APOLLONIUS TYANÆUS.

Apollonius Tyanæus was one of the most extraordinary persons that ever appeared in the world. He was born at Tyana in Cappadocia, towards the beginning of the first century. At sixteen years of age he became a rigid observer of the rules of Pythagoras, renouncing wine, woman, and all manner of animal food, wearing no shoes, letting his hair grow at full length, and clothing himself in linen only. He soon after set up for reformer, and fixed his residence in the temple of Esculapius, whither many sick persons resorted to be cured by him. When he came of age he gave part of his estate to his elder brother, and distributed another

part among his poor relations, retaining but a very small share for himself. He lived six years without speaking a word; yet during his silence quelled several seditions in Cilicia and Pamphylia. He travelled, and turned legislator, and pretended to understand all languages, without having learned them; to know the thoughts of men, and to explain the oracles which birds deliver by chirping. He condemned dancing, and other volatile diversions, but recommended works of charity. He travelled over most of the known countries in the world, and at Cadiz prevailed on the inhabitants of that province to revolt against Nero, which draws the following observations from M. Tillemont:— “ Philostratus, thinks it for his honour, that he induced the governor of Cadiz, and the country about it, to rebel against Nero; nor did the other fhilosophers make any more scruple of this than he. [There being no institution but the Christian religion, which teaches us to consider men, not as they are in themselves, but in the order wherein God has placed them, nor ever to violate the fidelity, which has once been sworn to them.]” M. Tillemont might very well have omitted this moral reflection, and indeed the whole parenthesis. Christianity has certainly the most real and sublime advantages above all philosophy; but, as to the point here in question, I cannot see that it has had any right, for these thousand years past to insult the philosophers. The Christians and they have been pretty even on this score for a long time. We may say of this engagement, “ Never to violate the faith which has once been pledged,” what the poet said of chastity:

Credo pudicitiam Saturno rege moratam
In terris, visamque diu.------Juv.Sat. 6.

In Saturn’s reign, at Nature’s early birth,
There was that thing, called chastity, on earth.—Dryden

The life of Apollonius has been fully related by Philostratus. That which Damis, originally of Nineveh, the most devoted to him of all his disciples had composed, was properly no more than memoirs, and ill enough written. They fell into the hands of the empress Julia, the wife of Severus, and “ she (says M. Tillemont) gave them to Philostratus, who, from them, and by the help of what he could gather from Apollonius himself, and from other memoirs, composed the history we at present have of him.” He died at a very great age without its being certainly known where, and the Pagans were gradually led to oppose his pretended miracles to those of Christ, and to draw a parallel between them, and even St Augustin confessed, that at worst he was greatly superior to the Jupiter of the Gentiles. To prove his popularity, we need only read a work of Eusebius, against one Hierocles, a great enemy of the gospel, in the reign of the emperor Dioclesian. It appears, that Hierocles’s design in the treatise which Eusebius confutes, was to draw a parallel between Jesus Christ and Apollonius Ty-anæus, and that he gives the preference to the latter. “ Apollonius (says M. Tillemont), by the seeming innocency of his life, and his pretended miracles, was one of the most dangerous enemies the church had in its infancy. It seemed, according to his own panegyrists, as if the devil had sent him into the world, about the same time that Jesus Christ was to appear, either to counterbalance his authority in the minds of those who should take the illusions of this magician for real miracles, or that they who should discover him to be an arrant impostor and magician, might thereby be brought to doubt of the miracles of Jesus Christ and his disciples.”

It cannot be denied, that this philosopher received very great honours, both during his life and

after his death. The inhabitants of Tyana built a temple to their Apollonius after his death. His statue was erected in several other temples. The emperor Adrian collected as many of his letters as he could, and kept them in his fine palace of Antium, with a little book of this philosopher concerning the answers he had received from the oracle of Trophonius. This book was to be seen at Antium, during the life of Philostratus; nor did any curiosity render this small town so famous as Apollonius’s book. Caracalla had an extraordinary veneration for Apollonius, and built a temple to him as to an hero. The emperor Severus kept the image of this philosopher in a particular place in his palace, among those of Jesus Christ, Abraham, and the best princes. Aurelian, having resolved to sack Tyana, was prevented by Apollonius’s appearing to him in a vision and forbidding it; and he not only obeyed this order of Apollonius, but vowed an image, a temple, and a statue to him. Vopiscus in relating this, declares himself his admirer and votary, with a promise to write his life. The words of Lampridius, concerning the manner of the emperor Severus’s worship, are no less worthy of a place here. “ Usus vivendi eidem hic fuit: Primumut, si facultas esset, id est si non cum uxore cubuisset, matutinis horis in larario suo (in quo et divos principes, sed optimos electos et animas sanctiores, in queis et Apollonium, et,quantum scrip-tor suorum temporum dicit, Christum, Abraham, et Orpheum, et hujuscemodi deos habebat, ac majo-rum effigies) rem divinam faciebat August. Epist. iv. p. 23. ³⁴.—The same emperor’s manner of life was this: First, if he was duly prepared, that is, if he had not lain with his wife, he performed early in the morning religious ceremonies in his chapel, in which he kept the effigies of the best emperors, and of those who had been the most remarkable for sanctity, among which was Apollonius, and, if we may believe the historian of his own times, Christ, Abraham, and Orpheus, and the like kind of gods, together with the effigies of his ancestors.” Eusebius tells us, that in his time, there were persons who pretended to effect enchantments, by invoking the name of Apollonius.

The reputation of Apollonius continued as long as paganism. M. de Tillemont, who denies this, alleges the testimonies of Lactantius and Eusebius. I confess Lactantius supposes that no one honoured Apollonius as a god, but he does not deny what the author whom he confutes had advanced, that a consecrated statue of Apollonius was still honoured at Ephesus, under the name of Hercules. He thinks it sufficient that Apollonius was not honoured under his own, but a borrowed name; “ Ideo alieni nominis titulo affectavit divinitatem, quia suo nec poterat, nec audebat:—He therefore affected divinity under a borrowed name, because he neither could, nor dared do it under his own.” This is more subtle than solid; for when the Ephesians consecrated the statue, they had no other intention than to honour Apollonius, and only made use of the title of Hercules ἀποτρέπαιος, or Alexicacus, to denote that Apollonius had delivered them from a plague. It is probable there was no artifice in this: Apollonius did not endeavour to conceal himself under a borrowed name, for fear his own should raise scruples in the minds of the people. Here then is a fair testimony produced by Lactantius, in proof of the worship which was still paid to our Apollonius, in the beginning of the fourth century. But with all the respect due to this father of the church, I cannot persuade myself that the inhabitants of Tyana had discontinued

their veneration, or that the images of Apollonius were removed out of all the temples. I find in Eusebius, that in his time a report was spread that many things were performed by invoking the name of Apollonius. He calls them magical or superstitious; but there can be no doubt, that many pagans took them for real miracles. I find in St Augustin, that in his time, the Christians were so pressed with the chimerical parallel between the miracles of Apollonius and those of Jesus Christ, and by the ridiculous pretence that the first equalled or even surpassed the latter, that they had recourse to this great light of the church for a solution of this difficulty. “ On this occasion,” writes Mar-cellinus, “ I add my request that you, whose reply whatever it be, will be of use to many, would condescend to exert your utmost efforts in refuting the false pretences of these objectors, who would place the works of our Lord on a level with the actions of mere men. For they produce against him their Apollonius, and Apuleius, and other dealers in magic, whose miracles they assert to have been greater than his.” Then it was that St Austin declared that Apollonius Tyanæus was superior to Jupiter. “ Quis autem vel risu dignum non putet, quod Apollonium et Apuleium cæteros-que magicarum artium peritissimos conferre Christo vel etiam præferre conantur, quamquam Tolera-bilius ferendum sit quando illos ei potius comparent quam Deos suos: multo enim melior, quod fatendum est, Apollonius fuit, quam tot stuprorum actor et perpetrator, quern Jovem nommant.—But who does not think it even matter of laughter that they should pretend to compare Apollonius and Apuleius and others, skilful in art magic, to Christ, and even to give them the preference; though the comparison of such persons with Christ is more tolerable than that of their gods: for we must confess that Apollonius was much better than their Jupiter, as they call him, the author and perpetrator of so many acts of lewdness.” The same father observes, that “ the pagans, who laughed at the history of Jonas, would have believed a like adventure to be true, if reported of Apuleius, or Apollonius Tyanæus, or any of those to whom they gave the name of magicians or philosophers Amm. Marcell. lib. xxiii. cap. 6, p. 370. ³⁵.” Upon the whole, I find that in the beginning of the fifth century Eunapius wrote, “that Apollonius was not so much a philosopher, as something between a god and a man; and that Philostratus ought to have entitled the history which he wrote of him, the Descent of a God upon earth.” Am I to blame then in affirming, that Apollonius’s honour continued as long as paganism?

It remains only that I answer Eusebius’s authority; and this is easily done, since it is plain, from the facts now alleged, that Eusebius supports an hyperbole which has not the least shadow of truth. How can it be true that in his time no one did Apollonius the honour to call him philosopher, when Ammianus Marcellinus in the same century, speaking of a fountain near Tyana, failed not to remember Apollonius with this eulogy:—“ Ubi amplissimus ille philosophus Apollonius traditur natus.—Where the most celebrated philosopher Apollonius is reported to have been born Euseb. in Hierocl. page 514. ³⁶.” I should choose, for the honour of Eusebius to say, that he was speaking of Philostratus; so that his meaning will be, that it is not necessary to refute at large the dreams of Philostratus, since he is an author of no repute, and not so much as ranked in the number of philosophers. I confess there is some difficulty in this explication; but it is plain

that Eusebius’s design was to attack the phantom of Philostratus, and not the true Apollonius. Does he not declare that he had always esteemed Apollonius as a learned man, and allow that he deserves to be ranked with all imaginable honour among the philosophers? That he only rejects the fabulous and supernatural virtues which Philostratus and some other panegyrists ascribed to him, and that in direct opposition to Philostratus, he will show that Apollonius, as described by him, is unworthy to be ranked not only among the philosophers, but even among men of moderate virtue; so far is he from coming into any competition with Jesus Christ Sidon. ApoIlin. Epist. iii. lib. 8, page 486. ³⁷.

Apollonius left some works, which have been long since lost. He wrote four books of Judicial Astrology, and a Treatise on Sacrifices, showing what was to be offered to each deity. This last piece became very famous: Eusebius cites it, Suidas also mentions it, and adds to it a Testament, a Collection of Oracles and Letters, and the Life of Pythagoras. The Theology, of which Eusebius cites a passage, is perhaps the same piece with the Treatise on Sacrifices. Apollonius 'wrote a great number of Letters, some of which Philostratus has inserted in his History; all of them very short. He also wrote some Memoirs, whence we may learn how fond he was of philosophy. He was so strict a Pythagorean, that he would have encountered fire and faggot for his philosophy; and made so open a profession of his belief in the metempsychosis, that he caused a lion to be adored, under pretence that the soul of Amasis inspired the body of that beast. His life, from the Greek of Philostratus is translated into French, with an ample commentary; and an English translation of the same book, with

notes, borrowed it is said from a manuscript of the famous Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, gave great offence to pious minds. This new translator of Philostratus was an English gentleman, whose name was Charles Blount. In the year 1693, he published a treatise, the title of which was, the Oracles of Reason, and accompanied it with some other small pieces of the same stamp. The same year he died a tragical death. He was greatly in love with his brother’s widow; and pretended he might legally marry her, and even wrote a treatise to prove it; but seeing no likelihood of obtaining the church’s consent, he fell into despair, and killed himself. Besides Philostratus, Nicomachus, who lived in the reign of Aurelian, wrote the life of Apollonius, on that which Philostratus had composed; Tascius Victorianus wrote another upon that of Nicomachus. Sidonius Apollinaris wrote a third, and followed the plan of Victorianus rather than that of Nicomachus. We read in Suidas, that Soterichus, a native of Oasis in Egypt, had composed the life of Apollonius. This author lived in the reign of Aurelian. Had we what a cotemporary philosopher, named Euphrates, satirically wrote against Apollonius, we should be furnished with an ample detail of scandal; for when such rivals once declare war against each other, they bring many secrets to light. Sidonius Apollinaris has given us a description of Apollonius, which represents him as the greatest of heroes in philosophy. That every one may judge of this, let us here produce his words. He had written the life of Apollonius, and sending it to a counsellor of Evarigus, king of the Goths, he addresses him after this manner.— “ Read (by the Catholic Church’s permission), this life of a person, in many things not unlike yourself; that is, one courted by the rich, but not courting riches; covetous of science, but moderate in his desire of wealth; at banquets abstemious; amidst those in purple, habited himself in linen; amidst sweet ointments and perfumes, a rigid censor of manners; amidst a race of fops, rough and unpolished; and amidst perfumed and smooth courtiers, valuable for his venerable unattire. And as he was not indebted to his own flock either for food or raiment, he was the admiration rather than jealousy, of the countries he travelled over; and having the fortunes of kings ever at his command, he asked no other favours, than such as he was wont rather to bestow, when offered, than receive Vita Hobb. page 106. ³⁸.”

The author of this description does not forget to make his excuses to the Catholic Church.—Art Apollonius.