Introduction

suspicions. But the specific charges of magic on this occasion were frivolous and absurd. In the first portion of the speech Apuleius plays with his accusers, mocking them from the heights of his superior learning. In the second portion, where he defends his marriage with Pudentilla and justifies his dealings with his step-sons, he clears himself in good earnest, nay does more than clear himself. For he unveils in the most merciless fashion the villainy of his accusers—the base ingratitude of Pudens, and the unspeakable turpitude moral wickedness of Rufinus.

That Apuleius was acquitted cannot be doubted. His case speaks for itself. But it is noteworthy that we hear of him no more at Oea modern Tripoli, Libya, where he had resided for three years at the time of the trial. This distressing family quarrel must have caused some bitterness of feeling, and Augustine (Letters 138. 19) original: "Ep." for Epistulae mentions a quarrel with the inhabitants of Oea on the question of the erection of a statue in his honor. These facts may not improbably have led him to seek residence elsewhere. Be this as it may, when we next hear of him he is in Carthage, enjoying the highest renown as philosopher a seeker of wisdom and student of Plato, poet, and rhetorician a professional orator and teacher of public speaking. It was during this residence Florida at Carthage that he delivered the flamboyant orations of which fragments have been preserved to us in the Florida. ✓ The "Florida" is a collection of twenty-three excerpts from Apuleius's speeches A few of these excerpts can be dated. The seventeenth is written during the proconsulate the term of office for a Roman provincial governor of Scipio Orfitus in 163–164 A. D. The ninth contains a panegyric a formal speech of high praise of the proconsul Severianus, who must have held office some time during the joint reign of