Golden donkey. Apuley

Apuley-according to Augustine of the Blessed, “African, the most famous of our Africans”, the ancient Roman writer and poet, the Platonik philosopher, who lived in the II century, the author of the works, about which we have known from school years that Pushkin “read it willingly Apulei, but Cicero did not read. ”

Apuley’s novel“ Metamorphosis ”in 11 books, since the time of Augustine of the Blessed is widely known under the name“ Golden Donkey ”. This essay has reached us in its entirety almost without loss, with the exception of a few spoiled phrases, which is very rare for ancient literature.

The book tells about the incredible adventures of the incredible noble Roman young man Lucius, mistakenly turned into a donkey And in this guise of surviving a lot of adventures, often funny, but sometimes very dangerous.

, being a donkey, Lucius without embellishment sees the life of many layers of a late -ant society - from farmers and robbers to priests of cyber and wealthy citizens. And it is precisely a wide description of the morals of the Roman Empire that still makes this book interesting and entertaining even for a modern reader.