INTRODUCTION

Samos¹ and Hierapolis in Phrygia² from casual allusions in the Florida and de Mundo. He remained in Athens long enough to become the friend and protector of a student much younger than himself, Pontianus the son of Pudentilla.³ This encounter was destined to have a remarkable sequel. Following these years of study at Athens must come his visit to Rome, which is alluded to in the Florida, and apparently described in the eleventh book of the Metamorphoses. While it is impossible to say precisely how this strange book may be considered autobiographical, it can scarcely be doubted that it is so to a very large extent.⁴ There is at any rate nothing impossible in the supposition that at Cenchreae he fell into the clutches

¹ Flor. 15 original: "si recte recordor uiam." if I remember the path correctly.
² de M. 17 original: "ut uidi et ipse." as I myself saw.
³ Apol. 72. Apuleius helped Pontianus in his studies, and his whole tone in speaking of him is that of an older man, just as that of Pontianus is the tone of a younger man. Cp. c. 97 original: "me parentem suum, me dominum, me magistrum." me as his parent, me as his master, me as his teacher. It was common for a young student to put himself under the protection and direction of an older student. See Lehrs, de Arist. stud. Hom., p. 14, note 1. The date can scarcely have been earlier than A. D. 150. Apuleius says (Apol., c. 72) original: "non ita pridem." not so long ago. For the age of Pontianus see Appendix to this chapter.
⁴ He definitely styles himself Madaurensem from Madaura (Met. xi. 27). If this reading is correct we can hardly deny a more or less complete identification of Apuleius with his hero Lucius. He had visited Rome (Flor. 17) and had been initiated into many mysteries (Apol. 55). The identification is extraordinary, for there is no hint elsewhere that Lucius is other than a native of Corinth. He has letters of introduction from Demeas of Corinth (Met. i. 22). He speaks of Corinth as original: "apud nos" at our home/with us (Met. ii. 12). It is presumably from Corinth that his friends come to Cenchreae (Met. xi. 18), and to Corinth that he returns for a few days' stay prior to his departure for Rome (ib. 26). On the other hand, though Corinth is literally his home, he never shows any interest in it, and curiously enough shows no intimate acquaintance with it or joy at revisiting it when he is brought there while still wearing the form of an ass. The stress laid on his financial straits at Cenchreae and his grief on leaving the priest at Cenchreae, all suggest that his home was more distant than Corinth, six miles away (x. 35). I do not regard any alteration of Madaurensem as necessary. The only alteration that has the least plausibility is that of Mr. D. S. Robertson (Class. Quarterly, Oct. 1910, p. 221) original: "mandare se religiosum, sed admodum," etc. The case is argued most ingeniously, but I am not convinced that the change is imperative. Apuleius is the most whimsical of authors and is a law to himself. The opening chapter of the first book of the Metamorphoses cannot be regarded as possessing any biographical value. It is apparently pure fiction.