 Volume 2, Book 8, chapters 8 through 19, of the Life of Apollonius of Tyanna. This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. The Life of Apollonius of Tyanna by Flavius Philo Stratus, translated by F. C. Coneybear. Volume 2, Book 8. Chapter 8. Such then was the oration which the sage had prepared beforehand, at the end whereof I found the last words of the earlier speech, namely, For thou shall not kill me, since I tell thee, I am not mortal. Together with the words which preceded and led up to this quotation. But the effect upon the despot of his quitting the court in a manner so godlike and inexplicable was quite other than that which the many expected. For they expected him to make a terrific uproar and institute a hunt for the man, and to send forth proclamations over his empire to arrest him wherever they should find him. But he did nothing of the kind as if he set himself to defeat Min's expectations. Or because he now at last realized that as against the sage he had no resources of his own. But whether he acted from contempt, let his conjecture from what ensued, for he will be seen to have been confounded with astonishment rather than filled with contempt. Chapter 9. For he had to hear another case after that of Apollonius, an action brought, I think, in connection with a will by some city against a private individual. And he had forgotten not only the names of the parties, but also the matter at issue in the suit. For his questions were without meaning, and his answers were not relevant to the case. All which argued the degree of astonishment and perplexity under which the despot labored. The more so because his flatterers had persuaded him that nothing could escape his memory. Chapter 10. Such was the condition to which Apollonius reduced the despot, making him a plaything of his philosophy, who had been the terror of Hellen's and Barbarian's. And before midday he left the court, and at dusk appeared to Demetrius and Damus at Decaarchia. And this accounts for his having instructed Damus to go by land to Decaarchia without waiting to hear his defense. Before he had given no previous notice of his intentions, but had merely told the man who was mostly in his intimacy to do what best accorded with his plans. Chapter 11. Now Damus had arrived the day before and had talked with Demetrius about the preliminaries of the trial, and the account filled the latter, when he listened to it, with more apprehension than you might expect of a listener when Apollonius was in question. The next day also he asked him afresh about the same particulars as he wanted with him along the edge of the sea, which figures in the fables told about Calypso, for they were almost in despair of their master coming to them because the tyrant's hand was hard upon all, yet out of respect for Apollonius's character they obeyed his instructions. Discouraged then they sat down in the chamber of the nymphs, where there is a cistern of white marble, which contains a spring of water which neither overflows its edges nor recedes, even if water be drawn from it. They were talking about the quality of the water in no very serious manner, and presently, owing to the anxiety they felt about the sage, brought back their conversation to the circumstances which preceded the trial. Chapter 12. Amos's grief had just broken out afresh, and he had made some such exclamation as the following. Shall we ever behold, O ye gods, our noble and good companion? When Apollonius, who had heard him, for, as a matter of fact, he was already present in the chamber of the nymphs, answered, Ye shall see him, nay, ye have already seen him. Demetrius said, Alive, for, if you are dead, we have anyhow never ceased to lament you. Whereupon Apollonius stretched out his hand and said, Take hold of me, and if I evade you, then I am indeed a ghost come to you from the realm of Persephone, such as the gods of the underworld reveal to those who are dejected with much mourning. But if I resist your touch, then you shall persuade Demis also that I am both alive and that I have not abandoned my body. They were no longer able to disbelieve, but rose up and threw themselves on his neck and kissed him and asked him about his defense. For while Demetrius was of opinion that he had not even made his defense, for he expected him to be destroyed without any wrong being proved against him. Demis thought that he had made his defense, but perhaps more quickly than was expected, for he never dreamed that he had made it only that day. But Apollonius said, I have made my defense, gentlemen, and have gained my cause, and my defense took place this very day not so long ago, for it lasted on even to midday. Demetrius said, How then have you accomplished so long a journey in so small a fraction of the day? And Apollonius replied, Imagine what you will, flying goat or wings of wax accepted, so long as you ascribe it to the intervention of a divine escort. Demetrius said, Well, I have always thought that your actions and words were providentially cared for by some God, to whom you owe your present preservation. Nevertheless, pray, tell us about the defense you made, what it consisted of, and what the accusation had to say against you, and about the temper of the judge, and what questions he put, and what he allowed to pass of your pleas, and what not. Tell us all at once, in order that I may tell everything in turn to Telesinos, for he will never leave off asking me about your affairs. For about fifteen days back he was drinking with me at Antium, when he fell asleep at table, and just as the middle cup, in honor of the good genius, was being passed round, he dreamed a dream, and he saw a fire spreading like a sea over the land, and it enveloped some men, and caught up others as they fled. For it flowed along, he said, Exactly like water. But you alone suffered not the fate of the rest, but swam clean through it, as it divided to let you through. And in honor of the gods who inspire such happy presages, he poured out a libation in consequence of this dream, and he bade me be of good cheer on your account. And Apollonius said, I am not surprised at Telesinos dreaming about me, for in his vigils, I assure you, he long ago occupied his mind about me. But as regards the trial, you shall learn everything, but not in this place. For it is already growing late in the evening, and it is time for us to proceed to the town, and it is pleasant too to talk as you go along the road, for conversation assists you on your way like an escort. Let us then start, and discuss your questions as we go along, and I will certainly tell you of today's events in the court. For both of you know the circumstances which preceded the trial, the one of you because he was present, and the other because I am sure by Zeus. He has not heard it only once, but again and again, if I know you well, my Demetrius. But I will relate to you what you do not know as yet, beginning with my being summoned into the Emperor's presence into which I was ushered naked. And he proceeded to detail to them his own words, and above all at the end of them the citation, for thou shalt not kill me. And he told them exactly how he vanished from the seat of judgment. Whereupon Demetrius cried out, I thought you had come hither because you were saved, but this is only the beginning of your dangers, for he will proscribe you, seize your person, and cut off all means of escape. Apollonius however told Demetrius not to be afraid, and encouraged him by saying, I only wish that you are both no more easy for him to catch than I am. But I know exactly in what condition of mind the tyrant is at this moment. Hitherto he has never heard anything except the utterances of flatterers, and now he has had to listen to the language of rebuke. Such language breaks despotic natures down and enrages them. But I require some rest, for I have not bent the knee since I had this struggle. And Demetrius said, Demetrius, my own attitude towards our friend's affairs was such that I tried to dissuade him from taking the journey which he has taken. And I believe you too gave the same advice, namely that he should not rush of his own accord into dangers and difficulties. But when he was thrown into fetters, as I saw with my own eyes, and I was perplexed and in despair of his case, he told me that it rested with himself to release himself, and he freed his leg from the fetters and showed it to me. Well, it was then for the first time that I understood our master to be a divine being, transcending all our poor wisdom and knowledge. Consequently, even if I were called upon to expose myself to still greater risks than these, I should not fear anything, as long as I was under his protection. But since the evening is at hand, let us go into the inn and administer to, and take care of him. And Apollonia said, Sleep is all I want, and everything else is a matter of indifference to me, whether I get it or whether I do not. But after that, having offered a prayer to Apollo and also to the sun, he passed into the house in which Demetrius lived, and having washed his feet and instructed Demas and his friends to take their supper, for he saw that they were fasting, he threw himself upon the bed, and having intoned some verses of Homer as a hymn to sleep, he took his repose, as if his circumstances gave him no just cause whatever for anxiety. About dawn Demetrius asked him where on earth he would turn his steps, for there resounded in his ears the clatter of imaginary horsemen who he thought were already in hot pursuit of Apollonius on account of the rage of the tyrant. But Apollonius merely replied, Neither he nor anyone else is going to pursue me, but as for myself I shall take sail for hell us. said the other. That is anyhow a dangerous voyage, for the region is most exposed and open, and how are you going to be hid out in the open from one whom you cannot escape in the dark? Apollonius said, I do not need to lie hid, for if, as you imagine, the entire earth belongs to the tyrant, it is better to die out in the open than to live in the dark and in hiding. In turning to Damus he said, Do you know of a ship that is starting for Sicily? He replied, I do, for we are staying on the edge of the sea, and the crier is at our doors, and a ship is just being got ready to start, as I gather from the shouts of the crew and from the exertions they are making over a weighing anchor. Apollonius said, Let us embark upon this ship, O Damus, for we will now sail to Sicily and thence on to the Peloponnes. said the other. I am agreeable, so let us sail. Chapter 15. They then said farewell to Demetrius, who was despondent about them, but they bade him hope for the best, as one brave man should for others as brave as himself. And then they sailed for Sicily with a favorable wind, and having passed Messina they reached Taromanium on the third day. After that they arrived at Syracuse and put out for the Peloponnes about the beginning of the autumn. And having traversed the gulf they arrived after six days at the mouth of the Alpheus, where that river pours its waters still sweet into the Adriatic and Sicilian sea. Here they disembarked, and thinking it well worth their while to go to Olympia they went and stayed there in the temple of Zeus, though without ever going further away than Scyllus. A rumor as sudden as insistent now ran through the Hellenic world that the sage was alive and had arrived at Olympia. At first the rumor seemed unreliable, for besides that they were humanly speaking unable to entertain any hope of him in as much as they heard that he was cast into prison, they had also heard such rumors as that he had been burnt alive, or dragged about alive with gratinals fixed in his neck, or cast into a deep pit or into a well. But when the rumor of his arrival was confirmed they all flocked to see him from the whole of Greece and never did any such crowd flock to any Olympic festival as then, all full of enthusiasm and expectation. People came straight from Elis and Sparta, and from Corinth away at the limits of the Isthmus, and the Athenians too, although they are outside the Peloponnese, nor were they behind the cities which are at the gates of Pisa, for it was especially the most celebrated of the Athenians that hurried to the temple, together with the young men who flocked to Athens from all over the earth. Moreover there were people from Megara just then staying at Olympia, as well as many from Boeotia and from Argos, and all the leading people of Fokis and Thessaly. Some of them had already made Apollonius his acquaintance, anxious to pick up his wisdom afresh, for they were convinced that they remained much to learn, more striking than what they had so far heard. But those who were not acquainted with him thought it a shame that they should seem never to have heard so great a man discourse. In answer to their questions then, of how he had escaped the clutches of the tyrant, he did not deem it right to say anything boastful, but he merely told them that he had made his defense and got away safely. However, when several people arrived from Italy, who brooded about the episode of the law court, the attitude of Helus came near to that of actual worship. The main reason why they thought him divine was this, that he never made the least parade about the matter. Chapter 16 Among the arrivals from Athens there was a youth who asserted that the goddess Athena was very well disposed to the emperor, whereupon Apollonius said to him, In Olympia please to stop your chatter of such things, for you will prejudice the goddess in the eyes of her father. But as the youth increased their annoyance by declaring that the goddess was quite right, because the emperor was Archon Eponym of the city of Athena, he said, Would that he also presided at the Panathenaic festival. By the first of his answers he silenced him, for he showed that he held a poor opinion of the gods, and he considered them to be well disposed to tyrants. By his second he showed that the Athenians would stultify the decree which they passed in honor of Hormodius and Aristogaiton, if, after seeing fit to honor these two citizens with statues in the marketplace, for the deed they committed at the Panathenaic festival, they ended by conferring on tyrants the privilege of being elected to govern them. Damus approached him at this time to ask him about money, because they had so very little left to defray the expense of their journey. Apollonius said, Tomorrow I will attend to this. And on the next day he went into the temple and said to the priest, Give me a thousand drachmas out of the treasury of Zeus, if you think he will not be too much annoyed. And the priest answered, What at that? What will annoy him will be if you do not take more. Chapter 18 There was a man of Thessaly named Isagoras, whom he met in Olympia, and said, Tell me, Isagoras, is there such a thing as a religious fair or festival? He replied, Why yes, and by heaven there is nothing in the world of men so agreeable and so dear to the gods. Apollonius asked, And what is the matter of which it is composed? It is as if I asked you about the material of which this image is made, and you answered me that it was composed of gold and ivory. Said the other, But what material, Apollonius, can a thing which is incorporeal be composed of? Apollonius replied, A most important material, and most varied in character, for there are sagre groves in it and shrines, and race courses, and, of course, a theatre, and tribes of men, some of them from the neighbouring countries, and others from over the borders, and even from across the sea. He added, Moreover, many arts go to make up such a festival, and many designs, and much true genius, both of poets and of civil counsellors, and of those who deliver harangs on philosophic topics, and contests between naked athletes and contests of musicians, as is the custom in the Pythian festival. Said the other, It seems to me, O Apollonius, that the festival is not only something corporeal, but is made up of more wonderful material than our cities, for there is summoned together into one community on such occasions the best of the best and the most celebrated of the celebrated. Apollonius said, Then, O Isagoras, are we to consider the people we meet there in the same light as some people regard walls and ships, or do you need some other opinion of the festival? Answered the other, The opinion which we have formulated is quite adequate and complete, O man of Tyanna, and we had better adhere to it, said the other, and yet it is neither adequate nor complete to one who considers about it as I do, for it appears to me that ships are in need of men and men of ships, and that men would never have thought about the sea at all if they had not had a ship, and men are kept safe by walls and walls by men, and in the same way I consider a festival to be not only the meeting of human beings, but also the place itself in which they have to meet, and the more so because walls and ships would never have come into being unless there had been men's hands to build them. While these places, so far forth as they are deprived of their natural and original characteristics, are by the hands of men spoiled, and it was owing to their natural advantages that they were held worthy of being made their meeting places. For though the gymnasiums and portico's and fountains and houses have been all created by human art, just like the walls and the ships, yet the river Alpheus with the hippodrome and the stadium and the groves existed, I suppose, before men came here, the one providing water for drinking and for the bath, and the second a broad plain for the horses to race in, and the third provided just the space required for the athletes to raise the dust in as they run along their races, namely a valley, a stadium in length, and the groves around supplied wreaths for the winners, and served the athletes who were runners as a place to practice in. For I imagine that Hercules considered these facts, and because he admired the natural advantages of Olympia, he found the place worthy of the festival and games which are still held here. CHAPTER 19 After forty days given up to discussions in Olympia in which many topics were handled, Apollonius said, I will also, O men of Helus, discourse to you in our several cities at your festivals, at your religious processions, at your mysteries, your sacrifices, at your public libations, and they require the services of a clever man. But for the present I must go down to Lebadia, for I have never yet had an interview with Trophonius, although I once visited his shrine. And with these words he at once started for Boeotia, attended by every one of his admirers. Now the cavern in Lebadia is dedicated to Trophonius, the son of Apollo, and it can only be entered by those who resort thither in order to get an oracle, and it is not visible in the temple, but lies a little above it on a mound, and it is shut in by iron spits which surround it, and you descend into it as it were sitting down and being drawn down. Those who enter it are clad in white rain-ment, and are escorted thither with honey-cakes in their hands to appease the reptiles which assail them as they descend. But the earth brings them to the surface again, in some cases close by. But in other cases a long way off, for they are sent up to the surface beyond the locre and beyond foci, but most of them about the borders of Boeotia. Accordingly, Apollonius entered the shrine and said, I wish to descend into the cave in the interests of philosophy. But the priests opposed him, and though they told the multitude that they would never allow a wizard like him to examine and test the shrine, they pretended to the sage himself that only nefarious and impure women ever gave the oracles. So, on that day, he delivered a discourse at the springs of Hercina about the origin and conduct of the shrine, for it is the only oracle which gives responses through the person himself who consults it. And when the evening approached, he went to the mouth of the cave with his train of youthful followers, and having pulled up four of the obelisks which constitute a bar to the passage, he went down below ground wearing his philosopher's mantle, having dressed himself as if he were going to deliver in a dress upon philosophy. A step which the god Trophonius so thoroughly approved of that he appeared to the priests and not only rebuked them for the reception they had given Apollonius, but enjoined them all to follow him to Aulis, for he said it was there that he would come to the surface in such a marvelous fashion as no man before. And in fact he emerged after seven days, a longer period than it had taken any one of those who until then had entered the oracle, and he had with him a volume thoroughly in keeping with the questions he had asked, for he had gone down saying, What, O Trophonius, do you consider the most complete and purest philosophy? And the volume contained the tenets of Pythagoras. A good proof, this, that the oracle was in agreement with this form of wisdom. And of Volume 2, Book 8, Chapters 8-19. Volume 2, Book 8, Chapters 20-31 of the Life of Apollonius of Tyanna. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Life of Apollonius of Tyanna by Flavius Philostratus, translated by F. C. Coneybear. Volume 2, Book 8. Chapter 20. This book is preserved in Antium, and the village in question, which is on the Italian seaboard, is much visited for the purpose of seeing it. I must acknowledge that I only heard these details from the inhabitants of Labadia, and in regard to the volume in question, I must set on record my conviction, that it was subsequently conveyed to the Emperor Hadrian at the same time as certain letters of Apollonius, though by no means all of them, and it remained in the palace at Antium, which was that one of his Italian palaces in which this Emperor took most pleasure. Chapter 21. From Ionia also, there came to see him the band of companions who were named in Hellas as the company of Apollonius. And mixing with the people of the place, they formed a band of youths, remarkable for their number and for their philosophic enthusiasm. For the science of rhetoric had been left neglected and little attention was paid to the professors of the art, on the ground that the tongue was their only teacher. But now they were all impelled to study his philosophy. But he, like Giges and Croesus, who they say left the door of their treasuries unlocked, in order that all who needed might fill their pockets from them, threw open the treasures of his wisdom to all who loved it, and allowed them to ask him questions upon every subject. Chapter 22. But certain persons accused him of dissuading his pupils from visiting the governors and of influencing them to lead lives of quiet and retirement instead. And one of them uttered the jest that he drove away his sheep as soon as he found any forensic orator approaching. Said Apollonius, Yes, by Zeus, lest these wolves should fall upon my flock. What was the meaning of this sally? He saw these forensic orators looked up to by the multitude as they made their way up from poverty to great riches. And he saw that they so welcomed the feuds of others that they actually conducted a traffic in hatred and feud. Accordingly, he tried to dissuade these young men from associating with them. And those that did so associate with them, he sharply reproved as if to wash off them a monstrous stain. For he had been long before on bad terms with them, and his experience of the prisons in Rome and of the persons who were confined and perishing in them so prejudiced him against the forensic art as that he believed all these evils were due to psychophants and lawyers puffed up by their own cleverness rather than to the despot himself. Chapter 23. Just at the time when he was holding these conversations with the people of Helus, the following remarkable portent overspread the heavens. The orb of the sun was surrounded by a wreath which resembled a rainbow, but dimmed the sunlight. That the heavenly sign portended a revolution was of course clear to all. However, when the governor of Helus summoned Apollonius from Athens to Boeotia and said, I hear that you have a talent for understanding things divine, he replied, Yes, and perhaps you have heard that I have some understanding of human affairs. He replied, I have heard it and I quite agree. Apollonius said, Since then you are of one opinion with me, I would advise you not to pry into the intentions of the gods. For this is what human wisdom recommends you to do. And when he besought Apollonius to tell him what he thought, for he said he was afraid lest night should ensue and swallow up everything. Apollonius said, Be of good cheer, for there will be some light following such a night as this. Chapter 24. After this, seeing that he had had enough of the people of Helus, after living for two years among them, he set sail for Ionia, accompanied by his society, and the greater part of his time he spent teaching philosophy at Smyrna and Ephesus, though he also visited the rest of the cities, and in none of them was he found to be an unwelcome guest. Indeed, they all considered him to be worth their regret when he left them, and to the better class of people he was a great boon. Chapter 25. And now the gods were about to cast down Domitian from his presidency of mankind. For it happened that he had just slain Clemens, a man of consular rank, to whom he had lately given his own sister in marriage, and he issued a command about the third or fourth day after the murder that she also should follow her husband and join him. Thereupon Stefanos, a freed man of the Lady, who he was signified by the form of the late portent, whether because of the latest victim's fate wrangled in his mind, or the fate of all others, made an attempt upon the tyrant's life worthy of comparison with the feats of the champions of Athenian liberty. For he concealed a dagger against his left forearm, and carrying his hand in a bandage as if it were broken, he approached the emperor as he left the law court and said, I would have a private interview with you, my prince, for I have important news to communicate to you. The latter did not refuse him the audience, but took him apart into the men's apartment where he transacted business of state. Whereupon the assassin said, Your bitter enemy, Clement, is not dead as you imagine, but he lives and I know where he is, and he is making ready to attack you. When the emperor uttered a loud cry over this information, before he could recover his composure, Stefanos threw himself upon him, and drawing his dagger from the hand which he had trust up, he stabbed him in the thigh, inflicting a wound which was not immediately mortal, though it was well timed in view of the struggle which followed. The emperor was still strong and full of bodily vigor, although he was about five and forty years of age, and in spite of the wound he closed with his assailant, and throwing him down, kneeled upon him and dug out his eyes and crushed his cheeks with the stand of a gold cup which lay thereby for use in sacred ceremonies, at the same time calling upon Athena to assist him. Thereupon his bodyguard, realizing that he was in distress, rushed into the room pel mel, and dispatched the tyrant who had already swooned. Although the deed was done in Rome, Apollonius was a spectator of it in Ephesus. For about midday he was delivering an address in the groves of the colonnade, just at the moment when it all happened in the palisette Rome, and first he dropped his voice as if he were terrified, and then, though with less vigor than was usual with him, he continued his exposition, like one who, between his words, caught glimpses of something foreign to his subject, and at last he lapsed into silence, like one who has been interrupted in his discourse, and with an awful glance at the ground, and stepping forward three or four paces from his pulpit, he cried, Smite the tyrant, smite him! Not like one who derives from some looking-glass a faint image of the truth, but as one who sees things with his own eyes and is taking part in a tragedy. All Ephesus, for all Ephesus was at his lecture, was struck dumb with astonishment, but he, pausing like those who are trying to see and wait until their doubts are ended, said, Take heart, gentlemen, for the tyrant has been slain this day, and why do I say, to-day? Now it is, by Athena, even now at the moment I uttered my words and then lapsed into silence. The inhabitants of Ephesus thought that this was a fit of madness on his part, and although they were anxious that it should be true, yet they were anxious about the risk they ran in giving ear to his words, whereupon he added, I am not surprised at those who do not yet accept my story, for not even all Rome as yet is cognizant of it. But behold, Rome begins to know it, for the rumor runs this way and that, and thousands now are convinced of it, and they begin to leap for joy, twice as many before, and twice as many as they, and four times as many, yea, the whole of the populace there. And this news will travel hither also, and although I would have you defer your sacrifices in honor thereof to the fitting season, when you will receive this news, I shall proceed at once to pray to the gods for what I have seen. Chapter 27 They were still skeptical when swift runners arrived with the good news and bore testimony to the sages' wisdom. For the tyrants' murder, and the day which brought the event to birth, the hour of midday, and the murderers to whom he addressed his exhortation, everything agreed with the revelation which the gods had made to Apollonius in the midst of his harangue. And thirty days later, Nerva sent him a letter to say that he was already in possession of the empire of the Romans, thanks to the goodwill of the gods and to his good councils, and he added that he would more easily retain it if Apollonius would come to advise him. Whereupon, at the moment the latter wrote to him the following enigmatic sentence, We will, my prince, enjoy one another's company for a very long time, during which neither shall we govern others nor others us. Perhaps he realized when he wrote thus that it was not to be long before he himself should quit this human world, and that Nerva was only to retain the throne for a short time, or his reign lasted but one year and four months when he left behind him the reputation of having been a sober and serious ruler. Chapter 28 But as he did not wish to seem to neglect so good a friend and ruler, he composed later on for him a letter giving him advice about matters of state and calling Deimos to him he said, You are wanted here for this letter which I have written to the king contains secrets, and though it is written they are of such a kind that they must be communicated orally either by myself or through you. And Deimos declares that he only understood his master's device much later, for that the letter was composed in admirable style, and though it treated of important subjects, yet it might equally well have been sent through anyone else. What then was the sage's device? All through his life, he is said often to have exclaimed, Live unobserved, and if that cannot be, slip unobserved from life. His letter then, and Deimos's visit to Rome, were of the nature of an excuse for getting the latter out of the way in order that he might have no witnesses of his disillusion. Deimos accordingly says that, though he was much affected at leaving him in spite of his having no knowledge of what was coming, yet Apollonius, who knew full well, said nothing of it to him, and far from addressing him after the manner of those who are never to see one another again, so abundant was his conviction that he would exist for ever, merely pledged him in these words. O Deimos, even if you have to philosophize by yourself, keep your eyes upon me. The memoirs then of Apollonius of Tyanna, which Deimos the Assyrian composed, end with the above story, for with regard to the manner in which he died, if he did actually die, there are many stories, though Deimos has repeated none. But as for myself, I am not to omit even this, for my story should, I think, have its natural ending. Neither has Deimos told us anything about the age of our hero, but there are some who say that he was 80, others that he was over 90, others again who say that his age far exceeded a hundred. He was afresh in all his body and upright when he died, and more agreeable to look at than in his youth. For there is a certain beauty even in wrinkles, which was especially conspicuous in his case, as is clear from the likenesses of him which are preserved in the temple at Tyanna, and from accounts which praised the old age of Apollonius more than was once praised the youth of Alcibiades. Now there are some who elate that he died in Ephesus, tended by two maid servants, for the freedmen of whom I spoke the beginning of my story were already dead. One of these maids he emancipated and was blamed by the other one for not conferring the same privilege upon her. But Apollonius told her that it was better for her to remain the other slave, for that that would be the beginning of her well-being. Accordingly, after his death this one continued to be the slave of the other who, for some insignificant reason, sold her to a merchant whom she was purchased. Her new master, although she was not good-looking, nevertheless fell in love with her, and being a fairly rich man made her his legal wife and had legitimate children by her. Others again say that he died in Lindus, where he entered the temple of Athena and disappeared within it. Others again say that he died in Crete in a much more remarkable manner than the people of Lindus relate, for they say that he continued to live in Crete, where he became a greater center of admiration than ever before, and that he came to the temple of Dictina late at night. Now, this temple is guarded by dogs, whose duty it is to watch over the wealth deposited in it, and the Cretans claim that they are as good as bears or any other animals equally fierce. Nonetheless, when he came, instead of barking, they approached him and fawned upon him, as they would not have done even with people they knew familiarly. The guardians of the shrine arrested him in consequence and threw him in bonds as a wizard and a robber, accusing him of having thrown to the dogs some charmed morsel. But about midnight he loosened his bonds, and after calling those who had bound him in order that they might witness the spectacle, he ran to the doors of the temple which opened wide to receive him, and when he had passed within they closed afresh as if they had been shut, and there was heard a chorus of maidens singing from within the temple, and their song was this. Hason thou from earth hasten thou to heaven hasten in other words, do thou go upwards from earth. Chapter 31 and even after his death he continued to preach that the soul is immortal, and although he taught this account of it to be correct, yet he discouraged men from meddling in such high subjects. For there came to Tyanna a youth who did not shrink from acrimonious discussions and would not accept truth in argument. Now Apollonius had already passed away from among men, but people still wondered at his passing, and no one ventured to dispute this being so, the discussions were mainly about the soul, for a band of youths were there passionately addicted to wisdom. The young man in question, however, would on no account allow the tenet of the immortality of the soul, and said, I myself, gentlemen, have done nothing now for over nine months, but pray to Apollonius that he would reveal to me the truth about the soul. But he is so utterly dead that he will not appear to me in response to my entreaties, nor give me any reason to consider him immortal. Such were the young man's words on that occasion. But on the fifth day following, after discussing the same subject, he fell asleep where he was talking with them, and of the young men who were studying with him, some were reading books, and others were industriously drawing geometric figures on the ground, when, on a sudden, like one possessed, he leapt up from an uneasy sleep streaming with perspiration and cried out, I believe thee. And when those who were present asked him what was the matter, he said, Do you not see Apollonius the sage, how that he is present with us, and is listening to our discussion, and is reciting wondrous verses about the soul? They asked, but where is he, for we cannot see him anywhere, although we would rather do so than possess all the blessings of mankind? And the youth replied, It would seem that he has come to converse with myself alone, considering the tenets which I would not believe. Listen, therefore, to the inspired argument which he is delivering. The soul is immortal, and is no possession of thine own, but of providence. And after the body is wasted away, like a swift force freed from its traces, it lightly leaps forward and mingles itself with the light air, loathing the spell of harsh and painful servitude which it has endured. But for thee what use is there in this? Someday when thou art no more, thou shalt believe it. So why, as long as thou art among living beings, dost thou explore these mysteries? Here we have a clear utterance of Apollonius, established like an oracular tripod, to convince us of the mysteries of the soul. To the end that cheerfully, and with due knowledge of our own true nature, we may pursue our way to the goal appointed by the fates. With any tomb, however, or cenotaph of the sage I never met, that I know of, although I have traversed most of the earth, and have listened everywhere to stories of his divine quality. And his shrine at Tyena is singled out and honored with royal officers. For neither have the emperors denied to him the honors of which they themselves were held worthy. End of Volume 2, Book 8 The epistles of Apollonius of Tyena, Numbers 1 through 37, from the life of Apollonius of Tyena. This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. The Life of Apollonius of Tyena by Flavius Phylostratus translated by F. C. Coneybear. The Epistles of Apollonius of Tyena. Epistle 1 to Euphrates As for myself, I am on friendly terms with philosophers, with Sophists, however, or low clerks, or any such other kind of wretches. I am neither on friendly terms now, and heaven forbid I should ever be so at any later time. Although this does not apply to you, unless indeed you chance to be one of them, the following words do very much apply to you. Heal and remedy your passions, and try to be a philosopher, and not to be jealous of those who really are such. For, in your case, old age is already at hand, and death. Epistle 2 to the same. For as much as virtue cometh by nature, by acquirement, by use, each of these may be held to be worthy of acceptation. See then whether you have any one of them, and either give up the teaching of wisdom for the future, or at least communicate it freely and for nothing to those who are with you. For you already have the riches of mega-byesies. Epistle 3 to the same. You have visited the countries that lie between me and Italy, beginning from Syria, parading yourself in the so-called royal cities. And you had a philosopher's doublet all the time, and a long white beard, but besides that, nothing. And now how comes it returning by sea with a full cargo of silver, of gold, of vases of all sorts, of embroidered rain-ment, of every other sort of ornament, not to mention overweening pride and boasting and unhappiness? What cargo is this, and what the purport of these strange purchases? Xeno never purchased but dried fruits. Epistle 4 to the same. You would need little for your servants if only they were servants of a philosopher. Nay, you should not even think of purchasing more than you really want, especially as you incur some ill-fame thereby. But since you have once made the mistake, the next best thing would be if you made as much haste as possible to give away some of what you have to others. You will still retain both your fatherland and your servants. Epistle 5 to the same. There is no need henceforth for any inmate of his garden or follower of his school to plead the merit of one of the discourses of Epicurus which is entitled About Pleasure. For a genuine advocate thereof has turned up in the porch itself. But if, by way of contradiction, you should bring out the lectures and tenets of Crispus, let me point out to you a certain passage in the Emperor's correspondence, namely this. Euphrates has taken money of me and has taken it a second time. Now Epicurus would never have taken it. Epistle 6 to the same. I lately asked some rich men if they foster such bitter feelings and they answered, how can we do otherwise? I asked them what was the reason for their duress and they blamed their wealth. But you, my poor wretch, only acquired your wealth yesterday. Epistle 7 to the same. As soon as you have reached a guy in your hurry and discharged your ship there, you have to return again post-taste to Italy where you must fawn as usual upon the sick, the old men, dandies, Midas, Gaitai. For they say that a merchant must let out every reef. For myself, I would rather clear out the salt cellar in the house of Themis. Epistle 8 to the same. Perhaps then you would like to draw up a little indictment of me. I only wish you had the pluck to do so and you would be able to repeat these hackneyed and devious accusations. Apollonius utterly declines to take a bath. Yes, and what's more, he never quits his house and takes care never to soil his feet. You never see him moving any part of his person. Yes, for he never moves anything except his soul. He wears his hair long on his head. Well, and so does the Helen because he is a Helen he wears linen raiment. Yes, for this purest garb is that of priests. He practices divination. Yes, for many are the things we know not, and there is no other way of foreseeing anything that is going to happen. But such practices are not consonant with philosophy. Nevertheless, they befit the deity. And moreover, he eases the flesh of its agonies and allies suffering. You might equally bring this charge against escapias. He eats alone. Yes, and the rest of the world feed. He uses few words and on few occasions. Yes, for he has a faculty of holding his tongue all together. He abstains from all flesh and from eating any animal food. That is surely a proof of his humanity. If you tell me, Euphrates, that you have put these counts into your indictment, you will probably add the following as well. If there had been any going, he would have taken money as I have and presence and civil promotions. If there had been money going, he would not have taken it. Nay, but he would have taken it for his country. Yes, but that is not one's country which knows not what it hath. Epistle 9 to Dion. If your object is to please, you had better employ flute and lyre than argument. For they are the instruments which are made to minister to pleasure, and the art of doing so is named music. But argument finds out the truth, and at this you should aim in your actions, at this in your words, at least if you are really making a philosophic study of it. Epistle 8 to the same. Some people ask the reason why I have left off giving lectures to large audiences. Let all know then who may be interested to understand such matters. No discourse can be really useful unless, if it be single, it be also delivered to a single individual. Anyone then who discourses in any other manner is motivated by vain glory to discourse. Epistle 11 to the chief counselors of Caesarea. Men's first need is of gods for everything and above everything. Their second of cities, for next after the gods we must honor our cities. And if we are men of sense, our cities welfare. Now if yours were only one city of many, instead of being, as it is, the greatest in Palestine, excelling all others there in size and in laws, and in institutions, and in the warlike virtues of ancestors, and still more in the arts and manners of peace, I should still see reason to admire and honor your city more than all others, and so would every man as any sense. By common report, this would be the reason for preferring your city in a comparison of it with the run of cities. But whenever a city leads the way in paying honor to a single individual, and that one who is a stranger and comes from a far off, seeing that it is a city which honors him, what can the individual do by way of return, and what worthy repayment of yourselves this perhaps and none other, that if he is a man beloved of the gods by reason of some natural endowment, he should pray that the city may obtain all blessings, and that his prayer may be granted. This I shall never cease to do in your behalf, for I am pleased to see the manners of Hellenism revealing their own excellence, and doing it by means of public inscriptions. But as Apollonides, the son of Aphrodisius, is a young man of firm and constant character and worthy to bear your name, I shall endeavor to render him of use to you in every particular, with the help of some good fortune. Epistle 12, to the chief counselors of Seleucia Whatever city is so well affected as yours, both towards the gods and towards such men as are worthy of acceptation is both blessed in itself and contributes to the excellence of those in whose favor it bears witness. Now, though it is not difficult to lead the way in displaying graceful goodwill, indeed it is the noblest of human acts. It is yet not easy to request it. Nay, it is altogether impossible to find a true equivalent. For I imagine that what in time sequence is second, can never in nature be first. Consequently, I am obliged to ask heaven to reward you who have shown yourselves not only my superiors in ability, but also in deeds. For no man could possibly rise to such achievements as yours. It is a further proof of your gracious goodwill towards me that you also wish me to visit you as I would pray to have visited you already. Your envoys are the more precious to me because they are already my friends. I mean Heronimus and Xenon. Epistle 13 to the same persons Straton has indeed passed away from among men and has left upon earth all that he had of mortality. But we who are here still undergoing punishment in other words still living ought to have some concern for his affairs. One of us then must do one thing another another and it is our duty to do it now rather than later. For if in the past we were some of us known as his relations and some of us merely as his friends now is the time to show with all sincerity that we really are such. Nor must we delay doing our duty to an indefinite future in choosing these names meant anything. I myself however am desirous in this matter to be especially your friend and therefore I undertake to bring up myself Alexander who was his son by Seleucias and to impart to him my own education. And I should certainly have given him money also who am bestowing what is so much more important if it were right that he should receive it. Epistle 14 to Euphrates I have been asked by many people on many occasions why it is that I have never been sent for to Italy. Or if I was sent for why I did not come thither like yourself and sundry other people. Now to the first question I shall give no answer lest some should think that I knew the reason whereas I am not interested to know it. But as regards the second question why need I say more than that I would rather have been sent for than go? Farewell. Epistle 15 to the same Plato has said that true virtue recognizes no master and supposing anyone fails to honor this answer and delight therein and instead of doing so sells himself for filthy lucre I say that he but gives himself many masters. Epistle 16 to the same You think it is your duty to call philosophers who follow Pythagoras magicians and likewise also those who follow Orpheus. For my own part I think that those who follow no matter whom ought to be called magicians if only they are determined to be divine and just men. Epistle 17 to the same The Persians give the name of Magi to divine beings. A magus then is either a worshipper of the gods or one who is by nature divine. Well you are no magus but a man without God. Epistle 18 to the same Heraclitus the natural philosopher used to say that man is by nature irrational. Well if this be true as it is true then let everyone hide his face who vainly and idly is held in repute. Epistle 19 to Scopeleanus the Sophist In all there are five characters in rational discourse the philosopher, the historian the advocate, the writer of epistles, the commentator and when these general characters have been settled there emerges a fresh in sequence of dignity first he who is peculiar by reason of his own faculties or nature but there comes second he who is an imitator of the best supposing he be one of those who lack natural endowment but the best is both difficult to find and difficult to appraise consequently his own character is more fitting for each man as it is also more lasting Epistle 20 to Domitian if you have power and you have it then it would be well if you also acquired prudence for supposing you have prudence but to lack power you would have been equally in need of power for the one of these ever stands in need of the other just as the eye needs light and light the eye Epistle 21 to the same it were best you should hold aloof from barbarians and not aspire to rule them for it is not right that they being barbarians should find in you a benefactor Epistle 22 to Lesbosnax you should try to be poor as an individual but to be rich as a member of humanity Epistle 23 to Crito Pythagoras has declared that the divinest thing we have is the healing art but if the divinest thing is the healing art then we must take care of the soul as well as of the body for surely a living creature cannot be in sound health if in respect of its highest element it be diseased Epistle 24 to the Presidents of the Olympic Games and to the Aliens you invite me to attend the Games of Olympia and have sent me envoys to that effect and I would come to be a spectator of your physical rivalries if it did not involve my abandoning the greater arena of moral struggle Epistle 25 to the Peloponnesians the second phase of your relations with one another were the Olympic Games and though in the first phase you were frankly enemies in this second you still were not friends Epistle 26 to the priests in Olympia the gods are in no need of sacrifices what then can one do in order to win their favor one can, in my opinion acquire wisdom and so far as one can do good to such men as deserve it this pleases the gods atheists however can offer sacrifice Epistle 27 to the priests in Delphi the priests defile the altar with blood and then some people ask in amazement why our cities are visited with calamities when they have courted displeasure on the largest scale oh, what folly and dullness Heraclitus was wise but not even he could persuade the Ephesians not to purge away mud with mud Epistle 28 to the king of the Scythians Zamolksis was a good man and in as much as he was a disciple of Pythagoras a philosopher and if in his time the Roman had been such as he is now he would have been glad to be friends with him but if it is for freedom that you think you ought to struggle and make endeavor make yourself known as a philosopher that is to say as a free man Epistle 29 to a legislator festivals lead to epidemics for although they refresh men after their toil they promote gluttony Epistle 30 to the Roman questers you hold the highest office of the realm if then you understand how to govern why are the cities incessantly declining under your regime but if you do not understand you ought first to learn and then to govern Epistle 31 to the procurators of Asia what is the use of cutting off branches of wild trees whose growth does harm when you leave the roots alone Epistle 32 describes of the Ephesians it is no use decorating your city with statues and elaborate pictures and promenades and theaters unless there is good sense there as well as law for although good sense and law may accompany these they are not the same thing Epistle 33 to the Mylesians your children lack fathers your youth lack old men your wives husbands your husbands rulers your rulers laws your laws philosophers your philosophers gods your gods faith your ancestors were good men your present estate you may well loathe Epistle 34 to the wise men in the museum I have been in Argos and Fokies and Logris and in Scyon and in Megara after holding public lectures in the past in those places I have ceased to do so anymore why so? if anyone asks me the reason I must reply to you and to the muses in the words of the poet I have been turned into a barbarian not by long sojourning outside Hellas but by long sojourning in her midst Epistle 35 to Hestiius virtue and wealth are with us most opposed to one another for a diminution of the one leads to an increase of the other and an increase to a diminution how then can both at once be united in the same man except in the imagination of fools who take wealth even for virtue do not then allow men here to misunderstand me so profoundly or permit them to consider me rich rather than a philosopher for I account it most disgraceful that I should be held to travel abroad in search of money when there are some who in order to leave a monument of themselves have not even embraced virtue Epistle 36 to Bassos of Corinth Praxiteles of Calchis was a madman on one occasion with a drawn sword to my door and it was yourself who sent him you a philosopher and president of the Ithsmian games but the reward you were to give him for murdering me was access to your own wife and you foul wretch Bassos I had on many occasions been your benefactor Epistle 37 to the same if any Corinthian asks what did the father Bassos die of everyone citizen and so in the land alike will answer by poison and who administered it even the neighbors will tell you the philosopher and this wretch went as he followed his father's buyer and of Epistles 1 through 37 Epistles 38 through 61 from the life of Apollonius of Tiana this is a Librivox recording all Librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Librivox.org the life of Apollonius of Tiana by Flavius Philostratus translated by F. C. Coneybear volume 2 the Epistles of Apollonius of Tiana Epistle 38 to the people of Sardis you award no prizes for good qualities for what good qualities have you but if you were inclined to compete for the first prize in vice you would all win it at once who is it that says such things about the people of Sardis the people of Sardis themselves for the people there no one is the friend of another to the extent of denying out of goodwill the most monstrous charges Epistle 39 to the same people the very names of your social orders are disgusting witness the Kodari and the Exuricitari these are the first names you give your children and you are lucky to be worthy of them Epistle 40 to the same people Kodari and Exuricitari and how are you going to call your daughters and your wives for they too belong to the same castes and are more forward than yourselves Epistle 41 to the same people you cannot expect even your servants to be well-wishers of yourselves firstly because they are servants and secondly because most of them belong to castes opposed to your own for they too like yourselves have their pedigrees Epistle 42 to the Platonic thinkers if anyone offers money to Apollonius and he considers the donor to be worthy he will accept it if he is in need but for his philosophy he will take no reward even though he be in want Epistle 43 to those who are puffed up with wisdom if anyone professes to be my disciple let his profession be that he remains within his house that he abstains from all bathing that he kills no living creature nor eats flesh that he is exempt from feelings of jealousy of spite of hatred of slander of enmity in order to bear the name of a free man and belong to their class for surely he must beware of caring about a pretense of manners and character and a language which he merely feigns in order to make others believe that he leads the life which he does not farewell Epistle 44 to Hestiius his brother other men regard me as the equal of the gods and some of them even as a god but until now my own country alone ignores me my country for which in particular I have striven to be distinguished what wonder is there in this for not even on you my brothers as I perceive has it clearly dawned that I am superior to most men both in my language and in my character for otherwise how could you judge me so harshly as to need to be reminded of all these matters about which as about no others even the dullest persons are likely to resent instruction to it about country and brethren nevertheless you must be aware that it is a noble thing to regard the whole earth as your country and all men as your brethren and friends seeing that they are the family of one god that they are of one nature and that there is a communion of each and all in speech and likewise in feeling which is the same no matter how or where a man has been born whether he is barbarian or whether he is a Helen so long only as he is a man but there is, it must be admitted a kinship which overrides philosophical theory which attracts to itself everything that shares it so the Odysseus of Homer as they relate did not prefer even immortality when a goddess offered it to Ithiga and for my own part I notice that this law pervades even the animal kingdom for there is not a single bird that will sleep away from its own nest and though the fisherman may drag the tenants of the deep from their lair yet they will return unless they are overcome as for wild beasts, neither hunger nor satiety induces them to remain outside their holes and man is one of these creatures that nature hath so produced even though he bear the name of sage for whom all the earth may supply everything else but can never call up before his eyes the sepulchres of his fathers epistle 45 to the same if philosophy be the most precious thing in existence and if we are convinced that we are philosophers we cannot rightly be supposed to hate our brethren and that for a mean and illiberal reason for it appears our misunderstanding is on the point of money and that is something we try to despise even before we became philosophers and therefore it is more likely and reasonable that you should suspect me of having neglected to write to you for some other reason than that for in fact I was as much afraid to write you the truth because you might think me boastful as to write you less than the truth for fear you might think me over humble and both of these things are equally annoying no less to brethren than to friends now however I have this information to give you if heaven should perhaps consent I will after meeting my friends in Rhodes shortly depart thence and return to you towards the end of spring epistle 46 to Gordius they tell me that Hestii use has been wronged by yourself in spite of your having been his friend if indeed you are the friend of anyone beware then my Gordius lest you find yourself in conflict not with the semblance of a man but with the reality my greetings to your son aristocrates who may I pray never resemble yourself and yet you as a young man were beyond reproach epistle 47 to the senate and people of Tiana you command me to return to you and I obey for the greatest compliment a city can pay to one of its own citizens is to recall him in order and during the whole time that I have been away from your city I have although it may be presumptuous to say so striven to win for you by my sojourning abroad good fame and name and good will and the friendship of distinguished cities and equally of distinguished men and if you merit a still wider and higher consideration it is only myself and my own natural gifts which are capable of an effort involving so much ability and seriousness farewell epistle 48 to Diotimas you make a mistake in supposing that I want anything either from yourself with whom I have never had anything in common or from anybody else like you or under like circumstances but in fact even what I have expended on any object conducive to your welfare has been inconsiderable I shall be best pleased therefore if you accept my kindness without incurring any expense yourself for no other way but this shall I retain my principles intact and that this is my way and this my attitude towards all my fellow citizens I might almost say towards all men you can learn from the rest of the citizens who have accepted my kindness as often as they stood in need thereof but who have never been asked to make any return do not then take it amiss if I have rebuked my servant as he deserved for having in the first instance accepted anything and if he at once handed back to Lysias your friend and also a friend of my own what he received because he did not know personally any of your servants whom you had left behind but that there are two accounts of me current and that they will continue to circulate even in the future need I be surprised for it is inevitable in the case of everyone at all prominent in any way that there should be contradictory accounts of him in circulation it was so with Pythagoras with Orpheus with Plato and with Socrates not only were contradictory statements made about them but they were embodied in writing as well and we need not be surprised seeing that even concerning God himself men's accounts differ from one another however good men by a sort of natural affinity will accept the truth just as bad men will accept the opposite and we can afford to laugh at such people I mean the worst sort this much only it is right for the moment to impress upon you about myself that even the gods have spoken of me as of a divine man not only on many occasions to private individuals but also in public I shall shock you if I speak more or more highly of myself I pray for your good health Epistle 49 to Faroukianus I am very delighted with the letters which you have sent me for they reveal much intimacy and reminiscence of my family and you are most anxious to see me and to be seen by me I shall therefore visit you as soon as possible wherefore please remain at home and you shall converse with me when I have arrived at your residence in preference to any of your other friends and intimates since it is right that you should do so Epistle 50 to Euphrates even the most wise Pythagoras belonged to the class of demons but you still seem to me to be utterly remote from philosophy and from true science or you would neither abuse that great man nor persist in hating certain of those who follow him you should turn to something else now for you have missed your cue in philosophy nor have you hit it off better than Phandorus when he aimed at Menelaos in the episode of the violation of oaths Epistle 51 to the same person there are those who rebuke you for having taken money from the emperor there would be nothing absurd in your doing so were it not clear that you have taken money rewards for your philosophy on so many occasions and on such a large scale and from so many persons and from people whom you had got to believe that you were a philosopher Epistle 52 to the same person if anyone converses with a Pythagorean and asks what boons and how many he shall derive from him I should myself answer as follows he will acquire legislative science geometry, astronomy, arithmetic knowledge of harmony and of music and of the physician's art God like divination in all its branches and the still better qualities of magnanimity, greatness of soul, magnificence constancy, reverence knowledge and not mere opinion of the gods direct cognizance of demons and not mere faith friendship with both independence of spirit assiduity, frugality limitation of his needs quickness of perception quickness of movement breathing, excellence of color health, courage immortality and from you, Euphrates what have your companions that you can keep surely no more than the excellence which you possess yourself Epistle 53 Claudius to the Senate of Tiana Apollonius, your citizen a Pythagorean philosopher has made a brilliant sojourn in Hellas and has done much good to our young men having conferred upon him the honors he deserved and which are proper to good men who are so truly eminent in philosophy we have desire to manifest to you by letter our good will Fare ye well Epistle 44 Apollonius to the Sensors of Rome Some of you have taken trouble to provide harbors and public things and enclosures and promenades but neither you yourselves nor your laws events any solitude for the children of your cities or for the young or for women or it not so it would be a fine thing to be one of your subjects Epistle 55 Apollonius to his brother Everything when it hath reached maturity hath a natural tendency to vanish away and this is old age for every man after which he remaineth no more let not therefore the loss of thy wife in the flower of her age grieve thee beyond measure nor because such a thing as death is spoken of imagine that life is superior there too when it is altogether inferior in the eyes of one who reflects make thyself then the brother of one that is a philosopher in the common acceptation of the word and in particular is a Pythagorean and Apollonius and restore the former estate of thy household for if we had found anything to blame in thy former wife we might reasonably expect thee to shrink from another union but in as much as she was consistently holy and pure and attached to her husband and therefore worthy of your regrets she would lead us to expect that a second wife should not resemble her nay she would in all probability be encouraged to improve in virtue by the fact that her predecessor was not forgotten nor wronged by neglect of her memory and would I pray thee seriously to concern thyself about the condition of thy brethren as up to the present it is for thy elder brother has never yet had offspring and though thy younger brother may still look forward to having a child yet it is only in the far future and so here are we three sons the children of a single father and we three between us have not a single son wherefore there is great risk no less for our country than for the life of our posterity for if we are better than our father though of course so far forth as he was our father we are worse how can we not reasonably expect our descendants to be still better I trust then that there may be some to whom we may at least hand on our names as our ancestors devised these for us for my tears I am not able to write thee more for I have nothing more important than this to write epistle 56 the people of Sardis Croesus lost the empire of the Lydians by crossing the river Hallease he was taken alive he was bound in chains he was set upon the high raised pyre he saw the fire lit and the flames rising aloft he was saved for it appeared that he was honoured and valued by the god what then ensued this man your progenitor and also your king who had suffered so much that he deserved not to suffer was invited to the table of his enemy and became his advisor and well-wisher his faithful friend but you in your relations with your parents your children your friends kinsmen and tribesmen events nothing but truseless implacable irreconcilable hatred and worse than this unholy and godless frenzy ye have made yourselves hateful by neither crossing the Hallease nor receiving among yourselves anyone from outside and yet earth bears you her fruit the earth is unjust epistle 57 to certain learned publicists light is the presence of fire without which it could not be now fire is itself an affection and that where unto it comes is of course burnt up but light can only supply its own radiance to our eyes on condition of using not force to them but persuasion speech therefore in its turn resembles in its one aspect fire which is the affection and in its other the radiance which is light and I pray that the latter which is better may be mine unless indeed that which I speak of is beyond the reach of my prayer epistle 58 to Valerius there is no death of anyone save in appearance only even if there is no birth of anyone or becoming except only in appearance for when a thing passes from essence into nature we consider that there is a birth or becoming and in the same way that there is death when it passes from nature into essence though in truth a thing neither comes into being at any time nor is destroyed but it is only apparent at one time and later on invisible the former owing to the density of its material and the latter by the reason of its lightness or tenuity of the essence which however remains always the same and is always subject to differences of movement and state for this is necessarily the characteristic of change caused not by anything outside but by a conversion of the whole into the parts and by a return of the parts into the whole due to the oneness of the universe but if someone asks what is this which is at one time visible and at another invisible as it presents itself in the same or indifferent objects it may be answered that it is characteristic of each of the several genera of things here when it is full to be apparent to us because of the resistance of its density to our senses but to be unseen in case it is emptied of its matter by reason of its tenuity the latter being perforce shed abroad and flowing away from the eternal measure which confined it albeit the measure itself is never created nor destroyed why is it then that error has passed unrefuted on such a scale the reason is that some imagine that they have themselves actively brought about what they have merely suffered and experienced because they do not understand that a child brought into the world by parents is not be gotten by its parents any more than what grows by means of the earth grows out of the earth are phenomenal modifications or affections of matter properties of the individual thing but it is rather the case that each individual's things affections are properties of a single phenomenon and this single phenomenon cannot be rightly spoken of or characterized except we name it the first essence for this alone is agent and patient making itself all things come to all and through all God eternal which in so far as it takes on the names and persons of individuals forfeits its peculiar character to its prejudice now this is of lesser importance what is of greater is this that some are apt to weep so soon as ever God arises out of mankind by mere change of place and not of nature in the truth of things you should not lament another's death but prize and reverence it and the highest and only befitting honor you can pay to death is to resign unto God him that was here and continue to rule as before over the human beings entrusted to your care you dishonor yourself if you improve less through your judgment than by lapse of time seeing that time alleviates the wicked high command is the most important of things and he will best succeed in the most important office who has first learned to govern himself and what piety moreover is there in depicting that which has happened by the will of God if there is an order of reality and there is and if God presides over it the just man will not desire to deprecate his blessings and such conduct savers of avarice and violates that order but he will consider that what happens is for the best go forward then and heal yourself dispense justice and console the wretched so will you wipe away men's tears you must not prefer your private welfare to the public but the public to your private and think what manner of consolation is offered you and what sense has mourned with you for the loss of your son reward those who have grieved with you and you will far sooner reward them by ceasing to mourn than by confining yourself in your house you have no friends but you have a son what the one who is just dead you will ask yes will be the reply of all who reflect for that which exists the very fact that it will be forever or would you argue that that which has no existence comes into being but how can you be without the description of that which is another might say that you are impious and unjust impious towards God and unjust towards your son nay impious towards him rather than towards God would you then learn what death is and slay me the moment I have uttered these words and unless you can clothe them afresh with flesh you have there and then made me superior to yourself you have abundant time you have a wife who is sensible devoted to your husband you are yourself sound and body take from yourself whatever lacks one of the ancient romans in order to uphold the law slew his own son and indeed slew him after crowning him you are a governor of 50 cities and noblest of the romans yet this present humor of yours is such as to prevent you from affording a stable government even to your household not to speak of cities and provinces if apollonius were with you he would have persuaded fabula not to mourn epistle 49 the king of the babelonians garmos to neogindus the king of the indians if you were not to be prying disposition you would not be laying down the law in other people's affairs nor as sovereign in india would you be playing the judge for babelonians for how came you to know anything about my people but just recently you have made an attempt upon my kingdom by trying to cajole me with your letters and by insinuating into my realm such magistrates as these and you try to cloak under the veil of philanthropy your own aggressive designs but you will not succeed at all for you cannot deceive me or take me in epistle 60 to euphrates praxiteles of calchis was a madman he appeared at my door in Corinth together with your friend with a sword in his hand what then is the reason of his attempting my life for I have never driven off your oxen seeing that between your philosophy and mine there intervene very many shadowy mountains and an echoing sea epistle 61 to lesbonax anacarsis the sythian was a sage but if he was a sythian because he was a sythian and of epistles 38 through 61 epistles 62 through 97 from the life of Apollonius of Tyanna this is a Librivox recording all Librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Librivox.org the life of Apollonius of Tyanna by Flavius Philostratus translated by FC Coneybear epistle 62 the Lacodimonians to Apollonius we send you this copy of a decree conferring honor upon you which we have sealed with the public seal for your recognition thereof the decree of the Lacodimonians according to the resolution taken by their senate on the motion of Tindarus it was resolved by the government and people to make Apollonius the Pythagorean a citizen and to bestow upon him the right to possess land and houses and we have also set up an inscribed image painted and made of bronze to commemorate his virtues for this is the way in which our fathers did honor to good men for they regarded as sons of Lycurgus all who have chosen a way of life in accordance with the will of the gods epistle 63 Apollonius to the aphors and to the Lacodimonians I have seen your men without any beards with their thighs and legs smooth and white clad in soft tunics and light their fingers covered with rings and their necks bedesened with necklaces and shod with shoes of ionic style I did not therefore recognize your so-called envoys though your epistles spoke of them as Lacodimonians epistle 64 to the same you invite me again and again to reform your laws and your youth now the city of Solon does not invite me reverence Lycurgus epistle 65 to those of the aphesians who frequented the temple of Artemis you are devoted to holy ceremonies and to honoring the emperor in general I cannot condemn your custom of inviting and being invited to feasts but I do condemn the people who by night and by day share the home of the goddess otherwise I should not see issuing thence, thieves and robbers and kidnappers and every sort of wretch or sacrilegious rascal for your temple is just a den of robbers to the same persons there is come from Hellas a man who was a Helen by race and though he was not an Athenian or indeed a native of Megara yet he had a better name and was intent upon making his home together with your goddess so I would have you assigned me some place where I can stay without contracting a need of purificatory rights though I always remain aside epistle 67 to the same persons your temple is thrown open to all who would sacrifice or offer prayers or sing hymns to suppliance to helens, barbarians freemen, to slaves your law is transcendentally divine I could recognize the tokens of Zeus and of Leto if these were alone epistle 68 to the Malaysians an earthquake has shaken your land as has often happened with the countries of many other people but as the misfortunes which they suffered were unavoidable so they exhibited towards one another feelings of pity and not of hatred you alone have hurled against the gods both missiles and fire and against such gods as people this must have both after danger and before it nay more when a distinguished philosopher of Hellenic race had often warned you publicly of the disaster in store for you and had foretold the earthquakes that have happened hymn when the god actually shook your land you began to accuse daily of having brought it about alas for your public folly and yet your forefathers was thallies epistle 69 to the trallions many from all parts some for one reason and some for another flock to me both young and old I then scan the nature of each individual and his manners as closely as I can and I mark his disposition towards his own city to see whether it is just or the reverse but until this day I do not find that I could prefer to you trallions either Lydians or Achaeans or Ionians or even the people of ancient Hellas the natives of Thurii or Crotona or Terantum or any others of the people of Italy yonder who are called happy or of any other races what then is the reason why so much approving of yourselves I yet do not take my residence among so excellent a people although I am of your own race I will tell you on some other occasion but at present I have only time to praise you and say how much superior are your leading citizens in virtue and in speech to those of other cities and still more to those among whom they have been epistle 70 to the people of Cice as Plato says in his Timaeus you are the descendants of Athenians though they have expelled from Attica the goddess you have in common with them who is called Nath by you but Athena by them they have ceased to be Hellans and why they have ceased to be I will tell you no wise and aged man is an Athenian for no Athenian ever grew a full beard since you never saw one of them with any at all the flatterer is at their doors the sycophant stands before their gates the pimp even before their long walls the parasite in front of Meunicaea and in front of Peraeus as for the goddess she has not even Sunium left to her epistle 71 to the Ionians you think that you ought to be called Hellans because of your pedigrees and because you were once on a time a colony of them but just as the Hellans are characterized by their customs and laws and language and private life so are men in general by their deportment and appearance but as for you most of you have abandoned even your names nay owing to this recent prosperity of yours you have forfeited all tokens of your ancestors right therefore that the latter should refuse to welcome you even in their tombs on the ground that you are no longer recognizable by them for whereas formerly they bore the names of heroes and sea captains and legislators they now bear names such as Lucullus and Fabricius and names of other blessed Lucanians for myself I would rather be called Mimnarumus epistle 72 to Hestiius our father Apollonius had the name of Menodotus thrice over in his pedigree but you wish to style yourself once for all Lucretius or Lupericus of which of these are you the descendant it is a disgrace to have a person's name without also having his countenance epistle 73 the same I am far away by God's will from my country but I always ponder in my mind my city's affairs the generation of those who won the first honor hastens to its end and in future it will be a reign of children and a little later on of babes here then is what we have to fear lest the state governed by youth should go wrong you need not fear for our lives are over epistle 74 to the Stoics Bassus was beautiful but starving although his sire had plenty of money accordingly he began by fleeing to Magara with one of his lovers so called and who was one of his pimps as well for both the one lot and the other were in need of food and money for the journey then he fled thence and turned up in Syria there the pretty youth met with a warm welcome from Euphrates and from anyone else who like Euphrates was in need of the latest beauty and was ready out of mere regard for that sage to choose for himself so odd and ideal epistle 75 to the people of Sardis the son of Iliades was unable to save his own city and had no resources left though he was a king and his name Croesis well I would like to know what sort of lion you have put your trust in that you should have embraced this truseless war among yourselves children and youths all alike full grown men and aged nay even maidens and women one would suppose that yours was a city of the Erenyes Demeter for this goddess is a lover of mankind and I would know what all this spleen of yours is about epistle 76 to the same persons it is quite right that an old fashioned philosopher like myself should be anxious to visit a city so old and considerable as your own and I would willingly have visited it without waiting for the invitation so many other cities have sent me if I had any hopes of reconciling your city with morality or with nature or with law or with God and I would have done in any case so much as in me lies only faction as someone has remarked is crueler than war epistle 77 to his disciples everything that I have ever said I have said out of consideration for philosophy and not to please Euphrates let no one suppose that I have been afraid of the sword of praxiteles or of the poison of lyseus for this too is the weapon of Euphrates epistle 78 to Iarchus and his sages no by the water of Tantalus in which you initiated me epistle 79 to Euphrates the soul which does not take trouble to train the body to be self-sufficing is not able to make itself content with little epistle 80 to the same person men of light and leading use fewest words for if babblers felt as much annoyance as they inflict they would not be so long-winded epistle 81 to his disciples Simonides used to say that he had never had cause to repent of being silent though he had often repented of having spoken epistle 82 to the same persons Loquacity has many pitfalls but silence none epistle 83 to Delius to tell a lie is base to tell the truth is noble epistle 84 to his disciples believe not that I lightly recommend to others anything for I myself live upon maze and I suit the rest of my diet to this dish and I recommend a similar diet to yourselves epistle 85 to Idomena we have carefully trained ourselves to be content with little not in order exclusively to use a cheap and common fair but in order that we may not shrink there from epistle 86 to Macadone quickness of temper blossoms into madness epistle 87 to Aristocles the passion of anger unless it is restrained by social intercourse and so cured becomes a physical disease epistle 78 to Satyrus most men are as apt to palliate their own offenses as they are to condemn them in other people epistle 89 to Daneus a task once begun never wearies epistle 90 to Dion exist at all is nothing but to exist is pain and weariness epistle 91 to his brothers you must not feel envious of anyone for while good men deserve what they have the bad live badly even if they are prosperous epistle 92 to Dionysius it is a good thing before you suffer you have learnt how great a blessing is tranquility epistle 93 to Numenius we must not mourn the loss of such good friends but we must remember that the best part of our life was that which we lived in the society of our friends epistle 94 to Theititus console a mourner by representing to him of other people epistle 95 to Cornelianus life is short for the man who does well but for him that is unlucky it is long epistle 96 to democracies one who shows excessive anger over small offenses prevents the offender from distinguishing when he has offended in lesser things and when in greater epistle 97 to Lycus it is not poverty that is disgraceful by nature but poverty due to a disgraceful reason is a reproach and of the epistles of Apollonius of Tyanna