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Apuleius
Pro Se De Magia (Apologia)
edited by Vincent Hunink
Gieben, Amsterdam 1997 (2 vols.)

I
text / II commentary
Apuleius
of Madauros was not a beginner when he found
himself confronted with a charge of
magic, in the middle of the 2nd century AD.
By then, his reputation as a
philosopher and a public speaker was already
well established. Most likely he
had often acted as an advocate in court,
defending the interests of others. Now,
he could fully profit from this experience.
The
speech which Apuleius delivered in defence
of himself, commonly known as the Apology,
is a unique example of Roman oratory,
being one of the very few Latin
speeches from the Imperial Period which have
come down to us completely. In
fact, it is the only judicial speech in
Latin from antiquity after Cicero: the
other Roman speeches from this period, the Panegyricus
of Pliny and the
late eulogies known collectively as the Panegyrici
Latini, all belong to
the demonstrative genre of rhetoric.
Already
for this reason, Apuleius' speech is an
interesting document. It is a useful
source for our knowledge in a wide range of
areas, like Roman law, magic, middle
Platonism and contemporary medical science.
But there is more to it: this
self-defence may properly be called a literary
masterpiece, which
displays many characteristics of the Second
Sophistic. It is literally crammed
with learned and playful references to
earlier literature and philosophy, and
uses countless rhetorical techniques, not
excluding outright sophisms and
distortions, insults and mean invective. The
numerous and often exotic themes
which it deals with, the brilliant handling
of language and the fascinating
erudition of the speaker, all make this a
highly entertaining work of
literature.
Nonetheless,
the speech has been rather neglected by
classical scholars in our century.
Scholars who manage to overcome prejudice
against the age of Apuleius, with its
characteristically `un-Ciceronean' and
archaizing tendencies, commonly focus on
his famous novel Metamorphoses.
Lately, this enigmatic work seems to
become even popular as an area of research,
something which may also be said for
the genre of the ancient novel as a whole.
Modern
scholars consult the Apology mainly
for biographic details on the author
and his career or to some specific subject
matter. For example, historians
regularly cite from this speech where it
provides bits of information on the
social and economic circumstances in 2nd
century Roman Africa. It is also
regularly used in studies on ancient magic,
another area of increasing modern
interest. Those who study Roman law and
Platonism equally tend to isolate
passages from the speech, if they include it
in their material.
Special
studies on the Apology as a whole
are scarce. The ample bibliography
included in the present volume may prove
somewhat misleading. As a matter of
fact, only a small minority of items is
devoted to the speech as a whole, and as
something more than merely a piece of
documentary evidence or a philological
puzzle.
Though
translations of the Apology continue
to be published in several modern
languages (except, curiously, English), the
latest full commentary on the text,
by Butler
and Owen,
dates from before the First World War and
was published in 1914.
Considering
all this, time seemed ripe to write a new,
comprehensive commentary on the text
as a work of literature in its own right.
That is what the present volume
proposes to do. Basically, it is not
intended to replace Butler/Owen
(from here: B/O), which is still useful for
many matters of style and grammar,
but to supplement it.
The
commentary
attempts to dig into the text where it has
been left closed, to
question it where it is taken for granted,
to bring to the surface its inner
structure ─
or, preferably, its inconsistencies and
self-contradictions. In particular, it
aims at extending the analysis to the
level of the speaker's strategy. So, it
concentrates on the smoke screens Apuleius
raises, on the points which remain
vague and dubious or even seem misleading,
and it tries to follow the speaker's
tracks in the wide field of literature and
philosophy with which he shows
himself so familiar. Of course, the
commentary serves other aims too:
explaining
difficult words and phrases, solving
philological problems, providing relevant
information on realia and
references to standard works and scholarly
literature. In particular, from c.66
onward, it also aims at reconstructing as
precisely as possible events which must
lie behind the text, that is: to tell
the tale of what happened with Apuleius
and Pudentilla. The main aim of the
book, however, is to shed some light on
Apuleius as a skilful orator and as a
man of literature.
The
commentary is preceded by a full Latin text,
based on the Teubner edition by Helm,
but applying his principles somewhat more
`strictly orthodox'. In accordance to
the practice followed in the Groningen
Commentaries on Apuleius, the text
of our main MS, Laurentianus 68,2 (F) has
been defended wherever possible, even
if this results in unclassical or
inconsistent spelling. In this respect the
Latin text is traditional and conservative.
On the other hand, I also wished to
produce a text which is pleasant to read.
The typography, the division in
paragraphs and the interpunction of the text
have all been carefully arranged to
serve this aim.
Volume
I contains the introduction, Latin text,
bibliography and indexes. Volume II
contains the commentary. Full text as
PDF's see further belown.
The
research
for this edition was my main
research project in the period 1994-1997.
Documents
Latin text
from this edition, made available on-line at
the Latin
Library
Latin
text
from this edition, made available on-line at
the Bibliotheca Augustana
Dutch
translation
(Amsterdam 1992), free ONLINE

Links
go to edition
with commentary of the Florida (2001)
go to English translation Apuleius,
Rhetorical works (2001)
go to Index
of all items about Apuleius on this website
latest changes
here:
8-8-2017
16:48
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