The negotiation of provincial identity throught literature: Apuleius and Vergil

The Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass of Apuleius (ca. 170 CE ) is a Latin novel written by a native of Madauros in Roman North Africa, a region roughly equal to modern Tunisia together with parts of Libya and Algeria. Apuleius’ novel is based on the model of a lost Greek novel; it narrates the adventures of a Greek character with a Roman name who spends the bulk of the novel transformed into an animal, traveling from Greece to Rome only to end his adventures in the capital city of the empire as a priest of the Egyptian goddess Isis. Apuleius’ Florida and Apology deal more explicitly with the African provenance and character of their author while also dem- onstrating his complex interaction with Greek, Roman, and local cultures. Apuleius’ philosophical works raise other questions about Greek versus African and Roman cultural identity. Apuleius and Africa addresses the problem of this intricate complex of different identities and its connection to Apuleius’ literary production. It especially emphasizes Apuleius’ African heritage, which has for the most part been downplayed or even deplored by previous scholarship. The con- tributors include philologists, historians, and experts in material culture; among them are some of the most respected scholars in their fi elds. The chapters give due attention to all elements of Apuleius’ oeuvre and break new ground both on the interpretation of Apuleius’ literary production and on the culture of the Roman Empire in the second century.