The Apologia 333 



but this only shews his addiction to legal language, and is no proof 

 of the prevalence of the share-system in Greece. The coloni, nominally 

 free, were as yet only bound to the soil by the practical difficulty of 

 clearing themselves from the obligations that encumbered them and 

 checked freedom of movement. But they were now near to the time 

 when they were made fixtures by law. 



Another work of Apuleius furnishes matter of interest, the so-called 

 Apologia, a speech in his own defence when tried on a charge of 

 magical arts about the year 158 AD. That the accused was in no little 

 danger from this criminal prosecution has been shewn 1 by Norden. 

 What concerns us is the reference to rustic affairs that the speaker is led 

 to make in the course of his argument, when demolishing some of the 

 allegations of his enemies. The trial was in Africa at the regular pro- 

 vincial assize, and the conditions referred to are African. Apuleius, 

 as a man of note in his native Province, takes high ground to manifest 

 his confidence in the strength 'of his case. The prosecution want to 

 draw him into an unseemly squabble over side-issues. As the chief 

 alleged instance of his magic was connected with his marriage to a 

 rich lady, a widow of mature age, whom he was said to have bewitched, 

 being at the time a young man in need, it had evidently been thought 

 necessary to discuss his financial position as throwing light upon his 

 motives. If at the same time he could be represented as having acted 

 in defiance of well-known laws, so much the better. If we may trust 

 the bold refutation of Apuleius, they entangled themselves in a con- 

 tradiction and betrayed their own blind malice. His reply 2 is as 

 follows. ' Whether you keep slaves to cultivate your farm, or whether 

 you have an arrangement with your neighbours for exchange 3 of 

 labour, I do not know and do not want to know. But you (profess 

 to) know that at Oea, on the same day, I manumitted three slaves: 

 this was one of the things you laid to my charge, and your counsel 

 brought it up against me, though a moment before he had said that 

 when I came to Oea I had with me but a single slave. Now, will you 

 have the goodness to explain how, having but one, I could manumit 

 three, unless this too is an effect of magic. Was there ever such 

 monstrous lying, whether from blindness or force of habit ? He says, 

 Apuleius brought one slave with him to Oea. Then, after babbling a 

 few words, he adds that Apuleius manumitted three in one day at 

 Oea. If he had said that I brought with me three, and granted freedom 

 to them all, even that would not have deserved 4 belief. But, suppose 



1 Norden pp 26-7. 2 Apologia 17. 



8 an ipse muluarias operas cum vicinis tuts cambies. 



4 Because of the strict rules of the laws passed to check manumission. Gaius I 42-7. 

 Norden p 86. 



