The Apologia and Florida of Apuleius of Madaura

The Apologia and Florida of Apuleius of Madaura are two of the major surviving Latin prose works by Apuleius, the second century North African Roman writer who lived from approximately 124 to 170 AD and who is now best known for his novel The Golden Ass or Metamorphoses, one of only two surviving complete Latin novels from the ancient Roman period.

Apuleius was born in Madaura in what is now Algeria and was educated at Carthage and Athens before settling in the North African Roman cities of Carthage and Oea in his adult life. He produced substantial work in Latin prose across various genres including the novel for which he is now famous, philosophical treatises on Plato and on the daimones, rhetorical declamations and speeches, and various other works that survive in fragmentary or complete form.

The Apologia is the speech Apuleius delivered in his own defence at a trial in Oea around 158 AD, in which he had been accused of using magic to seduce a wealthy older widow named Pudentilla into marrying him. The charge of magic was a serious one in the Roman legal system, and Apuleius’s defence speech is one of the most substantial documents that survives from the ancient Roman period both for its account of the actual trial and for its substantial information about Roman views of magic, philosophy, and various other subjects that the defence touches on. Apuleius was acquitted.

The Florida is a collection of extracts from various speeches and declamations Apuleius delivered across his career as a rhetorical performer in the North African Roman cities. The collection preserves some of the most polished examples of Latin rhetorical prose from the second century AD and gives substantial insight into the substantial culture of public oratory and rhetorical performance that characterised Roman urban life during the period.

Apuleius is essential reading for anyone interested in second century Latin literature, in the substantial Roman cultural life of North Africa, or in the broader history of ancient Roman rhetorical and philosophical traditions. The Apologia and Florida pair naturally with The Golden Ass and with the substantial philosophical works that Apuleius also produced.