Agrestis cum erudito: scenografie del discorso nell’Apologia di Apuleio

In Apologia Apuleius’s speech shows a rich ‘geography’: private homes, shops, villas and inns are the ingredients of a rhetorical strategy aimed at emphasizing the cultural and ethical distance between accusation and defense. An important role is played by the topical contrast between the country and the city, used to make a strong impact on the public and on the judge and to dismantle and discredit 'a priori' the accusations. In Apologia, therefore, the places are not only the background to the trial but are also conceived as a scenery of the word and as a ‘visual’ instrument to outline the parties involved.