In spite of misrepresentation and disdain, and the mistaken zeal of sectaries who have thought, by blackening the character of a great man whom they failed to understand, they were advancing the divine claims of their own leader, the character of Apollonius will always stand out as one of the grandest, if not the grandest, of his time. Mr. Tredwell, in a recently published work, 1 has given us the best modern account of Apollomus and his times and to this book we owe most of our details.
Apollonius was born, as nearly as can be determined, about the year one of our era at Tyana in Cappadocia. His parents were connected with some of the noblest families of the City. At fourteen years of age he was taken to Tarsus to be educated under the care of “Euthydemus, the Phœnician, a stoic and a celebrated rhetorician, and where he enjoyed conversation with the disciples of Pythagoras, Plato, Chrysippus and Aristotle.” Dissatisfied with the manners of this city, he removed with his tutor, to Ægæ, a maritime town near Tarsus. Here he was placed under the tutelage of the Epicurean, Euxemes of Heraclea. While Apollonius was at Ægæ, his father died leaving him a considerable fortune which he divided with his elder brother, and his relatives. Apollonius went to Tyana to bury his father and on his return turned the temple of Æsculapius into a Lyceum, where all kinds of philosophical disputations were held, and there he effected many remarkable cures.
He now determined to pass five years in silence according to the Pythagorean code. “This period was passed chiefly in Pamphylia and in Cilicia; and although he travelled through provinces whose manners were corrupt and effeminate, and much needed reformation, he never uttered a word, nor did a murmur ever escape him. The method he used in expressing his sentiments during his silence was by his eyes, his hands and the motion of his head. He never seemed morose nor out of spirits, and always preserved an even, placid temper. He complained that this life was irksome, inasmuch only as he had many things to say which he refrained from saying; that he heard many things of a disagreeable nature which he affected not to hear. In this manner he passed over many things said against him in dignified silence.” It is hardly possible to over-estimate the value of this discipline as a training for the will, the judgment and the perceptive faculties. It is remarkable to what an extent, though voluntarily deprived of the power of speech, he was able to make known his thought. On one occasion, while residing at Aspendus, he quelled a tumult raised by the inhabitants on account of the exactions of the corn monopolists during a time of famine. Then enraged populace were about to seize the governor and burn him alive.
Apollonius approached the governor, whom he asked by signs in what duties he had been remiss. The governor declaring himself innocent, Apollonius signified to the mob that he must be heard. The governor then explained that the real blame lay with the monopolists whom he named. The people then wanted to seize these men and take the hoarded corn by force. Again Apollonius interfered, giving them to understand that if they would be patient their demands should be satisfied without the commission of crime. The monopolizers were sent for and rebuked and were glad to purchase their lives by the surrender of their corn.
When Apollonius had fulfilled his vow he went to Issus and Alexandria and thence to Antioch in Syria. At this place he entered the temple of Apollo Daphaneus and rebuked the neglected state of the temple and the absence of rational worship. At Antioch he occasionally addressed the people, “but he avoided promiscuous multitudes and places of public resort, for he disliked their rude and disorderly manners.” But, so far from shutting himself up from all communication with his fellows, “he admitted with pleasure into his conversations all who were of good behaviour.”
During the reign of Tiberius and Caligula, Apollonius did not visit the capital, though he kept himself informed of all matters that transpired there, without apparently paying any attention to political affairs. He went from city to city and from temple to temple. “Whenever he visited a city which happened to be of Greek origin and was in possession of an established code of religious worship, he called together the priests and discoursed to them on the nature of their gods and the discipline of their temples, and if he found that they had departed from the ancient and usual forms, he always set them right. But when he came to a city where religious rites and customs were barbarous and with immoral tendencies, he enquired by whom they were established and for what they were intended and in what manner they were observed, at the same time suggesting whatever occurred to him as better, more becoming, and more adapted for the general good; this he sometimes did by private advice to the priests; at others by public discourses.
“Wherever Apollonius in his travels found devotees of virtue and morality associated for the promotion of the true philosophy, he commanded them to ask what they pleased, assuring them that those who cultivate the virtues and the true philosophy ought in the mormng to commune with the gods concerning the matters of the gods, and in the evening of human affairs.” When he had answered all questions of friends and talked as much as he deemed sufficient, he then addressed the mu1titude, with whom he always discoursed in the evening, but never before noon. In this manner of occupation his time was employed many years at Antioch and surrounding cities up to A.D. 40.
He now determines to travel in foreign countries and, accompanied by two faithful and expert scribes of his own family, he set out for India. In order to hold converse with the Persian Magi, he travelled by Babylon and Susa. At Ninus, on the Euphrates, he met Damis, who became his companion and disciple, and to whose journals we owe most of the particulars of his life. Spending a short time in Mesopotamia, they entered the territory of Babylon, where Apollonius was met by the king’s guard and commanded to halt. Mr. Tredwell omits the account of the journey to India referring his readers to the full account in Bewick’s “Life of Apoilonius.” Eliphas Levi considers that this account of the Indian journey is in reality a book of initiation, symbolically setting forth the trials and triumphs of him who aspires to tread the narrow way. The account has often been impugned as fabulous, but Mr. Tredwell says “the account of Darnis is so minute in detail and exact in description, and bears such evidence of artless honesty and truthfulness, that we are convinced on reading it that it could have been written by none other than an eye witness. Many of the places and events described and related by Damis were never heard of in Greece before the visit of Apollonius, the truth of which modern research has confirmed.” He also adds that “it was through these Indian itineraries of Apollonius that renewed impulsion was given to the Hindu element pervading the religion and philosophy of Greece.” If the account of this journey was so written as to form a book of initiation, there is no reason for supposing that the separate events recorded therein were not true. In any case it is more than probable that Apollonius himself received instruction and initiation on this journey.
After his wanderings in India he returned to his native country by the Erythræan Sea, Babylon, thence to Ninus and to Antioch—subsequently the witness of ten ecclesiastical councils. He stayed here several months A.D. 48; but, becoming disgusted with the dissolute morals of the place, he left it for Seleucia, the seaport of Antioch and thence took ship for Smyrna.
They touched at Cyprus, where Apollonius and his disciples visited the temples of New Paphos. Prevented by the weather from remaining longer on the island, they put to sea agaai and, in the evening anchored at Rhodes. From this place they continued their voyage to Panormus, the port of Ephesus. As soon as his arrival at this place was known, the citizens left heir accustomed occupations to meet and welcome him. He delivered several moral and religious discourses, “and the city of Ephesus, which was so notorious for its profligacy and frivolity was brought back by the teachings of Apollonius to the cultivation of philosophy, and to abandon their dissipation and cruel sports.”
The priests and oracles of Colophon and of Didymus and of Pergamus had already declared in his favour, and all persons who stood in need of assistance were commanded by the oracle to repair to Apollonius, such being the w ill of Apollo and the Fates. Embassies were sent from all the principal cities of Ionia offering him rights of hospitality.
Smyrna sent ambassadors who, when questioned for a reason of the invitation, replied, ‘To see you, Apollonius, and be seen by you.’ ‘Then,’ said Apollonius, ‘I Will come; our curiosity is mutual.’
While at Ephesus, Apollonius spent his time visiting the temples and lecturing to the people. He also went to other places near and addressed the people wherever he went. From Ephesus he went to Smyrna, and as he approached the city, the Ionians, who were engaged in their Panionian festival came out to meet him. “He found the people given up to idle disputings, and much divided their opinions upon all subjects which tended for the public welfare and the good government of the city. He exhorted them their disputes to vie with each other in giving the best advice or in charging most faithfully the duties of citizens, in beautifying their city with works of art and graceful buildings, advising them that beautiful cities resemble the statue of Jupiter Olympus 2 which Phidias had made, or the elegant work of Cleanthes, the Corinthian, or of Polycletus or the fabulous works of Dædolus, always beautiful and artistic and giving joy and culture to the beholders.” At Smyrna Apollonius delivered many discourses, always taking care to confine himself “to such topics as were most useful to his hearers.” He was the guest of Theron, a stoic and an astronomer.
While at Smyrna ambassadors from Ephesus came to Apollonius entreating him to return to their city to stay the ravages of the plague that had broken out. It appears that Apollomus had already warned the Ephesians that unless they paid more attention to the sanitary condition of their city a plague would inevitably break out. He went to Ephesus, and after haranguing the people promised them “that he would that day put a check upon the disease.” According to Lactantius, te Ephesians consecrated a statue to Apollonius in commemoration of his having delivered them from the plague.
From Ephesus he went to Athens, after visiting Pergamus, where he discoursed in the temple of Athena Pallas. He also visited Ilium, a three days’ journey from Pergamus. Near this place he is said to have visited the tomb of Achilles, where he passed a night during which several questions he put were answered. He then sailed for Lesbos, landing at Methymna.. There he restored the statue of the god and built a chapel over It. He also visited the temple of Orpheus at Mytilene, at which place he spent one season, remaining till autumn. From Mytilene he went to Samos and thence to Athens. He arrived on the first day of the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries. Apollonius wished to be initiated into the mysteries, but the hierophant refused to admit him as being “a man not pure in things touching religion.” Apollonius replied that the real reason of this refusal was because “I know more of the ceremonies of initiation than you do.” The hierophant then wanted to initiate Apollonius, who, however, declined, saying he would wait until another hierophant as appointed.
Apollonius passed his time at Athens with the philosophers who were gathered there in considerable numbers, though the schools had already begun to decline. He delivered many discourses “both in the temples to the priests, and in the stoa to the people.” He is said to have corrected many abuses of the temples, and on one occasion to have cast a devil out of a young man. He remained two years at Athens and then went on an embassy the Thessalians “in obedience to a command of Achilles.” He visited all the temples in Greece, purifying and amending the worship where necessary in each place. Passing through athens he went on to Corinth, visiting Eleusis and Megara on the way. At Corinth he was met by an embassy of Elians who invited him to come to Olympia to witness the games. There the Spartans sent him an invitation to visit their country after the games were ended. He accepted the invitation, but, noticing the effeminate appearance of the ambassadors, he sent by them a message to the Ephori, blaming the modern system of education and recommending them to return to their ancient customs. At Olympia Apollonius discoursed on such subjects as fortitude, wisdom, temperance, charity and other virtues delivering his lectures in the porch of the temple of Jupiter. According to his promise he went to Sparta and found there that the habits of the people were simple, manly, and unostentatious, and that their appearance in no way resembled the effeminacy of the ambassadors sent to him at Olympia. From Sparta he went to Epidaurus, where he stayed in the temple of Æsculapius, to whom divine honours were paid. Thence, by way of Malea, Bœa and Acmea, he went to Crete, staying at Gnossus. He also visited the labyrinth. While at Crete, Apollonius, engaged at the time in addressing the people, felt the shock of the earthquake and eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed the cities of Campania, Herculaneum and Pompeii, A.D. 64.
From Crete, Apollonius proceeded to Rome, going by sea to Puteoli and thence by land along the Appian way. At this time Nero ruled the Roman empire, and its capital was a dangerous place for philosophers to visit. One after another these had been imprisoned, exiled or murdered, apparently because their virtuous lives were a reproach to Roman vice. So strong were the warnings received by Apollonius on his way to Rome, that out of thirty disciples who accompanied him, only eight remained with him.
They took up their abode in an inn near the ancient city walls and adjacent to Cicero’s house. They spent several days visiting the different parts of the city. They endeavoured to attract as little attention as possible, and for some time were not molested. One evening they were discovered by a spy. This man, feigning drunkenness, went about the city singing verses written by Nero, with power to arraign all who hastened with inattention or who did not pay him.
As Apollonius and his friends did not seem greatly impressed by the singing, the spy accused them of violating the majesty of Nero. However they paid the singer and passed on. The next day Apollonius was taken before Telesinus, one of the Consuls. The Consul was amazed at his religious zeal and his boldness in answer to questions put to him, “and by way of honouring him, offered to grant him a permit to enter the temples.” Apollonius said he preferred “to visit temples not so vigilantly guarded.” After this Apollonius passed all is time in the temples, going from one to another and, as usual introducing reforms wherever they appeared called for. He visited none, but declined to receive none, but at last he excited the suspicion of Nero through his influence over Demetrius, a celebrated cynic philosopher. Apollonius was now watched, but apparently left Rome for a time. Returning thither he was arrested on a charge of high treason. It is said that an informer presented himself at the trial before Tigellinus, the public prosecutor, with a roll on which were inscribed all the accusations against Apollonius. This roll the informer flourished about, boasting that Apollonius’ hour was come. When he presented the document to Tigellinus, everybody was surprised to find it blank. This is said to have been effected by the substitution of a blank roll by Menippus. However popular opinion immediately invested Apollonius with power over demons. Apollonius gave bold answers to interrogatories of Tigellinus who dismissed him saying, “Go where you please, only giving security for your appearance when required.” Apollonius now became more cautious in his behaviour. One day he is said to have restored to life a maiden who was being carried out for burial. Apollonius went from Rome to Spain, but we have no particulars of the route taken, though there are records of his conversations with his disciples during this period, especially his criticisms on Nero. While Apollonius was in Spain, Vindex, governor of Gaul, was planning a revolt which Apollonius is said to have aided by his advice. Mr. Tredwell thinks that the real object of Apollonius’ journey to Spain was to strike a blow against the power of Nero by encouraging the rebellion that shortly followed his departure.
After the fall of Nero, Apollonius went to Carthage, and thence by Utica, to Sicily. Here he visited temples in various parts of the island, and remained a year in Sicily. Thence he sailed for Athens. At Leucas he changed his vessel, saying, “Let us leave this ship, for it is not good for us to sail in her to Achaia.” The ship quitted at Leucas was wrecked in the Gulf of Crissa. At Athens “Apollonius presented himself for initiation into the mysteries, and the rites were performed by the very hierophant whom he declared should be the successor of the hierophant who had formerly refused him initiation.”
Apollonius passed the winter in Greece and then determined to visit Egypt. He arrived at Alexandria A.D. 69. Here the citizens welcomed him gladly, for they had long held him in the greatest reverence. At this time Vespasian, proclaimed emperor by the army, was on his way to Rome. Passing through Alexandria he at once enquired after Apollonius. Being told that the philosopher was in the temple, Vespasian at once went thither and at their meeting said, “To you, .Apollonius, more than any other man, am I indebted for my present success. I know your participation in the present revolution, and to you I shall look for advice.” Vespasian remained several months in Alexandria, and during that time was constantly in the company of Apollonius. Apollonius is said to have performed many miracles while at Alexandria, some of them under the eye of the emperor. A rupture took place between Vespasian and Apollonius, because the former deprived Greece of certain liberties granted by Nero, and moreover sold offices and pardons, seeming to forget all but the claims of avarice.
After the departure of Vespasian from Egypt, Apollonius, accompanied by his disciples, went up the Nile to Sais, where they arrived on the day of the celebration of the festival of Neith which took place every fourth year. From Sais they went to Heliopolis, at that time deserted, and thence to Memphis. Pthah was the deity worshipped at Memphis, and near his temple was another “dedicated to the pigmy god Cabeiri, into which none but priests entered.” Apollomus considered that the pyramids were not constructed by the Egyptians and were constructed “firstly and chiefly as tombs; secondly, as places of worship; thirdly, to gratify the vanity of the builders—a people who inhabited the country anterior to the Egyptians.” He compares them to the pagodas of India, and says that the meaning of Memphis is “land of the pyramid.” During his Egyptian journey Apollonius was much disgusted at the excessive reverence paid to animals. His principal object in visiting Egypt was to see the gymnosophists of upper Egypt, and to compare their tenets and mode of life with those of the Indian philosophers. He passed some time with them, but found them far below their Hindu prototypes in knowledge, he said, “And now, in all candour let me submit to you: Do you think that your methos for propagating truth and purifying the world can prove otherwise than a failure? True, it may tend to the purification of yourselves; but why not practise your great virtues in the world and surrounded by temptations? Why not remain in the midst of crowded populations and help to purify them by your example and practice? Do you not rob the world of your ennobling influence by taking yourselves out of it? I think your system of philosophy in these particulars has little to recommend it besides its selfishness.” In a other conversation with these Egyptians Apollonius, speaking of his own experiences, says the philosophy of Pythagoras seemed to invite him within its embraces in these words; “O young man, the path to which I would direct your steps is full of cares and self-denials. If any man conform to my rule of life he must remove from his table all animal food and forget the use of wine; he must not mingle the cup of wisdom set in the hearts of all men with a love of wine; he is to wear no garments made from either hair or wool ; his shoes must be of the bark of trees; and his rest and sleep wherever and whenever he can get them. I am so severe with my followers, that I have bridles for curbing the tongue. Attend now, and I will tell you the rewards which await him ho makes e his choice. He shall possess, without a rival, the virtues, justice and temperance; he shall become more a terror to tyrants than their slave, and shall be more acceptable to the gods, through his humble offerings, than they who shed the blood of hetacombs of bulls; he shall be sympathetic in the sufferings of others, with a transcendent love for all humanity. When once he is made pure, I will give him knowledge of hereafter, and so fill his visual ray with light as to render him capable of distinguishing the merit of gods and heroes, and of appreciating, to their full value, all shadowy phantasms whenever they assume the form of mortals or immortals.” This, Apollonius told the Egyptian, was his philosophy and the life he had chosen. He also said, “I determined to seek the truth from its fountain head and for such reasons I was induced to visit the Indians.”
Apollonius visited all the historical places on both aides of the Nile, ascending as far as the first cataract and then returned to Alexandria. He then travelled into the East, the country of the Idumeans, Phœnicians, Syrians, Sicilians (Tarsus) and afterwards into Ionia. At the death of Vespasian his son Titus succeeded to the imperial dignity. On his way to Rome, Titus requested Apollonius to meet him at Argos and had a conference with the philosopher there. Titus had but a short reign and was followed by Domitian. This emperor soon showed signs of the characteristics of Nero, and Apollonius set to work travelling through the empire and sowing the seeds of discontent against the emperor. At Smyrna he preached on “Fate and Necessity” with special reference to the troubles of the time. He had been secretly advocating the cause of Nerva, and for this Domitian determined to put him to death. Apollonius, without telling his companions whither he intended going, set out from Smyrna and went to Puteoli, where he had a long conference with Demetrius the philosopher, who strongly advised him not to risk a visit to Rome. Apollonius, however, insisted on going on, and on his arrival was placed in custody to await the emperor’s pleasure. He was brought before Domitian, whose questions he answered with great boldness, and remanded back to prison, where he was loaded with irons. On his second examination he was accused of wearing strange garments and long hair, of allowing and encouraging men to call him a god, of predicting a plague in Ephesus through magic and turning it away by incantations, of sacrificing an Arcadian boy for purposes of divination. Apollonius made a lengthy speech in his defence, at the end of which it is said he vanished from the court-room and appeared the same day to Damis and Demetrius at Puteoli (at least three days’ journey from Rome) as they were conversing on the sea-shore. The day after he left Puteoli for Olympia. and travelled about Greece until his death, about which there are different accounts, in A.D. 98.
The main authority for the life of Apollonius is Philostratus, who was born A.D. 172. He was a well-known writer and has been frequently quoted as an authority; his description of the temple of Ephesus was sufficiently accurate to enable Mr. Wood to discover, in 1870, the exact site of the great temple of Diana at Ephesus. The materials used by Philostratus in compiling the biography of Apollonius were, the journal of Damis, who accompanied his master throughout his wanderings and seems to have recorded all that transpired at the time, much as Boswell did for his biography of Johnson; a sketch of Apollonius by Maximus of Ægæ, written between A.D. 17 and A.D. 20, and necessarily imperfect; also another account in the works of Mæragenes, together with a collection of the letters of Apollonius made by the Roman Emperor Hadrian. There is also frequent mention of Apollonius in the works of ancient writers.
In the above narrative, taken, as we have said, from Mr. Tredwell’s work, there is but little mention of the miracles said to have been performed by Apollonius. The account of Philostratus is however full of such occurrences. This fact has, in later times, been urged to the discredit of Philostratus as a historian, especially by Christian apologists, who, apparently claiming a monopoly of miraculous power for their own founder and his followers have tried to disprove even the existence of Apollonius. It is quite possible that the miracles may have been exaggerated, but there seems no reason to doubt that Apollonius, initiated in India really had the power—an extension of the mesmeric faculty—of curing diseases even in the absence of the sufferers. The story of his sudden disappearance from the emperor’s court after his trial whether by the production of a maya or other means, is paralleled by an account of a Brahman ascetic in recent times, who, summoned before a court at some distance off, delayed starting till within an hour of the time fixed for the hearing, and yet appeared to take his trial at the proper time. There are some members or the Theosophical Society who can also recall an exact parallel to the disappearance in court of the writing on the document when Apollonius was brought before Tigellinus. In the case of his raising the young girl from the dead, it is to be noticed that she was only recently deceased and the body was not worn out, and in some such cases it is possible for an initiate to induce the principles—no yet completely separated—to reunite. But perhaps the most striking proof of the power of Apollonius was the manner in which he was received by temple priests wherever he went and the deference they paid to his recommendations of reform. When we consider that all the ancient ceremonies were founded on specific reasons, that their virtue depended on the exact observation of the rules laid down, and hence that there was every inducement to the priests to decline the smallest alteration, it is not a little remarkable that they were willing to listen to Apollonius and it is impossible to imagine any but an initiate succeeding under similar circumstances.
Another point to be noticed is that Apollonius did not confine his efforts to attempts at the reformation of the priests alone, but he preached practical sermons for the people, and never failed to enforce the great truth that those who would know the doctrine must lead the life, and that men must be as well as know.
In several places he expresses his conviction that India is the real fountain-head of religious philosophy, and that he had drawn the thence the best of what he knew. The fact that Apollonius, having attained in a distant country the highest wisdom within his reach was able to impress its dictates upon so many systems is a fresh proof, were any needed, of the unity of the truth, of the supremacy of the Wisdom Religion, the source of all the creeds.
Of political action enough has been said to show how great was his inffluence. He lived in difficult times and seems to have done what lay in his power to prevent the bad from becoming worse. On the conflicting accounts of the manner of his death we make no comment, he is not the only initiate who is said to have vanished. Without having attained the full rank of highest adeptship, Apollonius was one of those men who combining the qualities of a “great man” with the powers of the initiate, appear on earth from time to time, powerfully affecting their generation during life and leaving a sacred influence after death.
1. “A. Sketch of the Life of Apollonius of Tyana : or the First Ten Decades of our Era,” by D. M. Tredwell. New York, Frederic Tredwell. Readers will find in this book a most interesting account of the times of Apollonius and descriptions of the places he visited, illustrated by quotations that show that a wide field of research has been traversed by the author. In the attempt however to combine a picture of the age with the life of the philosopher the latter tends at times to become somewhat obscured.
2. A marvel of art in ivory and gold.