APOLLONIUS TYAN/EUS, a noted Pythagorean philo sopher, was born at Tyana, a city in Cappadocia, three or four years before the Christian sera. He applied him self, at a very early age, to the study of the philosophy of Pythagoras, and rigidly observed the most austere prescriptions of his master. He passed five years in silence, which he acknowledged to have been a very difficult trial. He wore only such cloathing as was made of linen, and would make no use of any thing that was the produce of a living creature. He walked barefoot ed, suffered his hair to grow, and abstained from all use of animal food, of wine, and of women. He spent his life in travelling from one country to another, and is said to have even visited India. He professed to be a re former of manners ; but, if Lucian is to be credited, his favourite disciples were addicted to the most licentious practices. He pretended to perform miracles ; but many of the heathen writers of his time speak of him as little better than a. common conjurer. He assumed the tone and appearance of a philosopher ; but, as is evident from the accounts of his greatest admirers, he was ready to adopt all the foolish fancies of the nations through which he passed, and was particularly zealous in supporting every kind of idolatrous worship. He was frequently at Rome, and took an active share in several of the re volutionary plots which distracted the empire. He en couraged Galba to revolt against Nero, and assisted Narva in conspiring against Domitian. indeed one of the miraculous things related of him is, that when he was at Ephesus, he publicly intimated the death of Do mitian, at the very moment in which it happened at Rome : but this he might easily have known„without the gift of prophecy, as he was well acquainted with the designs which were formed against the life of that em peror. He wrote several letters, some of which are pre served in the history of his life ; an apology or vindica tion of himself, which he intended to have pronounced in the presence of Domitian, whose death he had not then foreseen ; a treatise on judicial astrology, and ano ther on the different sacrifices most acceptable to each particular deity. He is supposed to have died about the year 96 ; but the time and place of his death are not cer tainly known ; and, according to his biographer, he dis appeared in a very miraculous manner.
Indeed the whole history of this philosopher, if he may be honoured with the name, is highly questionable. It rests entirely upon the authority of Philostratus, who lived about 100 years after the death of Apollonius, and who wrote an account of his life at the request of Julia, the wife of Septimius Severus. Philostratus derived
the materials of this history from certain memoirs of Apollonius, written, as was supposed, by Damis, one of his most faithful attendants, but which the empress had received from some other hand, without any evidence of their authenticity. The history itself abounds in such silly extravagancies, and glaring contradictions, as are sufficient to discredit the whole narrative. We are told, for instance, that Apollonius visited Babylon when it was a place of the greatest magnificence ; and yet Pliny and others, who flourished about that period, expressly assure us that it was only a heap of ruins,—that Apol lonius understood all languages without having ever learned them ; and yet that he was obliged to converse with the Indian king by the help of an interpreter,— that Apollonius was acquainted also with the language of the beasts, and that he acquired this faculty by eating a portion of the heart of a dragon,—that Apollonius found in India a species of animals with the laces of men and the bodies of lions ; as, also, a nation of pigmies, who lived under ground,—that Apollonius was invited by the Brahmins to a very extraordinary entertainment, at which no attendants were needed, but the chairs, stools, plates, pots, cups, and other dishes, arranged themselves of their own accord, anticipated the wishes of the guests, and moved hither and thither as they were required :— Yet this Apollonius, upon the authority of such a writer, has been extolled by the enemies of revelation, as supe rior to Jesus Christ. The first who attempted such a parallel was Hierocles, prefect of Alexandria in the time of Dioclesian's persecution, about the beginning of the fourth century ; and Mr Blount was so pleased with the same idea, that he translated the greater part of the work of Philostratus into English in 1680. For an able answer to all such attempts, and for other particulars relating to the subject of this article, see Dr Lardner's Heathen Testimonies, chap. xxxix. Dr Parker's Demon stration of the Authority of the Law of Xature and of the Christian Religion, part ii. sect. 27. Dr Doddridge's Lectures, prop. cxiii. schol. 5. Ancient Univ. Hist. vol. xv. lib. 3. c. 19. Tillemont's Life of Apoll. Cudworth's Intell. Syst. lib. i. c• 4. Huet Demonst. Evan. prop. ix. c. 147. (9)