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Liber II · Ancient Magic

Liber II · Ancient Magic · Chapter V: Greco-Roman Magic

Apollonius of Tyana: Pythagorean Sage, Wonder-Worker, Legend

Apollonius of Tyana explained: the first-century Pythagorean sage, Philostratus's Life, the charge of magic, the rivalry with Christ and his occult legacy.

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Apollonius of Tyana was a Greek philosopher of the Neopythagorean school who flourished in the first century CE and was remembered as an ascetic teacher, traveller and worker of wonders. Almost everything known about him comes from the Life of Apollonius written more than a century later by Philostratus, which made him a model of the divine sage; in later centuries he became a pagan rival to Christ in religious polemic, a maker of talismans in Byzantine and Arabic lore, and a hero of nineteenth-century occultists.

Who Was Apollonius of Tyana?§

The historical Apollonius is difficult to recover. Ancient writers agree that he came from Tyana, a city in Cappadocia, that he followed the way of life associated with Pythagoras, and that he was active in the eastern Roman Empire during the first century CE, perhaps living into the reign of Nerva (96–98). A collection of letters circulates under his name, and the Christian historian Eusebius quotes a passage from a treatise On Sacrifices attributed to him, but the authenticity of much of this material is disputed.

The Greek satirist Lucian, writing in the second century, mentions that a notorious charlatan had been taught by a follower of Apollonius, and a writer named Moeragenes produced an account, now lost, which according to the Christian scholar Origen presented him as a magos and philosopher who had dealings with occult powers. These scattered notices suggest that by the second century Apollonius was already famous, and already controversial. The figure who dominates later tradition, however, is the literary portrait created by Philostratus.

Philostratus and the Life of Apollonius§

Flavius Philostratus, a sophist active at the court of the Severan emperors, wrote the Life of Apollonius of Tyana in eight books in the first decades of the third century. He says he undertook the work at the request of the empress Julia Domna, wife of Septimius Severus, who died in 217, so it was probably completed after her death. Philostratus claims to have used the memoirs of Damis of Nineveh, a disciple who accompanied Apollonius on his travels, as well as letters, local traditions and temple records. Most modern scholars regard the Damis memoir as a literary device, or at least a source that cannot be checked, and read the Life as a sophisticated blend of biography, travel narrative, philosophical dialogue and novel.

The Life became one of the most widely read prose works of late antiquity. A Latin version is reported as early as the fourth century, the Greek text was printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice at the start of the sixteenth century, and it was rendered into English by Charles Blount in 1680, with notes that used the miracles of Apollonius to question the uniqueness of the Gospel miracles. The standard English versions today are F. C. Conybeare's Loeb translation (1912) and Christopher P. Jones's new Loeb edition (2005).

Travels, Asceticism and Pythagorean Wisdom§

Philostratus portrays Apollonius as a philosopher in the Pythagorean mould. He abstains from meat and wine, refuses to wear wool or leather, wears linen and lets his hair grow long, and keeps a five-year vow of silence. He rejects blood sacrifice, advocating offerings of incense and pure prayer, and he speaks with gods and heroes, visits temples to correct their rites, and gives advice to cities and kings.

Much of the Life describes journeys to the edges of the known world. Apollonius travels through Mesopotamia to Babylon, where he meets the Parthian king; continues to India, where he converses with Brahmin sages led by a teacher named Iarchas; visits Egypt and travels up the Nile to the "naked philosophers" of Ethiopia; and moves through Greece, Italy and Spain. These episodes draw on a long Greek tradition that wisdom was to be found among Indians, Egyptians and Magi, a theme that later fed into the Renaissance idea of prisca theologia. They are best read as a philosophical geography rather than a travel diary; whether the historical Apollonius ever reached India is doubtful.

The climax of the narrative is political. Apollonius confronts the tyranny of Nero and Domitian, is put on trial in Rome before Domitian on charges that include practising magic and sacrificing a child for divination, delivers a defence and then vanishes from the courtroom. Later, while lecturing at Ephesus in 96 CE, he is said to have seen and announced the assassination of Domitian at the moment it happened in Rome.

Miracles, Magic and the Charge of Sorcery§

The Life is full of wonders. Apollonius understands the languages of animals, foresees plagues and disasters, exposes a demonic empousa or lamia disguised as a bride in Corinth, drives a troublesome spirit out of a young man, and in Rome restores to life, or perhaps revives from a death-like coma, a girl of a senatorial family on her wedding day; Philostratus himself leaves the question open. At the end of his life he is said to have disappeared into a temple in Crete, and later to have appeared to a doubting young man to affirm the immortality of the soul.

Philostratus's central argument is that none of this was magic. In Greek and Roman usage magos and goēs could mean a sorcerer or fraud, and magic was a crime under Roman law. Philostratus presents his hero's powers as the natural result of wisdom, purity and closeness to the gods, which allowed him to foresee events and command spirits without spells or payment. The defence echoes that of the writer Apuleius, who had been tried for magic in North Africa in the 150s. The boundary between the divine man (theios anēr) and the sorcerer was contested in antiquity, and Apollonius stands exactly on that line; the broader debate is traced in the overview of Greco-Roman magic.

Apollonius and Christ: The Pagan Rival§

Apollonius's reputation grew in the third century. The historian Cassius Dio reports that the emperor Caracalla built a shrine to him, and the unreliable Historia Augusta claims that Severus Alexander kept images of Apollonius, Abraham, Orpheus and Christ in his private chapel and that Aurelian spared Tyana after a vision of the sage.

Around 303 CE, on the eve of the Great Persecution, the Roman official Sossianus Hierocles wrote a work called The Lover of Truth (Philalethes) in which he argued that Apollonius had performed wonders as great as those of Jesus, yet pagans did not make him a god. A Christian reply, Against Hierocles, traditionally attributed to Eusebius of Caesarea, criticised Philostratus's reliability and attributed any genuine wonders to demonic help. From then on Apollonius served as a reference point in arguments over miracles. Some later Christians respected him as a wise pagan, while Enlightenment writers such as Voltaire and the English deists used the comparison to challenge Christian claims.

The Talisman Maker and Balinas in Arabic Tradition§

In Byzantium, Apollonius was remembered above all as a maker of telesmata, talismans placed in cities to ward off scorpions, snakes, floods and plagues. Chronicles and legends credited him with protective statues and columns in Constantinople, Antioch and other cities, and churchmen debated whether such objects were permissible.

In Arabic, Apollonius became Balinas or Balinus, the "master of talismans". Several works circulated under this name, the most important being the Book of the Secret of Creation (Sirr al-khaliqa), a cosmological treatise usually dated to the eighth or ninth century. At its end it contains one of the earliest known versions of the Emerald Tablet, presented as a text Balinas discovered in a vault beneath a statue of Hermes. Through this route Apollonius entered the foundations of Arabic and Latin alchemy and Hermeticism, and Balinas was cited as an authority in later Arabic writings on talismans and astral magic.

Apollonius in Modern Occultism§

Nineteenth-century occultists revived Apollonius as an adept of the ancient mysteries. Eliphas Lévi described in his Dogme et rituel de la haute magie (1854–56) a ceremonial evocation of Apollonius he claimed to have performed in London in 1854, and he printed a short text called the Nuctemeron, attributed to Apollonius, which describes twelve symbolic hours of initiation. The attribution has no ancient basis. Theosophists also admired him: Helena Blavatsky ranked him among the great initiates, and G. R. S. Mead published Apollonius of Tyana, the Philosopher-Reformer of the First Century A.D. in 1901.

Modern historians, including Maria Dzielska and Christopher P. Jones, have patiently separated these layers: the obscure philosopher of the first century, Philostratus's literary saint, the pagan rival of Christian polemic, the talisman maker of Byzantium and Islam, and the occult master of the nineteenth century. Each tells us as much about the people who shaped the legend as about Apollonius himself.

Frequently asked questions§

Was Apollonius of Tyana a real person?§

Most historians accept that Apollonius was a real Pythagorean philosopher of the first century CE, mentioned by several independent writers. The detailed stories about him, however, come mainly from Philostratus's Life, written over a century after his death and shaped by literary and religious aims.

Why is Apollonius compared to Jesus?§

Both were first-century teachers credited with healings, exorcisms, prophecies and a mysterious end. Around 300 CE the official Hierocles used Apollonius to argue against Christian claims, and the comparison has been revived by critics and defenders of Christianity ever since.

Was Apollonius of Tyana a magician?§

He was accused of magic in antiquity, and later legend made him a maker of talismans. Philostratus, his main biographer, argued that he was a holy philosopher whose powers came from wisdom and piety rather than sorcery, a distinction that ancient readers themselves disputed.

What is the Nuctemeron of Apollonius?§

It is a short text published by Eliphas Lévi in the nineteenth century, describing twelve hours of mystical progress, each associated with spirits or genii. It is not found in any ancient source about Apollonius and is regarded as a late esoteric composition.

Sources and further reading§