The position which Apuleius adorned as philosopher an
romancist in the Antonine age, and the influence exercised by
his genius and personality on African literature, both pagan
and Christian, are universally recognised. Tertullian, a native
of Carthage and an eminent Christian writer at the end of the
second century, may be accepted as a representative of the
style of Apuleius. In a later age St. Augustine, who had to
combat with his doctrines as a professor of magic, was fain to
acknowledge that Apuleius was the most popular of African
writers ; and Lactantius remarks that the early pagan contro-
versialists used to rank Apuleius with Apollonius of Tyana as
a thaumaturgist, citing various miracles performed by him as
equal or superior to those of Christ.

Carthage was not the only city to send forth literary
celebrities. Sicca Veneria (El-Kef) produced the grammarian
Eutychius Proculus, one of the tutors of Marcus Aurelius, and
renowned for his work entitled Be Regionibus. Leptis Magna
was the birthplace of Septimius Severus, grandfather of the
Emperor of that name. He obtained repute at Rome as an
orator, and his talents excited the admiration of Statius the
poet. ' Who could ever believe,' he said, ' that a man gifted
with such eloquence should come from such a place as Leptis,
faraway in the region of the Syrtes ?' Hippone (Bone) was the
native town of Servilius Silanus, and Cirta was the birthplace
of Festus Postumius, both of whom achieved reputation by their
writings. Carthage also produced the renowned grammarian
Sulpicius Apollinaris, whose school attracted scholars from all
parts of the country. Aulus Gellius, Celsinus, and Pertinax
took rank among the most eminent of his pupils. Of the career
of Celsinus we know little, but it is probable that he acquired
renown as a schoolmaster and grammarian. Gellius, on the
other hand, held so prominent a position as philosopher apd
rhetorician that he figures largely in the history of the Antonine
age. There is good reason for supposing that he was a native
of Africa, for his name appears on an inscription discovered at
Cherchel a few years ago.1 His lifelong attachment to his
master Apollinaris, and his intimacy with Herodes Atticus, one
of the tutors of Marcus Aurelius, and renowned for his munificence

1 Waillc, Lett re sur les fouilles de Carthage (C. de FAcad. des Inscript. Jan.
1S8S).