Romanitas and the Roman Family: The Evidence of Apuleius’s Apology

Abstract

In AD 158/9 al Sabratha in Roman Tripolitania, Apuleius of Madauros was accused of having used magic to entice into marriage the wealthy Oean widow Aemilia Pudentilla. Apuleius was tried before the proconsul of Africa and spoke in his own defence. The speech he delivered, the Apology, is an important document for the social history of Roman North Africa in the second century. This paper analyses the information the Apology provides on family history, investigating it within the context of Roman family studies in general and the mutual influence of Roman and Tripolitanian cultural patterns in particular. The story of family conflict the Apology unfolds is best understood by bringing to the fore the interplay between Roman cultural forms (Romanitas) and the survival of local cultural traditions, as locally prominent families reacted to the growing influence upon them of metropolitan conventions.