ired by any
loss of memory. For, as Pythagoras said, not every kind of wood is fit
to be carved into the likeness of Mercury. If that be so, tell me who
was that healthy, unblemished, intelligent, handsome boy whom I deemed
worthy of initiation into such mysteries by the power of my spells. As
a matter of fact, Thallus, whom you mentioned, needs a doctor rather
than a magician. For the poor wretch is such a victim to epilepsy that
he frequently has fits twice or thrice in one day without the need for
any incantations, and exhausts all his limbs with his convulsions. His
face is ulcerous, his head bruised in front and behind, his eyes are
dull, his nostrils distended, his feet stumbling. He may claim to be
the greatest of magicians in whose presence Thallus has remained for
any considerable time upon his feet. For he is continually lying
down, either a seizure or mere weariness[15] causing him to collapse.

[Footnote 15: _seu_ (Casaubon).]

44. Yet you say that it is my incantations that have overwhelmed him,
simply because he has once chanced to have a fit in my presence. Many
of his fellow servants, whose appearance as witnesses you have
demanded, are present in court. They all can tell you why it is they
spit upon Thallus, and why no one ventures to eat from the same dish
with him or to drink from the same cup. But why do I speak of these
slaves? You yourselves have eyes. Deny then, if you dare, that Thallus
used to have fits of epilepsy long before I came to Oea, or that has
frequently been shown to doctors. Let his fellow slaves who are in
your service deny this: I will confess myself guilty of everything, if
he has not long since been sent away into the country, far from the
sight of all of them, to a distant farm, for fear he should infect the
rest of the household. They cannot deny this to be the fact. For the
same reason it is impossible for us to produce him here to-day. The
whole of this accusation has been reckless and sudden, and it was only
the day before yesterday that Aemilianus demanded that we should
produce fifteen slaves before you. The fourteen living in the town are
present to-day. Thallus only is absent owing to the fact that he has
been banished to a place some hundred miles distant. However, we have
sent a man to bring him here in a carriage. I ask you, Maximus, to
question these fourteen slaves whom we have produced as to where the
boy Thallus is and what is the state of his health; I ask you t