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APOLLONIUS OF TYANA
THE PHILOSOPHER-REFORMER
OF THE FIRST CENTURY A.D.
A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE ONLY EXISTING
RECORD OF HIS LIFE WITH SOME ACCOUNT
OF THE WAR OF OPINION CONCERNING HIM
AND AN INTRODUCTION ON THE RELIGIOUS
ASSOCIATIONS AND BROTHERHOODS OF THE
TIMES AND THE POSSIBLE INFLUENCE OF
INDIAN THOUGHT ON GREECE--BY G. R. S.
MEAD, B.A., M.R.A.S.
LONDON AND BENARES
THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY
1901
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
SECTION PAGE
I. INTRODUCTORY 1
II. THE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS AND COMMUNITIES
OF THE FIRST CENTURY 9
III. INDIA AND GREECE 17
IV. THE APOLLONIUS OF EARLY OPINION 28
V. TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND LITERATURE 42
VI. THE BIOGRAPHER OF APOLLONIUS 53
VII. EARLY LIFE 65
VIII. THE TRAVELS OF APOLLONIUS 73
IX. IN THE SHRINES OF THE TEMPLES AND THE
RETREATS OF RELIGION 82
X. THE GYMNOSOPHISTS OF UPPER EGYPT 99
XI. APOLLONIUS AND THE RULERS OF THE EMPIRE 106
XII. APOLLONIUS THE PROPHET AND WONDER-WORKER 110
XIII. HIS MODE OF LIFE 119
XIV. HIMSELF AND HIS CIRCLE 126
XV. FROM HIS SAYINGS AND SERMONS 132
XVI. FROM HIS LETTERS 145
XVII. THE WRITINGS OF APOLLONIUS 153
XVIII. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 156
APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.
SECTION I.
INTRODUCTORY.
To the student of the origins of Christianity there is naturally no
period of Western history of greater interest and importance than the
first century of our era; and yet how little comparatively is known
about it of a really definite and reliable nature. If it be a subject of
lasting regret that no non-Christian writer of the first century had
sufficient intuition of the future to record even a line of information
concerning the birth and growth of what was to be the religion of the
Western world, equally disappointing is it to find so little definite
information of the general social and religious conditions of the time.
The rulers and the wars of the Empire seem to have formed the chief
interest of the historiographers of the succeeding century, and even in
this department of political history, though the public acts of the
Emperors may be fairly well known, for we can check them by records and
inscriptions, when we come to their private acts and motives we find
ourselves no longer on the ground of history, but for the most part in
the atmosphere of prejudice, scandal, and speculation. The political
acts of Emperors and their officers, however, can at best throw but a
dim side-light on the general social conditions of the time, while they
shed no light at all on the religious conditions, except so far as these
in any particular contacted the domain of politics. As well might we
seek to reconstruct a picture of the religious life of the time from
Imperial acts and rescripts, as endeavour to glean any idea of the
intimate religion of this country from a perusal of statute books or
reports of Parliamentary debates.
The Roman histories so-called, to which we have so far been accustomed,
cannot help us in the reconstruction of a picture of the environment
into which, on the one hand, Paul led the new faith in Asia Minor,
Greece, and Rome; and in which, on the other, it already found itself in
the districts bordering on the south-east of the Mediterranean. It is
only by piecing together laboriously isolated scraps of information and
fragments of inscriptions, that we become aware of the existence of the
life of a world of religious associations and private cults which
existed at this period. Not that even so we have any very direct
information of what went on in these associations, guilds, and
brotherhoods; but we have sufficient evidence to make us keenly regret
the absence of further knowledge.
Difficult as this field is to till, it is exceedingly fertile in
interest, and it is to be regretted that comparatively so little work
has as yet been done in it; and that, as is so frequently the case, the
work which has been done is, for the most part, not accessible to the
English reader. What work has been done on this special subject may be
seen from the bibliographical note appended to this essay, in which is
given a list of books and articles treating of the religious
associations among the Greeks and Romans. But if we seek to obtain a
general view of the condition of religious affairs in the first century
we find ourselves without a reliable guide; for of works dealing with
this particular subject there are few, and from them we learn little
that does not immediately concern, or is thought to concern,
Christianity; whereas, it is just the state of the non-Christian
religious world about which, in the present case, we desire to be
informed.
If, for instance, the reader turn to works of general history, such as
Merivale's History of the Romans under the Empire (London; last ed.
1865), he will find, it is true, in chap. iv., a description of the
state of religion up to the death of Nero, but he will be little wiser
for perusing it. If he turn to Hermann Schiller's Geschichte der
römischen Kaiserreichs unter der Regierung des Nero (Berlin; 1872), he
will find much reason for discarding the vulgar opinions about the
monstrous crimes imputed to Nero, as indeed he might do by reading in
English G. H. Lewes' article "Was Nero a Monster?" (Cornhill Magazine;
July, 1863)--and he will also find (bk. IV. chap. iii.) a general view
of the religion and philosophy of the time which is far more intelligent
than that of Merivale's; but all is still very vague and unsatisfactory,
and we feel ourselves still outside the intimate life of the
philosophers and religionists of the first century.
If, again, he turn to the latest writers of Church history who have
treated this particular question, he will find that they are occupied
entirely with the contact of the Christian Church with the Roman Empire,
and only incidentally give us any information of the nature of which we
are in search. On this special ground C. J. Neumann, in his careful
study Der römische Staat und die allgemeine Kirche bis auf Diocletian
(Leipzig; 1890), is interesting; while Prof. W. M. Ramsay, in The Church
in the Roman Empire before A.D. 170 (London; 1893), is extraordinary,
for he endeavours to interpret Roman history by the New Testament
documents, the dates of the majority of which are so hotly disputed.
But, you may say, what has all this to do with Apollonius of Tyana? The
answer is simple: Apollonius lived in the first century; his work lay
precisely among these religious associations, colleges, and guilds. A
knowledge of them and their nature would give us the natural environment
of a great part of his life; and information as to their condition in
the first century would perhaps help us the better to understand some of
the reasons for the task which he attempted.
If, however, it were only the life and endeavours of Apollonius which
would be illuminated by this knowledge, we could understand why so
little effort has been spent in this direction; for the character of the
Tyanean, as we shall see, has since the fourth century been regarded
with little favour even by the few, while the many have been taught to
look upon our philosopher not only as a charlatan, but even as an
anti-Christ. But when it is just a knowledge of these religious
associations and orders which would throw a flood of light on the
earliest evolution of Christianity, not only with regard to the Pauline
communities, but also with regard to those schools which were
subsequently condemned as heretical, it is astonishing that we have had
no more satisfactory work done on the subject.
It may be said, however, that this information is not forthcoming simply
because it is unprocurable. To a large extent this is true;
nevertheless, a great deal more could be done than has as yet been
attempted, and the results of research in special directions and in the
byways of history could be combined, so that the non-specialist could
obtain some general idea of the religious conditions of the times, and
so be less inclined to join in the now stereotyped condemnation of all
non-Jewish or non-Christian moral and religious effort in the Roman
Empire of the first century.
But the reader may retort: Things social and religious in those days
must have been in a very parlous state, for, as this essay shows,
Apollonius himself spent the major part of his life in trying to reform
the institutions and cults of the Empire. To this we answer: No doubt
there was much to reform, and when is there not? But it would not only
be not generous, but distinctly mischievous for us to judge our fellows
of those days solely by the lofty standard of an ideal morality, or even
to scale them against the weight of our own supposed virtues and
knowledge. Our point is not that there was nothing to reform, far from
that, but that the wholesale accusations of depravity brought against
the times will not bear impartial investigation. On the contrary, there
was much good material ready to be worked up in many ways, and if there
had not been, how could there among other things have been any
Christianity?
The Roman Empire was at the zenith of its power, and had there not been
many admirable administrators and men of worth in the governing caste,
such a political consummation could never have been reached and
maintained. Moreover, as ever previously in the ancient world, religious
liberty was guaranteed, and where we find persecution, as in the reigns
of Nero and Domitian, it must be set down to political and not to
theological reasons. Setting aside the disputed question of the
persecution of the Christians under Domitian, the Neronian persecution
was directed against those whom the Imperial power regarded as Jewish
political revolutionaries. So, too, when we find the philosophers
imprisoned or banished from Rome during these two reigns, it was not
because they were philosophers, but because the ideal of some of them
was the restoration of the Republic, and this rendered them obnoxious to
the charge not only of being political malcontents, but also of actively
plotting against the Emperor's _majestas_. Apollonius, however, was
throughout a warm supporter of monarchical rule. When, then, we hear of
the philosophers being banished from Rome or being cast into prison, we
must remember that this was not a wholesale persecution of philosophy
throughout the Empire; and when we say that some of them desired to
restore the Republic, we should remember that the vast majority of them
refrained from politics, and especially was this the case with the
disciples of the religio-philosophical schools.