Although it is true that charms and poisons are not noxious in themselves, this charge could have upset the audience and aroused unsympathetic feelings for Apuleius as the belief that carmina and venena were used in love-magic was widespread and much feared in the ancient world. Abt points this out, but since his explanation is primarily based on the PGM, I will put his hypothesis on a firmer basis by providing a more exhaustive scrutiny of literary and papyrological evidence, to gauge the conviction that carmina and venena were customary tools of love-magic. While carmen and its synonyms designate every kind of goetic utterances, even from an etymological viewpoint the Latin venenum originated in the very context of love-magic and was later applied to poisonous substances as a whole; and it is even considered as a form of charm by Quintilian. As we have already seen at Apol.30.4-31.9, Apuleius and earlier sources retrospectively interpret the Homeric Perimede, Circe and Helen as connected to magic, because of their use of φάρμακα. The most important source for the diffusion of love-magic as a literary theme is Theocritus’ Second Idyll. This poem inspired Vergil’s Eighth Eclogue – which is well-known to Apuleius – where we find references to both carmina and other paraphernalia, amongst which are herbs and venena, in love-magic. A similar, although more dramatic, scene is Dido’s ritual at Aeneid 4.509-16, cited verbatim by Apuleius; this commonplace theme recurs in Horace, Tibullus and Propertius, who all refer to the compelling strength of philtres and spells in love-magic.