Apuleius (APP-yuu-LEE-əs; also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis) was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher, and rhetorician. He was born around 124 in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern-day M'Daourouch, Algeria. He studied Platonism in Athens and traveled to Italy, Asia Minor, and Egypt. Apuleius was an initiate in several cults or mysteries.

The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the attentions and fortune of a wealthy widow. Apuleius defended himself in a witty declamation before the proconsul and a court of magistrates convened in Sabratha, near Oea (modern Tripoli, Libya). This defense is known as the Apologia.

His most famous work is the bawdy picaresque novel The Metamorphoses, otherwise known as The Golden Ass. It is the only Latin novel that has survived in its entirety and relates the adventures of its protagonist, Lucius, who accidentally transforms into a donkey and undergoes various adventures before being turned back into a human by the goddess Isis.