Sophistic(ated) Discourse - Cultural Context of Apuleius' Florida
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| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The excerpts of Apuleius' speeches held in public collected under the heading of Florida are the example par excellence of the typical practice of the 2nd century educated elite society. It not only displays the kind of textual interplay so popular within the representatives of the intellectual movement called Second Sophistic, but also provides us with much information on the widespread phenomenon of Apuleius' times, namely the blending and interference of various Mediterranean traditions. Though nothing changed about the fact that the highest levels of education were still available only to those possessing great fortune, many famous men of letters including Apuleius emerged in purely provincial environments. There is no doubt that the Graeco-Roman culture dominates the Florida collection, but the fact that these speeches were given primarily for the local provincial Carthaginian audiences during the 160s CE is not without a significance. This raises a question whether the local North African elites contested the dominant Graeco-Roman influences or rather shared them in the spirit of cooperation. Moreover, it implies that the cultural environment Apuleius worked and lived in had to be so rich at the time that it offered a plenty of opportunities to show off one's talents in the field of sophistic oratory, if not in other respects, too. In my paper, I intend to examine what impression Apuleius could have made or wanted to make on his African audiences, the prospect of this being to put some more light on the cultural processes taking place in the provinces of then largely globalized Mediterranean world. |
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