) to the age of Apollonius
or Apuleius, magic and sorcery, as a philosophical science or as
a vulgar superstition, had apparently more or less distinctly a
place in the popular mythology of old Greece. But in the pagan
history of neither Greece nor Rome do we read of holocausts of
victims, as in Christian Europe, immolated on the altars of a
horrid superstition.[19] The occasion of the composition of the
treatise by Apuleius 'On Magic' is somewhat romantic. On his way
to Alexandria, the philosopher, being disabled from proceeding on
the journey, was hospitably received into the mansion of one
Sicinius Pontianus. Here, during the interesting period of his
recovery, he captivated, or was captivated by, the love of his
host's mother, a wealthy widow, and the lovers were soon united
by marriage. Pudentilla's relatives, indignant at the loss of a
much-coveted, and perhaps long-expected fortune, brought an
action against Apuleius for having gained her affection by means
of spells or charms. The cause was heard before the proconsul of
Africa, and the apology of the accused labours to convince his
judges that a widow's love might be provoked without superhuman
means.[20]

[18] Particularly in the _Batrachoi_. The dread of the
infernal apparition of the fierce Gorgo in Hades blanched
the cheek of even much-daring Odysseus (Od. xi. 633). The
satellites of Hecate have been compared, not
disadvantageously, with the monstrous guardians of hell;
than whom

'Nor uglier follow the night-hag when, called
In secret, riding through the air she comes
Lured with the smell of infant blood to dance
With Lapland witches--.'

[19] An exceptional case, on the authority of Demosthenes,
is that of a woman condemned in the year, or within a year
or two, of the execution of Socrates.

[20] St. Augustin, in denouncing the Platonic theories of
Apuleius, of the mediation and intercession of demons
between gods and men, and exposing his magic heresies, takes
occasion to taunt him with having evaded his just fate by
not professing, like the Christian martyrs, his real faith
when delivering his 'very copious and eloquent' apology (_De
Civitate Dei_, lib. viii. 19). In the _Golden Ass_ of the
Greek romancist of the second century, who, in common with
his cotemporary the great rationalist Lucian, deserves the
praise of having exposed (with more wit perhaps than
success) some of