Apuleius and Antonine Rome : Historical Essays

Description

Apuleius and Antonine Rome features outstanding scholarship by Keith Bradley on the Latin author Apuleius of Madauros and on the second-century Roman world in which Apuleius lived. Bradley discusses Apuleius’ work in the context of social relations (especially the family and household), religiosity in all its diversity and complexity, and cultural interactions between the imperial centre and the provincial periphery.These essays examine the Apology, the speech Apuleius made when he defended himself on the criminal charge of having enticed a wealthy widow to marry him through magical means; the fragments of his speeches known as the Florida; and the remarkable serio-comic novel Metamorphoses (better known as The Golden Ass). Altogether, Apuleius and Antonine Rome effectively illustrates how socio-cultural history can be recovered from works of literature.  Read more... Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- ABBREVIATIONS -- 1. Law, Magic, and Culture in Apuleius’s Apology -- 2. Contending with Conversion: Reflections on the Re-formation of Lucius the Ass -- 3. Romanitas and the Roman Family: The Evidence of Apuleius’s Apology -- 4. Animalizing the Slave: The Truth of Fiction -- 5. Fictive Families: Family and Household in Apuleius’s Metamorphoses -- 6. Sacrificing the Family: Christian Martyrs and Their Kin -- 7. Apuleius and Carthage -- 8. Appearing for the Defence: Apuleius on Display -- 9. Apuleius and the Sub-Saharan Slave Trade -- 10. Apuleius and Jesus -- 11. Lucius and Isis: History in Apuleius’s Metamorphoses -- 12. Apuleius and Adultery in the Age of the Antonines -- APPENDIX -- SUPPLEMENT OF IMAGES -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX