Philosopher
Apuleius
Overview
Apuleius ( APP-yuu-LEE-əs), also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (c. 124 – after 170), was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He was born in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern-day M'Daourouch, Algeria. 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 his own defense before the proconsul and a court of magistrates convened in Sabratha, near Oea (modern Tripoli, Libya). This speech, which Apuleius subsequently published, 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 ancient 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.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Philosophers who discussed Apuleius
- Lucian
- Augustine of Hippo
- Xenophanes
- Pythagoras
- Peter Singer
- Plutarch
- Sappho
- Zeno of Citium
- Nigidius Figulus
- Hipparchia of Maroneia
- Lyco of Troas
- Alcinous (philosopher)
- Gaius the Platonist
Ideas Apuleius discusses
- Athens
- Phaedo
- Latin
- Lactantius
- Middle Platonism
- Music
- Fiction
- Medicine
- Augustine of Hippo
- North Africa
- Platonism
- Poetry
- Plato
- Politics
- Plutarch
- Rhetoric
- Rome
- Roman Empire
- Alexandria
- Brill Publishers
- Arithmetic
- Term logic
- Greco-Roman mysteries
- The City of God
Place in the tradition
Part of Middle Platonism.