Apollonius of Tyana in Asia Minor was born nearly at the same time as
Jesus Christ, and acquired great reputation while he lived, and for a
considerable time after. He was born of wealthy parents, and seems
early to have betrayed a passion for philosophy. His father,
perceiving this, placed him at fourteen years of age under Euthydemus,
a rhetorician of Tarsus; but the youth speedily became dissatisfied
with the indolence and luxury of the citizens, and removed himself to
Aegas, a neighbouring town, where was a temple of Aesculapius, and where
the God was supposed sometimes to appear in person. Here he became
professedly a disciple of the sect of Pythagoras. He refrained from
animal food, and subsisted entirely on fruits and herbs. He went
barefoot, and wore no article of clothing made from the skins of
animals. [127] He further imposed on himself a noviciate of five years
silence. At the death of his father, he divided his patrimony equally
with his brother; and, that brother having wasted his estate by
prodigality, he again made an equal division with him of what
remained. [128] He travelled to Babylon and Susa in pursuit of
knowledge, and even among the Brachmans of India, and appears
particularly to have addicted himself to the study of magic. [129] He
was of a beautiful countenance and a commanding figure, and, by means
of these things, combined with great knowledge, a composed and
striking carriage, and much natural eloquence, appears to have won
universal favour wherever he went. He is said to have professed the
understanding of all languages without learning them, to read the
thoughts of men, and to be able to interpret the language of animals.
A power of working miracles attended him in all places. [130]
On one occasion he announced to the people of Ephesus the approach of
a terrible pestilence; but the citizens paid no attention to his
prophecy. The calamity however having overtaken them, they sent to
Apollonius who was then at Smyrna, to implore his assistance. He
obeyed the summons. Having assembled the inhabitants, there was seen
among them a poor, old and decrepid beggar, clothed in rags, hideous
of visage, and with a peculiarly fearful and tremendous expression in
his eyes. Apollonius called out to the Ephesians, "This is an enemy to
the Gods; turn all your animosity against him, and stone him to death!"
The old man in the most piteous tones besought their mercy. The
citizens were shocked with the inhumanity of the prophet. Some however
of the more thoughtless flung a few stones, without any determined
purpose. The old man, who had stood hitherto crouching, and with his
eyes half-closed, now erected his figure, and cast on the crowd
glances, fearful, and indeed diabolical. The Ephesians understood at
once that this was the genius of the plague. They showered upon him
stones without mercy, so as not only to cover him, but to produce a
considerable mound where he had stood. After a time Apollonius
commanded them to take away the stones, that they might discover what
sort of an enemy they had destroyed. Instead of a man they now saw an
enormous black dog, of the size of a lion, and whose mouth and jaws
were covered with a thick envenomed froth. [131]
Another miracle was performed by Apollonius in favour of a young man,
named Menippus of Corinth, five and twenty years of age, for whom the
prophet entertained a singular favour. This man conceived himself to
be beloved by a rich and beautiful woman, who made advances to him,
and to whom he was on the point of being contracted in marriage.
Apollonius warned his young friend against the match in an enigmatical
way, telling him that he nursed a serpent in his bosom. This however
did not deter Menippus. All things were prepared; and the wedding
table was spread. Apollonius meanwhile came among them, and prevented
the calamity. He told the young man that the dishes before him, the
wine he was drinking, the vessels of gold and silver that appeared
around him, and the very guests themselves were unreal and illusory;
and to prove his words, he caused them immediately to vanish. The
bride alone was refractory. She prayed the philosopher not to torment
her, and not to compel her to confess what she was. He was however
inexorable. She at length owned that she was an empuse (a sort of
vampire), and that she had determined to cherish and pamper Menippus,
that she might in the conclusion eat his flesh, and lap up his blood.
[132]
One of the miracles of Apollonius consisted in raising the dead. A
young woman of beautiful person was laid out upon a bier, and was in
the act of being conveyed to the tomb. She was followed by a multitude
of friends, weeping and lamenting, and among others by a young man,
to whom she had been on the point to be married. Apollonius met the
procession, and commanded those who bore it, to set down the bier. He
exhorted the proposed bridegroom to dry up his tears. He enquired the
name of the deceased, and, saluting her accordingly, took hold of her
hand, and murmured over her certain mystical words. At this act the
maiden raised herself on her seat, and presently returned home, whole
and sound, to the house of her father. [133]
Towards the end of his life Apollonius was accused before Domitian of
having conspired with Nerva to put an end to the reign of the tyrant.
He appears to have proved that he was at another place, and therefore
could not have engaged in the conspiracy that was charged upon him.
Domitian publicly cleared him from the accusation, but at the same
time required him not to withdraw from Rome, till the emperor had
first had a private conference with him. To this requisition Apollonius
replied in the most spirited terms. "I thank your majesty," said he,
"for the justice you have rendered me. But I cannot submit to what you
require. How can I be secure from the false accusations of the
unprincipled informers who infest your court? It is by their means
that whole towns of your empire are unpeopled, that provinces are
involved in mourning and tears, your armies are in mutiny, your senate
full of suspicion and alarms, and the islands are crowded with exiles.
It is not for myself that I speak, my soul is invulnerable to your
enmity; and it is not given to you by the Gods to become master of my
body." And, having thus given utterance to the virtuous anguish of his
spirit, he suddenly became invisible in the midst of a full assembly,
and was immediately after seen at Puteoli in the neighbourhood of
Mount Vesuvius. [134]
Domitian pursued the prophet no further; and he passed shortly after
to Greece, to Ionia, and finally to Ephesus. He every where delivered
lectures as he went, and was attended with crowds of the most
distinguished auditors, and with the utmost popularity. At length at
Ephesus, when he was in the midst of an eloquent harangue, he suddenly
became silent. He seemed as if he saw a spectacle which engrossed all
his attention. His countenance expressed fervour and the most
determined purpose. He exclaimed, "Strike the tyrant; strike him!" and
immediately after, raising himself, and addressing the assembly, he
said, "Domitian is no more; the world is delivered of its bitterest
oppressor."--The next post brought the news that the emperor was
killed at Rome, exactly on the day and at the hour when Apollonius had
thus made known the event at Ephesus. [135]
Nerva succeeded Domitian, between whom and Apollonius there subsisted
the sincerest friendship. The prophet however did not long survive
this event. He was already nearly one hundred years old. But what is
most extraordinary, no one could tell precisely when or where he died.
No tomb bore the record of his memory; and his biographer inclines to
the opinion that he was taken up into heaven. [136]
Divine honours were paid to this philosopher, both during his life,
and after his death. The inhabitants of Tyana built a temple to him,
and his image was to be found in many other temples. [137] The emperor
Adrian collected his letters, and treated them as an invaluable relic.
Alexander Severus placed his statue in his oratory, together with
those of Jesus Christ, Abraham and Orpheus, to whom he was accustomed
daily to perform the ceremonies of religion. [138] Vopiscus, in his
Life of Aurelian, [139] relates that this emperor had determined to
rase the city of Tyana, but that Apollonius, whom he knew from his
statues, appeared to him, and said, "Aurelian, if you would conquer,
do not think of the destruction of my citizens: Aurelian, if you would
reign, abstain from the blood of the innocent: Aurelian, if you would
conquer, distinguish yourself by acts of clemency." It was at the
desire of Julia, the mother of Severus, that Philostratus composed the
life of Apollonius, to which he is now principally indebted for his
fame. [140]
The publicity of Apollonius and his miracles has become considerably
greater, from the circumstance of the early enemies of the Christian
religion having instituted a comparison between the miracles of Christ
and of this celebrated philosopher, for the obvious purpose of
undermining one of the most considerable evidences of the truth of
divine revelation. It was probably with an indirect view of this sort
that Philostratus was incited by the empress Julia to compose his life
of this philosopher; and Hierocles, a writer of the time of Dioclesian,
appears to have penned an express treatise in the way of a parallel
between the two, attempting to shew a decisive superiority in the
miracles of Apollonius.