The Apologia and Florida of Apuleius of Madaura

The Apologia is a glittering courtroom drama from the ancient world: the surviving defense speech of Apuleius, a Platonic philosopher from North Africa, delivered around 158 AD when he stood accused of sorcery. The charges were sensational - magic, corrupting a wealthy widow, improper philosophical practices - and Apuleius demolished them with erudite wit and indignation. What unfolds is both a legal argument and a window into intellectual life under the Roman Empire: here is a man defending not just his freedom, but the very nature of philosophical inquiry against superstition and envy. The Florida, appended here, samples his broader rhetorical oeuvre - dazzling fragments that reveal why his contemporaries called him 'the Libyan Plato.' Together, these works offer unparalleled access to the mind of a ancient thinker navigating Roman provincial society, accused of dangerous knowledge by men who could not understand his learning.