The writer and orator Apuleius was born c. 127 AD in Madauros in Africa. His book Metamorphoses (also called The Golden Ass) describes the adventures of Lucius, a sorcerer's apprentice, who is accidentally changed into an ass, and his final deliverance by the goddess Isis. Apuleius may have lived for some time in Ostia, in the Domus di Apuleio (II,VIII,5), to the west of the theatre.
| ... tutusque prosperitate ventorum ferentium Augusti portum celerrime appello [or pervenio] ac dehinc carpento pervolavi, vesperaque, quam dies insequebatur Iduum Decembrium, sacrosanctam istam civitatem accedo. | Safely driven by favouring winds, I arrived very quickly at the Port of Augustus, and hurried on from there by carriage. On the eve of the Ides of December [December 12] I reached the holy, inviolate city. Translation: Loeb, G.P. Goold. |