Abstract

Abstract Apuleius’ De Magia, or about magic, is the only extant court defence of his times, the second century CE. Whilst Apuleius most probably provided us with an expanded version of his actual speech, we can still enjoy the flavour of his witty and convincing plea. I will here consider the power of Apuleius’ voice in both his court speech and his other surviving works. Apuleius followed the attempts of Cicero and Seneca to recast Greek concepts and theories in Latin language and culture. These creative translations had a tremendous influence, for better or worse, on subsequent Western thought. However, Apuleius not only produced a compendium of Platonic doctrine, but he also renewed the tradition of Greek tales with his famous novel The Golden Ass. I will examine both texts, and I will underline the role of the neologism curiositas, that is curiosity, in the economy of the novel and in the more general Apuleian recasting of Platonism.

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