Case file · Witch trials
Apuleius on trial for magic
Around 158–159 CE the writer Apuleius was tried at Sabratha before the proconsul of Africa, accused of winning the rich widow Pudentilla by magic. His defence speech survives.
158 CE · 32.80, 12.48 · status: account
The account
His wife's relatives said he had enchanted a boy into a trance, kept a skeleton for rituals and bought fish for spells. He mocked the charges and seems to have been acquitted. He later wrote 'The Golden Ass'.