328 Africa. Apuleius 



bearing as the general principles of common humanity argumenta- 

 tively pressed by the Stoic and other schools of thought. The ser- 

 monizing of Seneca is a good specimen. But discussion of principles 

 in the abstract was never the strong point of Roman society, and cita- 

 tion of concrete instances would serve to give reality to views that 

 were only too often regarded as the visionary speculations of chatter- 

 ing Greeks. That Roman authors, down to the last age of Roman 

 literature, expressed the longing for a more wholesome state of agri- 

 culture by everlasting references to Cincinnatus and the rest of the 

 traditional rustic heroes, is another recognition of this method. The 

 notion that courage and contempt of death could be fostered by the 

 spectacle of gladiators rested on much the same basis. True, there is 

 nothing in the above considerations that directly bears upon rustic 

 labour as such : but hints that ' a man's a man for a' that ' are not to 

 be ignored when they make their appearance in the midst of a slave- 

 holding society. 



XLV. APULEIUS. 



The Province of Africa was in this period a flourishing part of the 

 empire, giving signs of its coming importance in the next generation, 

 when it produced several emperors. It was in fact a sort of successor 

 of Spain, and like Spain it enjoyed the advantage of not fronting on 

 the usual seats of war to the North and East. One of the most re- 

 markable literary figures of the age was the African 1 L Apuleius of 

 Madaura, who travelled widely as student and lecturer, and was well 

 acquainted with Greece and Italy. A philosopher of the mystical- 

 Platonist type, he was in touch with practical life through his study of 

 the Law, and was for some time a pleader in Rome. His native Pro- 

 vince 2 was notoriously addicted to litigation, and a modern scholar' 

 has shewn that the works of Apuleius abound in legal phraseology 

 and are coloured with juristic notions. Now, it was not possible to 

 go far in considering property and rights without coming upon 

 questions relative to land : moreover, he himself owned land in Africa. 

 Accordingly we find in him some references to land, and even to 

 rustic labour and conditions of rural life. And, though his Metamor- 

 phoses is a fantastic romance, there is no reason to doubt that incidents 

 and scenes (other than supernatural) are true to facts observed by the 

 writer, and therefore admissible as evidence of a general kind. An 



1 Madaura was in the Numidian part of the Province, near the Gaetulian border. See 

 the Apologia 24. Oea, referred to below, was in the eastern strip, on the coast. 



2 Juvenal VII 148-9 nutricula causidicorum Africa. 



3 F Norden Apuleius von Madaura und das Romische Prvuatrecht (Teubner 1912). 



