The Apologia and Florida of Apuleius of Madaura

The Apologia and Florida of Apuleius of Madaura gather two of the shorter Latin works of Apuleius (c. 125-c. 170 AD), the North African Platonist rhetorician best known as the author of The Golden Asse. The Apologia is the defence speech Apuleius delivered around 158 AD at Sabratha against a charge of having used magic to seduce the wealthy widow Pudentilla into marriage; it is a major source for Roman court procedure, popular belief about magic, and second-century African society. The Florida is a collection of excerpts from his public declamations, showing the showpiece rhetoric of the Second Sophistic in its African setting. The two works together give a fuller picture of Apuleius as a working rhetorician and philosopher than the novel alone can supply. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.