A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

APPULEIUS.
he became warmly attached to the tenets of the
Platonic philosophy, and, prosecuting his researches
in many different departments, laid the foundations of that copious stock of various and profound
learning by which he was subsequently so distinguished. He next travelled extensively, visiting,
it would appear, Italy, Greece, and Asia, acquiring
a knowledge of a vast number of religious opinions
and modes of worship, and becoming initiated in
the greater number of the mysteries and secret
fraternities so numerous in that age. (De Alundo,
p. 729; Apolog. p. 494.) Not long after his return home, although he had in some degree
diminished his patrimony by his long-continued
course of study, by his protracted residence in
foreign countries, and by various acts of generosity
towards his friends and old instructors (Apolog.
p. 442), he set out upon a new journey to Alexandria. (Apolog. p. 518.) On his way thither
he was taken ill at the town of Oea, and was
hospitably received into the house of a young man,
Sicinius Pontianus, with whom he had lived
upon terms of close intimacy, a few years previously, at Athens. (Apolog. 1. c.) The mother of Pontianus, Pudentilla by name, was
a very rich widow whose fortune was at her own
disposal. With the full consent, or rather in compliance with the earnest solicitation of her son, the
young philosopher agreed to marry her. (Apolog.
p. 518.) Meanwhile Pontianus himself was united
to the daughter of a certain Herennius Rufinus,
who being indignant that so much wealth should
pass out of the family, instigated his son-in-law,
together with a younger brother, Sicinius Pudens,
i mere boy, and their paternal uncle, Sicinius
Aemilianus, to join him in impeaching Appuleius
ipon the charge, that he had gained the affections of?udentilla by charms and magic spells. (Apolog.
)p. 401, 451, 521, 522, &c.) The accusation
eems to have been in itself sufficiently ridiculous.
Fhe alleged culprit was young, highly accomplishd, eloquent, popular, and by no means careless in
he matters of dress and personal adornment, alhough, according to his own account, he was worn
nd wan from intense application. (Apolog. p.
06, seqq. 421, compare p. 547.) The lady was
early old enough to be his mother; she had been
widow for fourteen years, and owned to forty,
7hile her enemies called her sixty; in addition to,hich she was by no means attractive in her apearance, and had, it was well known, been for
)me time desirous again to enter the married
ate. (Apolog. pp. 450, 514, 520, 535, 546, 541,
47.) The cause was heard at Sabrata before
laudius Maximus, proconsul of Africa (Apolog.
). 400, 445, 501), and the spirited and triumphit defence spoken by Appuleius is still extant.
f his subsequent career we know little. Judging
Din the voluminous catalogue of works attributed
his pen, he must have devoted himself most
siduously to literature; he occasionally declaimed
public with great applause; he had the charge
exhibiting gladiatorial shows and wild beast
Lnts in the province, and statues were erected in
3 honour by the senate of Carthage and of other
ites. (Apolog. pp. 445, 494; Florid. iii. n. 16;
agustin. Ep. v.)
Nearly the whole of the above particulars are
rived from the statements contained in the writrs of Appuleius, especially the Apologia; but in
dition to these, we find a considerable number of

APPULEIUS. 249 -circumstances recorded in almost all the biographies
prefixed to his works. Thus we are told that his
praenomen was Lucius; that the name of his father
was Theseus; that his mother was called Salvia,
was of Thessalian extraction, and a descendant of
Plutarch; that when he visited Rome he was entirely ignorant of the Latin language, which he
acquired without the aid of an instructor, by his
own exertions; and that, having dissipated his
fortune, he was reduced at one time to such abject
poverty, that he was compelled to sell the clothes
which he wore, in order to pay the fees of admission into the mysteries of Osiris. These and other
details as well as a minute portrait of his person,
depend upon the untenable supposition, that Appuleius is to be identified with Lucius the hero of his
romance. That production being avowedly a work
of fiction, it is difficult to comprehend upon what
principle any portion of it could be held as supplying authentic materials for the life of its author,
more especially when some of the facts so extracted
are at variance with those deduced from more
trustworthy sources; as, for example, the assertion
that he was at one time reduced to beggary, which
is directly contradicted by a passage in the Apolo-.
gia referred to above, where he states that his fortune had been merely "modice imminutum" by
various expenses. In one instance only does he
appear to forget himself (Met. xi. p. 260), where
Lucius is spoken of as a native of Madaura, but
no valid conclusion can be drawn from this, which
is probably an oversight, unless we are at the same
time prepared to go as far as Saint Augustine, who
hesitates whether we ought not to believe the account given of the transformation of Lucius, that
is, Appuleius, into an ass to be a true narrative.
It is to this fanciful identification, coupled with
the charges preferred by the relations of Pudentilla,
and his acknowledged predilection for mystical
solemnities, that we must attribute the belief,
which soon became current in the ancient world,
that he really possessed the supernatural powers
attributed to him by his enemies. The early
pagan controversialists, as we learn from Lactantius, were wont to rank the marvels said to have
been wrought by him along with those ascribed to
Apollonius of Tyana, and to appeal to these as
equal to, or more wonderful than, the miracles of
Christ. (Lactant. Div. Inst. v. 3.) A generation
later, the belief continued so prevalent, that St.
Augustine was requested to draw up a serious refutation-a task which that renowned prelate executed in the most satisfactory manner, by simply
referring to the oration of Appuleius himself. (Marcellin. Ep. iv. ad Augustin. and Augustin. Ep. v.,
ad Marcellin.)
No one can peruse a few pages of Appuleius
without being at once impressed with his conspicuous excellences and glaring defects. We find
everywhere an exuberant play of fancy, liveliness,
humour, wit, learning, acuteness, and not unfrequently, real eloquence. On the other hand, no
style can be more vicious. It is in the highest
degree unnatural, both in its general tone and also
in the phraseology employed. The former is disfigured by the constant recurrence of ingenious but
forced and tumid conceits and studied prettinesses,
while the latter is remarkable for the multitude of
obsolete words ostentatiously paraded in almost
every sentence. The greater number of these are
to be found in the extant compositions of the oldest