In response to recent scholarship on the function of the prologue to Apuleius’ Metamorphoses and the exordium of the Apologia, this thesis employs the intersection of these approaches in analysis of Apuleius’ Florida, a collection of rhetorical fragments. Although most of the fragments are incomplete, some can be identified as exordia which still retain some or all of their contextualizing narrationes; these fragments can be analyzed similarly to the exordium of the Apologia in that the themes introduced in the exordium can be traced intratextually throughout the course of the speech. Florida 1, although its narratio has not survived and thus cannot be analyzed as an introductory exordium, does occupy the position of the praefatio to the collection as it has survived in textual form. Florida 1 therefore occupies the same role for the collection as a whole as the prologue does for the Metamorphoses, preparing the reader for the literary text to follow. An analysis of the introductory passages to Apuleius’ Florida must take into account the text’s unusual plurality of introductions both in number and form, necessitating an approach that incorporates both the rhetorical and the literary.
Analysis of these passages principally demonstrates Apuleius’ didacticism and dialogism, the foundations of which are the relationship which he cultivates with his audience, his own text, and other texts. Apuleius characterizes his relationship with his audience most prominently by means of captationes benevolentiae, statements generally dismissed by scholars as the means by which an orator ingratiates himself to his audience. Apuleius’ addresses to his audience, however, demonstrate the cultural and intellectual exchange which is the foundation of their relationship. He often presents his speech as a means of intellectual repayment to the city of Carthage, creating an intimate link between his audience, his speech, and education. In this manner, Apuleius invites his audience to participate in intellectual and philosophical discourse.
Apuleius’ many introductions also display a high degree of intratextuality and intertextuality. These rhetorical devices are also often dismissed as sophistic displays, but the way in which Apuleius’ speeches and texts reference themselves allow Apuleius to cue his auditor or reader into the main themes which are explored throughout any given text. This self-referencing allows the ancient auditor or modern reader to more closely follow Apuleius’ arguments and to create connections between different sections of texts which on the surface may deal with different concepts. Such intratextuality therefore serves as a didactic tool, allowing Apuleius to lead his audience to greater understanding. Similarly, Apuleius’ intertextuality prompts the cognizant auditor to juxtapose new texts and new themes, prompting an intellectual and intertextual dialogue between Apuleius, auditor, and texts.
An analysis of Apuleius’ introductory passages allows us to witness the manner in which his sophistic rhetoric allows him to lay the groundwork for philosophical discourse.