the famous author of the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, was born most probably about A.D. 172. Eusebius calls him an Athenian, because he taught at Athens; but Eunapius and Suidas always speak of him as a Lemnian. He frequented the schools of the Sophists, and he mentions his having heard Damiannus of Ephesus, Proclus Naucratitas, and Hippodromus of Larissa. He afterwards became known to Julia Augusta, the wife of Severus, and was one of those learned men whom this philosophical empress had continually about her. It was by her command that he wrote his celebrated Life of Apollonius of Tyana. His Lives of the Sophists contain many things which are to be met with nowhere else. The Heroics of Philostratus are only a dialogue between a vintner of the Thracian Chersonesus and a Phoenician; while his Imagines are elegant descriptions and illustrations of some ancient paintings, and other particulars relating to the fine arts. The last piece is a collection of Philostratus' Letters.

Of the collected works of Philostratus there is the edition of F. Morellius, Paris, 1688; that of Olearius, 2 vols. folio, Leipzig, 1709; and lastly, and by far the best, there is the edition of C. L. Kayser, 4to, Zurich, 1844. The first two books of the Life of Apollonius of Tyana were translated into English by the unfortunate Charles Blount, London, 1680; and shortly after prohibited.