This book brings back to the fore the array of knowledge that Apuleius, currently considered a mere sophist, used to approach. In an attempt to help enlighten his project, the authors of this volume consider a variety of practical, spiritual and intertextual skills and knowledge mobilized by the Madaurensis, asking whether the polymathia, which is ascribed to him, could correspond to a genuine desire for knowledge and wisdom, and be sufficient to justify the title of philosophus? Could we not see the Madaurensis as a new Ulysses, returning to Africa after having adopted the polytropia of Homer’s hero, and mobilizing Mediterranean knowledge to give it a new meaning?