Apuleius#Other

{{Short description|2nd-century Numidian Latin-language writer, rhetorician and philosopher}}

{{distinguish|text=Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, a Roman demagogue, or others with the name Apuleius or Appuleius}}

{{Infobox philosopher

| name = Apuleius

| image = Apuleuis.jpg

| caption = Late antique ceiling painting c. 330, possibly of Apuleius

| birth_date = {{circa|124}}

| birth_place = Madaurus, Numidia

| death_date = c. 170 – 190

| death_place =

| occupation = Novelist, writer, public speaker

| notable_works = The Golden Ass

| school_tradition = Middle Platonism

}}

Apuleius ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|æ|p|j|ʊ|ˈ|l|iː|ə|s}} {{respell|APP|yuu|LEE|əs}}; also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis; c. 124 – after 170[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/30917/Lucius-Apuleius "Lucius Apuleius"]. Encyclopædia Britannica.) was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician.{{cite web |url=https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/apuleius/ |title=Apuleius, Apology |work=George Town University}} He was born in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern-day M'Daourouch, Algeria.{{cite encyclopedia |title=Berbers |quote=... The best known of them were the Roman author Apuleius, the Roman emperor Septimius Severus, and St. Augustine |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Americana |publisher=Scholastic Library Publishing |year=2005 |volume=3 |page=569}} He studied Platonism in Athens, travelled to Italy, Asia Minor, and Egypt, and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the attentions (and fortune) of a wealthy widow. He declaimed and then distributed his own defense before the proconsul and a court of magistrates convened in Sabratha, near Oea (modern Tripoli, Libya). This is known as the Apologia.

His most famous work is his bawdy picaresque novel the Metamorphoses, otherwise known as The Golden Ass. It is the only Latin novel that has survived in its entirety. It relates the adventures of its protagonist, Lucius, who experiments with magic and is accidentally turned into a donkey. Lucius goes through various adventures before he is turned back into a human being by the goddess Isis.{{cite book |last1=Roman |first1=Luke |last2=Roman |first2=Monica |name-list-style=amp |year=2010 |title=Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology |page=78 |publisher=Infobase |isbn=9781438126395 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tOgWfjNIxoMC |via=Google Books}}

Life

File:Apuleius-Kontorniat-2.jpg

File:Apuleius, Opera omnia, 1621 - BEIC 9468424.tiff

Apuleius was born in Madauros, a colonia in Numidia on the North African coast bordering Gaetulia, and he described himself as "half-Numidian half-Gaetulian."Apuleius, Apology, 24 Madaurus was the same colonia where Augustine of Hippo later received part of his early education, and, though located well away from the Romanized coast, is today the site of some pristine Roman ruins. As to his first name, no praenomen is given in any ancient source;{{sfn|Walsh|1999|p=xi}} late-medieval manuscripts began the tradition of calling him Lucius from the name of the hero of his novel.{{citation |first=Julia Haig |last=Gaisser |year=2008 |title=The fortunes of Apuleius and the Golden Ass: a study in transmission and Reception |page=69 |publisher=Princeton University Press}} {{isbn|0691131368|9780691131368}} Details regarding his life come mostly from his defense speech (Apology) and his work Florida, which consists of snippets taken from some of his best speeches.

His father was a municipal magistrate (duumvir) who bequeathed at his death the sum of nearly two million sesterces to his two sons.Apuleius, Apology, 23 Apuleius studied with a master at Carthage (where he later settled) and later at Athens, where he studied Platonist philosophy among other subjects. He subsequently went to RomeApuleius, Florida, 17.4 to study Latin rhetoric and, most likely, to speak in the law courts for a time before returning to his native North Africa. He also travelled extensively in Asia Minor and Egypt, studying philosophy and religion, burning up his inheritance while doing so.

Apuleius was an initiate in several Greco-Roman mysteries, including the Dionysian Mysteries.{{refn |group=note|As he proudly claims in his Apologia.{{cite journal |last=Winter |first=Thomas Nelson |year=2006 |url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=classicsfacpub |title=Apology as Prosecution: The Trial of Apuleius |journal=Faculty Publications, Classics and Religious Studies Department |issue=4}}}} He was a priest of AsclepiusApuleius, Florida 16.38 and 18.38 and, according to Augustine,Augustine, Epistle 138.19. sacerdos provinciae Africae (i.e., priest of the province of Carthage).

Not long after his return home he set out upon a new journey to Alexandria.Apuleius, Apology, 72. On his way there he was taken ill at the town of Oea (modern-day Tripoli) and was hospitably received into the house of Sicinius Pontianus, with whom he had been friends when he had studied in Athens. The mother of Pontianus, Pudentilla, was a very rich widow. With her son's consent – indeed encouragement – Apuleius agreed to marry her.Apuleius, Apology, 73 Meanwhile, Pontianus himself married the daughter of one Herennius Rufinus; he, indignant that Pudentilla's wealth should pass out of the family, instigated his son-in-law, together with a younger brother, Sicinius Pudens, a mere boy, and their paternal uncle, Sicinius Aemilianus, to join him in impeaching Apuleius upon the charge that he had gained the affections of Pudentilla by charms and magic spells.Apuleius, Apology, 53, 66, 70, etc The case was heard at Sabratha, near Tripoli, c. 158 AD, before Claudius Maximus, proconsul of Africa.Apuleius, Apology, 1, 59, 65 The accusation itself seems to have been ridiculous, and the spirited and triumphant defence spoken by Apuleius is still extant. This is known as the Apologia (A Discourse on Magic).

Apuleius accused an extravagant personal enemy of turning his house into a brothel and prostituting his wife.Apuleius, Apology, 75–76{{sfn|Flemming|1999|p=41}}

Of his subsequent career, we know little. Judging from the many works of which he was author, he must have devoted himself diligently to literature. He occasionally gave speeches in public to great reception; he had the charge of exhibiting gladiatorial shows and wild beast events in the province, and statues were erected in his honour by the senate of Carthage and of other senates.Apuleius, Apology, 55, 73Apuleius, Florida, iii. n. 16Augustine, Ep. v.

The date, place and circumstances of Apuleius' death are not known.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X1g9DgAAQBAJ&pg=PA17 |title=The Religious Dreamworld of Apuleius' Metamorphoses: Recovering a Forgotten Hermeneutic |last=Gollnick |first=James |publisher=Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-88920-803-2 |page=17}}{{cite book |author=Apuleius |title=The Golden Ass, Or, The Metamorphoses |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iRwMi58gjdMC&pg=PR13 |year=2004 |publisher=Barnes & Noble Publishing |isbn=978-0-7607-5598-3 |page=13 |via=Google Books}} There is no record of his activities after 170, a fact which has led some people to believe that he must have died about then (say in 171), although other scholars feel that he may still have been alive in 180 or even 190.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kZ03AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA11 |title=The Logic of Apuleius: Including a Complete Latin Text and English Translation of the Peri Hermeneias of Apuleius of Madaura |last1=Londey |first1=David George |last2=Johanson |first2=Carmen J. |publisher=Brill Publishers |year=1987 |isbn=90-04-08421-5 |page=11 |name-list-style=amp}}

Works

File:ApuleiusFrontispiece.jpg edition of The Works of Apuleius: a portrait of Apuleius flanked by Pamphile changing into an owl and the Golden Ass]]

= ''The Golden Ass'' =

The Golden Ass (Asinus Aureus) or Metamorphoses is the only Latin novel that has survived in its entirety. It relates the adventures of one Lucius, who introduces himself as related to the famous philosophers Plutarch and Sextus of Chaeronea. Lucius experiments with magic and is accidentally turned into an ass. In this guise, he hears and sees many unusual things, until escaping from his predicament in a rather unexpected way. Within this frame story are found many digressions, the longest among them being the well-known tale of Cupid and Psyche. This story is a rare instance of a fairy tale preserved in an ancient literary text.

The Metamorphoses ends with the (once again human) hero, Lucius, eager to be initiated into the mystery cult of Isis; he abstains from forbidden foods, bathes, and purifies himself. He is introduced to the Navigium Isidis. Then the secrets of the cult's books are explained to him, and further secrets are revealed before he goes through the process of initiation, which involves a trial by the elements on a journey to the underworld. Lucius is then asked to seek initiation into the cult of Osiris in Rome, and eventually is initiated into the pastophoroi – a group of priests that serves Isis and Osiris.{{citation |last=Iles Johnson |first=Sarah |chapter=Mysteries |title=Ancient Religions |pages=104–105 |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-674-02548-6}}

= ''Apologia'' =

{{lang|la|Apologia}} ({{lang|la|Apulei Platonici pro Se de Magia}}) is the version of the defence presented in Sabratha, in 158–159, before the proconsul Claudius Maximus, by Apuleius accused of the crime of magic. Between the traditional exordium and peroratio, the argumentation is divided into three sections:

Refutation of the accusations levelled against his private life. He demonstrates that by marrying Pudentilla he had no interested motive and that he carries it away, intellectually and morally, on his opponents.
Attempt to prove that his so-called "magical operations" were in fact indispensable scientific experiments for an imitator of Aristotle and Hippocrates, or the religious acts of a Roman Platonist.
A recount of the events that have occurred in Oea since his arrival and pulverize the arguments against him.

The main interest of the {{lang|la|Apologia}} is historical, as it offers substantial information about its author, magic and life in Africa in the second century.{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1989 |title=Apulée |encyclopedia=Encyclopédie berbère |publisher=Edisud |url=http://journals.openedition.org/encyclopedieberbere/2565 |last=Cèbe |first=Jean-Pierre |location=Aix-en-Provence |volume=6 {{!}} Antilopes – Arzuges |issue=6 |pages=820–827|doi=10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.2565 |doi-access=free }}

= Other =

His other works are:

Florida. A compilation of twenty-three extracts from his various speeches and lectures.
De Platone et dogmate eius (On Plato and His Doctrine). An outline in two books of Plato's physics and ethics, preceded by a life of Plato
{{visible anchor|De Deo Socratis}} (On the God of Socrates). A work on the existence and nature of daemons, the intermediaries between gods and humans. This treatise was attacked by Augustine of Hippo in The City of God (Books VIII to X), while Lactantius reserved it for short-lived creatures.{{Cite journal|language=it|author=Moreschini, Claudio (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa)|date=1972|title=La Polemica Di Agostino Contro La Demonologia Di Apuleio|journal=Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Classe di Lettere e Filosofia|volume=2|issue=2|pages=583–596|access-date=2025-04-09|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24301469}} (related [https://journals.sns.it/index.php/annalilettere/article/view/2185 bibliographic record])Augustine played a decisive role in the transmission of Apuleius' texts up to the present day. Cfr. {{Cite book |author=Carandino, Martina |title=Apuleio e Agostino: tra ricezione e demonologia |access-date=2025-04-09 |language=it |publisher=Academia.edu |url=https://www.academia.edu/31025358/Apuleio_e_Agostino_tra_ricezione_e_demonologia}} De Deo Socratis contains a passage comparing gods and kings which is the first recorded occurrence of the proverb "familiarity breeds contempt":{{citation |page=149 |title=Apuleius |first=S. J. |last=Harrison |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-19-927138-2}}{{Blockquote|parit enim conversatio contemptum, raritas conciliat admirationem
(familiarity breeds contempt, rarity brings admiration)|sign=|source=}}
On the Universe. This Latin translation of Pseudo-Aristotle's work De Mundo is probably by Apuleius.

Apuleius wrote many other works which have not survived. He wrote works of poetry and fiction, as well as technical treatises on politics, dendrology, agriculture, medicine, natural history, astronomy, music, and arithmetic, and he translated Plato's Phaedo.{{sfn|Walsh|1999|pp=xiv–xv}}

= Spurious =

Extant works wrongly attributed to Apuleius include:{{cite book |last=Morford |first=Mark P. O. |title=The Roman Philosophers |publisher=Routledge |year=2002 |page=227}}

Peri Hermeneias (On Interpretation). A brief Latin version of a guide to Aristotelian logic.
Asclepius. A Latin paraphrase of a lost Greek dialogue (The Perfect Discourse) featuring Asclepius and Hermes Trismegistus.
Herbarium Apuleii Platonici by Pseudo-Apuleius.

Apuleian Sphere

The Apuleian Sphere described in Petosiris to Nechepso, also known as "Columcille's Circle" or "Petosiris' Circle",{{cite web |last=Kalesmaki |first=Joel |title=Types of Greek Numerology |work=Theology of Arithmetic |date=18 November 2006 |url=http://www.kalvesmaki.com/Arithmetic/GreekNumerology.html |access-date=26 June 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090514012910/http://www.kalvesmaki.com/Arithmetic/GreekNumerology.html |archive-date=14 May 2009 |url-status=live }} is a magical prognosticating device for predicting the survival of a patient.{{cite journal |last=Rust |first=Martha Dana |year=1999 |title= Art of Beekeeping Meets the Arts of Grammar: A Gloss of 'Columcille's Circle'|journal=Philological Quarterly |volume=78 |issue=4 |pages=359–387 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/211225560|id={{ProQuest|211225560}} }}

Notes

References

External links

{{Library resources box |by=yes |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Apuleius

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{{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/apuleius}}
{{Gutenberg author |id=685}}
{{Internet Archive author}}
[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?q=Apuleius&redirect=true Works by Apuleius at Perseus Digital Library]
{{Librivox author |id=2204}}
{{OL author}}
[https://archive.org/details/operaomnia01apuluoft L. Apuleii Opera Omnia, Lipsia, sumtibus C. Cnoblochii, 1842, pars I] (the Metamorphoses) and [https://archive.org/details/operaomnia02apuluoft pars II] (Florida, De Deo Socratis, De Dogmate Platonis, De Mundo Libri, Asclepius, Apologia et Fragmenta), in a critical edition with explanatory notes
[https://archive.org/details/worksofapuleiusc00apulrich The works of Apuleius, London, George Bell and sons, 1878] (English translation)
[https://web.archive.org/web/20080920112552/http://www.kabylia.info/apuleius-123-ad-180-famous-berber-writer Apuleius (123–180 CE) the Famous Berber writer]
[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/apuleius.html Apulei Opera] (Latin texts of all the surviving works of Apuleius) at The Latin Library
[http://www.attalus.org/translate/florida.html English translation of Florida by H. E. Butler]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20110720172359/http://www.chieftainsys.freeserve.co.uk/ English translation of the Apologia by H. E. Butler]
[http://www.prometheustrust.co.uk/html/14_-_apuleius.html English translation of the God of Socrates by Thomas Taylor]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20040607030012/http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/apuleius/index.html Apuleius – Apologia: Seminar] (Latin text of the Apologia with H. E. Butler's English translation and an English crib with discussion and commentary)
[http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/classicsfacpub/4/ Apology as Prosecution: The Trial of Apuleius]
[http://www.intratext.com/Catalogo/Autori/AUT23.HTM Apuleius' works]: text, concordances and frequency list
[https://sites.google.com/site/apuleiusandafrica/HOME/ Ongoing website for "Apuleius and Africa" conference]
[https://sites.google.com/site/apuleiusandafrica/prolegomena-and-bibliography/bibliography Apuleius and Africa Bibliography]
[http://thespectaclesofapuleius.weebly.com/index.html The Spectacles of Apuleius]: a digital humanities project
[https://archive.org/details/luciusapuleius Free public domain audiobook version of ''Apuleius on the Doctrines of Plato] translated by George Burges