Another APOLLONIUS, a sophist, wrote a Homeric Lexicon, which was first published by Villoison. His Ἀλέξας Ὀρδουκάς appeared in two vols. 4to, at Paris, in 1773.
APOLLONIUS of Tyana, a celebrated Pythagorean philosopher, was born at Tyana, the capital of Cappadocia, a few years before the Christian era. At the age of 14 he was sent by his father to Tarsus, to study grammar and rhetoric under the Phoenician Euthydemus; but finding the vain and luxurious manners of that city unfavourable to serious study, he retired, with his father's permission, to the neighbouring town of Ægæ, where he spent most of his time in the temple of Esculapius, in the company of priests and philosophers. Here he fell in with Euxenus, a philosopher who professed the principles of Pythagoras, but followed in his practice the less rigid maxims of Epicurus. Apollonius received with enthusiasm the Pythagorean instructions of Euxenus, and with more consistency than his master, determined at the age of 16 to mould his future life by the precepts of the Samian sage. Thenceforth renouncing the pleasures and luxuries of life, he devoted himself to the cultivation of his soul, and the improvement of his fellow-men. Abjuring the use of animal flesh and of wine, he fed on the simple fruits of the earth, wore no clothing but linen, and no sandals on his feet, suffered his hair to grow, and slept on the hard ground. The still more difficult penance of a five years' silence, prescribed by Pythagoras to his disciples, was a few years after strictly observed by Apollonius. This period he passed chiefly in Pamphylia and Cilicia, enduring the painful trial of passing through scenes of violence and disorder without suffering even a murmur to pass his lips; successful, however, if his admiring biographer may be credited, in restraining tumult and excess by the look of his countenance, or the silent eloquence of his hand. At the city of Aspendus, he found the inhabitants rising in mutiny against the governor, whom they unjustly blamed for the general scarcity of corn. The presence of Apollonius awed them into silence, and the governor urged in his own defence that the wealthy citizens who hoarded their corn were the authors of the famine. The excited populace were hurrying to take vengeance on the monopolizers, and plunder their stores, when Apollonius, by silent signs, hushed their fury, and the hoarders of the corn were brought into his presence. With difficulty restraining his voice, amid the tears of perishing women and children and old men, he wrote on a tablet the following words:—"Apollonius to the monopolizers of corn in Aspendus, greeting! The earth is the common mother of all, for she is just. You are unjust, for you have made her only the mother of yourselves: and if you will not cease from thus doing, I will not suffer you to remain upon her." This just rebuke, says Philostratus, had the desired effect: the market was filled with grain, and the city recovered from its distress. This story, whether true or not, may be taken as a fair indication of the real character of Apollonius, both as to the general tenor of his moral teaching, and his high and mysterious pretensions.
After spending some time at Antioch, Apollonius extended his travels into the East, and wandered over Assyria, Persia, and India, conversing with Magi, Brahmins, Gymnosophists, and priests, visiting the temples, preaching a purer morality and religion than he found, and attracting wherever he went admiration and reverence. At Nineveh he met with Damis, who became his disciple and the companion of his journeyings, and left those doubtful records of his life which Philostratus made use of, and probably improved upon. He afterwards visited Egypt, Greece, and Italy, and died, as is supposed, at Ephesus, at a very advanced age. His biographer has represented his death as involved in doubt and mystery, with the view of heightening the reverence due to his hero.
After his death Apollonius was worshipped with divine
Apollo. honours for a period of four centuries. A temple was raised to him at Tyana, which obtained from the Romans the immunities of a sacred city. His statue was placed among those of the gods, and his name was invoked as a being possessed of superhuman powers. The defenders of Paganism, at the period of its decline, placed the life and miracles of Apollonius in rivalry to those of Christ; and some modern Deists have not disdained to make the same unworthy comparison.
The life of Apollonius by Philostratus, composed about 120 years after the philosopher's death, by order of Julia, wife of the Emperor Severus, is the only source of our information regarding him. Founded, as it is, on the insufficient testimony of Damis, combined with vague and exaggerated traditions, we are left to draw our estimate of Apollonius from mere probability. See PHILOSTRATUS. It would seem, then, that though he may very possibly have been led, in his desire to strengthen his influence over men's minds, to use artifices and pretensions unworthy of a true sage, he was far from having been a vulgar or shallow impostor. With some of the spirit of a moral and religious reformer, he appears to have attempted, though vainly, to animate with a new and purer life the expiring breath of Paganism. His journey to the East was probably directed by the wish to trace the original traditions of the human race to their native source, believing, as he seems to have done, that these had been corrupted by the impure mythology of an artful priesthood. The story already quoted illustrates his doctrine that the earth was the common home of the human family, and that its inhabitants could attain true happiness only in the recognition of their mutual brotherhood. He inculcated the uselessness of supplication and of sacrifice, as unworthy of the Divine majesty, proclaiming the only acceptable offering to be a pure and devout heart.
In a philosophical relation, Apollonius may be regarded as the precursor of the Alexandrian philosophy, by bringing philosophy and religion into union, and attempting to combine the philosophical spirit of Greece with the mystical religion of the East. Of the authentic works of Apollonius none are extant but his Apology, preserved along with the life by Philostratus.