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’. (shrink)