Apuleius
Apuleius, Lucius
Birth place: Madaurus, Numidia, Roman Empire
Browse magazine works (first published 185)
Latin author, primarily remembered as author of <cite>The Golden Ass</cite>, the only Roman novel to survive intact. Educated in Carthage and Athens, Apuleius wrote the <cite>Apologia</cite> as a defense against charges of using magic to win the affections of Aemilia Pudentilla, a rich widow. After his acquittal, he lived in Carthage. The first reference to Apuleius as "Lucius Apuleius" known is from 1316, more than a millenium after his death. The hero of the Metamorphoses, though, has the first name of Lucius, and the novel is written in the first-person, as if these events had happened to Apuleius. Thus this presumption of his first name is likely correct, but is not authoritatively documented.