Apuleius in Context: Life, Background, Writings

Abstract Information on the life of Apuleius may be recovered from two main sources-his own works, and the writings of Augustine, another writer from North Africa to whom Apuleius’ works were clearly familiar. We can be sure only of his nomen; the praenomen ‘Luciu’ attributed to Apuleius in some Renaissance manuscripts of his works is not found in ancient sources, and is very likely to be derived from the apparent identity suggested between Apuleius and his narrator Lucius of Corinth at the end of the Metamorphoses (11. 27). A recent suggestion that Apuleius is to be identified with a contemporary L. Apuleius Marcellus known from an inscribed lead pipe in Ostia isan interesting but ultimately unconvincing speculation. We can be sure that he was born in the 120s AD at Madauros, now M’daurouch in Algeria, an inland city then in the Roman province of Africa Proconsularis, situated some 230 kilometres south-west of Carthage (modern Tunis) and some 900 metres above sea level on the southern slopes of the Atlas mountains.