. Martos, Apuleyo. Las Metamorfosis o El asno de oro, Madrid 2003, II, 166), it has not hitherto been defended. Thanks are due to the anonymous referees of the review for their helpful criticism and to J. Zoltowski for his revision of the English manuscript. 2 As regards Metamorphoses, most of these consist in corrections of the type adreptum for abreptum (1.23.1; 1.25.1; 3.6.1; 4.3.3; 4.27.3; etc.) which can hardly be adduced as testimony. 84 JUAN MARTOS 85 A NOTE ON APULEIUS’ METAMORPHOSES Old as I am, happily I have lived my whole life with a good reputation among you...3 It seems clear that this man is stressing his own moral values as a witness before telling the story he knows. Nevertheless, this correction is far from being indisputable, as has been expressed elsewhere4. Oudendorp5, when commenting on this sentence, quotes the Digest on de testibus to confirm that the most important virtue of a witness was a respectable life: Callistratus libro quarto de cognitionibus: testium fides diligenter examinanda est, ideoque in persona eorum exploranda erunt in primis condicio cuiusque, utrum quis decurio an plebeius sit: et an honestae et inculpatae uitae an uero notatus quis et reprehensibilis: an locuples uel egens sit, ut lucri causa quid facile admittat: uel an inimicus ei sit, aduersus quem testimonium fert, uel amicus ei sit, pro quo testimonium dat. nam si careat suspicione testimonium uel propter personam a qua fertur (quod honesta sit) uel propter causam (quod neque lucri neque gratia<e> neque inimicitiae causa fit), admittendus est6. For this reason he labels with a male the procedure of Colvius, Floridus and the Roman edition, which kept the text of the codices. He also adduces a text by Cicero to confirm what 3 This is Hanson’s translation —J. A. Hanson, Apuleius. Metamorphoses, Cambridge (Mass.) - London 1989, II, 231—, perhaps more literal at this point than those of Walsh (P. G. Walsh, Apuleius, The Golden Ass, Oxford 1994, 197) or Kenney (E. J. Kenney, Apuleius: The Golden Ass, London 1998, 178). 4 J. Martos, ‘M. Zimmerman, Apuleius Madaurensis. Metamorphoses. Book X’, Habis 35, 2004, 454. 5 F. Oudendorp, Appuleii Metamorphoseon libri XI, Lugduni Batavorum 1786, 694: ‘Vide Callistratum lege 3. Digest. de testibus.’ As for the first part of the text –quod aetatis sumOudendorp interprets as follows: ‘Quod aetatis sum significat quantae aetatis sum, ut dicitur hoc aetatis est vel id aetatis est pro hac aetate.’ 6 Dig. 22.5.3 pr. 84 JUAN MARTOS 85 A NOTE ON APULEIUS’ METAMORPHOSES probably nobody would question: that if someone has lived a long and honourable life, he becomes a reliable citizen for the society he lives in: Cic. top. 73 Nam et ingeniosos et opulentos et aetatis spatio probatos dignos quibus credatur putant. Hildebrand7 agrees and also prints uixisse on the basis that: Vixisse neque dixisse legendum esse cetera probant narrationis momenta, quia quae refert ad eius vitae probitatem ac fidem spectant, neque vero ad facundiam8. In any case, Oudendorp himself provides an interesting interpretation of this expression both with dixisse and uixisse: Quod aetatis sum, uobis adprobatum me dixisse vel vixisse gaudeo, i. e., laetor, me semper per tantum tempus, quantum vixi, dixisse sententiam vobis adprobatam, vel potius, vixisse vobis probatum, &, per compertam meam fidem, apud vos auctoritate valere. It seems that Oudendorp is not absolutely convinced that the text of the manuscripts must be corrected. In contrast, Hildebrand, when reproducing this fragment, omits the first possibility, i.e., dixisse sententiam vobis adprobatam. In her superb commentary on book 10, Zimmerman9 accepts the traditional correction against F’s reading without further arguments and interprets the whole sentence as follows: quod 7 G. F. Hildebrand, L. Apuleii Opera Omnia, Hildesheim 1968 (= Leipzig 1842), II, 896. 8 One of the anonymous referees is right in assessing that Hildebrand simply misses the point: it is a question of consilium, not of facundia. 9 M. Zimmerman, Apuleius Madaurensis Metamorphoses Book X. Text, Introduction and Commentary, Groningen 2000, 153-4. 86 JUAN MARTOS 87 A NOTE ON APULEIUS’ METAMORPHOSES aetatis sum as an internal accusative with uixisse and adprobatum qualifying this accusative.10 She also provides a new quotation from Cicero regarding the importance of honest behaviour for winning authority: non cani nec rugae repente auctoritatem arripere possunt, sed honeste acta superior aetas fructus capit auctoritatis extremos (Cic. Cato 62). Nevertheless, it does not seem absolutely necessary to emend the text as transmitted. It is possible to interpret it in much the same way as Oudendorp11. In this case dixisse clearly has its widely used intransitive meaning of “to speak (in a court, political assembly, etc.), make a speech” (OLD s.v. 1b; ThLL s.v. 970, 26 ff.). There are no exact parallels for quod aetatis sum, but in my opinion it should be regarded as an adverbial time clause, similar to e.g. cum id aetatis essem, quod nunc sum (as in Sen. clem. 1.9.112) or just as Vallette (‘à l’âge où me voici13’) or Zimmerman herself (‘Up to this old age of mine’) translate. Adprobatum must be linked, of course, with me, the subject of dixisse, in a clear predicative sense. It should be noted, in passing, that the verb approbo is very often associated with dico: see ThLL s.v. 310.54-5 (and e.g. Cic. Tusc. 5.20.60, Liv. 10.35.16, Tac. hist. 5.17.3), 312.767. As for uobis, it is undeniably the usual dative construction with adprobo (ThLL s.v. 312.43-4, 77-9); but, as it can also be the object of dixisse (OLD s.v. 1), an ἀπὸ κοινοῦ construction may 10 In my opinion, the text cited as an example on this point (Liv. 25.6.23) is unconvincing: quidquid postea viximus id omne destinatum ignominiae est. 11 When paraphrasing, Oudendorp, for the sake of clarity, adds a sententiam and makes adprobatum agree with it; I assumed that he was taking the original adprobatum as a predicative construction with the subject me; however, although I still consider dixisse to be completely intransitive, one of the anonymous referees believes that Oudendorp takes adprobatum as neuter, direct object of dixisse. 12 Cum hoc aetatis esset, quod tu nunc es, duodevicensimum egressus annum, iam pugiones in sinum amicorum absconderat, iam insidiis M. Antonii consulis latus petierat, iam fuerat collega proscriptionis. Perhaps cum huius aetatis essem, cf. Sen. contr. 9.6.6 (illa cum huius aetatis esset nec noverca erat nec venefica). 13 D.S. Robertson (ed.) - P. Vallette (tr.), Apulée. Les Métamorphoses, Paris 1956 (=19452), III, 110. 86 JUAN MARTOS 87 A NOTE ON APULEIUS’ METAMORPHOSES be understood. Broadly speaking, it is by no means necessary to assume that, if someone has just mentioned his own age, he must go on to refer to his own life: in fact, this old physician has just said that he has spoken in court many times with the approval of his citizens14; or simply, as has been proposed by one of the anonymous referees: “you have followed my advice in the past: believe me now.” Therefore, the meaning of the whole fragment could be explained as follows: Up to this age of mine, I am very pleased to have always won your approval whenever I have made a speech before you. JUAN MARTOS Universidad de Sevilla [email protected] 14 It could be objected that there is no prior evidence that this doctor would have spoken previously or habitually before his fellow-citizens, but we have just been told that he is an old and respectable man and, therefore, it should not be impossible to assume that at some previous time he has been a decurio, just as he is now —unus e curia—, and that he could have intervened in some other public assemblies or trials, as the reading of the manuscript itself suggests.