Apuleius

Apuleius, also known as Lucius Apuleius of Madauros, was a Latin-language writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician, born around 124-125 in Madauros, a Roman city in Numidia in what is now Algeria. Working within the tradition of Middle Platonism, he is the most celebrated Latin author of his age, admired both in his lifetime and by later readers. His career shows how Latin culture had spread from Italy into the African provinces.

He came from a prosperous family. His father, a local magistrate, left him and his brother nearly two million sesterces. Apuleius studied rhetoric in Carthage, then Platonist philosophy in Athens, and later went to Rome to refine his Latin oratory. He travelled through Asia Minor and Egypt, was initiated into several mystery cults, among them that of Isis, and spent much of his fortune on these journeys.

Around 158, on his way to Alexandria, he fell ill at Oea, modern Tripoli, and was welcomed into the home of a friend he had met in Athens. There he married Pudentilla, a wealthy widow. Her relatives accused him of winning her affection through magic. He defended himself in person before the proconsul Claudius Maximus at Sabratha, and his speech, known as the Apologia, survives. He won the case and moved with his wife to her estate outside the city.

His best-known work, The Golden Ass or Metamorphoses, is the only Latin novel from antiquity to survive complete. It follows Lucius, who experiments with magic and is accidentally turned into a donkey. He keeps his human mind but loses his speech, passes through the hands of many owners and lives through strange episodes, until the goddess Isis restores his human form. Comedy and bawdy humour sit alongside philosophical and religious reflection. The inserted tale of Cupid and Psyche, the longest episode, traces the soul's quest for love and immortality. Some scholars think the closing initiation reflects the author's own experience.

His philosophical writings are more expository than original. On the God of Socrates argues that daemons mediate between gods and humans. On Plato and His Doctrine summarises Plato's teaching, and On the Universe is a Latin version of a work attributed to the Aristotelian school. He also wrote many lost works on technical subjects, though little is known of his later years.

His influence is strongest in the picaresque novel and in the fairy tale, which drew on episodes like that of Cupid and Psyche. The date and place of his death are unknown. Some place it around 170, while others believe he may have lived into the 180s or beyond.