 Volume 2, Book 6, chapters 31 through 43 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 FC Coneybear. Volume 2, Book 6. Chapter 31 And for myself, O man of Tyanna," answered Titus, Can you give me any precepts as to how to rule and exercise the authority of a sovereign? Only such rules, replied the other, as you have laid upon yourself, for in so submitting yourself to your father's will, it is, I think, certain that you will grow like him. And I would like to repeat to you on this occasion a saying of Archaites, which is a noble one and worth committing to memory. Archaites was a man of Tarentum, who was learned in the lore of Pythagoras, and he wrote a treatise on the education of children in which he says, Let the father be an example of virtue to his children, for fathers also will the more resolutely walk in the path of virtue because their children are coming to resemble them. But for myself, I propose to associate with you my own companion, Demetrius, who will attend you as much as you like, and instruct you in the whole duty of a good leader. And what sort of wisdom, O Apollonius, does this person possess? Courage, he replied, to speak the truth unabashed by anyone, for he possesses the constancy and strength of character of a cynic. And as Titus did not seem very pleased to hear the name of a dog, he continued, And yet in Homer, Telemachus, when he was young, required, it appears, two dogs, and the poet sends these to accompany the youth to the marketplace of Ithaca, in spite of there being irrational animals. But you will have a dog to accompany you, who will bark in your behalf, not only at other people, but at yourself in case you go wrong, and he will bark with all wisely and never irrationally. Well, said the other, give me your dog to accompany me, and I will even let him bite me in case he feels I am committing injustice. I will write to him a letter, for he teaches philosophy in Rome. Pray, do so, said Titus, and I wish I could get someone to write to you in my behalf, and induce you to share with me my journey to Rome. I will come there, said the other, whenever it is best for both of us. CHAPTER 32 Then Titus dismissed the company, and said, Now that we are alone, O man of Tyena, you will allow me, perhaps, to ask you a question upon matters of grave importance to myself. Pray, do so, said the other, and do so all the more readily, because the matter is so important. It is about my own life, said the other, and I would feign know who my ought most to be on my guard against. That is my question, and I hope you will not think me cowardly for already being anxious about it. Nay, you are only cautious, said the other, and circumspect, for a man ought to be more careful about this than about anything else. And glancing at the sun, he swore by that God that he had himself intended to address Titus about this matter, even if he had not asked him. For, he said, The gods have told me to warn you, so long as your father is alive, to be on your guard against his bitterest enemies, but after his death against your own kith and kin. And, said Titus, In what way am I to die? In the same way, said the other, as Odysseus is said to have died, for they say that he too met with his death by the sea. Damus interprets the above utterance as follows. Namely, that he was to be on his guard against the cusp of the fish called the Trigon, with which they say Odysseus was wounded. Anyhow, after he had occupied the throne for two years, in succession to his father, he died through eating the fish called the sea-hair. And this fish, according to Damus, causes secret humours in the body, worse and more fatal than anything else, either in the sea or on land. And Nero, he says, introduced the sea-hair in his dishes to poison his worst enemies. And so did Damitian, in order to remove his brother Titus, not because he objected to sharing his throne with his brother, but to sharing it with one who was both gentle and good. Such was their conversation in private, after which they embraced one another in public. And as Titus departed, Apollonius greeted him with these last words. Pray you, my king, overcome your enemies by your arms, but your father by your virtues. Chapter 33 But the letter to Demetrius ran as follows. Apollonius, the philosopher, sends greetings to Demetrius, the cynic. I have made a present of you to the emperor Titus, that you may instruct him how to behave as a sovereign, and take care that you confirm the truth of my words to him, and make yourself, anger apart, everything to him. Farewell. Chapter 34 Now the inhabitants of Tarsus had previously detested Apollonius, because of the violent reproaches which he addressed to them, owing to the fact that through their languid indifference and sensual indolence, they could not put up with the vigor of his remarks. But on this occasion they became such devoted admirers of our hero as to regard him as their second founder and the mainstay of their city. For on one occasion the emperor was offering a sacrifice in public when the whole body of citizens met and presented a petition to him, asking for certain great favors. And he replied that he would mention the matter to his father, and be himself their ambassador to procure them what they wanted. Whereupon Apollonius stepped forward and said, Supposing I convicted some who are standing here of being your own and your father's enemies, and of having sent legates to Jerusalem to excite a rebellion, and of being secret allies of your most open enemies. What would happen to them? Why, what else? said the emperor. Then instant death. Then is it not disgraceful, replied Apollonius, that you should be instant in demanding their punishment, and yet delitory in conferring a boon, and be ready yourself to undertake the punishment, but reserve the benefaction until you can see and consult your father? But the king, over-delighted with this remark, said, I grant the favors they ask for, for my father will not be annoyed at my yielding to truth and to yourself. CHAPTER 35 So many were the races which they say Apollonius had visited until then, eager and zealous for others as they for him. But his subsequent journeys abroad, though they were numerous, were yet not so many as before, nor did he go to fresh districts which he was not already acquainted with. For when he came down from Ethiopia, he made a long stay on the seaboard of Egypt, and then he returned to Phoenicia and Celesia, and to Ionia and Isatsa and Italy, never failing anywhere to show himself the same as ever. For, hard as it is to know oneself, I myself consider it still harder for the sage to remain always himself, for he cannot ever reform evil natures and improve them, unless he has first trained himself never to alter in his own person. Now, about these matters, I have discoursed at length in other treatises, and shown those of my readers who were careful and hard students, that a man who is really a man will never alter his nature, nor become a slave. But lest I should unduly prolong this work by giving a minute account of the several teachings which he addressed to individuals, and lest, on the other hand, I should skip over any important chapter of a life, which I am taking so much pains to transmit to those who never knew Apollonius, I think it time to record more important incidents and matters which will repay the remembering, for we must consider that such episodes are comparable to the visits to mankind paid by the sons of Escalapias. Chapter 36 There was a youth who, without having any education of his own, undertook to educate birds which he kept in his home to make them clever, and he taught them to talk like human beings and to whistle tunes like flute-players. Apollonius met him and asked, How are you occupying yourself? And when he replied, and told him all about his nightingales and his blackbirds and how he trained the tongues of stone curlews, as he had himself a very uneducated accent, Apollonius said, I think you are spoiling the accents of the birds. In the first place, because you don't let them utter their own notes, which are so sweet that not even the best musical instruments could rival or imitate them. And in the second place, because you yourself talk the vilest Greek dialects and are only teaching them to stutter like yourself. And what is more, my good youth, you are also wasting your own substance. For when I look at all your hangers on and at your get-up, I should say that you are a delicately bred and somewhat wealthy man. But sycophants squeeze people like yourself at the same time that they shoot out their tongues at them like so many goats. And what will be the use to you of all this bird-fancing when the time comes? For if you collected all the songbirds in the world, it would not help you to shake off these parasites that cling to you and oppress you. Nay, you are forced to shower your wealth upon them and cast your gold before them as you scatter titbits before dogs and to stop their barking, you must give again and again until at last you will find yourself reduced to hunger and to poverty. What you want is some splendid diversion which will instantly make some alteration in your character. Otherwise, you will wake up one day and find that you have been plucked of your wealth as if it were plumage and you are a fitter subject to excite the birds to lament than to sing. The remedy you need to effect such a change is not a very great one, for there is in all these cities a class of men whose acquaintance you have never made, but who are called schoolmasters. You give them a little of your substance with the certainty of getting it back with interest, for they will teach you the rhetoric of the forum and it is not a difficult art to acquire. I may add that if I had known you as a child and come across you then I should have advised you assiduously to attend at the doors of the philosophers and Sophists so as to be able to hedge round your habitation with a wider learning. But, since it is too late for you to manage that, at any rate, learn to plead for yourself. For remember, if you had acquired a more complete training and education, you would have resembled a man who is heavy-armed and therefore formidable. Yet, if you thoroughly learn this branch, you will at any rate be equipped like a light-armed soldier or a slinger, for you will be able to fling words at your sycophants as you would stones at dogs. The young man took to heart this advice and he gave up wasting his time over birds and betook himself to school much to the improvement both of his judgment and of his tongue. Chapter 37 Two stories are told in Sardis. One, that the river Pactolus used to bring down gold dust to Croesus and the other, that trees are older than earth. The former story Apollonius said he accepted because it was probable, for that there had once been a sand of gold on Mount Mollus and that the showers of rain had swept it down into the river Pactolus. Although subsequently, as is generally the case in such matters, it had given out, being all washed away. But the second story he ridiculed and said, You pretend that trees were created before earth? Well, I have been studying philosophy all this time, yet have never heard of the stars being created before the heaven. The inference he wished to convey was that nothing could be created as long as that in which it grows does not exist. Chapter 38 The ruler of Syria had plunged Antioch into a feud by disseminating among the citizens suspicions such that when they met in assembly they all quarreled with one another. But a violent earthquake happened to occur. They were all cowering and, as is usual in the case of heavenly portents, praying for one another. Apollonius accordingly stepped forward and remarked, It is God who is clearly anxious to reconcile you to one another and you will not revive the feuds since you cherish the same fears. And so he implanted in them a sense of what was to happen to them and made each faction entertain the same fears as the other. Chapter 39 Here is another incident worth recording. A certain man was sacrificing to Mother Earth in hope of finding a treasure and he did not hesitate to offer a prayer to Apollonius with that intent. He, perceiving what he was after, said, I see that you are terribly fond of filthy lucre. Nay, I am a poor devil, remarked the other, that have nothing except a few pence and not enough to feed my family. You seem, said the other, to keep a large household of idle servants nor do you yourself appear to be wanting in wits. But the man shed a quiet tear and answered, I have four daughters who want four dowries and, when my daughters have had their dowries assigned to them, my capital, which is now only twenty thousand drachmas, will have vanished and they will think that I have got all too little while I shall perish because I shall have nothing at all. Therefore Apollonius took compassion on him and said, We will provide for you, myself and Mother Earth, for I hear that you are sacrificing to her. With these words he conducted the man into the suburbs as if he were going to buy some fruit. But there he saw an estate planted with olive trees and being delighted with the trees, for they were very good ones and well-grown, and there was also a little garden in the place in which he saw beehives and flowers. He went on into the garden as if he had some important business to examine into and then, having put up a prayer to Pandora, he returned to the city. Then he proceeded to the owner of the field who had amassed a fortune in the most unrighteous manner by informing against the estates of Phoenicians, and said, For how much did you purchase such and such an estate, and how much labor have you spent upon it? The other replied that he had bought the estate a year before for the sum of fifteen thousand drachmas, but that is yet he had spent no labor upon it, whereupon Apollonius persuaded him to sell it to him for twenty thousand drachmas, which he did, esteeming the five thousand to be a great windfall. Now the man who wanted to find the treasure did not in the least understand the gift that was made him. Indeed, he hardly considered it a fair bargain for himself, and all the worse a bargain, because, whereas he might have kept the twenty thousand drachmas that he had in hand, he now reflected that the estate which he purchased for the sum might suffer from frost and hail storms, and from other influences ruinous to the crops. But when he found a jar almost at once in the field, containing three thousand dorix, close by the beehive in the little garden, and when he got a very large yield from the olive trees, when everywhere else the crops had failed, he began to hymn the praises of the sage, and his house was crowded with suitors for the hands of his daughters urging their suits upon him. Chapter 40 Here is another story which I came upon about Apollonius, and which deserves to be put upon record. There was a man who was in love with a nude statue of Aphrodite, which is erected in the island of Nidus, and he was making offerings to it, and said that he would make yet others with a view to marry the statue. But Apollonius, though on other grounds he thought his conduct absurd, yet as the islanders were not adverse to the idea, but said that the fame of the goddess would be greatly enhanced if she had a lover determined to purge the temple of all this nonsense, and when the Nidians asked him if he would reform their system of sacrifice or their litanies in any way, he replied, I will reform your eyes, but let the ancestral service of your temple continue as it is. Accordingly he called to him the languished lover and asked him if he believed in the existence of gods, and when he replied that he believed in their existence so firmly that he was actually in love with them and mentioned a marriage with one of them which he hoped to celebrate shortly, Apollonius replied, The poets have turned your poor head by their talk of unions with Anchises and Pelius and other heroes with goddesses, but I know this much about loving and being loved, gods fall in love with gods, and human beings with human beings, and animals with animals, and in a word like with like, and they have true issue of their own kind. But when two beings of different kinds contract a union, there is no true marriage or love, and if you only would bear in mind the fate of Ixion, you would never have dreamed of falling in love with beings so much above you. For he, you remember, is bent and stretched across the heavens like a wheel, and you, unless you get out of this shrine, will perish wherever you are upon earth, nor will you be able to say that the gods have been unjust in their sentence upon you. Thus he put a stop to this mad freak, and the man went away who said he was in love after sacrificing in order to gain forgiveness. Chapter 41 At one time the cities on the left side of the helispont were visited by earthquakes, and Egyptians and Chaldeans went begging about through them to collect money, pretending that they wanted ten talents with which to offer sacrifices to earth and to Poseidon. And the cities began to contribute under the stress of fear, partly out of their common funds, and partly out of private. But the imposters refused to offer the sacrifices in behalf of their dupes as the money was deposited in the banks. Now the sage determined not to allow the people of the helispont to be imposed upon. So he visited their cities, and drove out the quacks who were making money out of the misfortunes of others. And then he divined the causes of the supernatural wrath, and by making such offerings as suited each case, averted the visitation at small cost, and the land was at rest. Chapter 42 The Emperor Domitian, about the same time, passed a law against making minn eunuchs, and against planting fresh vineyards, and also in favor of cutting down vineyards already planted. Whereon, Apollonius, who was visiting the Ionians, remarked, These rescripts do not concern me, for I, alone perhaps of mankind, require neither to beget my kind nor to drink wine, but our egregious sovereign seems not aware that he is sparing mankind, while he eunuchizes the earth. This witticism emboldened the Ionians to send a deputation to the emperor in behalf of their vines, and ask for a repeal of the law which ordered the earth to be laid waste and not planted. Chapter 43 Here, too, is a story which they tell of him in Tarsus. A mad dog had attacked a lad, and as a result of the bite, the lad behaved exactly like a dog, for he barked and howled and went on all four feet using his hands as such, and ran about in that manner. And he had been ill in this way for thirty days when Apollonius, who had recently come to Tarsus, met him and ordered him to look for the dog which had done the harm. But they said that the dog had not been found, because the youth had been attacked outside the wall when he was practicing with javelins. Nor could they learn from the patient what the dog was like, for he did not even know himself any more. Then Apollonius reflected for a moment and said, Oh Damus, the dog is a white shaggy sheep dog as big as an Amphilocian hound, and he is standing at a certain fountain trembling all over, for he is longing to drink the water, but at the same time is afraid of it. Bring him to me to the bank of the river where there are the wrestling grounds, merely telling him that it is I who call him. So Damus dragged the dog along, and it crouched at the feet of Apollonius, crying out as a supplient might do before an altar. But he quite tamed it by stroking it with his hand, and then he stood by the lad close by, holding him with his hand, and in order that the multitude might be cognizant of so great a mystery, he said, The soul of Telephus of Mycia has been transferred into this boy, and the fates impose the same things upon him as upon Telephus, and with these words he bade the dog lick the wound all round where he had bitten the boy, so that the agent of the wound might in turn be its physician and healer. After that the boy returned to his father and recognized his mother, and saluted his comrades as before, and drank of the waters of the Sidonus. Nor did the sage neglect the dog either, but after offering a prayer to the river, he sent the dog across it, and when the dog had crossed the river, he took his stand on the opposite bank, and began to bark, a thing which mad dogs rarely do, and he folded back his ears and wagged his tail, because he knew that he was all right again, for a draught of water cures a mad dog, if he has only the courage to take it. Such were the exploits of our sage in behalf of both temples and cities, such were the discourses he delivered to the public, or in behalf of different communities, and in behalf of those who were dead or who were sick, and such were the harangues he delivered to wise and unwise alike, and to the sovereigns who consulted him about moral virtue. And of Volume 2, Book 6, Chapters 31-43 Volume 2, Book 7, Chapters 1-7 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 7 Chapter 1 I am aware that the conduct of philosophers under despotism is the truest touchstone of their character, and am in favor of inquiring in what way one man displays more courage than another. And my argument also urges me to consider the point. For during the reign of Domitian, Apollonius was beset by accusations and rites of information, the several origins, sources, and counts of which I shall presently enlarge upon. And as I shall be under the necessity of specifying the language which he used and the role which he assumed when he left the court after convicting the tyrant rather than being himself convicted, so I must first of all enumerate all the feats of wise men in the presence of tyrants which I have found worthy of commemoration and contrast them with the conduct of Apollonius. For this, I think, is the best way of finding out the truth. Chapter 2 Zeno, then of Aelia, who was the father of dialectic, was convicted of an attempt to overthrow the tyranny of Nearchus the Mycian. And being put to the rack, he refused to divulge the names of his accomplices. Though he accused of disloyalty, those who were loyal to the tyrant, with the result that, whereas they were put to death on the assumption that his accusations were true, he affected the liberation of the Mycians by tripping despotism up over itself. And Plato also declares that he took up the cause of the liberation of the people of Sicily and associated himself in this enterprise with Dion. And Phytone, when he was banished from regium, fled to Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily. But being treated with more honor than an exile might expect, he realized that the tyrant had designs also upon regium, and he informed the people there of this by letter. But he was caught doing so by the tyrant, who forthwith fastened him to one of his siege engines alive, and then pushed it forward against the walls, imagining that the inhabitants of regium would not shoot at the machine in order to spare Phytone. He, however, cried out to them to shoot, for, said he, I am the target of your liberty! And Heraclides and Phytone, who slew Cotis the Thracian, were both of them young men, and they embraced the discipline and life of the Academy, and made themselves wise and so free men. And who does not know the story of Callisthenes of Olintus? He, on one and the same day, delivered himself of a panangriac and of an attack upon the Macedonians, just at the time when they were at the acme of their power, and they put him to death for exciting their displeasure. Then there were Diogenes of Sinope and Cratties of Thebes, of whom the former went direct to Chironaea and rebuked Philip for his treatment of the Athenians. On the grounds that, though asserting himself to be a descendant of Heraclides, he yet was destroying by force of arms those who had taken up arms in defense of the descendants of Heraclides. The other, Cratties, when Alexander had declared that he would rebuild Thebes for his sake, replied that he would never stand in need of a country or of a city which anyone could raise to the ground by mere force of arms. Many more examples of this kind could be adduced, but my treaties does not allow me to prolong them. It is indeed incumbent upon me to criticize these examples, not in order to show that they were not as remarkable as they are universally famous, but only to show that they fall short of the exploits of Apollonius in spite of their being the best of their kind. Chapter 3 About the conduct of Xeno of Aelia then and about the murder of Coytes, there is nothing very remarkable. For it is easy to enslave Thryians and Gaitai, so it is an act of folly to liberate them. For indeed, they do not appreciate freedom, because, I imagine, they do not esteem slavery to be base. I will not say that Plato somewhat lacked wisdom when he set himself to reform the affairs of Sicily rather than those of Athens, or that he was sold in all fairness when, after deceiving others, he found himself deceived, for I fear to offend my readers. But the despotic sway of Dionysius over Sicily was already tottering when Phytone of Regium made his attempt against him, and in any case he would have been put to death by him, even if the people of that city had not shot their bolts at him. His achievement then, I think, was by no means wonderful. He only preferred to die in behalf of the liberty of others rather than endure the death penalty by being himself a slave. And as for Calisthenes, even today he cannot acquit himself of baseness, for in first commending and then attacking one and the same set of people, he either attacked those whom he felt to be worthy of praise, or he praised those whom he ought to have been openly attacking. Moreover, a person who sets himself to abuse good men cannot escape the charge of being envious, while he who flatters the wicked by his very praises of them draws down upon his own head the guilt of their misdeeds, for evil men are only rendered more evil when you praise them. And Diogenes, if he had addressed Philip in the way he did before the battle of Chironaea, instead of after it, might have preserved him from the guilt of taking up arms against Athens. But instead of doing so, he waited till the harm was done when he could only reproach him but not reform him. As for Cretes, he must needs incur the censure of every patriot for not seconding Alexander in his design of recolonizing thieves. But Apollonius had not to fear for any country that was endangered, nor was he in despair of his own life, nor was he reduced to silly and idle speeches, nor was he championing the cause of Mycians or Gaetai, nor was he face to face with one who was only sovereign in a single island or of an inconsiderable country, for he confronted one who was master both of sea and land, at a time when his tyranny was harsh and bitter, and he took his stand against the tyrant in behalf of the welfare of his subjects, with the same spirit and purpose as he had taken his stand against Nero. CHAPTER IV Some may think that his attitude towards Nero was a mere bit of skirmishing, because he did not come to close quarters with him, but merely undermined his despotism by his encouragement of Vindex, and the terror with which he inspired to Gelinus. And there are certain braggarts here who foster the tale that it required no great courage to assail a man like Nero who led the life of a female harpist or floutist. But what, I would ask, have they to say about Domitian? For he was vigorous in body, and he abjured all those pleasures of music and song which wear away and soften down ferocity, and he took pleasure in the sufferings of others and in any lamentations they uttered. And he was in the habit of saying that distrust is the best safeguard of the people against their tyrants, and of the tyrant against the multitude. And though he thought that a sovereign ought to rest from all hard work during the night, yet he deemed it the right season to begin murdering people in. And the result was that the Senate had all its most distinguished members cut off. Asafi was reduced to cowering in a corner to such an extent that some of its votaries disguised themselves by changing their dress and ran away to take refuge among the Western Celts, while others fled to the deserts of Libya or Scythia, and others again stooped to compose orations in which his crimes were polluted. But Apollonius, like Tiresias, who is represented by Sophocles as addressing to Odypus the words, For tis not in your slavery that I live, but in that of loxias, chose wisdom as his mistress, and escaped scot-free from paying tribute to Domitian. Applying to himself as if it were an oracle, the verse of Tiresias and of Sophocles, and fearing nothing for himself but only pitting the fate of others, he set himself to rally round him all the younger men of the Senate, and husband such intelligence as he saw discerned in many of them. And he visited the provinces, and in the name of philosophy he appealed to the governors, pointing out to them that the strength of tyrants is not immortal and that the very fact of their being dreaded exposes them to defeat. And he also reminded them of the Panathenaic Festival in Attica, at which hymns are sung in honor of Harmonius and Aristogitan, and of the Sally that was made from Phile, when thirty tyrants at once were overthrown. And he also reminded them of the ancient history of the Romans, and of how they too had originally been a democracy, after driving out despotism, arms in hand. Chapter 5 And on an occasion when a tragic actor visited Ephesus, and came forward in the play called the Eino, and when the governor of Asia was one of the audience, a man who though still young and of distinguished rank among the councils, was nevertheless very nervous about such matters, just as the actor finished the speech, in which Euripides describes in his Iambes how tyrants, after long growth of their power, are destroyed by little causes. Apollonius leapt up and said, But Yonder, coward, understands neither Euripides nor myself. Chapter 6 When, moreover, the news was brought how notable a purification of the goddess Vesta of the Romans Domitian had carried out, by putting to death three of the Vestal Virgins who had broken their vows, and incurred the pollution of marriage. When it was their duty to minister impurity to the Athene of Ilium, and to the fire which was worshiped in Rome, he exclaimed, O son, would that thou couldst be purified of the unjust murders with which the whole world is just now filled. Nor did he do all this in private, as a coward might, nor acclaimed his sentiments and aspirations amidst the crowd, and before all. Chapter 7 On another occasion, when after the murder of Sabines, one of his own relations, Domitian was about to marry Julia, who was herself the wife of the murdered man, and Domitian's own niece, being one of the daughters of Titus, Ephesus was about to celebrate the marriage with sacrifice. Only Apollonius interrupted the rites by exclaiming, O thou night of the daynights of yore, how unique thou wasst. End of Volume 2, Book 7, Chapters 1-7 Volume 2, Book 7, Chapters 8-12 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 7. Chapter 8 The following, then, is the history of his acts in Rome. Nerva was regarded as a proper candidate for the throne, which, after Domitian's death, he occupied with so much wisdom, and the same opinion was entertained of Orphitus and of Rufus. Domitian accused the two latter of intriguing against himself, and they were confined in islands, while Nerva was commanded to live in Tarentum. Now, Apollonius had been intimate with them all the time that Titus shared the throne with his father, and also reigned after his father's death, and he was in constant correspondence with them on the subject of self-control, being anxious to enlist them on the side of the sovereigns whose excellence of character he esteemed. But he did his best to alienate them from Domitian, on account of his cruelty, and encouraged them to espouse the cause of the freedom of all. Now it occurred to him that his epistles, conveying advice to them, were fraught with danger to them, for many of those who were in power were betrayed by their own slaves and friends and womankind, and there was not at the time any house that could keep a secret. Accordingly, he would take now one and now another of the discreetest of his own companions, and say to them, I have a brilliant secret to entrust to you, for you must be take yourself as my agent to Rome to so and so, mentioning the party, and you must hold converse with him, and do the utmost I could do to win him over. But when he heard that they were banished for having displayed a tendency to revolt against the tyrant, and yet had from timidity abandoned their plans, he delivered a discourse on the subject of the fates and of destiny in the grove of Smyrna, in which stands the statue of the river Milly's. Chapter 9 And being aware that Nerva would before long become sovereign, he went on to explain in his oration that not even tyrants are able to force the hand of destiny, and directing the attention of his audience to the brazen statue of Domitian, which had been erected close to that of Milly's, he said, Thou fool, how much art thou mistaken in thy views of destiny and fate? For even if thou shouldst slay the man who is fated to be despot after thyself, he shall come to life again. This saying was reported to Domitian by the malevolence of Euphrates, and though no one knew to which of his personages above mentioned this oracle applied, yet the despot, in order to ally his fears, determined to put them to death. But in order that he might seem to have an excuse for doing so, he summoned Apollonius before him to defend himself on the charge of holding secret relations against them, for he considered that if he came he could get a sentence pronounced against him, and so avoid the imputation of having put people to death without trial, seeing that they would have been convicted through Apollonius. Or in the alternative case, if the latter, by some ruse, avoided an open trial, then the fate of the others would all the more certainly be sealed, because sentence would have been passed on them by their own accomplice. Moved by these considerations, Domitian had already written to the governor of Asia, directing the man of Tyanna to be arrested and brought to Rome, when the latter, foreseeing in his usual way through a divine instinct what was coming, told his companions that they needed to depart on a mysterious voyage, and they were reminded of the opinion annunciated by Baris of old, and felt that he was intent upon some such scheme. Apollonius, however, without revealing his intention even to Damus, set sail in his company for Achaia, and having landed at Corinth and worshipped the sun about midday, with his usual rites, embarked in the evening for Sicily and Italy, and falling in with a favorable wind and a good current that ran in his direction, he reached Dicaerchia on the fifth day. There he met Demetrius, who passed for being the boldest of the philosophers, simply because he did not live far away from Rome, and knowing that he was really to get out of the way of the tyrant, he said by way of amusing himself, I have caught you in your luxury dwelling here in the most blessed part of happy Italy, if indeed she be happy. Here, where Odysseus is said to have forgotten in the company of Calypso the smoke of his Ithican home. Thereupon, Demetrius embraced him and after sundry pious ejaculations said, Oh ye gods, what will come upon philosophy if she risks the loss of such a man as herself? He asked, and what risks does she run? Said the other, those surely a foreknowledge of which brought you here, for if I do not know what is in your mind, then I do not know what is in my own. But let us not conduct our conversation here, but let us retire to where we can talk together alone, and let only Damus be present, whom, by Hercules, I am inclined to consider an Iolaus of your labors. Chapter 11 With these words, Demetrius led them to the villa in which Cicero lived of old, and it is close by the city. There they sat down under a plain tree where the grasshoppers were chirping to the soft music of the summer's breeze, when Demetrius, glancing up at them, remarked, Oh ye blessed insects, and unfanately wise, it would seem then that the muses have taught you a song which is neither actionable nor likely to be informed against, and they made you superior to all wants of the belly, and settled you far above all human envy to live in these trees, on which you sit and sing in your blessedness, about your own, and the muses prerogative of happiness. Now Apollonius understood the drift of this apostrophe, but it jarred upon him as inconsistent with the strenuous professions of his friend. He said, It seems then that though you only wanted to sing the praises of the grasshoppers, you could not do it openly, but come cowering hither as if there were a public law against anyone praising the grasshoppers. He replied, I said what I did not by way of praising them, but of signifying that while they are left unmolested in their concert halls, we are not allowed even to mutter, for wisdom has been rendered a penal offense. And whereas the indictment of Enetus and Miletus ran, Socrates commits wrong in corrupting youth and introducing a new religion, we are indicted in such terms as these. So and so commits wrong by being wise and just and gifted with understanding of the gods, no less than of men, and with a wide knowledge of the laws. And as for yourself, so far forth as you are cleverer and wiser than the rest of us, so much the more cleverly is the indictment against you drawn up, for Domitian intends to implicate you in the charges for which Nerva and his associates are banished. Apollonia said, but for what crime are they banished? For what is reckoned by the persecutor to be the greatest of latter-day crimes? He says that he has caught these persons in the act of trying to usurp his throne, and accuses you of instigating their attempt by mutilating, I think, a boy. What, as if it were by a eunuch, that I want his empire overthrown? He replied, it is not that of which we are falsely accused, but they declare that you sacrificed a boy to divine the secrets of futurity, which are to be learned from an inspection of youthful entrails. And in the indictment, your dress and manner of life are also impugned, and the fact of your being an object of worship to some. This, then, is what I have heard from our Telessinos, no less your intimate than mine. exclaimed Apollonius, what luck if we could meet Telessinos, for I suppose you mean the philosopher who held consular rank in the reign of Nero. He said, the same, but how are you to come across him? For despots are doubly suspicious of any man of rank should they find him holding communication with men who lie under such an accusation as you do. And Telessinos, moreover, gave way quietly before the edict which has lately been issued against philosophers of every kind, because he preferred to be an exile as a philosopher, to remaining in Rome as a consul. Apollonius said, I would not have him run any risks on my account anyhow, for the risks he runs in behalf of philosophy are serious enough. CHAPTER XII But tell me this, Divitrius, what do you think I had better say or do in order to allay my own fears? said the other, you had better not trifle nor pretend to be afraid of what you do not dread. For if you really thought these accusations dangerous, you would have been away by now and evaded the necessity of defending yourself from them. Apollonius said, and would you run away if you were placed in the same danger as myself? He replied, I would not, I swear by Athene if there were someone to judge me. But in fact there is no fair trial and if I did offer a defense no one would even listen to me. Or if I were listened to, I should be slain all the more certainly because I was known to be innocent. You would not, I suppose, care to see me choose so cold-blooded and slavish a death as that rather than one which befits a philosopher. And I imagine it behooves a philosopher to die in the attempt either to liberate his city or to protect his parents and children and brothers and other kinsfolk or to die struggling for his friends who in the eyes of the wise are more precious than mere kinsfolk or for favorites that have been purchased by love. But to be put to death not for true reasons but for fancy ones and to furnish the tyrant with a pretext for being considered wise is much worse and more grievous than to be bowed and bent high in the sky on a wheel as they say Ixion was. But it seems to me the very fact of your coming here will be the beginning of your trial. For though you may attribute your journey hither to your quiet conscience and to the fact that you would have never ventured upon it if you were guilty, Domitian will credit you with nothing of the kind but will merely believe that you ventured on so hard a course because you possess some mysterious power. For think, ten days they say have not elapsed since you were cited to appear and you turn up at the court without even having heard as yet that you were to undergo a trial. Will not that be tantamount to justifying the accusation? For everyone will think that you foreknew the event and the story about the boy will gain credit therefrom and take care that the discourse which they say you delivered about the fates and necessity in Ionia does not come true of yourself and that, in case destiny has some cruelty in store, you are not marching straight to meet it with your hands tied just because you won't see that discretion is the better part of Valor. And if you have not forgotten the affairs of Nero's reign you will remember my own case and that I showed no coward's dread of death. But then one gained some respite for although Nero's harp was ill-attuned to the dignity that befits a king and clashed therewith. Yet in other ways its music harmonized his mood not unpleasantly with ours for he was often induced thereby to grant a truce to his victims and stay his murderous hand. At any rate he did not slay me although I attracted his sword to myself as much by your discourses as by my own which were delivered against the bath and the reason why he did not slay me was that just then his voice improved and he achieved, as he thought, a very brilliant melody. But where's the royal nightingale and where the harp to which we can today make our peace offerings? For the outlook of today is unredeemed by music and full of spleen and this tyrant is as little likely to be charmed by himself as by other people. It is true that Pindar says in praise of the liar that he arms the savage breast of Ares and stays his hand from war but this ruler although he has established a musical contest in Rome and offers a public crown for those who win therein nevertheless slew several of the people who so I hear piped and sang in his last musical contest and you should also consider our friends and their safety for you will certainly ruin them as well as yourself if you make a show of being brave or use arguments which will not be listened to but your life lies within your reach for here are ships you see how many there are some about to sail for Libya others for Egypt others for Phoenicia and Cyprus others direct to Sardinia others still for places beyond Sardinia it will be best for you to embark on one of these to one or another of these provinces for the hand of tyranny is less heavy upon distinguished men if it perceives that they only desire to live quietly and not put themselves forward end of volume 2 book 7 chapters 8 through 12 volume 2 book 7 chapters 13 through 19 of 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, book 7 Damus was so impressed by the arguments of Demetrius that he exclaimed well you anyhow are a friend and by your presence you can do a very great service to my master here for me I am of little account and if I advised him not to throw somersaults upon naked swords nor expose himself to risks with tyrants then whom none were ever yet deemed harsher he would not listen to me as a matter of fact I should never have known if I had not met you what he meant by his journey hither for I follow him more readily more blindly than another man would follow himself and if you asked me where I am bound or for what I should merely excite your laughter by telling you that I was traversing the seas of Sicily and the bays of Eteria without knowing in the least why I took ship and if only I were courting these dangers after I had received open warning I could then say to those who asked me the question that Apollonius was courting death and that I was accompanying him on board ship because I was his rival in his passion but as I know nothing of this matter it's time for me to speak of what I do know and I will say it in the interests of my master for if I were put to death I would not do much harm to philosophy for I am like the Esquire of some distinguished soldier and am only entitled to consideration because I am of his suit but if someone is going to be set on to slay him and tyrants find it easy to contrive plots and to remove obstacles from their path then I think a regular trophy will have been raised over the defeat of philosophy in the person of the noblest of our human representatives and as there are many people lurking in our path such as were Anetus and Meletus Ritz of information will be scattered from all quarters at once against the companions of Apollonius one will be accused of having laughed when his master attacked tyranny another of having encouraged him to talk a third of having suggested to him a topic to talk about a fourth of having left his lecture room with praise on his lips for what he had heard I admit that one ought to die in the cause of philosophy in the sense of dying for one's temples one's own walls and one's sepulchres for there are many famous heroes who have embraced death in order to save and protect such interests as those but I pray that neither I myself may die in order to bring about the ruin of philosophy and that no one else either may die for such an object who loves philosophy and loves Apollonius Chapter 14 Apollonius answered thus we must make allowance for the very timid remarks which Damus has made about the situation for he is a Syrian and lives on the borders of media where tyrants are worshipped and where no one entertains a lofty ideal of freedom but as for yourself I do not see how you can defend yourself at the bar of philosophy from the charge of trumping up fears from which even if there is really any reason for them you ought to try to wean him instead of doing so you try to plunge into terror a man who is only too inclined to tremble at imaginary dangers I would indeed have a wise man sacrifice his life for the objects you have mentioned but any man without being wise would equally die for them for it is an obligation of law that we should die in behalf of our freedom and an obligation of nature that we should die in behalf of our kinsfolk or of our friends or darlings now all men are the slaves of nature and of law the willing slaves of nature as the unwilling ones of law but it is the duty of the wise in a still higher degree to lay down their lives for tenets they have embraced here are interests which the wise man has laid upon us nor nature planted in us from birth but to which we have devoted ourselves out of mere strength of character and courage in behalf therefore of these should anyone try to violate them let the wise man pass through the fire let him bear his neck to the axe for he will not be overcome by any such threats nor driven to any sort of subterfuge to all he knows as firmly as if it were a religion in which he had been initiated as for myself I am acquainted with more than other human beings for I know all things and what I know I know partly for good men partly for wise ones partly for myself partly for the gods but for tyrants nothing but that I am not come on any fools errand to see if you will for I run no risk of my life myself nor shall I die at the hands of a despot however much I might wish to do so but I am aware that I am running a risk in connection with persons of whom the tyrant may accuse me of being either the leader or the accomplice let me be whatever he likes I am content but if I were to betray them by holding back or by cowardly what would good men think of me who would not justly slay me for playing with the lives of men to whom was entrusted everything I had sought of heaven and I would like to point out to you that I could not possibly escape the reputation of being a traitor for there are two kinds of tyrants the one kind put their victims to death without trial the other after they had been brought before a court of law the former kind resemble the more passionate and prompt of wild beasts the other kind resemble the gentler and more lethargic ones that both kinds are cruel is clear to everybody who takes Nero as an example of the impetuous despotism which does not trouble about legal forms Tiberius on the other hand of the tardy and sluggish nature for the former destroyed his victims before they had any suspicion of what was coming and the other after he had tortured them with long drawn out terror for myself I consider those the crueler who make a pretense of legal trial and of getting a verdict pronounced in accordance with the law for in reality they set them at defiance and bring in the same verdict as they would have done without any real trial giving the name of law to that which eeks out of their own spleen the very fact of there being put to death in legal form does but deprive the wretches so condemned to death of that compassion on the part of the crowd which should be tendered like a winding sheet to the victims of injustice well I perceive that the present ruler cloaks his tyranny under legal forms but it seems to me that he ends by condemning without trial for he really sentences men before they enter the court and then brings them before it as if they had not yet been tried now one who is formally condemned by a virt court can obviously say he perished owing to an illegal sentence but how can he that evades his trial escape condemnation by his own conscience and supposing now that the fate of such distinguished persons also rests on me I do manage to run away from the crisis which equally pins over them and myself what can save me no matter where I go on all the earth from the brand of infamy for let us suppose that you have delivered yourself of all these sentiments and that I have admitted their correctness and acted on them and that in consequence our friends have been murdered what prayers could I offer in such a case for a favorable voyage what haven could I cast anchor in to whom could I set out on any voyage for me thinks I should have to steer clear of any land over which the Romans rule and should have to seek men who are my friends and yet do not live in sight of the tyrant and that would be Freyotes and the Babylonian and the divine Iarchus and the noble Thespession now supposing I set out for Ethiopia what my excellent friend could I tell Thespession for if I concealed this episode I should prove myself a lover of falsehood nay worse a slave while if I frankly confessed all to him I could only use such words as these oh Thespession you Freyotes slandered me to you and accused me of things that are not on my conscience for he said that I was a boaster and a miracle monger and one that did wisdom especially that of the Indians but while I am none of these things I am nevertheless a betrayer of my own friends and their murderer and utterly unreliable and so forth and if there is any wreath for virtue I come to wear it because I have ruined the greatest of the Roman houses so utterly that henceforth they are left desolate you blushed Ametrius to hear such words that you do so what then if you turn from Thespession to Freyotes and imagine me fleeing to India to take refuge with such a man as he how should I look him in the face how should I explain the motive of my flight should I not have to say that when I visited him before I was a gentleman not too faint-hearted to lay down my life for my friends but that after enjoying his society I had at your bidding thrown away with scorn this divinist of human privileges and as for Iarchus he surely would not ask me any question at all when I arrived but just as Aolus once Bade Odysseus quit his island with ignominy because he had made a bad use of the gift of a good wind which he had bestowed on him so Iarchus I imagine would drive me from his eminence and tell me that I had disgraced the draught I there had from the cup of Tantalus for they require a man who stoops and drinks of that goblet to share the dangers of his friends I know Demetrius how clever you are at chopping logic and this I believe is why you will tender me some further advice such as this but you must not resort to those you have named but to men with whom you have never had anything to do and then your flight will be all right for you will find it easier to lie hidden among people who do not know you well let me examine this argument too and see whether there is anything in it for this is how I regard it I consider that a wise man does nothing in private nor by himself alone I hold that not even his inmost thoughts can be so devoid of witness that he himself at least is not present with himself and whether the Pythian inscription was suggested by Apollo himself or by some man who had a healthy conscience and was therefore minded to publish it as an aphorism for all I hold that the sage who knows himself and has his own conscience as his perpetual companion will never cower before things that scare the many nor venture upon courses that others would engage upon without shame for being the slaves of despots they have been ready at times to betray to them even their dearest because just as they trembled at imaginary terrors so they felt no fear where they should have trembled but wisdom allows none of these things for beside the Pythian epigram she also praises Euripides who regarded conscience as a disease which works their ruin whenever they realize that they have done wrong for it was such conscience that brought up before Orestes and had depicted in his imagination the shapes of the Amenides when he had gone mad with wrath against his mother for whereas reason decides what should be done conscience revises the resolutions taken by reason if then reason chooses conscience forthwith escorts a man to all the temples into all the by streets into all groves of the gods and into all haunts of mankind applauding him and singing his praises she will even him his merits as he sleeps and will weave around him a chorus of angels from the world of dreams but if the determination of reason trip and fall into evil courses conscience permits not the sinner to look others in the face nor to address them freely and boldly with his lips and she drives him away from temples and from prayer for she suffers him not even to uplift his hands in prayer to the images but strikes them down as he lifts them as the law strikes down those who rebel against it and she drives such men from every social meeting and terrifies them in their sleep and while she turns into dreams and windy forms all that they see by day and any things they think they hear or say she lends to their empty and fantastic flutterings of heart truth and substantial reality of well founded terror I think then that I have clearly shown you and that truth itself will convince you that my conscience will convict me wherever I go whether to people that know me whether to people that do not supposing I were to betray my friends but I will not betray even myself but I will boldly wrestle with a tyrant healing him with the words of the noble Homer Mars is as much my friend as thine Chapter 15 Damus was so impressed by this address that he took fresh resolution and courage no longer disparate of Apollonius but rather praising and agreeing with his appeal wished God speak to him in his perilous enterprise and to his mistress philosophy for whose sake he braved so much and he led them Damus says to where he was lodging but Apollonius declined and said it is now even tide and about the time of the lighting up of the lamps and I must set out for the port of Rome for this is the usual hour at which these ships sail however we will dine together another time when my affairs are on a better footing for just now some charge would be trumped up against yourself of having dined with an enemy of the emperor nor must you come down to the harbor with us lest you should be accused merely for having conversed with me of harboring criminal designs Demetrius accordingly consented and after embracing them he quitted them though he often turned back to look towards them and wiped tears from his eyes but Apollonius looked at Damus and said if you are firmly resolved and are as courageous as myself let us both embark upon the ship but if you are dispirited it is better for you to remain here for you can live with Demetrius during the interval as much your friend as mine but Damus took him up and said what could I think of myself if after you have so nobly discussed today about the duty of sharing the dangers of one's friends when they fall upon them I let your words fall on deaf ears and abandoned you in the hour of danger and this although until now I have never shown cowardice you were concerned Apollonius said you speak rightly so let us depart I will go as I am but you must need disguise yourself as a man of the people nor must you wear your hair long as you do now and you must exchange your philosophers cloak for this linen garment and you must put away the shoes you wear but I must tell you what my intention is in this for it were best to hold out as long as we can before the trial then I should not wish that you should be a sharer of my fate through being detected by your address which will certainly betray you and lead to your arrest but I would rather that you followed me in the guise of one not sworn to my philosophy but just attached to me for other reasons and so accompanying me in all I do this is the reason why Damus put off his pathagary and garb for he says he did not do it through cowardice nor through any regret of having worn it but merely because he approved of a device to which he accommodated himself to suit the expedience of the moment Chapter 16 They sailed from Deciarchia and on the third day they put into the mouth of the Tiber from which it is a fairly short sail up to Rome Now the Emperor's sword was in the keeping of Aeolian a person who long ago had been attached to Apollonius because he once met him in Egypt and although he said nothing openly in his favor to Domitian for that his office did not allow of his doing for how could he have praised to his sovereign's face one who was supposed to be an object of his detestation any more than he could intercede in his behalf as for a friend of his own Nevertheless there were of helping him in an unobtrusive way he resorted to in his behalf and accordingly at the time when before he arrived Apollonius was being calomniated to Domitian he would say my sovereign, Sophists are all prattle and flippancy and their art is all for show and they are so eager to die because they get no good out of life and therefore they don't wait for death to come of itself but try to anticipate on themselves by provoking those who hold the sword this I think was the reason which weighed with Nero and prevented his being drawn on by Demetrius into slaying him for as he saw that he was anxious for death he let him off not because he wished to pardon him but because he disdained to put him to death moreover in the case of Muconius the Tyrehanian who opposed his rule in many ways they got him in the island called Gaera and Helens are so fond of these Sophists that at that time they were all making voyages by ship to visit him as they now do to visit the spring for until Muconius went there there was no water in the island but he discovered a spring which the Greeks celebrate as loudly as they do the horses spring at Helicon Chapter 17 in this way Aeolian tried to put off the king until Apollonius arrived and then he began to use more address for he ordered Apollonius to be arrested and brought into his presence and when the council for the prosecution began to abuse him as a wizard and an adept at magic Aeolian remarked keep yourself and your charges against him for the royal court but Apollonius remarked if I am a wizard how is it I am brought to trial and if I am brought to trial how can I be a wizard unless indeed the power of slander is so great that even wizards cannot get the better of it then when the accuser was about to say something still more foolish Aeolian cut him off and said leave me the time that will elapse until his trial begins for I intend to examine the Sophists character privately and not before yourselves he admits his guilt then the pleadings in the court can be cut short and you can depart in peace but if he denies his guilt the emperor will try him he accordingly passed into his secret court where the most important accusations and causes were tried in strict privacy and said to the company do you depart hence and let no one remain to listen for such is the will of the emperor Chapter 18 and when they were alone he said I, O Apollonius was a stripling at the time when the father of the present sovereign came to Egypt to sacrifice to the gods and to consult you about his own affairs I was a tribune only then but the emperor took me with him because I was already versed in war while you were so friendly with myself that when the emperor was receiving deputations from the cities you took me aside and told me of what country I was and what was my name and parentage and you foretold to me that I should hold this office which is accounted by the multitude the highest of all and superior to all other human positions at once although to myself it means much trouble and much unhappiness for I am the sentinel of the harshest of tyrants whom, if I betray I am afraid of the wrath of heaven but I have shown you how friendly I am towards yourself for in reminding you how our friendship began I have surely made it clear to you that I can never cease as long as we can remember those beginnings if I have said I would question you in private about the charges which your accuser has drawn up against you it was only a good natured pretext by part for obtaining an interview with you in order to assure you of my own goodwill and to warn you of the emperor's designs now what his verdict will be in your case I do not know but his temper is that of people who are anxious to condemn a person but are ashamed to do so except upon some real evidence and he wishes to make you an excuse for destroying these men of councilor rank so his wishes you see are criminal but he observes a certain formality in his actions in order to preserve a semblance of justice and I too in my turn must pretend to be exasperated with you for if he suspects me of any leniency I do not know which of us will be the first to perish Apollonius replied since we are talking without any restraint and you have told me all that is in your heart I in turn am bound to tell you no less and since you also take a philosopher's view of your own position as one might do who has most thoroughly studied philosophy in my society and by heaven in as much as you are so kindly disposed towards us as to imagine you run a common risk with myself I will tell you exactly what I think it was in my power to run away from you to many parts of the earth where your authority is not recognized and where I should have found myself among wise men men much wiser than myself and where I might have worshipped the gods in accordance with the principles of sound reason I had only to go to the haunts of men who are more beloved of the gods than are the people of this city men among whom such things as informers and rits of accusation are unknown because since they neither wrong one another nor are wronged they stand in no need of law courts but I am come to offer my defense because I fear to be branded as a traitor for if I ran away instead of staying and defending myself those who are running risks on my account would be brought to ruin but I would have you tell me what are the accusations against which I have to defend myself and volume 2 books 7 chapters 13 through 19 volume 2 books 7 chapters 20 through 28 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 by F. C. Coneybear volume 2 books 7 chapter 20 the counts of indictment reply the other are as varied as they are numerous for your style of dress is assailed in them and your way of living in general and your having been worshipped by certain people and the fact that in Ephesus once you delivered an oracle about the famine and also that you have uttered certain sentiments to the detriment of the sovereign some of them openly some of them obscurely and privately and some of them on the pretense that you have learned them from heaven but the charge which most appeals to the credulity of the emperor although I cannot credit it in the least for I know that you are opposed even to shedding the blood of victims is the following they say that you visited Nerva in the country and that you cut up an Arcadian boy for him when he was consulting the auspices against the emperor and that by such rights as these you roused his ambitions and that all this was done by night when the moon was already on the wane this is the accusation as compared with which we need not consider any other because it far outweighs them all for if your accuser attacks your dress and your mode of life and your gift of foreknowledge it is only by way I assure you of leading up to this charge and it was moreover the peculiarities which prompted you to commit the crime of conspiring against the emperor so he says and emboldening you to offer such a sacrifice you must then be prepared to defend yourself upon these counts and I would only ask you in what you say to show great respect for the sovereign and Apollonius replied that I shall show no disrespect you may clearly gather from the fact that I am come here to justify myself and even if my circumstances were such as to embolden me to treat a despot in a haughty manner I should anyhow submit myself to a man like yourself who also loves me for though it does not so much matter if you merely fall into the bad graces of an enemy for your enemy will hate you not for reasons which make you an object of public suspicion but for private causes of offense which you have given them nothing is graver than to give a friend reason to think ill of you this is worse than all your enemies put together can affect for no man can avoid being disliked even by his enemies for his bad qualities Chapter 21 these words impressed Ielian as very sensible and he bade him be of good courage while he himself formed the conviction that here was a man where nothing could terrify or startle and who would not flinch even if the head of the gorgon were brandished over him he accordingly summoned the jailers who had charge of such cases and said my orders are to detain this man until the emperor be informed of his arrival and learn from his lips all he has to say to me and he said this with the air of a man very much enraged and then he went into the palace and began to attend to the duties of his office at this point Damus records an incident which in a way resembles and in a way is unlike the episode related of Aristides long ago in Athens for they were ostracizing Aristides because of his virtue and he had no sooner passed the gates of the city than a rustic came up to him and begged him to fill up his voting shirt against Aristides the rustic knew no more to whom he was speaking than he knew how to write he only knew that Aristides was detested because he was so just now on this occasion a tribune who knew Apollonius perfectly well addressed him and asked him in an insolent manner what had brought him to such a pass Apollonius replied that he did not know said the other well I can tell you that knowing yourself to be worshiped by your fellow men that has led you to be accused of setting yourself on a level with the gods asked the other and who is it that has paid me this worship said the other I myself when I was still a boy in Ephesus at a time when you stayed our epidemic Apollonius said lucky it was both for you and for the city of Ephesus that was saved well this is a reason why I have prepared a method of defense for you which will rid you of the charge against you for let us go outside the gates and if I cut your head off with my sword the accusation will have defeated itself and you will go scot free but if you terrify me to such an extent that I drop my sword you must needs be thought a divine being and then it will be seen that there is a basis of truth in the charges made against you so much coarser and ruder was this fellow than the man who wished to banish Aristides and he uttered his words with a grimace and mocking laughter but Apollonius affected not to have heard him and went on with his conversation with Deimos about the Delta about which they say the Nile is divided into two branches Chapter 22 I alien next summoned him and ordered him into the prison where the captives were not bound until he said the emperor shall have leisure for he desires to talk with you privately before taking any further steps Apollonius accordingly left the law court and passed into the prison where he said let us talk Deimos with the people here for what else is there for us to do until the time comes when the death spot will give me such audience as he desires Deimos said will they not think us babblers and boars if we interrupt them in the preparation of their defense and moreover it is a mistake to talk philosophy with men so broken in spirit as they Apollonius said nay, they are just the people who most want someone to talk to them and comfort them for you may remember the verses of Homer in which he relates how Helen had a bowl of wine certain drugs from Egypt in order to drown the heartache of the heroes well I think that Helen must have picked up the lore of the Egyptians and have sung spells over the dejected heroes through their bowl of wine so healing them by a blending of words and wine Deimos said and that is likely enough seeing that she came to Egypt and consorted with Proteus was well acquainted with Polydamna the daughter of Thon however, let us dismiss these topics for the moment for I want to ask you something Apollonius said I know what you are going to ask me for I am sure you wish me to tell you what my conversation was about with the consul and what he said and whether he was formidable and severe or gentle to me and forthwith he told Deimos thereupon Deimos prostated himself before him and said now I am ready to believe that Leucothia did really once give her veil to Odysseus after he had fallen out of his ship and was paddling himself over the sea with his hands for we are reduced to just as awful and impossible a plight when some god as it seems to me stretches out his hand over us that we fall not away from all hope and salvation but Apollonius disapproved of the way he spoke and said how long will you continue to cherish these fears as if you could never understand that wisdom amazes all that is sensible of her but is herself not amazed by anything Deimos said but we are brought here before one who is quite insensible and who not only cannot be amazed by us but would not allow anything to happen to him Apollonius said seeest thou not, O Deimos that he is maddened with pride and vanity said the other I see it how can I not Apollonius said well you have got to despise the despot just in proportion as you get to know him Chapter 23 they were talking like this when someone a Sicilian came up and said I gentlemen am brought to this pass by my wealth and Apollonius replied if your wealth was acquired by other than holy methods for example by piracy and administration of deadly drugs or by disturbing the tombs of ancient kings which are full of gold and treasure you deserve not only to be put on your trial but also to forfeit your life for these things are wealth no doubt but of an infamous and inhuman kind but if you acquired your wealth by inheritance or by trade dealings of a fair description and not by usury who would be so cruel as to deprive you under color of law of what you have acquired with its venerable sanction said the other my property has accrued to me from several of my relations and has centered itself in my single household and I use it not as if it belonged to other people for it is my own yet not as my own for I share it freely with all good men but the informers accused me of having acquired my wealth to the prejudice of the despot for they say that if I attempted a revolution it would supply me with resources while if I attached myself to another as his accomplice my wealth would weigh heavily in his favor and there is actually an oracular air about the charges made against us such as that all excess of wealth engenders insolence or that more ordinary wealth makes its owner carry his head too high and rouses in him a spirit of pride and that it prevents him from being a good subject and obeying the laws and rulers who are sent to the provinces they say indeed that it is very nearly tantamount to giving them a box on the ears because they grovel to wealthy men or connive at their crime on account of the influence which wealth gives now when I was a stripling before I had as much as a hundred talents to call my own I used to think such apprehensions as these ridiculous and I had small anxiety on the score of my property but when my paternal uncle died and in a single day I came in for a reversion of five hundred talents my mind underwent such a change as those who break horses effect when they cure them of being unruly and intractable and as my riches increased and flowed into me by land and by sea I became so much the slave of anxiety about them that I poured out my substance partly upon sycophants whom I had to flatter in order to stop their mouths by being of such blackmail and partly upon governors I managed to enlist on my side against those who plotted against me and partly on my kinsmen to prevent them being jealous of my wealth and partly on my slaves for fear they should become worse than they were and complain of being neglected and I also had to support a magnificent flock of friends for the latter were full of solicitude for me and some insisted on helping me with their own hands and others with their warnings and advice but although I thus fenced my wealth about and surrounded myself so securely with fortifications I now am imperiled by it and I am not yet sure that I shall escape with my life and Apollonius answered take heart for you have your wealth to go surety for your life for if it is your wealth which has led to your being confined in bonds it is your wealth also which, when it is dissipated will not only release you from this prison but from the necessity of cherishing and flattering those sycophants and slaves whose yoke it has imposed upon your neck Chapter 24 another man came and said that he was being prosecuted because at a public sacrifice in Tarentum where he held office he had omitted to mention in the public prayers that Domitian was the son of Athena said Apollonius you imagined that Athena could not possibly have a son because she is a virgin forever and ever but you forgot me thinks that a goddess once on a time bore a dragon to the Athenians Chapter 25 another man was confined in the prison on the following charge he had a property in Arcanania near the mouth of Akelos and he had been in the habit of sailing about the islands called Echinades in a small boat and he noticed that one of them was already joined to the mainland and he planted it all over with pleasant trees and vines producing sweet wine so he made in it a convenient habitation for himself for he also brought in water and sufficient quantities for the island from the mainland in consequence an accusation was trumped up against him that he had a guilty conscience because he was conscious of having committed crimes of an intolerable description that he transported himself and quitted his own land feeling that he polluted it and at the same time had chosen for himself the same form of release as Alcmaeon the son of Amphiarius had done when after his mother's murder he went and lived on the delta of the Akelos even if he had not committed the same crime as Alcmaeon he must yet, they said have on his conscience horrible deeds not falling far short of his although he denied these insinuations and declared that he only went to live there for the sake of peace and quiet he had nevertheless he said been accused and brought to justice and for this reason he was now cast into prison Chapter 26 several prisoners there were about fifty of them in this prison approached Apollonius inside it and uttered such lamentations as the above some of them were sick some of them had given way to dejection some of them expected death with certainty and with resignation some of them bewailed and called upon their children and their parents and their wives whereupon Apollonius said, affected by the spectacle oh Damus it seems to me that these people need a drug which I alluded to when I first entered whether it be an Egyptian remedy or whether it grows in every land and only needs wisdom enough to cut it from its root out of her own gardens let us administer some of it to these poor people lest their own feelings destroy them before Domitian can do it Damus said let us do so for they seem in need of it accordingly Apollonius called them all together and said gentlemen who are sharing with me the hospitality of this poor roof I am rung with pity for you because I feel that you are undoing yourselves before you know in the least whether the accuser will undo you for it seems to me that you are ready to put yourselves to death and anticipate the death sentence which you expect will be pronounced against you and so you show actual courage where you should feel fear and fear where you should be courageous this should not be but you should bear in mind the words of Archilocos of Peros who says that the patience under adversity which he called endurance was a veritable discovery of the gods for it will bear you up in misery just as a skillful pilot carries the bow of his ship above the wash of the sea whenever the billows are raised higher than his bark nor should you consider as desperate this situation into which you have been brought against your wills but I myself of my own accord for if you admit the charges brought against you you ought rather to deplore the day when your judgment and impulses betrayed you into unjust and cruel courses of action but if you my friend yonder deny that you took up your residence in the island of the achalos the reason which your accuser alleges and you there that you ever raised your wealth to the peril and endangering of the sovereignty and you again that you of set purpose deprived the sovereign of his pretension to be called the son of Athene if I say you can prove that the several reasons alleged of your being each of you here in such perilous plights are unfounded by the meaning of all this lamentation about things which have no existence or reality for instead of crying after your friends and relatives you ought rather to feel just as much courage as you now feel despair for such, I imagine are the rewards of the endurance I have described but perhaps you would argue that confinement here and life in a prison are hard to bear in themselves or do you look upon them as the mere beginning of what you expect to suffer or do you think that they are punishment sufficient in themselves even if you are exposed to nothing else in the way of penalty well, I understand human nature and I will preach you a sermon which is very unlike the prescriptions of physicians for it shall implant strength in you and will avert death from you we men are in a prison all that time we choose to call life for this soul of ours being bound and fettered in a perishable body has to endure many things and be the slave of all the affections which visit humanity and the men who first invented a dwelling seem to me not to have known that they were only surrounding their kind in a fresh prison for to tell you the truth all those who inhabit palaces and have established themselves securely in them are, I consider in closer bonds in them than any whom they may throw into bonds and when I think of cities and walls it seems to me that these are common prisons so that the merchants are in chains in chains no less the members of the assembly and the frequenters also of spectacles as well as those who organize public processions then there are the Scythians who go about to pawn wagons they are just as much in chains as ourselves for rivers like the Ister and the Thermodon and the Tenaitis hem them in and they are very difficult to cross except when they are hard frozen and they fix up their houses on their wagons and they imagine they are driving about when they are merely cowering in them and if you don't think it too silly a thing to say there are those who teach that the ocean also encompasses the earth in order to chain it in come, O ye poets, for this is your domain recite your rhapsodies to this despondent crowd and tell them how Kronos was once put in bonds by the wiles of Zeus and Ares, the most warlike of the gods, was first enchanted in heaven by Hephaestus and later upon earth by the sons of Aloys when we think of these things on the many wise and blessed men who have been thrown into prison by wanton mobs or insulted by despots let us accept our fate with resignation that we may not be found inferior to those who have accepted the same before us such were the words which he addressed to his companions in the prison and they had such an effect upon them that most of them took their food and wiped away their tears of hope, believing that they could never come to harm as long as they were in his company Chapter 27 On the next day he was haranguing them in a discourse of the same tenor when a man was sent into the prison privately by Domitian to listen to what he said in his deportment this person had a downcast air and, as he himself admitted looked as if he ran a great risk he had great clarity of speech as is usually the case with sycophants who have been chosen to draw up eight or ten informants Apollonius saw through the trick and talked about themes which could in no way serve his purpose for he told his audience about rivers and mountains and he described wild animals and trees to them so that they were amused while the informer gained nothing to his purpose and when he tried to draw him away to abuse the tyrant Apollonius said My good friend you say what you like for I am the last man in the world to inform against you but if I find anything to blame in the emperor I'll say it to his face Chapter 28 There followed other episodes in this prison some of them insidiously contrived and others mere chance and not of sufficient importance but Damus I believe has recorded them in his anxiety to omit nothing I only give what is to the point it was evening and it was already the fifth day of his imprisonment when a certain person entered the prison who spoke the Hellenic tongue and said where is the man of Tyanna and taking Apollonius aside he said it is tomorrow that the emperor leaves and this he appeared to have heard direct from Ielian I will keep your secret said Apollonius for it is only Ielian I think who can know so much said the other moreover word has been given to the chief jailer to supply you with everything which you may want Apollonius said you are very kind but I lead exactly the same life I converse about casual topics and I do not need anything and do you not Oh Apollonius need someone to advise you how to converse with the emperor he replied yes by heaven if only he will not try to get me to flatter him and what if he merely advised you not to slight him nor flout him Apollonius said he could give no better advice and it is what I have made up my mind to do said the other well it was about this that I am come and I am delighted to find you so sensibly disposed but you ought to be prepared for the way in which the emperor speaks and also for the disagreeable quality of his face for he talks in a deep voice even if he is merely engaged in a gentle conversation and his eyebrows overhang the sockets of his eyes and his cheeks are so bloated with bile that distinguishes him more than anything else we must not be frightened oh man of Tyanna by these characteristics for they rather belong to nature than to anything else and they always are the same and Apollonius replied if Odysseus could go into the cave of Polyphemus without having been informed beforehand either of the giant size or what he ate or of how he thundered his voice and yet did not lose his presence of mind though he was in some trepidation to begin with and if he left his cave after acquitting himself like a man I too shall be quite satisfied if I get off with my own life and with that of my companions in whose behalf I incur this risk such were the words that passed between him and his visitor and after reporting them to Damus he went to sleep and of volume 2 book 7 chapters 20 through 28