Apuleius of Madaura (Apuleius)

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Apuleius of Madaura (Apuleius)

125-after 170 c.e.

Lawyer, priest, writer

Sources

Under Suspicion of Witchcraft. Born in Madaura in North Africa, Apuleius was educated in Carthage and Athens. Having used up his estate, he moved to Rome and worked as a lawyer. Back in Africa he was tried for allegedly practicing witchcraft, but he was acquitted. He never held any political office, but he did become a priest of the imperial cult. He died some time after 170 C.E. Apuleius is remembered primarily for his Metamorphoses, or The Golden Ass.

Sources

Gerald Sandy, “Apuleius,” in Ancient Roman Writers, Dictionary of Literary Biography, volume 211, edited by Ward W. Briggs (Columbia, S.C.: Bruccoli Clark Layman / Detroit: Gale Group, 1999), pp. 17-25.

Carl C. Schlam, The Metamorphoses of Apuleius (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992).