Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/268

Rh dramatic writers, and in quotations preserved by the grammarians ; and those for which no autho- rity can be produced were in all probability drawn from the same source, and not arbitrarily coined to answer the purpose of the moment, as some critics have imagined. The least faulty, perhaps, of all his pieces is the Apologia. Here he spoke from deep feeling, and although we may in many places detect the inveterate affectation of the rhetorician, yet there is often a bold, manly, straight-forward heartiness and truth which we seek in vain in those compositions where his feelings were less touched.

We do not know the year in which our author was bom, nor that in which he died. But the names of Lollius Urbicus, Scipio Orfitus, Severianus, Lollianus Avitus, and others who are incidentally mentioned by him as his contemporaries, and who from other sources are known to have held high offices under the Antonines, enable us to determine the epoch when he flourished.

The extant works of Appideius are: I. Metamorphoseon seu de Asino Aureo Libri X. This celebrated romance, which, together with the opos of Lucian, is said to have been founded upon a work bearing the same title by a certain Lucius of Patrae (Photius, Bibl. cod. cxxix. p. 165) belonged to the class of talcs distinguished by the ancients under the title of Milesiae fabulae. It seems to have been intended simply as a satire upon the hypocrisy and debauchery of certain orders of priests, the frauds of juggling pretenders to supernatural powers, and the general profligacy of public morals. There are some however who discover a more recondite meaning, and especially the author of the Divine Legation of Moses, who has at great length endeavoured to prove, that the Golden Ass was written with the view of recommending the Pagan religion in opposition to Christianity, which was at that time making rapid progress, and especially of inculcating the importance of initiation into the purer mysteries. (Div. Leg. bk. ii. sect, iv.) The epithet Aureus is generally supposed to have been bestowed in consequence of the admiration in which the tale was held, for being considered as the most excellent composition of its kind, it was compared to the most excellent of metals, just as the apophthegms of Pythagoras were distinguished as xpi'O'o 67n7. Warburton, however, ingeniously contends that aureus was the common epithet bestowed upon all Milesian tales, because they were such as strollers used to rehearse for a piece of money to the rabble in a circle, after the fashion of oriental story-tellers. He founds his conjecture upon an expression in one of Pliny's Epistles (ii. 20), assem para, ei accipe aurcam fubtdain^ which seems, however, rather to mean "give me a piece of copper and receive in return a story worth a piece of gold, or, precious as gold," which brings us back to the old explanation. The well-known and exquisitely beautiful episode of Cupid and Psyche is introduced in the 4th, 5th, and 6th books. This, whatever opinion we may form of the principal narrative, is evidently an allegory, and is generally understood to shadow forth the progress of the soul to perfection.

II. Floridorum Lihri IV. An dvQoXoyia^ containing select extracts from various orations and dissertations, collected probably by some admirer. It has, however, been imagined that we have here a sort of common-place-book, in which Appuleius registered, from time to time, such ideas and forms of expression as he thought worth preserving, with a view to their insertion in some continuous composition. This notion, although adopted by Oudendorp, has not found many supporters. It is wonderful that it should ever have been seriously propounded.

III. De Deo Socratis Liber. This treatise has been roughly attacked by St. Augustine.

IV. De Dogmate Platonis Libri tres. The first book contains some account of the speculative doctrines of Plato, the second of his morals^ the third of his logic.

V. De Mundo Liber. A translation of the work trepl k6(Tixov^ at one time ascribed to Aristotle.

VI. Apologia sive De Magna Liber. The oration described above, delivered before Claudius Maximus. VII. Hermetis Trismegisti De Ndtura Deorum Dialogus. Scholars are at variance with regard to the authenticity of this translation of the Asclepian dialogue. As to the original, see Fabric. Bibl. Grace, i. 8.

Besides these a number of works now lost are mentioned incidentally by Appuleius himself, and many others belonging to soiiie Appuleius are cited by the grammarians. He professes to be the author of "poemata omne genius apta virgae, lyrne^ soccO, cothumo, item saiiras ac griphos, item historias varias rerum nec non orationes laudaias disertis nee ?ion dialogos lattdatos philosophise" both in Greek and Latin {Florid, ii. 9, iil 18, 20, iv. 24); and we find especial mention made of a collection of poems on playful and amatory themes, entitled Ludicra, from which a few fragments are quoted in the Apologia, (pp. 408, 409, 414; compare 538.)

The Editio Princeps was printed at Rome, by Sweynheym and Pannartz, in the year 1469, edited by Andrew, bishop of Aleria. It is excessively rare, and is considered valuable in a critical point of view, because it contains a genuine text honestly copied from MSS., and free from the multitude of conjectural emendations by which nearly all the rest of the earlier editions are corrupted. It is, moreover, the only old edition which escaped mutilation by the Inquisition.

An excellent edition of the Asinus appeared at Leyden in the year 1786, printed in 4to., and edited by Oudendorp and Ruhnken. Two additional volumes, containing the remaining works, appeared at Leyden in 1823, edited by Boscha. A new and very elaborate edition of the whole works of Appuleius has been published at Leipzig, 1842, by G. F. Hildebrand.

A great number of translations of the Golden Ass are to be found in all the principal European languages. The last English version is that by Thomas Taylor, in one volume 8vo., London, 1822, which contains also the tract De Deo Socratis. [W. R.]

L. APPULEIUS, commonly called Appuleius Barbarus, a botanical writer of whose life no particulars are known, and whose date is rather uncertain. He has somtimes been identified with Appuleius, the author of the "Golden Ass," and sometimes with Appuleius Celsus [Celsus, Appuleius], but his work is evidently written later than the time of eitlier of those persons, and probably cannot be placed earlier than the fourth century after Christ. It is written in Latin, and entitled Herbarium, see