Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Honor and Humiliation in Apuleius’ Apologia

Honor and Humiliation in Apuleius’ Apologia Apuleius’ Apologia has consistently drawn scholarly attention as an example of soaring rhetoric from the Second Sophistic and for being the only remaining account of a trial for illegal magic from the early Empire. This study opts for a different approach. It uses the Apologia as a window into the culture of Roman provincial high society by examining Apuleius’ motivations for demanding his accusers bring formal charges against him, as well as the social factors that pushed the preceding conflict to such a dramatic climax. The main contention of this inquiry is that the actions of both Apuleius and his enemies reveal the paramount importance of honor as a cultural driver of conflict, and particularly its vocalization in the parry and riposte of insults and humiliation that ultimately resulted in a theatrical courtroom confrontation. The results of this micro-study in Roman provincial life should thus provide a useful complement to both Ifie & Thompson’s excellent paper on Rank, Social Status and Esteem in Apuleius (1977-1978) as well as J.E. Lendon’s magisterial Empire of Honour. The Art of Government in the Roman World (1997). It also adds a practical dimension to Lateiner’s detailed analysis of Apuleius’ literary strategies of humiliation and embarrassment in his Metamorphoses (2001). http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Mnemosyne Brill

Honor and Humiliation in Apuleius’ Apologia

Mnemosyne , Volume 68 (4): 605 – Jul 2, 2015

Loading next page...
 
/lp/brill/honor-and-humiliation-in-apuleius-apologia-63481evR4X

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0026-7074
eISSN
1568-525X
DOI
10.1163/1568525X-12341673
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Apuleius’ Apologia has consistently drawn scholarly attention as an example of soaring rhetoric from the Second Sophistic and for being the only remaining account of a trial for illegal magic from the early Empire. This study opts for a different approach. It uses the Apologia as a window into the culture of Roman provincial high society by examining Apuleius’ motivations for demanding his accusers bring formal charges against him, as well as the social factors that pushed the preceding conflict to such a dramatic climax. The main contention of this inquiry is that the actions of both Apuleius and his enemies reveal the paramount importance of honor as a cultural driver of conflict, and particularly its vocalization in the parry and riposte of insults and humiliation that ultimately resulted in a theatrical courtroom confrontation. The results of this micro-study in Roman provincial life should thus provide a useful complement to both Ifie & Thompson’s excellent paper on Rank, Social Status and Esteem in Apuleius (1977-1978) as well as J.E. Lendon’s magisterial Empire of Honour. The Art of Government in the Roman World (1997). It also adds a practical dimension to Lateiner’s detailed analysis of Apuleius’ literary strategies of humiliation and embarrassment in his Metamorphoses (2001).

Journal

MnemosyneBrill

Published: Jul 2, 2015

Keywords: Apuleius; Apologia; Honor; Humiliation; Roman Africa; municipal life

References