APULEIUS, LUCIUS, Platonic philosopher and rhetori cian, was born at Madaura, in Numidia, about A.D. 125. He was educated at Carthage and Athens, and then undertook a long course of travel, especially in the East, principally with the view of obtaining initiation into religious mysteries. Having practised for some time as an advocate at Rome, he returned to Africa. On a journey to Alexandria he fell sick at Oea (Tripoli), where he met a rich widow, Aemilia Pudentilla, whom he later married. The members of her family disapproved of the marriage and accused Apuleius of having won her affections by magic arts. His highly entertaining, but inordinately long defence (Apologia or De Magia) before the proconsul, Claudius Maximus, is our chief authority for his biography. The remainder of his prosperous life was devoted to literature and philosophy.
The work on which the fame of Apuleius chiefly rests is the Metamorphoses or Golden Ass (the latter title seems not to be the author's own, but to have been bestowed in compliment), which was founded on a narrative in the Metamorphoses of Lucius of Patrae, a work extant in the time of Photius. From Photius's account (impugned, however, by Wieland and Courier), this book would seem to have been a collection of marvellous stories, related in perfect good faith. This particular narrative attracted the attention of Apuleius's contemporary, Lucian, who proceeded to work it up, adhering, as Photius seems to indicate, closely to the original, but giving it a comic and satiric turn. Apuleius followed Lucian's version, making it, however, the groundwork of an elaborate romance, and altering the denoue ment to suit the religious revival of which he was an apostle.
The adventures of the young hero in the form of an ass are much the same in both romances, but in Apuleius he is restored to human shape by the aid of Isis, and finally becomes her priest. The book illustrates the contemporary reaction against a period of scepticism, and the influx of Oriental and Egyptian ideas into the old theology. It has also a well-marked literary aim, defined by Kretzschmann as the emulation of the Greek sophists, and the transplantation of their tours de force into the Latin language. The dignified, the ludicrous, the voluptuous, the horrible, succeed each other with bewildering rapidity ; fancy and feeling are every where apparent, but not less so affectation and meretricious orna ment. The Latinity has a strong African colouring, and is replete with obsolete words. The Golden Ass is invaluable as an illustra tion of ancient manners, and is full of entertainment. The most beautiful portion is the episode of Cupid and Psyche, adapted from a popular legend. The allegorical purport is Apuleius's own, and entirely in the spirit of the Platonic philosophy. Don Qui xote's adventure with the wine-skins, and Gil Blas's captivity among the robbers are borrowed from Apuleius, and several of the humorous episodes reappear in Boccaccio.
Of Apuleius's other writings, the Florida (probably meaning simply "anthology"), is a collection of excerpts from his declama tions, ingenious but highly affected. The little tract On the God of Socrates expounds the Platonic doctrine of beneficent dae mons, an intermediate class between gods and men. Two books on Plato (De Platone et emus Dogmate) treat of his life and his physical and ethical philosophy; a third, on logic, is considered spurious. The De Mundo is an adaptation of the Mill Bcoo-µov wrongly attributed to Aristotle. Apuleius asserts that he also composed many poems in almost all possible styles, and several works on natural history, some in Greek.
The place of Apuleius in literature is accidentally a more im portant one than his genius strictly entitles him to hold. He is the only extant example in Latin literature of an accomplished sophist in the best sense. The loss of other ancient romances has secured him a peculiar influence on modern fiction.