Chapter 4

Foucart (P.), Des Associations religieuses chez les Grecs, Thiases, Éranes, Orgéons, avec le Texte des Inscriptions relatives à ces Associations (Paris; 1873).

Lüders (H. O.), Die dionyschischen Künstler (Berlin; 1873).

Cohn (M.), Zum römischen Vereinsrecht: Abhandlung aus der Rechtsgeschichte (Berlin; 1873). Also the notice of it in Bursian’s Philol. Jaresbericht (1873), ii. 238-304.

Henzen (G.), Acta Fratrum Arvalium quæ supersunt;... accedunt Fragmenta Fastorum in Luco Arvalium effossa (Berlin; 1874).

Heinrici (G.), “Die Christengemeinde Korinths und die religiösen genossenschaften der Griechen”; “Zur Geschichte der Anfange paulinischer Gemeinden”; arts. in Zeitschr. für wissensch. Theol. (Jena, etc.; 1876), pp. 465-526, particularly pp. 479 sqq.; 1877, pp. 89-130.

Duruy (V.), “Du Régime municipal dans l’Empire romain,” art. in La Revue historique (Paris; 1876), pp. 355 sqq.; also his Histoire des Romanis (Paris; 1843, 1844), i. 149 sqq.

De Rossi, Roma Sotteranea (Rome; 1877), iii. 37 sqq., and especially pp. 507 sqq.

Marquardt (J.), Römische Staatsverwaltung, iii. 131-142, in vol. vi. of Marquardt and Mommsen’s Handbuch der römischen Altherthümer (Leipzig; 1878); an excellent summary with valuable notes, especially the section “Ersatz der Gentes durch die Sodalitates für fremde Culte.”

Boissier (G.), La Religion romaine d’Auguste aux Antonins (Paris; 2nd ed. 1878), ii. 238-304 (1st ed. 1874).

Hatch (E.), The Organization of the Early Christian Churches: The Bampton Lectures for 1880 (London; 2nd ed. 1882); see especially Lecture ii., “Bishops and Deacons,” pp. 26-32: German ed. Die Gesellschaftsverfassung der christlichen Kirchen in Althertum (1883), p. 20; see this for additional literature.

Newmann (K. J.), “θιασῶται Ἰησοῦ,” art. in Jahrbb. für prot. Theol. (Leipzig, etc.; 1885), pp. 123-125.

Schürer (E.), A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Eng. tr. (Edinburgh; 1893), Div. ii, vol. ii. pp. 255 and 300.

Owen (J.), “On the Organization of the Early Church,” an Introductory Essay to the English translation of Harnack’s Sources of the Apostolic Canons (London; 1895).

Anst (E.), Die Religion der Römer; vol. xiii. Darstellungen aus dem Gebiete der nichtchristlichen Religionsgeschichte (Münster i. W.; 1899).

See also Whiston and Wayte’s art. “Arvales Fratres,” and Moyle’s arts. “Collegium” and “Universitas,” in Smith, Wayte and Marindin’s Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities (London; 3rd ed. 1890-1891); and also, of course, the arts. “Collegium” and “Sodalitas” in Pauly’s Realencyclopädie der classichen Alterthumswissenschaft, though they are now somewhat out of date.

1From a fragment of The Cretans. See Lobeck’s Aglaophamus, p. 622.

2Pronounced Týǎna, with the accent on the first syllable and the first a short.

3Alexander sive Pseudomantis, vi.

4De Magia, xc. (ed. Hildebrand, 1842, ii. 614).

5τελέσματα.Telesmawas “a consecrated object, turned by the Arabs intotelsam(talisman)”; see Liddell and Scott’s Lexicon, sub voc.

6Justin Martyr, Opera, ed. Otto (2nd ed.; Jena, 1849), iii. 32.

7Lib. lxxvii. 18.

8Life of Alexander Severus, xxix.

9Life of Aurelian, xxiv.

10“Quæ qui velit nosse, græcos legat libros qui de ejus vita conscripti sunt.” These accounts were probably the books of Maximus, Mœragenes, and Philostratus.

11An Egyptian epic poet, who wrote several poetical histories in Greek; he flourished in the last decade of the third century.

12Sidonius Apollinaris, Epp., viii. 3. See also Legrand d’Aussy, Vie d’Apollonius de Tyane (Paris; 1807), p. xlvii.

13Porphyry, De Vita Pythagoræ, section ii., ed. Kiessling (Leipzig; 1816). Iamblichus De Vita Pythagorica, chap. xxv., ed. Kiessling (Leipzig; 1813); see especially K.’s note, pp. 11 sqq. See also Porphyry, Frag., De Styge, p. 285, ed. Holst.

14See Duchesne on the recently discovered works of Macarius Magnes (Paris; 1877).

15The most convenient text is by Gaisford (Oxford; 1852), Eusebii Pamphili contra Hieroclem; it is also printed in a number of editions of Philostratus. There are two translations in Latin, one in Italian, one in Danish, all bound up with Philostratus’ Vita, and one in French printed apart (Discours d’Eusèbe Evêque de Cesarée touchant les Miracles attribuez par les Payens à Apollonius de Tyane, tr. by Cousin. Paris; 1584, 12mo, 135 pp.).

16Lactantius, Divinæ Institutiones, v. 2, 3; ed. Fritsche (Leipzig; 1842), pp. 233, 236.

17Arnobius, Adversus Nationes, i. 52; ed. Hildebrand (Halle; 1844), p. 86. The Church Father, however, with that exclusiveness peculiar to the Judæo-Christian view, omits Moses from the list of Magi.

18John Chrysostom, Adversus Judæos, v. 3 (p. 631); De Laudibus Sancti Pauli Apost. Homil., iv. (p. 493 D.; ed. Montfauc.).

19Hieronymus, Ep. ad Paulinum, 53 (text ap. Kayser, præf. ix.).

20August., Epp., cxxxviii. Text quoted by Legrand d’Aussy, op. cit., p. 294.

21Isidorus Pelusiota, Epp., p. 138; ed. J. Billius (Paris; 1585).

22See Arnobius, loc. cit.

23Sidonius Apollinaris, Epp., viii. 3. Also Fabricius, Bibliotheca Græca, pp. 549, 565 (ed. Harles). The work of Sidonius on Apollonius is unfortunately lost.

24Amplissimus ille philosophus(xxiii. 7). See also xxi. 14; xxiii. 19.

25τι θεῶν τε καὶ ἀνθρώπου μέσον, meaning thereby presumably one who has reached the grade of being superior to man, but not yet equal to the gods. This was called by the Greeks the “dæmonian” order. But the word “dæmon,” owing to sectarian bitterness, has long been degraded from its former high estate, and the original idea is now signified in popular language by the term “angel.” Compare Plato, Symposium, xxiii., πᾶν τὸ δαιμόνιον μεταξύ ἐστι θεοῦ τε καὶ θνητοῦ, “all that is dæmonian is between God and man.”

26Eunapius, Vitæ Philosophorum, Proœmium, vi.; ed. Boissonade (Amsterdam; 1822), p. 3.

27Réville, Apollonius of Tyana (tr. from the French), p. 56 (London; 1866). I have, however, not been able to discover on what authority this statement is made.

28Insignis philosophus; see his Chronicon, written down to the year 519.

29In his Chronographia. See Legrand d’Aussy, op. cit., p. 313.

30Chiliades, ii. 60.

31Cited by Legrand d’Aussy, op. cit., p. 286.

32φιλόσοφος Πυθαγόρειος στοιχειωματικός—Cedrenus, Compendium Historiarium, i. 346; ed. Bekker. The word which I have rendered by “adept” signifies one “who has power over the elements.”

33Legrand d’Aussy, op. cit., p. 308.

34If we except the disputed Letters and a few quotations from one of Apollonius’ lost writings.

35Philostratus de Vita Apollonii Tyanei Libri Octo, tr. by A. Rinuccinus, and Eusebius contra Hieroclem, tr. by Z. Acciolus (Venice; 1501-04, fol.). Rinucci’s translation was improved by Beroaldus and printed at Lyons (1504?), and again at Cologne, 1534.

36F. Baldelli, Filostrato Lemnio della Vita di Apollonio Tianeo (Florence; 1549, 8vo).

37B. de Vignère, Philostrate de la Vie d’Apollonius (Paris; 1596, 1599, 1611). Blaise de Vignère’s translation was subsequently corrected by Frédéric Morel and later by Thomas Artus, Sieur d’Embry, with bombastic notes in which he bitterly attacks the wonder-workings of Apollonius. A French translation was also made by Th. Sibilet about 1560, but never published; the MS. was in the Bibliothèque Imperiale. See Miller, Journal des Savants, 1849, p. 625, quoted by Chassang, op. infr. cit., p. iv.

38F. Morellus, Philostrati Lemnii Opera, Gr. and Lat. (Paris; 1608).

39G. Olearius, Philostratorum quæ supersunt Omnia, Gr. and Lat. (Leipzig; 1709).

40C. L. Kayser, Flavii Philostrati quæ supersunt, etc. (Zurich; 1844, 4to). In 1849 A. Westermann also edited a text, Philostratorum et Callistrati Opera, in Didot’s “Scriptorum Græcorum Bibliotheca” (Paris; 1849, 8vo). But Kayser brought out a new edition in 1853 (?), and again a third, with additional information in the Preface, in the “Bibliotheca Teubneriana” (Leipzig; 1870).

41For a general summary of opinions prior to 1807, of writers who mention Apollonius incidentally, see Legrand d’Aussy, op. cit., ii. pp. 313-327.

42L’Histoire d’Apollone de Tyane convaincue de Fausseté et d’Imposture (Paris; 1705).

43An Account of the Life of Apollonius Tyaneus (London; 1702), tr. out of the French, from vol. ii. of Lenain de Tillemont’s Histoire des Empereurs (2nd ed., Paris; 1720): to which is added Some Observations upon Apollonius. De Tillemont’s view is that Apollonius was sent by the Devil to destroy the work of the Saviour.

44A Critical and Historical Discourse upon the Method of the Principal Authors who wrote for and against Christianity from its Beginning (London; 1739), tr. from the French of M. l’Abbé Houtteville; to which is added a “Dessertation on the Life of Apollonius Tyanæus, with some Observations on the Platonists of the Latter School,” pp. 213-254.

45Anti-Hierocles oder Jesus Christus und Apollonius von Tyana in ihrer grossen Ungleichheit, dargestellt v. J. B. Lüderwald (Halle; 1793).

46Phileleutherus Helvetius, De Miraculis quæ Pythagoræ, Apollonio Tyanensi, Francisco Asisio, Dominico, et Ignatio Lojolæ tribuuntur Libellus (Draci; 1734).

47See Legrand d’Aussy, op. cit., ii. p. 314, where the texts are given.

48The Two First Books of Philostratus concerning the Life of Apollonius Tyaneus (London; 1680, fol.). Blount’s notes (generally ascribed to Lord Herbert) raised such an outcry that the book was condemned in 1693, and few copies are in existence. Blount’s notes were, however, translated into French a century later, in the days of Encyclopædism, and appended to a French version of the Vita, under the title, Vie d’Apollonius de Tyane par Philostrate avec les Commentaires donnés en Anglois par Charles Blount sur les deux Premiers Livres de cet Ouvrage (Amsterdam; 1779, 4 vols., 8vo), with an ironical dedication to Pope Clement XIV., signed “Philalethes.”

49Philosophiam Practicam Apollonii Tyanæi in Sciagraphia, exponit M. Io. Christianus Herzog (Leipzig; 1709); an academical oration of 20 pp.

50Philostratus is a difficult author to translate, nevertheless Chassang and Baltzer have succeeded very well with him; Berwick also is readable, but in most places gives us a paraphrase rather than a translation and frequently mistakes the meaning. Chassang’s and Baltzer’s are by far the best translations.

51This would have at least restored Apollonius to his natural environment, and confined the question of the divinity of Jesus to its proper Judæo-Christian ground.

52I am unable to offer any opinion on Nielsen’s book, from ignorance of Danish, but it has all the appearance of a careful, scholarly treatise with abundance of references.

53Réville’s Pagan Christ is quite a misrepresentation of the subject, and Newman’s treatment of the matter renders his treatise an anachronism for the twentieth century.

54Consisting of eight books written in Greek under the general title Τὰ ἐς τὸν Τυανέα Ἀπολλώνιον.

55ἡ φιλόσοφος, see art. “Philostratus” in Smith’s Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Biog. (London; 1870), iii. 327b.

56The italics are Gibbon’s.

57More correctly Domna Julia; Domna being not a shortened form of Domina, but the Syrian name of the empress.

58She dieda.d.217.

59The contrary is held by other historians.

60Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, I. vi

61I use the 1846 and 1870 editions of Kayser’s text throughout.

62A collection of these letters (but not all of them) had been in the possession of the Emperor Hadrian (a.d.117-138), and had been left in his palace at Antium (viii. 20). This proves the great fame that Apollonius enjoyed shortly after his disappearance from history, and while he was still a living memory. It is to be noticed that Hadrian was an enlightened ruler, a great traveller, a lover of religion, and an initiate of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

63Nineveh.

64τὰς δέλτους, writing tablets. This suggests that the account of Damis could not have been very voluminous, although Philostratus further on asserts its detailed nature (i. 19).

65One of the imperial secretaries of the time, who was famous for his eloquence, and tutor to Apollonius.

66A town not far from Tarsus.

67ὡς ὑποθειάζων τὴν φιλοσοφίαν ἐγένετο. The term ὑποθειάζων occurs only in this passage, and I am therefore not quite certain of its meaning.

68This Life by Mœragenes is casually mentioned by Origenes, Contra Celsum, vi. 41; ed. Lommatzsch (Berlin; 1841), ii. 373.

69λόγοις δαιμονίοις.

70Seldom is it that we have such a clear indication, for instance, as in i. 25; “The following is whatIhave been able to learn ... about Babylon.”

71See E. A. Schwanbeck, Megasthenis Indica (Bonn; 1846), and J. W. M’Crindle, Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian (Calcutta, Bombay, London; 1877), The Commerce and Navigation of the Erythræan Sea (1879), Ancient India as described by Ktesias (1882), Ancient India as described by Ptolemy (London; 1885), and The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great (London; 1893, 1896).

72Another good example of this is seen in the disquisition on elephants which Philostratus takes from Juba’s History of Libya (ii. 13 and 16).

73Perhaps a title, or the king of the Purus.

74Not that Philostratus makes any disguise of his embellishments; see, for instance, ii. 17, where he says: “Let me, however, defer whatIhave to say on the subject of serpents, of the manner of hunting which Damis gives a description.”

75Legends of the wonderful happenings at his birth were in circulation, and are of the same nature as all such birth-legends of great people.

76ἀρρήτῳ τινὶ σοφία ξυνέλαβε.

77Sci., than his tutor; namely, the “memory” within him, or his “dæmon.”

78This æther was presumably the mind-stuff.

79That is to say presumably he was encouraged in his efforts by those unseen helpers of the temple by whom the cures were wrought by means of dreams, and help was given psychically and mesmerically.

80“Where are you hurrying? Are you off to see the youth?”

81Compare Odyssey, xx. 18.

82I am inclined to think, however, that Apollonius was still a youngish man when he set out on his Indian travels, instead of being forty-six, as some suppose. But the difficulties of most of the chronology are insurmountable.

83φήσας οὐκ ἀνθρώπων ἑαυτῷ δεῖν, ἀλλ’ ἀνδρῶν.

84ἰδιότροπα.

85τoὺς oὕτω φιλοσοφοῦντας.

86That is to say, presumably, spend the time in silent meditation.

87That is the Brāhmans and Buddhists. Sarman is the Greek corruption of the Sanskrit Shramaṇa and Pâli Samaṇo, the technical term for a Buddhist ascetic or monk. The ignorance of the copyists changed Sarmanes first into Germanes and then into Hyrcanians!

88This shows that Apollonius was still young, and not between forty and fifty, as some have asserted. Tredwell (p. 77) dates the Indian travels as 41-54a.d.

89See especially iii. 15, 41; v. 5, 10; vii. 10, 13; viii. 28.

90ἐκφατνίσματα.

91See especially vii. 13, 14, 15, 22, 31.

92The list is full of gaps, so that we cannot suppose that Damis’ notes were anything like complete records of the numerous itineraries; not only so, but one is tempted to believe that whole journeys, in which Damis had no share, are omitted.

93Here at any rate they came in sight of the giant mountains, the Imaus (Himavat) or Himālayan Range, where was the great mountain Meros (Meru). The name of the Hindu Olympus being changed into Meros in Greek had, ever since Alexander’s expedition, given rise to the myth that Bacchus was born from the thigh (meros) of Zeus—presumably one of the facts which led Professor Max Müller to stigmatise the whole of mythology as a “disease of language.”

94Referring to his instructors he says, “I ever remember my masters and journey through the world teaching what I have learned from them” (vi. 18).

95According to some, Apollonius would be now about sixty-eight years of age. But if he were still young (say thirty years old or so) when he left for India, he must either have spent a very long period in that country, or we have a very imperfect record of his doings in Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, and Spain, after his return.

96For the most recent study in English on the subject of Æsculapius see The Cult of Asclepios, by Alice Walton, Ph.D., in No. III. of The Cornell Studies in Classical Philology (Ithaca, N.Y.; 1894).

97He evidently wrote the notes of the Indian travels long after the time at which they were made.

98This shows that Philostratus came across them in some work or letter of Apollonius, and is therefore independent of Damis’ account for this particular.

99I—arχas, arχa(t)s, arhat.

100Tantalus is fabled to have stolen the cup of nectar from the gods; this was the amṛita, the ocean of immortality and wisdom, of the Indians.

101The words οὐδεν κεκτημένους ἢ τὰ πάντων, which Philostratus quotes twice in this form, can certainly not be changed into μηδὲν κεκτημένους τὰ πάντων ἔχειν without doing unwarrantable violence to their meaning.

102See Tacitus, Historia, ii. 3.

103Berwick, Life of Apollonius, p. 200n.

104He also built a precinct round the tomb of Leonidas at Thermopylæ (iv. 23).

105A great centre of divination by means of dreams (see ii. 37).

106The word γυμνός (naked), however, usually means lightly clad, as, for instance, when a man is said to plough “naked,” that is with only one garment, and this is evident from the comparison made between the costume of the Gymnosophists and that of people in the hot weather at Athens (vi. 6).

107For they had neither huts nor houses, but lived in the open air.

108He spent, we are told, no less than a year and eight months with Vardan, King of Babylon, and was the honoured guest of the Indian Rājāh “Phraotes.”

109See i. 22 (cf. 40), 34; iv. 4, 6, 18 (cf. v. 19), 24, 43; v. 7, 11, 13, 30, 37; vi. 32; viii. 26.

110This expression is, however, perhaps only to be taken as rhetorical, for in viii. 8, the incident is referred to in the simple words “when he departed (ἀπῆλθε) from the tribunal.”

111That is to say not in a “form,” but in his own nature.

112See in this connection L. v. Schroeder, Pythagoras und die Inder, eine Untersuchung über Herkunft und Abstammung der pythagoreischen Lehren (Leipzig; 1884).

113This has reference to the preserved hunting parks, or “paradises,” of the Babylonian monarchs.

114Reading φιλοσόφῳ for φιλοσοφῶν.

115Rathgeber (G.) in his Grossgriechenland und Pythagoras (Gotha; 1866), a work of marvellous bibliographical industry, refers to three supposed portraits of Apollonius (p. 621). (i) In the Campidoglio Museum of the Vatican, Indicazione delle Sculture (Roma; 1840), p. 68, nos. 75, 76, 77; (ii) in the Musée Royal Bourbon, described by Michel B. (Naples; 1837), p. 79, no. 363; (iii) a contorniate reproduced by Visconti. I cannot trace his first reference, but in a Guide pour le Musée Royal Bourbon, traduit par C. J. J. (Naples; 1831), I find on p. 152 that no. 363 is a bust of Apollonius, 2¾ feet high, carefully executed, with a Zeus-like head, having a beard and long hair descending onto the shoulders, bound with a deep fillet. The bust seems to be ancient. I have, however, not been able to find a reproduction of it. Visconti (E. Q.) in the atlas of his Iconographie Grecque (Paris; 1808), vol. i. plate 17, facing p. 68, gives the reproduction of a contorniate, or medal with a circular border, on one side of which is a head of Apollonius and the Latin legend APOLLONIVS TEANEVS. This also represents our philosopher with a beard and long hair; the head is crowned, and the upper part of the body covered with a tunic and the philosopher’s cloak. The medal, however, is of very inferior workmanship, and the portrait is by no means pleasing. Visconti in his letterpress devotes an angry and contemptuous paragraph to Apollonius, “ce trop célèbre imposteur,” as he calls him, based on De Tillemont.

116See Chassang, op. cit., p. 458, for a criticism on this statement.

117This was before Vespasian became emperor.

118This was a staff, or baton, used as a cypher for writing dispatches. “A strip of leather was rolled slantwise round it, on which the dispatches were written lengthwise, so that when unrolled they were unintelligible; commanders abroad had a staff of like thickness, round which they rolled their papers, and so were able to read the dispatches.” (Liddell and Scott’s Lexicon sub voc.) Hence scytale came to mean generally a Spartan dispatch, which was characteristically laconic in its brevity.

119See i. 7, 15, 24, 32; iii. 51; iv. 5, 22, 26, 27, 46; v. 2, 10, 39, 40, 41; vi. 18, 27, 29, 31, 33; viii. 7, 20, 27, 28.

120I.e., Cynic.

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