The Apollonius of Early Opinion
Apollonius
of Tyana [Pronounced Týâna, with the accent on the first syllable and
the first a short.]was the most famous philosopher of the Græco-Roman
world of the first century, and devoted the major part of his long life
to the purification of the many cults of the Empire and to the
instruction of the ministers and priests of its religions. With the
exception of the Christ no more interesting personage appears upon the
stage of Western history in these early years. Many and various and
oft-times mutually contradictory are the opinions which have been held
about Apollonius, for the account of his life which has come down to us
is in the guise of a romantic story rather than in the form of a plain
history.And this is perhaps to some extent to be expected, for
Apollonius, besides his public teaching, had a life apart, a life into
which even his favourite disciple does not enter. He journeys into the
most distant lands, and is lost to the world for years; he enters the
shrines of the most sacred temples and the inner circles of the most
exclusive communities, and what he says or does therein remains a
mystery, or serves only as an opportunity for the weaving of some
fantastic story by those who did not understand.The following study will
be simply an attempt to put before the reader a brief sketch of the
problem which the records and traditions of the life of the famous
Tyanean present; but before we deal with the Life of Apollonius,
written by Flavius Philostratus at the beginning of the third century,
we must give the reader a brief account of the references to Apollonius
among the classical writers and the Church Fathers, and a short sketch
of the literature of the subject in more recent times, and of the
varying fortunes of the war of opinion concerning his life in the last
four centuries.First, then, with regard to the references in classical
and patristic authors. Lucian, the witty writer of the first half of the
second century, makes the subject of one of his satires the pupil of a
disciple of Apollonius, of one of those who were acquainted with “all
the tragedy” [Alexander sive Pseudomantis, vi.]of his life. And
Appuleius, a contemporary of Lucian, classes Apollonius with Moses and
Zoroaster, and other famous Magi of antiquity. [De Magia, xc (ed
Hildebrand, 1842, ii 614.)About the same period, in a work entitled
Quæstiones et Responsiones ad Orthodoxos, formerly attributed to Justin
Martyr, who flourished in the second quarter of the second century, we
find the following interesting statement:“Question 24: If God is the
maker and master of creation, how do the consecrated objects
[τελεσματα.Telesma was “a consecrated object, turned by the Arabs into
telsam (talisman)” ; see Liddell and Scott’s Lexicon, sub voc.] of
Apollonius have power in the [various] orders of that creation? For, as
we see, they check the fury of the waves and the power of the winds and
the inroads of vermin and attacks of wild beasts.” ‡ [Justin Martyr,
Opera ed. Otto (2nd edition ; Jena 1849) iii 32.]Dion Cassius in his
history [Lib Ixxvii 18.] which he wrote A.D., 211-222, states that
Caracalla (Emp 211-216) honoured the memory of Apollonius with a chapel
or monument (heroum).
It was just at this time (216)
that Philostratus composed his Life of Apollonius,at the request of
Domna Julia, Caracalla’s mother, and it is with this document
principally that we shall have to deal in the sequel. Lampridius, who
flourished about the middle of the third century, further informs us
that Alexander Severus (Emp 222-235) placed the statue of Apollonius in
his lararium together with those of Christ,Abraham, and Orpheus. [Life
of Alexander Severus xxix.]Vopiscus, writing in the last decade of the
third century, tells us that Aurelian (Emp 270-275) vowed a temple to
Apollonius, of whom he had seen a vision when besieging Tyana. Vopiscus
speaks of the Tyanean as “a sage of the most wide-spread renown and
authority, an ancient philosopher, and a true friend of the Gods,” nay,
as a manifestation of deity. “For what among men,exclaims the historian,
“was more holy, what more worthy of reverence, what more venerable,
what more god-like than he?He, it was, who gave life to the dead.He it
was, who did and said so many things beyond the power of men.”[Life of
Aurelian xxiv.] So enthusiastic is Vopiscus about Apollonius, that he
promises, if he lives, to writea short account of his life in Latin, so
that his deeds and words may be on the tongue of all, for as yet the
only accounts are in Greek. [“Quae qui velit nosse, groecos legat libros
qui de ejus vita conscripti sunt.”
These accounts were
probably the books of Maximus, Moeragenes, and Philostratus.]
Vopiscus,however, did not fulfil his promise,but we learn that about
this date both Soterichus[An Egyptian epic poet who wrote several
poetical histories in Greek; he flourished in the last decade of the
third century.] and Nichomachus wrote Lives of our philosopher, and
shortly afterwards Tascius Victorianus, working on the papers of
Nichomachus, [Sidonius Apollinaris, Epp., viii 3. See also Legrand
d’Aussy, Vie d’Apollonius de Tyane (Paris 1807), p xIvii.] also composed
a Life. None of these Lives, however, have reached us.It was just at
this period also, namely, in the last years of the third century and the
first years of the fourth,that Porphyry and Iamblichus composed their
treatises on Pythagoras and his school; both mention Apollonius as one
of their authorities, and it is probable that the first 30 seconds of
Iamblichus are taken from Apollonius [Porphyry, De Vita Pythagoræ,
section ii., ed Kiessling (Leipzig 1816). Iamblichus De Vita
Pythagorica, chap xxv., ed Kiessling (Leipzig 1813); see especially K’s
note, pp II Sqq. See also Porphyry, Frag., De Styge, p 285, ed Holst.]
We
now come to an incident which hurled the character of Apollonius into
the arena of Christian polemics, where it has been tossed about until
the present day. Hierocles, successively governor of Palmyra, Bithynia,
and Alexandria, and a philosopher, about the year 305 wrote a criticism
on the claims of the Christians, in two books, called A Truthful Address
to the Christians, or more shortly The Truthlover.He seems to have
based himself for the most part on the previous work of Celsus and
Porphyry,[See Duchesne on the recently discovered works of Macarious
Magnes (Paris 1877)], but introduced a new subject of controversy by
opposing the wonderful works of Apollonius to the claims of the
Christians to exclusive right in “miracles” as proof of the divinity of
their Master. In this part of his treatise Hierocles used Philostratus’
Life of Apollonius.
To this pertinent criticism of Hierocles
Eusebius of Cæsarea immediately replied in a treatise still extant,
entitled Contra Hieroclem. [The most convenient text is by Gaisford
(Oxford 1852), Eusebii Pamphili contra Hieroclem; it is also printed in a
number of editions of Philostratus. There are two translations in
Latin, one in Italian, one in Danish, all bound up with Philostratus’
Vita, and one in French printed apart (Discours d’ Eusèbe Evêque de
Cesarée touchant les Miracles attribuez par les Payens à Apollonius de
Tyane, tr by Cousin. Paris; 1584, 12mo, 135 pp.] Eusebius admits that
Apollonius was a wise and virtuous man, but denies that there is
sufficient proof that the wonderful things ascribed to him ever took
place; and even if they did take place, they were the work of “dæmons,”
and not of God. The treatise of Eusebius is interesting; he severely
scrutinises the statements in Philostratus, and shows himself possessed
of a first rate critical faculty.
Had he only used the
same faculty on the documents of the Church, of which he was the first
historian, posterity would have owed him an eternal debt of
gratitude.But Eusebius, like so many other apologists, could only see
one side; justice, when anything touching Christianity was called into
question, was a stranger to his mind, and he would have considered it
blasphemy to use his critical faculty on the documents which relate the
“miracles” of Jesus. Still the problem of “miracle” was the same, as
Hierocles pointed out, and remains the same to this day.After the
controversy reincarnated again in the sixteenth century, and when the
hypothesis of the “Devil” as the prime-mover in all “miracles” but those
of the Church lost its hold with the progress of scientific thought,
the nature of the wonders related in the Life of Apollonius was still so
great a difficulty that it gave rise to a new hypothesis of plagiarism.
The life of Apollonius was a Pagan plagiarism of the life of Jesus. But
Eusebius and the Fathers who followed him had no suspicion of this;
they lived in times when such an assertion could have been easily
refuted.There is not a word in Philostratus to show he had any
acquaintance with the life of Jesus, and fascinating as Baur’s
“tendency-writing” theory is to many,we can only say that as a
plagiarist of the Gospel story Philostratus is a conspicuous failure.
Philostratus writes the history of a good and wise man,a man with a
mission of teaching,clothed in the wonder stories preserved in the
memory and embellished by the imagination of fond posterity, but not the
drama of incarnate Deity as the fulfilment of world
prophecy.Lactantius, writing about 315, also attacked the treatise of
Hierocles, who seems to have put forward some very pertinent criticisms;
for the Church Father says that he enumerates so many of their
Christian inner teachings (intima) that sometimes he would seem to have
at one time undergone the same training (disciplina). But it is in vain,
says Lactantius, that Hierocles endeavours to show that Apollonius
performed similar or even greater deeds than Jesus, for Christians do
not believe that Christ is God because he did wonderful things, but
because all the things wrought in him were those which were announced by
the prophets. [Lactantius, Divinae Institutiones, v 2, 3; ed Fritsche
(Leipzig 1842) pp 233, 236]And in taking this ground Lactantius saw far
more clearly than Eusebius the weakness of the proof from “miracle.”
Arnobius,
the teacher of Lactantius, however, writing at the end of the third
century, before the controversy, in referring to Apollonius simply
classes him among Magi, such as Zoroaster and others mentioned in the
passage of Appuleius to which we have already referred.[Arnobius,
Adversus Nationes,i, 52; ed Hildebrand (Halle 1844) p 86. The Church
Father, however, with that exclusiveness peculiar to the Judæo-Christian
view, omits Moses from the list of Magi.]But even after the controversy
there is a wide difference of opinion among the Fathers, for although
at the end of the fourth century John Chrysostom with great bitterness
calls Apollonius a deceiver and evildoer,and declares that the whole of
the incidents in his life are unqualified fiction, [John
Chrysostom,Adversus Judæos, v 3 (p 631); De Laudibus Sancti Pauli Apost.
Homil., iv (p 493 d; ed Montfauc]Jerome, on the contrary, at the very
same date, takes almost a favourable view, for, after perusing
Philostratus, he writes that Apollonius found everywhere something to
learn and something whereby he might become a better man. [Hieronymus,
Ep ad Paullinum, 53 (text ap. Kayser, præf ix].At the beginning of the
fifth century also Augustine, while ridiculing any attempt at comparison
between Apollonius and Jesus, says that the character of the Tyanean
was “far superior” to that ascribed to Jove,in respect of
virtue.[August., Epp., cxxxviii. Text quoted by Legrand D’aussy,
op,cit., p 294.]About the same date also we find Isidorus of Pelusium,
who died in 450, bluntly denying that there is any truth
in the claim made by “certain,” whom he does not further specify,that
Apollonius of Tyana “consecrated many spots in many parts of the world
for the safety of the inhabitants.”[Isidorus Pelusiota,Epp., p 138; ed J
Billius (Paris 1585)] It is instructive to compare the denial of
Isidorus with the passage we have already quoted from Pseudo-Justin. The
writer of Questions and Answers to the Orthodox in the second century
could not dispose of the question by a blunt denial; he had to admit it
and argue the case of other grounds - - namely, the agency of the Devil.
Nor can the argument of the Fathers, that Apollonius used magic to
bring about his results, while the untaught Christians could perform
healing wonders by a single word,[See Arnobius, loc cit.] be accepted as
valid by the unprejudiced critic, for there is no evidence to support
the contention that Apollonius employed such methods for his
wonder-workings; on the contrary, both Apollonius himself and his
biographer Philostratus strenuously repudiate the charge of magic
brought against him.On the other hand, a few years later, Sidonius
Apollinaris, Bishop of Claremont, speaks in the highest terms of
Apollonius. Sidonius translated the Life of Apollonius into Latin for
Leon, the councillor of King Euric,
and in writing to his friend he says:” Read the life of a man who
(religion apart) resembles you in many things; a man sought out by the
rich, yet who never sought for riches; who loved wisdom and despised
gold; a man frugal in the midst of feastings, clad in linen in the midst
of those clothed in purple,austere in the midst of luxury . . . . In
fine, to speak plainly, perchance no historian will find in ancient
times a philosopher whose life is equal to that of Apollonius.”
[Sidonius Apollinaris, Epp., viii 3. Also Fabricius, Bibliotheca Græca,
pp 549, 565 (ed Harles). The work of Sidonius on Apollonius is
unfortunately lost.]
Thus we see that even among the Church Fathers opinions were divided; while among the philosophers
themselves
the praise of Apollonius was unstinted.For Ammianus Marcellinus, “the
last subject of Rome who composed a profane history in the Latin
language,” and the friend of Julian the philosopher-emperor, refers to
the Tyanean as “that most renowned philosopher”; [Amplissimus ille
philosophus (xxiii 7). See also xxi 14; xxiii 19] while a few years
later Eunapius, the pupil of Chrysanthius, one of the teachers of
Julian, writing in the last years of the fourth century says that
Apollonius was more than a philosopher; he was “a middle term, as it
were,between gods and men.” [ τι θεων τε κατ ανθρωπου μεσο , meaning
thereby presumably one who has reached the grade of being superior to
man, but not yet equal to the gods. This was called by the Greeks the
“dæmonian” order. But the word “dæmon,” owing to sectarian bitterness,
has long been degraded from its former high estate, and the original
idea is now signified in popular language by the term “angel.”Compare
Plato, Symposium, xxiii.,παν τα δαιμoνιον μετα εν εστι θεου τε και
θνητου, “a ϑ ll that is dæmonian is between God and man.” Not only was
Apollonius an adherent of the Pythagorean philosophy, but “he fully
exemplified the more divine and practical side in it.” In fact
Philostratus should have called his biography “The Sojourning of a God
among Men.” [Eunapius, Vitæ Philosophorum, Prooemium, vi ; ed Boissonade
(Amsterdam 1822) p 3.]This seemingly wildly exaggerated estimate may
perhaps receive explanation in the fact that Eunapius belonged to a
school which knew the nature of the attainments ascribed to Apollonius.Indeed,
“as late as the fifth century we find one Volusian, a proconsul of
Africa, descended from an old Roman family and still strongly attached
to the religion of his ancestors, almost worshipping Apollonius of Tyana
as a supernatural being.” [Réville, Apollonius of Tyana (tr from the
French) p 56 (London 1866). I have, however, not been able to discover
on what authority this statement is made.]Even after the downfall of
philosophy we find Cassiodorus, who spent the last years of his long
life in a monastery, speaking of Apollonius as the “renowned
philosopher.” [Insignis philosophus; see his Chronicon, written down to
the year 519.] So also among Byzantine writers, the monk George
Syncellus, in the eighth century, refers several times to our
philosopher, and not only without the slightest adverse criticism, but
he declares that he was the first and most remarkable of all the
illustrious people who appeared under the Empire.[In his Chronographia.
See Legrand d’Aussy, op.cit., p 313.] Tzetzes also, the critic and
grammarian, calls Apollonius “all-wise and a fore-knower of all things.”
[Chiliades ii 60]And though the monk Xiphilinus, in the eleventh
century, in a note to his abridgment of the history of Dion Cassius,
calls Apollonius a clever juggler and magician, § [Cited by Legrand
d’Aussy, op cit., p 286]nevertheless Cedrenus in the same century
bestows on Apollonius the not uncomplimentary title of an “adept
Pythagorean philosopher,” [ φιλοσοφος ΙΙυθαγορειος στοιχειωματικος —
Cedrenus, Compendium Historiarium, i 346; ed Bekker. The
word which I have rendered by “adept” signifies one “who has power over
the elements.” and relates several instances of the efficacy of his
powers in Byzantium. In fact, if we can believe Nicetas, as late as the
thirteenth century there were at Byzantium certain bronze doors,formerly
consecrated by Apollonius, which had to be melted down because they had
become an object of superstition even for the Christians themselves.
[Legrand d’Aussy, op cit., p 308.]Had the work of Philostratus
disappeared with the rest of the Lives, the above would be all that we
should have known about Apollonius. [If we except the disputed Letters
and a few quotations from one of Apollonius’ lost writings.] Little
enough, it is true, concerning so distinguished a character, yet ample
enough to show that, with the exception of theological prejudice, the
suffrages of antiquity were all on the side of our philosopher.
Apollonius of Tyana
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- Apollonius Of Tyana Introduction
- The Religious Associations and Communities of the ...
- India and Greece
- The Apollonius of Early Opinion
- Texts, Translations, and Literature
- The Biographer of Apollonius
- Apollonius of Tyana Early Life
- The Travels of Apollonius
- In the Shrines of the Temples and the Retreats of ...
- The Gymnosophists of Upper Egypt
- Apollonius and the Rulers of the Empire
- Apollonius The Prophet and Wonder-Worker
- Apollonius of Tyana Mode of Life
- Himself and His Circle
- Apollonius Of Tyana Sayings and Sermons
- From His Letters
- The Writings of Apollonius
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