Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Apuleius The Golden Ass: Being The Metamorphoses Of Lucius Apuleius
The African Apuleius is one of the most curious figures of Roman literature. We know something of his life from his Apologia, and it is quite possible that at the beginning and at the end of the Metamorphoses the description of Lucius, the hero of the story, may contain a few autobiographical details. He was born of good family at Madaura, a town on the confines of Numidia and Gaetulia, about the end of the first quarter of the second century A.D., and while still quite a young man set out on a journey to Alexandria. On the way he fell ill at Oea (supposed to be the modern Tripoli), and was nursed by a rich widow named Aemilia Pudentilla, who was rather older than himself. He married her, and in vexation at the unequal match her relations brought an action against him charging him with having won her love by means of magic. The Apologia referred to above is his speech for the defence, which was doubtless successful; and he afterwards settled at Carthage, whence he journeyed through various African towns giving philosophical lectures and living the life of one of the regular Sophists of the Empire, from whom he only differed in that he wrote and lectured in Latin instead of in Greek. The date of his death is unknown.
The interests of Apuleius were before all centred in religion, philosophy, and magic.
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