PHILOS'TRATUS ( Lat., from The name of four sophists of the Roman Imperial period. to Suidas the first three were all natives of the island of Lemnos. (1) The first PHILOSTRATUS lived in Nero's reign (A.u. 54-68), The only extant work of his is the dia loam. Nero, a conversation between the Lemnian .Nleneerates and the banished philosopher Muso Mu- Rufus on the Emperor's proposed canal across the Isthmus of Corinth and on his great cruelty.
1.LAVtt's i I LOSTHAT CS flourished un der Ncptimins Severus ( A.D. 193-2i I ) and his successors. At the request of the Empress Julia Dianna. he wrote a remarkahle Life of Apollunius of '''yang, in which he laid especial stress on the miracles ascribed to this pagan saint. The work was used later to oppose the teachings of the Christians. The same Philostratus is the author of the extant Lives of the Sophists, written soon after A.D. 229. The third PHILOSTRATUS, son of Nerviatus and son-in-law of Flavius Philos tratus. was a young man in the reign of Caracalla .u. 1-217). tic composed a work entitled
(Moves), which is still extant and describes 64 paintings in Naples. (4) '1'lle last B it MOST RAT US was a grandson on his mother's side of the third Philostratus. lie also wrote an Imagines, after the manner of his grandfather's book. This work is inferior to its model, and in its present form breaks otr in the description of the seventeenth painting. The Imagines of the third Philostratus at least have now been proved to be descriptions of actual works of art,and so are of great value to the archaeologist. The dialogue iieroieus probably belongs to the third sophist, while the scrond apparently was the author of the interesting collection of Letters. The standard edition of all these works is by Kayser in the Teubner Collection (2 vols., Leipzig, 1849). The Imagines of the third Philostratus have been separately edited by the members of the Vienna Classical Seminary ( Leipzig, 1893).