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Apuleius
Apuleius (; also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis; c. 124 – after 170) was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He lived in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern-day M'Daourouch, Algeria. He studied Platonism in Athens, travelled to Italy, Asia Minor, and Egypt, and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the attentions (and fortune) of a wealthy widow. He declaimed and then distributed his own defense before the proconsul and a court of magistrates convened in Sabratha, near ancient Tripoli, Libya. This is known as the ''Apologia''. His most famous work is his bawdy picaresque novel the ''Metamorphoses'', otherwise known as ''The Golden Ass''. It is the only Latin novel that has survived in its entirety. It relates the adventures of its protagonist, Lucius, who experiments with magic and is accidentally turned ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Golden Ass
The ''Metamorphoses'' of Apuleius, which Augustine of Hippo referred to as ''The Golden Ass'' (''Asinus aureus''), is the only ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety. The protagonist of the novel is Lucius. At the end of the novel, he is revealed to be from Madaurus, the hometown of Apuleius himself. The plot revolves around the protagonist's curiosity (''curiositas'') and insatiable desire to see and practice magic. While trying to perform a spell to transform into a bird, he is accidentally transformed into an ass. This leads to a long journey, literal and metaphorical, filled with inset tales. He finally finds salvation through the intervention of the goddess Isis, whose cult he joins. Origin The date of composition of the ''Metamorphoses'' is uncertain. It has variously been considered by scholars as a youthful work preceding Apuleius' ''Apology'' of 158–159, or as the climax of his literary career, and perhaps as late as the 170s or 180s. Apuleius adap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, and was ruled by emperors. From the accession of Caesar Augustus as the first Roman emperor to the military anarchy of the 3rd century, it was a Principate with Italia as the metropole of its provinces and the city of Rome as its sole capital. The Empire was later ruled by multiple emperors who shared control over the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. The city of Rome remained the nominal capital of both parts until AD 476 when the imperial insignia were sent to Constantinople following the capture of the Western capital of Ravenna by the Germanic barbarians. The adoption of Christianity as the state church of the Roman Empire in AD 380 and the fall of the Western ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning on the European continent. Along with his teacher, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato is a central figure in the history of Ancient Greek philosophy and the Western and Middle Eastern philosophies descended from it. He has also shaped religion and spirituality. The so-called neoplatonism of his interpreter Plotinus greatly influenced both Christianity (through Church Fathers such as Augustine) and Islamic philosophy (through e.g. Al-Farabi). In modern times, Friedrich Nietzsche diagnosed Western culture as growing in the shadow of Plato (famously calling Christianity "Platonism for the masses"), while Alfred North Whitehead famously said: "the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Appuleia (gens)
The gens Appuleia, occasionally written Apuleia, was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, which flourished from the fifth century BC into imperial times. The first of the gens to achieve importance was Lucius Appuleius, tribune of the plebs in 391 BC. Praenomina The principal names used by the Appuleii were ''Lucius'', '' Sextus'', and ''Gaius''. There is one early instance of the praenomen '' Quintus'', but '' Marcus'' and '' Gnaeus'' are not found before the first century BC. Branches and cognomina The cognomina of this gens are ''Decianus'', ''Pansa'', and ''Saturninus''. Of these, only ''Saturninus'' was a regular surname. ''Decianus'' was first used by a member adopted from the '' Decia gens'', and passed to his children. Members * Lucius Appuleius, tribune of the plebs in 391 BC, impeached Camillus for having secreted part of the spoils of Veii. * Quintus Appuleius Pansa, consul in 300 BC. * Lucius Appuleius, one of the Roman ambassadors sent in 156 BC to examine th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madaurus
Madauros (''Madaurus'', ''Madaura'') was a Roman-Berber city and a former diocese of the Catholic Church in the old state of Numidia, in present-day Algeria. History The birth of the city dates back to the 5th century BC under the aegis of the Punics. Madauros was made a Roman colony at the end of the first century and was famous for its "schola". A colony of veterans was established there; it was called ''Colonia Flavia Augusta Veteranorum Madaurensium'' under emperor Nerva. The city was fully Romanised in the fourth century, with a population of Christian Berbers who spoke mainly African Romance, according to Theodor Mommsen. Madauros was the see of a Christian diocese. There were three famous bishops of this diocese: Antigonus, who celebrated the 349 Council of Carthage; Placentius, who celebrated the 407 Council of Carthage and Conference of 411; and Pudentius, who was forced into exile alongside others present at the Synod of 484 because of the Vandal king Huneric. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madauros
Madauros (''Madaurus'', ''Madaura'') was a Roman-Berber city and a former diocese of the Catholic Church in the old state of Numidia, in present-day Algeria. History The birth of the city dates back to the 5th century BC under the aegis of the Punics. Madauros was made a Roman colony at the end of the first century and was famous for its "schola". A colony of veterans was established there; it was called ''Colonia Flavia Augusta Veteranorum Madaurensium'' under emperor Nerva. The city was fully Romanised in the fourth century, with a population of Christian Berbers who spoke mainly African Romance, according to Theodor Mommsen. Madauros was the see of a Christian diocese. There were three famous bishops of this diocese: Antigonus, who celebrated the 349 Council of Carthage; Placentius, who celebrated the 407 Council of Carthage and Conference of 411; and Pudentius, who was forced into exile alongside others present at the Synod of 484 because of the Vandal king Huneric. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berbers
, image = File:Berber_flag.svg , caption = The Berber ethnic flag , population = 36 million , region1 = Morocco , pop1 = 14 million to 18 million , region2 = Algeria , pop2 = 9 million to ~13 million , region3 = Mauritania , pop3 = 2.9 million , region4 = Niger , pop4 = 2.6 million, Niger: 11% of 23.6 million , region5 = France , pop5 = 2 million , region6 = Mali , pop6 = 850,000 , region7 = Libya , pop7 = 600,000 , region8 = Belgium , pop8 = 500,000 (including descendants) , region9 = Netherlands , pop9 = 467,455 (including descendants) , region10 = Burkina Faso , pop10 = 406,271, Burkina Faso: 1.9% of 21.4 million , region11 = Egypt , pop11 = 23,000 or 1,826,580 , region12 = Tunisia , pop12 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaius The Platonist
Gaius the Platonist (2nd century) was a Greek or Roman philosopher, and a representative of Middle Platonism. Very little is known about him except that he was the teacher of Albinus, who is known to have published a lost nine-volume summary of Gaius' lectures on Plato. He taught Platonism in the first half of the 2nd century, but almost nothing is known about his philosophical opinions. It has been speculated that the ''On Plato and His Doctrine'' written by Apuleius may have been taken from the lectures of Gaius, but this assertion is now seen as dubious. It has also been thought that the anonymous commentary on the '' Theaetetus'' of Plato, which is partially extant, may have come from his school. Porphyry mentions that his works were read in the school of Plotinus Plotinus (; grc-gre, Πλωτῖνος, ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a philosopher in the Hellenistic tradition, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
M'Daourouch
M'daourouch is a commune in Souk Ahras Province, Algeria, occupying the site of the Berber-Roman town of Madauros in Numidia. Demographics As of the 2008 census, Mdawrush has 36,351 inhabitants, which gives it 11 seats in the PMA. History It was an old Numidian town which, having once belonged to the Masaesylian kingdom of Syphax, was annexed to that of Masinissa at the close of the second Punic War. It became a Roman colony about the end of the first century and was famous for its schools. It was the native town of Apuleius, author of ''The Golden Ass'', and of the grammarians Nonius Marcellus and Maximus. Augustine of Hippo studied there; through a letter which he addressed later to the inhabitants we learn that many were still pagans. Madauros had many martyrs known by their epitaphs; several are named in the Roman Martyrology on 4 July. Its bishopric is included in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees.''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Platonism
Middle Platonism is the modern name given to a stage in the development of Platonic philosophy, lasting from about 90 BC – when Antiochus of Ascalon rejected the scepticism of the new Academy – until the development of neoplatonism under Plotinus in the 3rd century. Middle Platonism absorbed many doctrines from the rival Peripatetic and Stoic schools. The pre-eminent philosopher in this period, Plutarch (c. 45–120), defended the freedom of the will and the immortality of the soul. He sought to show that God, in creating the world, had transformed matter, as the receptacle of evil, into the divine soul of the world, where it continued to operate as the source of all evil. God is a transcendent being, who operates through divine intermediaries, which are the gods and daemons of popular religion. Numenius of Apamea (c. 160) combined Platonism with neopythagoreanism and other eastern philosophies, in a move which would prefigure the development of neoplatonism. His ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samos, Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionians, Ionian Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia and influenced the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and, through them, the Western philosophy, West in general. Knowledge of his life is clouded by legend, but he appears to have been the son of Mnesarchus, a gem-engraver on the island of Samos. Modern scholars disagree regarding Pythagoras's education and influences, but they do agree that, around 530 BC, he travelled to Crotone, Croton in southern Italy, where he founded a school in which initiates were sworn to secrecy and lived a communal, asceticism, ascetic lifestyle. This lifestyle entailed a number of dietary prohibitions, traditionally said to have included vegetarianism, although m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Gildon
Charles Gildon (c. 1665 – 1 January 1724), was an English hack writer who was, by turns, a translator, biographer, essayist, playwright, poet, author of fictional letters, fabulist, short story author, and critic. He provided the source for many lives of Restoration figures, although he appears to have propagated or invented numerous errors with them. He is remembered best as a target of Alexander Pope's in both ''Dunciad'' and the '' Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot'' and an enemy of Jonathan Swift's. Gildon's biographies are, in many cases, the only biographies available, but they have nearly without exception been shown to have wholesale invention in them. Because of Pope's caricature of Gildon, but also because of the sheer volume and rapidity of his writings, Gildon has come to stand as the epitome of the hired pen and the literary opportunist. Biography Gildon was born in Gillingham, Dorset to a Roman Catholic family that had been active in support of the Royalist side during ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
