CHAPTER ONE

PROPAEDEUTICS: THE FORMATION OF A LA TIN SOPHIST

Time and Place

The extant version of Apuleius' account of his defence of himself against charges of practising magic provides the chronological framework for arranging many of the known events of his life. The trial was conducted before Claudius Maximus, the proconsul of Africa, in the coastal town of Sabrata, some sixty kilometres from Oea (modern Tripoli in Libya), where the events for which he was tried were alleged to have occurred. There is now general agreement that Maximus held the proconsulship of Africa during the one-year period 158/159; thus Apuleius' trial took place at that time as Maximus was conducting the assizes there. 1 The only other datable events recorded in Apuleius' writings are consistent with this date. In the Apology (85.2), he reproaches one of the plaintiffs for arranging to have read into the court record a distorted version of one of his wife's letters in the presence of the statues of the reigning emperor Antoninus Pius ( 138-161). 2 Florida 9, part of a speech presented by Apuleius in Carthage, bids farewell to Severianus at the end of his proconsulate of Africa in 164. 3 This is in fact the latest attested date for the life of Apuleius. 4 Other, less precise dates can be gleaned by a process of inference from, and reference to, the fixed dates. Apuleius states that at the time

1 Syme 1959: 316-7; for slightly different interpretations and additional details see Carratello 1963: 97-110 and Guey 1951 : 307-17. Sabrata: Apol. 59. 2; for the proconsul's assizes in Africa cf. Fl. 9. 3 7. 2 With one exception all citations of Apuleius are based on the divisions used in the Bude series; the exception is Moreschini's recent (1991) Teubner edition of the philosophical treatises on which I base citations of the Apuleian work Peri Hermeneias. 3 Syme 1959: 318. The same proconsul is eulogized in Fl. 17. 4 Carratello 1963. 2 CHAPTER ONE of his trial three years have elapsed since he had addressed the people of Oea on the subject of Aesculapius (Apo/. 255. 10). 5 "This very well known speech," as Apuleius calls it in the next sentence, is probably the one that was greeted by the people of Oea with such enthusiasm that it prompted Pontianus to acknowledge for the first time his desire that Apuleius should marry his widowed mother (Apo/ .. 73. 2-3). They married each other approximately a year later. At the time of the trial she "is not much past her fortieth year" (Apo/. 89. 5). Apuleius was a young man when he married her (Apo/. 70. 3); and although the plaintiffs exaggerated the disparity of their ages, it is clear that he was substantially younger than his December bride who "did not reject a man much her junior" (Apo/. 89 and 27. 9). Her son Pontianus was old enough to be married and close enough in age to Apuleius to have become his friend and to have shared accommodation with him in Athens a few years before Apuleius' arrival in Oea in 155 but young enough to treat Apuleius with the respect that is due to his senior and to havr received guidance from him. 6 In view of these considerations a date of birth between 120 and 125 for Apuleius seems most likely. Finally, Aemilianus Strabo, who is addressed by Apuleius as his former classmate in Florida 16. 36-7, was consul suffectus in 156. 7 Since the minimum age for holders of that office was thirty three, his date of birth can be safely assumed to have been close to 120, which must also be close to the date of birth of his classmate Apuleius. It is of limited value to know that Alexander Severus' accusation that Albinus wasted his time reading Apuleius' Golden Ass establishes a date of composition of the novel before Albinus' death in 197. 8 Other, internal references to apparently datable events prove to be open to a variety of interpretations. The statement in the Golden Ass (1. 6. 2) that the children of one of the characters have been made wards of the state by judicial decree may refer to the system of iuridici re-established by Hadrian around 147 and again by Marcus Aurelius

5 With one exception the abbreviations used for Apuleius' works are those of the Oxford Latin Dictionary; the exception is Log. = Logic, that is, the Peri Hermeneias. 6 The references in the Apology are: married (73. 9 and 76-7), friendship and shared accommodation (72. 3), respect (72. 4), guidance (94. 3 and 97. 1). 7 C/L VI, 2086. 67. 8 "Life of Clodius Albinus" 12. 12 in Historia Augusta.