Among ancient texts on magic, there is one that holds a special place because it is neither a treatise nor a manual, but a speech for the defence that was actually delivered. It is the Apology, also known as Pro se de magia, in which the writer and Platonic philosopher Apuleius of Madauros answered the charge of having used magical arts to win a wealthy widow. The very author of the Metamorphoses, the novel of the golden ass, thus found himself having to prove before a court that he was not a magician.
The facts
Apuleius, born at Madauros in present-day Algeria, was a brilliant intellectual, trained at Carthage and Athens, a curious traveller and an admired lecturer. During a journey he stopped at Oea, modern Tripoli, where he met again a fellow student, Pontianus. It was Pontianus himself who encouraged him to marry his mother, Aemilia Pudentilla, a widow of many years and very well off.
The marriage provoked the hostility of part of her first husband's family. Pudentilla's brother-in-law, Sicinius Aemilianus, together with other relatives, accused Apuleius of having seduced the woman with spells and potions in order to seize her fortune. The trial took place at Sabratha, before the proconsul of Africa Claudius Maximus, around AD 158-159.
The charges
Part of the interest of the Apology lies in the concrete list of accusations, which shows us what kinds of behaviour could look suspicious to an observer of the time. Apuleius takes them up and dismantles them one by one:
- he had tried to obtain particular kinds of fish, which suggested ingredients for potions;
- a boy named Thallus had fallen to the ground in his presence, as if he had been bewitched;
- he kept in Pontianus' house objects wrapped in a linen cloth, whose contents no one knew;
- he had performed nocturnal sacrifices in an acquaintance's house, where soot and feathers had been left behind;
- he kept a macabre-looking wooden statuette, which he worshipped under a royal title;
- even a playful poem of his about tooth powder and his use of a mirror were presented as signs of vanity and strangeness.
The defence: the curious philosopher
Apuleius' strategy is brilliant and often ironic. To the fish he replies that he studied them as a naturalist, following Aristotle, to understand their anatomy. The boy who fell to the ground, he explains, suffered from an ailment that struck him regardless of anyone's presence. The objects wrapped in linen were sacred tokens received in various mystery initiations, which an initiate may not reveal.
The statuette, he says, was not a skeleton but an image of Mercury, carved by a local craftsman; he brings it into court so that everyone can see it. As for the mirror, Apuleius seizes the chance for a genuine philosophical digression on the reflection of light and on knowing oneself.
On the marriage, finally, he produces the documents: the dowry was modest, Pudentilla had chosen freely, and her will favoured her sons, not him.
What is a magus?
The most famous passage of the Apology concerns the very definition of the magus. Apuleius recalls that in the language of the Persians magus means priest, and he refers to a dialogue attributed to Plato in which the education of Persian princes includes the magic of Zoroaster, that is, the worship of the gods. If this is what a magus is, he says, there is nothing criminal about it: it is a religious and venerable knowledge.
If, on the other hand, a magus is understood, as the common people understand it, as someone who through communion with the immortal gods can obtain anything by the mysterious power of incantations, then the accusation contradicts itself: a man so powerful would never allow himself to be dragged into court.
This double definition is valuable because it shows the tension, already ancient, between two ideas of magic:
| Sense | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Learned | Priestly wisdom of the Persian magi, worship of the gods |
| Popular | Occult power to produce effects through spells |
The outcome
We do not know the verdict for certain, but everything suggests that Apuleius was acquitted: in the following years he lived at Carthage, honoured as an orator and philosopher, and he himself revised and circulated the text of the Apology. A man convicted of magic could hardly have enjoyed such public renown.
The meaning of the text
The Apology shows how thin the line was, in the second century, between philosopher, initiate and magician. The study of nature, participation in the mysteries, personal piety towards a god could all be read by an opponent as occult practices. Apuleius asserts the dignity of inquiry and of inner religion against suspicion and gossip, and in this his speech remains highly relevant for anyone studying the history of esoteric thought.
In short
- The Apology is the speech in which Apuleius defended himself against a charge of magic at Sabratha, around AD 158-159.
- He was accused of winning the wealthy widow Aemilia Pudentilla by spells.
- The charges concerned fish, sacred objects wrapped in linen, nocturnal sacrifices and a statuette.
- Apuleius distinguishes between the magus as a Persian priest and the magus as a worker of spells.
- Everything suggests he was acquitted and continued his career at Carthage.
