The Metamorphoses or Golden Ass of Apuleius (ca. 170 CE) is a Latin novel written by a native of Madauros in Roman North Africa, roughly equal to modern Tunisia together with parts of Libya and Algeria. Apuleius’ novel is based on the model of a lost Greek novel; it narrates the adventures of a Greek character with a Roman name who spends the bulk of the novel transformed into an animal, traveling from Greece to Rome only to end his adventures in the capital city of the empire as a priest of the Egyptian goddess Isis. Apuleius’ Florida and Apology deal more explicitly with the African provenance and character of their author while also demonstrating his complex interaction with Greek, Roman, and local cultures. Apuleius’ philosophical works raise other questions about Greek vs. African and Roman cultural identity. Apuleius in Africa addresses the problem of this intricate complex of different identities and its connection to Apuleius’ literary production. It especially emphasizes Apuleius’ African heritage, a heritage that has for the most part been either downplayed or even deplored by previous scholarship. The contributors include philologists, historians, and experts in material culture; among them are some of the most respected scholars in their fields. The chapters give due attention to all elements of Apuleius’ oeuvre, and break new ground both on the interpretation of Apuleius’ literary production and on the culture of the Roman Empire in the second century. The volume also includes a modern, sub-Saharan contribution in which "Africa" mainly means Mediterranean Africa.

This book provides the first general account of the works of the Latin writer Apuleius, most famous for his great novel the Metamorphoses or Golden Ass. Living in second-century North Africa, Apuleius was more than an author; he was an orator and professional intellectual, Platonist philosopher, extraordinary stylist, relentless self-promoter, as well as a versatile author of a remarkably diverse body of other work, much of which is lost to us.

Nearly three thousand years ago the Phoenicians set up trading colonies on the coast of North Africa, and ever since successive civilizations have been imposed on the local inhabitants, largely from outside. Carthaginians, Romans, vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, TUrks, French and Italians have all occupied the region in their time. The Romans governed this part of Africa for six hundred cities, twelve thousand miles of roads and hundreds of aquaducts, some fifty miles long. The remains of many of these structures can be seen today. At the height of its prosperity, during the second and third centuries AD, the area was the granary of Rome, and produced more olive oil than Italy itself. The broadening horizons of the Roman Empire provided scope for the particular talents of a number of Africa's sons: the writers Terence and Apuleius; the first African Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, famous Christian theologians like Tertulllian and Saint Augustine - these are just some who rose to meet the challenges of their age.

Apuleius and Antonine Rome features outstanding scholarship by Keith Bradley on the Latin author Apuleius of Madauros and on the second-century Roman world in which Apuleius lived. Bradley discusses Apuleius' work in the context of social relations (especially the family and household), religiosity in all its diversity and complexity, and cultural interactions between the imperial centre and the provincial periphery. These essays examine the Apology, the speech Apuleius made when he defended himself on the criminal charge of having enticed a wealthy widow to marry him through magical means; the fragments of his speeches known as the Florida; and the remarkable serio-comic novel Metamorphoses (better known as The Golden Ass). Altogether, Apuleius and Antonine Rome effectively illustrates how socio-cultural history can be recovered from works of literature.

This book differs from previous studies in its scope, its insistence on a variety of approaches, its emphasis on the importance of genre, and its argument that the place of the literary tradition progresses through the book. This is the first attempt to link Apuleius' allusive practices with a consideration of the emergence of the novel and the consequent tensions in generic form. The chapters on Charite, the Phaedraesque stepmother, and Isis represent experimental new directions for the interpretation of Apuleius and literary influence.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 edition. Excerpt: ...81, and more especially Phaedo 76. 18. etsi pereleganter is Kriiger's emendation oi et semper eleganter . He further reads reliqidt (cod. Toi.); though the tense of relinquat is a little awkward, the sense is clear, and reliquit is a little violent as a remedy. The alternative is to read ut semper with codd. Urb. and Toi. This reading is adopted by Helm, who quotes (Pref. to Florida, p. xxiii) Cic. Brut. 22. 86 causant pro ptiblicanis accurate, ut semper solitus esset, eleganterque dixisse Laelium. But though Apuleius might well have said ' Wherefore I would have you hear what Afranius says', the phrase 'Wherefore let Afranius with his usual elegance leave this apophthegm on record ' is almost impossibly harsh. Reading etsi pereleganter the sense is excellent, ' Although Afranius' words are singularly apt, they yet require slight modification to bring them into line with the Platonic doctrine of avap.ir a-ts.' 19. Afranius. The most famous writer of purely Roman comedy (togatae); floruit circ. Ilo B.C. amabit sapiens, cupient ceteri. See v. 221, Sc. Rom. poes. fragm. (Ribbeck ii, p. 228); Non. 421. 19; Serv. Aen. iv. 194. Cp. also Afranius (Ribbeck, op. cit., p. 198, v. 24) alius est Amor, alius Cupido. 20. si uerum uelis. Cp. 52 immo enim si uelis; SSt'mmo s uerum uelis; 98 si per uerum uelis (but see note ad loc.). CHAPTER 13 2. contra sententiam Neoptolemi Enniani pluribus philosophari. Cp. Cic. de Or. ii. 156 ac sic decreui philosophari potiits ut Neoptolemus apud Ennium 'paucis; nam omnino haud placet '; de Rep. i. 18. 30; Tuse. ii. i. i; Gell. v. 15 and 16. Ribbeck restores the whole line philosophari mihinecessepaucis, nam omnino haut...

What does it mean to be a hero? The ancient Greeks who gave us Achilles and Odysseus had a very different understanding of the term than we do today. Based on the legendary Harvard course that Gregory Nagy has taught for well over thirty years, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours explores the roots of Western civilization and offers a masterclass in classical Greek literature. We meet the epic heroes of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, but Nagy also considers the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the songs of Sappho and Pindar, and the dialogues of Plato. Herodotus once said that to read Homer was to be a civilized person. To discover Nagy’s Homer is to be twice civilized. “Fascinating, often ingenious... A valuable synthesis of research finessed over thirty years.” —Times Literary Supplement “Nagy exuberantly reminds his readers that heroes—mortal strivers against fate, against monsters, and...against death itself—form the heart of Greek literature... [He brings] in every variation on the Greek hero, from the wily Theseus to the brawny Hercules to the ‘monolithic’ Achilles to the valiantly conflicted Oedipus.” —Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly

Christianity spread across North Africa early, and it remained there as a powerful force much longer than anticipated. While this African form of Christianity largely shared the Latin language and Roman culture of the wider empire, it also represented a unique tradition that was shaped by its context. Ancient African Christianity attempts to tell the story of Christianity in Africa from its inception to its eventual disappearance. Well-known writers such as Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine are studied in light of their African identity, and this tradition is explored in all its various expressions. This book is ideal for all students of African Christianity and also a key introduction for anyone wanting to know more about the history, religion, and philosophy of these early influential Christians whose impact has extended far beyond the African landscape.