APOLLONIUS, OF A native of Tyana, in Cappadocia, who lived in the time of Christ. He was a zealous follower of the doc trines of Pythagoras. Ile traveled through Asia to Nineveh and Babylon, thence to India, where, at the court of King Phraortes, he met darchas, the principal Brahmin. When Apollo nius returned from this pilgrimage, his fame as a wise man was greatly inereased; the people regarded hint as a of miracles and a di vine being. and princes were glad to entertain him at their courts. He himself seems to have claimed insight into futurity, rather than the power of working miracles. Yet in Rome it was claimed that he raised a young woman from the dead. Ile was acquitted of treason by Nero, because the indictment had vanished from the paper. After extensive travels in Spain, Italy, Greece, and Ethiopia, he was accused of having taken part in an insurrection against Domitian. Ile appeared before the tribunal, but soon miraculously vanished. Ultimately, he appears to have settled in Ephesus, where he opened a Pythagorean school, and continued his teaching until he died, nearly one hundred years old. His history was written by Philostratus (q.v.), hut is plainly a religions novel intended for the en tertainment of Julia, wife of the Emperor Severus, who, however, died ere its completion.
The travels of the Apostle Paul are a more likely inspiration to this work than the Gospel narra tive of Christ. It contains a mass of absurdi ties and fables, through which an outline of historical facts and the real character of the man are sufficiently discernible. llierocles, a heathen statesman and opponent of Christianity, wrote, in the Third Century, a work on the life and doctrines of .Apollonins, with a view to prove their superiority to the doctrine of Christ. In modern times, the notorious English free thinker Blount. and Voltaire in France, have renewed the attempt. Consult: B. L. Gilder sleeve, Essays and Studies (New York, 1890), and L. Dyer, Studies of the Gods in Greece (New York, 1894) ; and for the life of Apolhmins, l'hilostratus in the Teubner series, Vol. 1. (Leip zig, 1870-71) : French translation, A. Chassang (Paris, 1862) ; German translation. E. Baltzer (Rudolstadt, 1883) ; also the famous essay of F. C. Baur. "Apollonius von and Christ us." in Drei A ()handl/it/gen (ed. Zeller, Leipzig, 1876) ; U. de 11. Priaulx, The Indian Trarels of Apollonius of Tyana (London, 1873): D. l\.1. Tredwell, A Sketeh of the Life of Apollonius of Tyana (New York. 1886) ; G. R. S. Mead, dpol losnins of Tyana (London, 1901).