Apuleio il grande?

In a passage of De ostentis (44, 98.6-7 Wachsmuth2) John Lydus seems to have highly extolled the fame of Apuleius by calling him "the Great". A preliminary survey of the quotations from Apuleius in Lydus' works, however, shows that the ancient author's name is never accompanied by ὁ mégas or any other comparable attribute. In fact, the transmitted reading ὁ mégas Apoulíïos appears to be the result of a textual corruption. On the basis of a new examination of the manuscripts containing the passage in question, coupled with a critical analysis of the different choices made by various editors of the text and an attentive consideration of Lydus' usus scribendi that suggests more appropriate punctuation, the paper proves that the reading ὁ mégas is clearly unsustainable. An emendation is, therefore, clearly needed, and omoíos is proposed as a reasonable one because it would restore the syntax of the passage and is perfectly adequate to the context. [Publisher's text]