HIMSELF AND HIS CIRCLE.
Apollonius is said to have been very beautiful to look upon (i. 7, 12;
iv. 1);[115] but beyond this we have no very definite description of his
person. His manner was ever mild and gentle (i. 36; ii. 22) and modest
(iv. 31; viii. 15), and in this, says Damis, he was more like an Indian
than a Greek (iii. 36); yet occasionally he burst out indignantly
against some special enormity (iv. 30). His mood was often pensive (i.
34), and when not speaking he would remain for long plunged in deep
thought, during which his eyes were steadfastly fixed on the ground (i.
10 et al.).
Though, as we have seen, he was inflexibly stern with himself, he was
ever ready to make excuses for others; if, on the one hand, he praised
the courage of those few who remained with him at Rome, on the other he
refused to blame for their cowardice the many who had fled (iv. 38). Nor
was his gentleness shown simply by abstention from blame, he was ever
active in positive deeds of compassion (cf. vi. 39).
One of his little peculiarities was a liking to be addressed as
"Tyanean" (vii. 38), but why this was so we are not told. It can hardly
have been that Apollonius was particularly proud of his birth-place, for
even though he was a great lover of Greece, so that at times you would
call him an enthusiastic patriot, his love for other countries was
quite as pronounced. Apollonius was a citizen of the world, if there has
ever been one, into whose speech the word native-land did not enter, and
a priest of universal religion in whose vocabulary the word sect did not
exist.
In spite of his extremely ascetic life he was a man of strong physique,
so that even when he had reached the ripe age of four-score years, we
are told, he was sound and healthy in every limb and organ, upright and
perfectly formed. There was also a certain indefinite charm about him
that made him more pleasant to look upon than even the freshness of
youth, and this even though his face was furrowed with wrinkles, just as
the statues in the temple at Tyana represented him in the time of
Philostratus. In fact, says his rhetorical biographer, report sang
higher praises over the charm of Apollonius in his old age than over the
beauty of Alcibiades in his youth (viii. 29).
In brief, our philosopher seems to have been of a most charming presence
and lovable disposition; nor was his absolute devotion to philosophy of
the nature of the hermit ideal, for he passed his life among men. What
wonder then that he attracted to himself many followers and disciples!
It would have been interesting if Philostratus had told us more about
these "Apollonians," as they were called (viii. 21), and whether they
constituted a distinct school, or whether they were grouped together in
communities on the Pythagorean model, or whether they were simply
independent students attracted to the most commanding personality of the
times in the domain of philosophy. It is, however, certain that many of
them wore the same dress as himself and followed his mode of life (iv.
39). Repeated mention is also made of their accompanying Apollonius on
his travels (iv. 47; v. 21; viii. 19, 21, 24), sometimes as many as ten
of them at the same time, but none of them were allowed to address
others until they had fulfilled the vow of silence (v. 43).
The most distinguished of his followers were Musonius, who was
considered the greatest philosopher of the time after the Tyanean, and
who was the special victim of Nero's tyranny (iv. 44; v. 19; vii. 16),
and Demetrius, "who loved Apollonius" (iv. 25, 42; v. 19; vi. 31; vii.
10; viii. 10). These names are well known to history; of names otherwise
unknown are the Egyptian Dioscorides, who was left behind owing to weak
health on the long journey to Ethiopia (iv. 11, 38; v. 43), Menippus,
whom he had freed from an obsession (iv. 25, 38; v. 43), Phædimus (iv.
11), and Nilus, who joined him from Gymnosophists (v. 10 _sqq._, 28),
and of course Damis, who would have us think that he was always with
him from the time of their meeting at Ninus.
On the whole we are inclined to think that Apollonius did not establish
any fresh organisation; he made use of those already existing, and his
disciples were those who were attracted to him personally by an
overmastering affection which could only be satisfied by being
continually near him. This much seems certain, that he trained no one to
carry on his task; he came and went, helping and illuminating, but he
handed on no tradition of a definite line, and founded no school to be
continued by successors. Even to his ever faithful companion, when
bidding him farewell for what he knew would be the last time for Damis
on earth, he had no word to say about the work to which he had devoted
his life, but which Damis had never understood. His last words were for
Damis alone, for the man who had loved him, but who had never known him.
It was a promise to come to him if he needed help. "Damis, whenever you
think on high matters in solitary meditation, you shall see me" (viii.
28).
We will next turn our attention to a consideration of some of the
sayings ascribed to Apollonius and the speeches put into his mouth by
Philostratus. The shorter sayings are in all probability authentically
traditional, but the speeches are for the most part manifestly the
artistic working-up of the rough notes of Damis. In fact, they are
definitely declared to be so; but they are none the less interesting on
this account, and for two reasons.
In the first place, they honestly avow their nature, and make no claim
of inspiration; they are confessedly human documents which endeavour to
give a literary dress to the traditional body of thought and endeavour
which the life of the philosopher built into the minds of his hearers.
The method was common to antiquity, and the ancient compilers of certain
other series of famous documents would have been struck with amazement
had they been able to see how posterity would divinise their efforts and
regard them as immediately inspired by the source of all wisdom.
In the second place, although we are not to suppose that we are reading
the actual words of Apollonius, we are nevertheless conscious of being
in immediate contact with the inner atmosphere of the best religious
thought of the Greek mind, and have before our eyes the picture of a
mystic and spiritual fermentation which leavened all strata of society
in the first century of our era.