Swearing like a Philosopher on Trial: Catullus, Epicurus, and Beards in Apuleius’ Apologia
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Regine May
Abstract
This chapter argues that Apuleius creatively uses Catullan quotations and allusions in his defence speech Apologia to slander the prosecution. Apuleius imitates Catullus’ methods to associate his opponents with the types of people Catullus caricatures as outsiders to his fashionable circle of friends. Allusions to Catullan language and two direct quotations from Catullus, in Apol. 6 (Catull. 37 and 39) and 10–11 (Catull. 16) respectively, associate Calpurnianus, the witness for the prosecution, with the uninformed and bearded Epicurean Egnatius in Catullus’ poetry, and the main opponent Aemilianus with the literary outsiders Thyestes, Mezentius and Charon, all uncouth and bearded characters. Consequently, Calpurnianus and Aemilianus are slandered as hairy and unkempt failed Epicureans who unjustly attack Apuleius the philosopher, whose appearance, in contrast to his accusers, matches that of the philosopher on trial.
Abstract
This chapter argues that Apuleius creatively uses Catullan quotations and allusions in his defence speech Apologia to slander the prosecution. Apuleius imitates Catullus’ methods to associate his opponents with the types of people Catullus caricatures as outsiders to his fashionable circle of friends. Allusions to Catullan language and two direct quotations from Catullus, in Apol. 6 (Catull. 37 and 39) and 10–11 (Catull. 16) respectively, associate Calpurnianus, the witness for the prosecution, with the uninformed and bearded Epicurean Egnatius in Catullus’ poetry, and the main opponent Aemilianus with the literary outsiders Thyestes, Mezentius and Charon, all uncouth and bearded characters. Consequently, Calpurnianus and Aemilianus are slandered as hairy and unkempt failed Epicureans who unjustly attack Apuleius the philosopher, whose appearance, in contrast to his accusers, matches that of the philosopher on trial.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
- Stephen Harrison’s Major Publications (June 2025) 13
- L. Manlius Torquatus’ in Sullam 27
- Catullus in the Ancient Greek Novels (with a Focus on Chariton) 43
- A Queer Catullus for the 2010s and 2020s? 75
- Swearing like a Philosopher on Trial: Catullus, Epicurus, and Beards in Apuleius’ Apologia 113
- Apuleius and the Greek Novel: Generic Infringement 135
- Philosophical Enrichment: Akrasia in Vergil 167
- Pallas, Son of Hercules 191
- Vergil in Ethiopia? Nello Martinelli’s Amba Alagia 207
- How the Winds Blow: Inherited Anemologies in Valerius Flaccus’s Argonautica 235
- The Gnat’s Descent: Intertextuality and Poetic Memory in the Pseudo-Vergilian Culex 261
- Vergilian Roleplay in The Rape of the Lock 283
- Back to the Future: (Spatio)temporal Enrichment in Horace’s Odes 3.3 and 3.27 307
- List of Contributors 327
- Index Rerum et Nominum
- Index Locorum
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
- Stephen Harrison’s Major Publications (June 2025) 13
- L. Manlius Torquatus’ in Sullam 27
- Catullus in the Ancient Greek Novels (with a Focus on Chariton) 43
- A Queer Catullus for the 2010s and 2020s? 75
- Swearing like a Philosopher on Trial: Catullus, Epicurus, and Beards in Apuleius’ Apologia 113
- Apuleius and the Greek Novel: Generic Infringement 135
- Philosophical Enrichment: Akrasia in Vergil 167
- Pallas, Son of Hercules 191
- Vergil in Ethiopia? Nello Martinelli’s Amba Alagia 207
- How the Winds Blow: Inherited Anemologies in Valerius Flaccus’s Argonautica 235
- The Gnat’s Descent: Intertextuality and Poetic Memory in the Pseudo-Vergilian Culex 261
- Vergilian Roleplay in The Rape of the Lock 283
- Back to the Future: (Spatio)temporal Enrichment in Horace’s Odes 3.3 and 3.27 307
- List of Contributors 327
- Index Rerum et Nominum
- Index Locorum
