De genere dicendi deliberativo a latronibvs Apuleianis vsvrpato (Met. VI, VII )

In books VI and VII of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses we find the robbers delivering some orations, which imitatethe genus deliberativum: they display sollemnity and refined elegance to such an extent, that the reader, beingaware that they proceed from the most heinous rogue’s lips, cannot but smile by himself.Composing this part of his tale, Apuleius also falls back on and re-treats some elements of the greek novel, inparticular the representation of the band of robbers like a sort of perverted state.In this article I will first show the resemblances that Apuleius’ rogue-tales share with the same places of theGreek novels’ writers, then I will continue to examine the speeches found in books VI and VII.I will demonstrate with how much elaboration Apuleius has amplified and augmented these tales, which theGreek novelists have merely outlined, for the sake of playing on extant literature, and I will clarify to whatextent we can understand this playing on literature as a parody.