Adam Wyatt (Rhodes College)
The Trial of the Stepson, from Book X of Apuleius’s Metamorphoses, is one of many instances in the text depicting administration of justice. While other justice scenes in the text, such as the risus trial in Book III, have received much scholarly attention, this case is often neglected in analyses of Apuleius. This paper analyzes the Trial of the Stepson, both its connection with other stories in the novel and its parallels with the establishment of the Areopagus from Aeschylus’s Eumenides. It also argues that the Trial of the Stepson serves as a commentary on the provincial justice system of the Roman Empire of the 2nd century, and that scholars ought to take a closer look at this case on its merits.
During the 2nd century, when Apuleius was writing, magistrates accrued more power over the provinces as the Roman Empire reached its territorial height. One such area was magisterial authority in criminal cases, a change that many provincials, likely including Apuleius, resented. Apuleius himself was subject to one such trial for charges of practicing magic, during which he delivered his Apologia. Given this context, Apuleius conveys apprehension toward provincial justice in various tales throughout his novel. The risus trial, the most noted court scene of the novel, has many allusions to Roman literature. The context and construction of Lucius’s defense speech mirrors the Cicero’s Pro Milone. Amidst the Ciceronian speech, the text also bears resemblance to the work of early Roman comedians such as Plautus. Underpinning Ciceronian forensic oratory with comedy serves to highlight to absurdity of the entire trial, implicating the provincial justice system as one rooted in farce.
The Trial of the Stepson references Aeschylus’s Eumenides, paralleling the trial of Orestes and the establishment of the Areopagus. The text has many similarities to Aeschylus’s play, both in the story itself and legal procedure. The connection with Eumenides posits another form of provincial justice in contrast with the earlier risus trial; this form of justice is polis-based, rooted in venerable traditions of the local Greeks. The trial also bears resemblance to the Phaedra story told by Seneca; this one, by contrast to that story, ends happily, further demonstrating how this trial properly meted out justice. For Apuleius, the Trial of the Stepson functions in a far more preferable system compared to the magisterial courts. Future scholarship could branch out from these two trials, examining how other instances of justice in the text relate to this story and how they express Apuleius’s views on provincial law in the 2nd century.