Apuleius’ Biography of Plato in the Platonist Tradition

The philosophical lives, especially that of Plato, are causes for reflection about the relationship between literature, doxography, anecdotage and philosophy. The aim of this paper is to discuss the Apuleian Life of Plato not only as the result of a settling of different source materials, but also as the place of birth of the divine image of the philosopher and his philosophy. This study focuses on the Apuleian De Platone et eius dogmate in order to figure out the importance of the introductory position of the biography, as well as in which terms Apuleius highlights a crucial moment of change in this literary genre.