Abstract

The process of giving greater credence to the codices has been constant in editions of Apuleius from the last century to the present day. Accordingly, the following suggestions are proposed. I et statim miser ut cum ilia adquieui, ab unico congressu annosam ac pestilentem con contraho. And at the very moment when I—wretch that I am!—lay with her, from that one relationship, I contracted this interminable and miserable condition. condicionem contraho scripsi: con contraho Fø: coniunctionem c. Chodaczek: consuetudinem c. van der Vliet: contagionem c. Lütjohann: cladem c. Helm: luem c. Heinsius: contraho adfectionem Novák con dittographiam putans, cf. 8.14.1 : noxam ante annosam Giarratano, post annosam Birt In this case, where a word is obviously missing and the mysterious con appears, there are two general possibilities for correcting the text: con may be taken as a dittograph for contraho or considered to be part of the missing word. Another approach would be to interpret contraho differently: the verb can apply to a disease , harm or misfortune , a custom or marriage . The solutions offered by van der Vliet, in particular, and Novák are reasonable: other commentators have been led astray by the sentence I have quoted, assuming that what is missing is something like ‘harm', ‘misfortune’