Apuleius was born around AD 124–125 in Madauros, a town in the Roman province of Africa that stood on the border between Numidia and the lands of the Gaetulians — which is why he sometimes called himself "half-Numidian, half-Gaetulian."
His surviving works are written in Latin. The chief source for his life is his own "Apologia"; a few further details can be gleaned from his "Florida."
He completed his education in Athens, where he studied Greek language, literature, and philosophy, and from there moved to Rome, writing speeches for the law courts for a time. But life in the imperial capital proved too expensive, and he returned home.
Somewhere around 155–158 he set out for Alexandria, fell ill on the way, and was laid up in the city of Oea, on the site of modern Tripoli. There he happened upon a former fellow student from his Athens days and accepted his hospitality. His host's mother, a wealthy widow named Pudentilla — who until then, despite her family's urging, had refused to remarry — fell in love with Apuleius and unexpectedly consented to marriage. The indignant relatives of her late husband accused Apuleius of practicing magic: of having bewitched Pudentilla into becoming his wife. He conducted his own defense in court and was acquitted. His "Apologia, or A Discourse on Magic in His Own Defense" has come down to us.
Scattered remarks in the fragments of his speeches show that he later settled in Carthage, where he was high priest of the province and was twice honored with statues.
He was probably a devotee of the cult of Isis; in the "Metamorphoses" he portrayed the priests of the Syrian Goddess with extreme hostility and sarcasm. Names mentioned in his later speeches indicate that he was still alive in the 170s. The exact time and place of his death are unknown.