Part I The Apology

Apuleius Socrates Africanus? Apuleius' Defensive Play

Authors

  • Werner Riess

Abstract

This paper seeks to elucidate further Apuleius’ construction of his elusive rhetorical persona via his complex relationship to the fictive Socrates as designed mainly by Xenophon and Plato. By associating himself with and dissociating himself from the literary role model, Apuleius skillfully appropriates the polyphonic Socratic tradition and the Greek literary genres of apologia and melete. In doing so, Apuleius embarks on a highly sophisticated game with the literary tradition. By starring as a Roman Socrates and at the same time rejecting this part ostentatiously, he creates an irresolvable tension that engenders subtle irony on two distinct levels. On a diachronic level, Apuleius plays with the literary persona of the Platonic and Xenophontic Socrates. On a synchronic, literary level, he plays with the genre of apologia and melete. This twofold Apuleian irony is as “complex” as Socrates’ notorious irony and recasts it for purposes alien to Socrates. In Apuleius’ hands, irony is not only a powerful weapon of self-defense (like in Socrates’ case), but also an intrinsic part of his overarching paideia that serves not less as a medium of self-representation than as a defense strategy. The impressive performance of learnedness with its underlying irony was only perceptible to few educated listeners of the local and imperial aristocracy, the pepaideumenoi. Not even the staging of the utmost paideia was enough to prove the innocence of the speaker. But it was successful in a different way: Apuleius’ refined paideia praised its author and bolstered his claim to social prestige and elite status.

Werner Riess holds a Ph.D. in Ancient History from Heidelberg University, Germany, and is now Associate Professor of Classics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of Apuleius und die Räuber. Ein Beitrag zur historischen Kriminalitätsforschung(2001) and numerous articles on Roman history and culture, especially banditry in the Roman Empire. Most recently, he has developed an interest in ritual studies and the cultural and legal history of fourth-century BCE Athens.

Published

2008-06-01

Issue

Section

Part I The Apology