![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The rhythmical effect of this can quite easily be conveyed in English using -ing, -ent, -ive, and -ous without compromising the meaning…. In his introduction Hilton defends his approach to the translation: “In Florida 16.9, for example, there are no fewer than four adjectival tricolons each featuring a different Latin suffix (-us, -ens, -or, and -ax). ![]() Hilton’s Florida is particularly successful. They have successfully made a consistent effort to replicate these word effects in English, resisting the prevalent tendency to break longer cola into highly punctuated clauses. Whereas the preceding English renderings had tended to muffle the repeating rhythms of Apuleius’ rhetorical prose and to mute his driving play on word forms and word shapes, it is refreshing to note that the new translators have recognized this as an essential element in Apuleius’ style. Students of Apuleius’ dynamic style will be curious to know what has become of his “rhetorical and stylistic verbal pyrotechnics” (from the book cover). What is more, reference within the old translations was no easy task, since the translators incorporated a minimum of numeration and formatting. Butler (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1909, reprinted 1968) and the anonymous translator of the Bohn Classical Library series (George Bell and Sons: London, 1902), which had little by way of annotation or commentary and were based on texts that have been superseded by the editions mentioned above. They replace the antiquated translations currently available in English by H.E. The new translations are based on Hunink’s text of the Apology (1997), Vallette’s Florida (Apologie et Florides, 1922), and Moreschini’s Teubner of the philosophical works (1991). The present publication offers a careful and accurate translation into contemporary English, with full but not overwrought introductions that provide a generous and up-to-date bibliography, as well as commentary in the form of footnotes. Florida 20.10: Karthago provinciae nostrae magistra venerabilis, Karthago Africae Musa caelestis, Karthago Camena togatorum, “Carthage, the respected teacher of our province, Carthage, the heavenly Muse of Africa Carthage, the inspiration of those who wear the toga!”). Students of North African culture will find Apuleius’ interactions with the proconsul on behalf of the civic body of Carthage to be fertile material for analysis in the discourse of provincial self-fashioning (cf. In fact, whereas the novel’s relationship to a historical reality continues to mystify, the Florida and Apology depict a moment of real contact between the person of Apuleius, his rhetoric, and the historical moment they embrace. The Apology, Florida, and De Deo Socratis (hereafter DDS) offer a greater reward than merely an enhanced reading of Apuleius’ celebrated novel the Metamorphoses (Golden Ass) these texts offer rich stores of evidence about the history of Roman North Africa, forensic rhetoric, epideictic rhetoric, magic, religion, Middle Platonism, and especially the civic and intellectual life of the provincial metropolis, Carthage. The translations are a pleasure to read, and the format of the edition has allowed the editors ample space to convey a useful and well-researched overview of the current scholarship on these understudied texts. Harrison, Hilton, and Hunink have rendered a great service to Apuleian studies with their new Oxford edition of Apuleius’ rhetorical works. At Florida 9.8 Apuleius describes his rhetoric as a plastic medium that must be sculpted, a physical artifact that must be shaped and polished with an artisan’s tools: “But you examine every word of mine keenly, weigh it carefully, subject it to the lathe and the rule, and compare it with the products of the lathe or productions of the stage.” In similar but broader terms, at De Platone 1.3 (#188) he describes Plato’s philosophy as a rhetorical achievement, to have found the perfect word-form for Socrates’ ideas: Plato “made ideas complete and wondrous both by filing them down with reason and dressing them in the most handsome aspect of his august rhetoric.” 1 Apuleius would particularly appreciate, then, the work of the triumvirate of scholars who have produced a fine translation of his Apology, Florida, and De Deo Socratis. ![]()
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