Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/267

Rh APPULEIUS. ho became wumily atUiched to the tenets of the Platonic philosophy, and, prosecuting his reswirches in many different departments, laid the founda- tions of that copious stock of various and profound learning by which he was subsequently so distin- guished. 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 Mundo, p. 7-9 ; Apolog. p. 494.) Not long after his re- turn 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 Alex- andria. {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 ftved upon terms of close intimixc}', a few years pre- viousl)', at Athens. {Apolog. I. c.) The mo- ther of Pontianus, PudentUla by name, was a very rich widow whose fortune was at her own disposal. With the full consent, or rather in com- pliance 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 certjiin Herennius Rufinus, who being indignant that so much wealth should piiss out of the family, instigated his son-in-law, together with a younger brother, Sicinius Pudens, a mere boy, and their paternal uncle, Sicinius Aemilianus, to join him in impeaching Appuleius Tipon the charge, that he had gained the affections of Pudentilla by charms and magic spells. {Apolog. pp. 401, 451, 521, 522, &c.) The accusation seems to have been in itself sufficiently ridiculous. The alleged culprit was young, highly accomplish- ed, eloquent, popular, and by no means careless in the matters of dress and personal adornment, al- though, according to his owti account, he was worn and wan from intense application. {Apolog. p. 406, seqq. 421, compare p. 547.) The lady was nearly old enough to be his mother ; she had been a widow for fourteen years, and owned to forty, while her enemies called her sixty ; in addition to which she was by no means attractive in her ap- pearance, and had, it was well known, been for some time desirous again to enter the married state. {Apolog. pp. 450, 514, 520, 535, 546, 541, 547.) The cmise was heard at Sabrata laefore Claudius Maximus, proconsul of Africa {Apolog. pp. 400, 445, 501), and the spirited and triumph- jint defence spoken by Appuleius is still extant. Of his subsequent career we know little. Judging from the voluminous catalogue of works attributed to his pen, he must have devoted himself most assiduously to literature ; he occasionally declaimed in public with great applause ; he had the charge of exhibiting gladiatorial shows and wild beast hunts in the province, and statues were erected in his honour by the senate of Carthage and of other states. {Apolog. pp. 445, 494; Floi-id.iii. n. 16; Augustin. Ep..) Nearly the whole of the above particulars are derived from the statements contained in the writ- ings of Appuleius, especially the Apologia ; but in addition to these, wc find a considerable number of APPULEIUS. 249 circumstances recorded in almost all the biocraphie* prefixed to his works. Thus we arc told that hu praenomen was Lucius ; that the name of his father was Theseus ; that his mother was called Salvia, w<i8 of Thessalian extraction, and a descendant of Plutarch ; that when he visited Rome he wa« en- tirely 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 admis- sion into the mysteries of Osiris. These and other details as well as a minute portrait of his person, depend upon the untenable supposition, that Appu- leius 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 supply- ing 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 for- tune 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 ac- count 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 Lactan- tius, were wont to rank the marvels said to have been wrought by him along with those ascribed to ApoUonius 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 refu- tation — a task which that renowned prelate exe- cuted in the most satisfactory manner, by simply referring to the oration of Appuleius himself. (Mar- cellin. Ep. iv. ad Augustin. and Augustin. Ep. v. ud MarceUin.) No one can peruse a few pages of Appuleius without being at once impressed with his conspi- cuous excellences and glaring defects. We find everj'where an exuberant play of fancy, liveliness, humour, wit, learning, acuteness, and not unfre- quently, real sloquence. 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 dis- figured by the constimt 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 arc to be found in the extant compositions of the oldebt