Apollonius of Tyana, the Philosopher-Reformer of the First Century A.D Part 5

SECTION XI.

APOLLONIUS AND THE RULERS OF THE EMPIRE.

But not only did Apollonius vivify and reconsecrate the old centres of religion for some inscrutable reason, and do what he could to help on the religious life of the time in its multiplex phases, but he took a decided, though indirect, part in influencing the destinies of the Empire through the persons of its supreme rulers.

This influence, however, was invariably of a moral and not of a political nature. It was brought to bear by means of philosophical converse and instruction, by word of mouth or letter. Just as Apollonius on his travels conversed on philosophy, and discoursed on the life of a wise man and the duties of a wise ruler, with kings,[108] rulers, and magistrates, so he endeavoured to advise for their good those of the emperors who would listen to him.

Vespasian, t.i.tus, and Nerva were all, prior to their elevation to the purple, friends and admirers of Apollonius, while Nero and Domitian regarded the philosopher with dismay.

During Apollonius short stay in Rome, in 66 A.D., although he never let the slightest word escape him that could be construed by the numerous informers into a treasonable utterance, he was nevertheless brought before Tigellinus, the infamous favourite of Nero, and subjected to a severe cross-examination. Apparently up to this time Apollonius, working for the future, had confined his attention entirely to the reformation of religion and the restoration of the ancient inst.i.tutions of the nations, but the tyrannical conduct of Nero, which gave peace not even to the most blameless philosophers, at length opened his eyes to a more immediate evil, which seemed no less than the abrogation of the liberty of conscience by an irresponsible tyranny. From this time onwards, therefore, we find him keenly interested in the persons of the successive emperors.

Indeed Damis, although he confesses his entire ignorance of the purpose of Apollonius journey to Spain after his expulsion from Rome, would have it that it was to aid the forthcoming revolt against Nero. He conjectures this from a three days secret interview that Apollonius had with the Governor of the Province of Btica, who came to Cadiz especially to see him, and declares that the last words of Apollonius visitor were: Farewell, and remember Vindex (v. 10).

It is true that almost immediately afterwards the revolt of Vindex, the Governor of Gaul, broke out, but the whole life and character of Apollonius is opposed to any idea of political intrigue; on the contrary, he bravely withstood tyranny and injustice to the face. He was opposed to the idea of Euphrates, a philosopher of quite a different stamp, who would have put an end to the monarchy and restored the republic (v. 33); he believed that government by a monarch was the best for the Empire, but he desired above all other things to see the flock of mankind led by a wise and faithful shepherd (v. 35).

So that though Apollonius supported Vespasian as long as he worthily tried to follow out this ideal, he immediately rebuked him to his face when he deprived the Greek cities of their privileges. You have enslaved Greece, he wrote. You have reduced a free people to slavery (v. 41). Nevertheless, in spite of this rebuke, Vespasian in his last letter to his son t.i.tus, confesses that they are what they are solely owing to the good advice of Apollonius (v. 30).

Equally so he journeyed to Rome to meet Domitian face to face, and though he was put on trial and every effort made to prove him guilty of treasonable plotting with Nerva, he could not be convicted of anything of a political nature. Nerva was a good man, he told the emperor, and no traitor. Not that Domitian had really any suspicion that Apollonius was personally plotting against him; he cast him into prison solely in the hope that he might induce the philosopher to disclose the confidences of Nerva and other prominent men who were objects of suspicion to him, and who he imagined had consulted Apollonius on their chances of success.

Apollonius business was not with politics, but with the princes who asked him for his advice on the subject of virtue (vi. 43).

SECTION XII.

APOLLONIUS THE PROPHET AND WONDER-WORKER.

We will now turn our attention for a brief s.p.a.ce to that side of Apollonius life which has made him the subject of invincible prejudice.

Apollonius was not only a philosopher, in the sense of being a theoretical speculator or of being the follower of an ordered mode of life schooled in the discipline of resignation; he was also a philosopher in the original Pythagorean meaning of the term--a knower of Natures secrets, who thus could speak as one having authority.

He knew the hidden things of Nature by sight and not by hearing; for him the path of philosophy was a life whereby the man himself became an instrument of knowing. Religion, for Apollonius, was not a faith only, it was a science. For him the shows of things were but ever-changing appearances; cults and rites, religions and faiths, were all one to him, provided the right spirit were behind them. The Tyanean knew no differences of race or creed; such narrow limitations were not for the philosopher.

Beyond all others would he have laughed to hear the word miracle applied to his doings. Miracle, in its Christian theological sense, was an unknown term in antiquity, and is a vestige of superst.i.tion to-day. For though many believe that it is possible by means of the soul to effect a mult.i.tude of things beyond the possibilities of a science which is confined entirely to the investigation of physical forces, none but the unthinking believe that there can be any interference in the working of the laws which Deity has impressed upon Nature--the credo of Miraculists.

Most of the recorded wonder-doings of Apollonius are cases of prophecy or foreseeing; of seeing at a distance and seeing the past; of seeing or hearing in vision; of healing the sick or curing cases of obsession or possession.

Already as a youth, in the temple at g, Apollonius gave signs of the possession of the rudiments of this psychic insight; not only did he sense correctly the nature of the dark past of a rich but unworthy suppliant who desired the restoration of his eyesight, but he foretold, though unclearly, the evil end of one who made an attempt upon his innocence (i. 12).

On meeting with Damis, his future faithful henchman volunteered his services for the long journey to India on the ground that he knew the languages of several of the countries through which they had to pa.s.s.

But I understand them all, though I have learned none of them, answered Apollonius, in his usual enigmatical fas.h.i.+on, and added: Marvel not that I know all the tongues of men, for I know even what they never say (i. 19). And by this he meant simply that he could read mens thoughts, not that he could speak all languages. But Damis and Philostratus cannot understand so simple a fact of psychic experience; they will have it that he knew not only the language of all men, but also of birds and beasts (i. 20).

In his conversation with the Babylonian monarch Vardan, Apollonius distinctly claims foreknowledge. He says that he is a physician of the soul and can free the king from the diseases of the mind, not only because he knows what ought to be done, that is to say the proper discipline taught in the Pythagorean and similar schools, but also because he foreknows the nature of the king (i. 32). Indeed we are told that the subject of foreknowledge (p?????se??), of which science (s?f?a) Apollonius was a deep student, was one of the princ.i.p.al topics discussed by our philosopher and his Indian hosts (iii. 42).

In fact, as Apollonius tells his philosophical and studious friend the Roman Consul Telesinus, for him wisdom was a kind of divinizing or making divine of the whole nature, a sort of perpetual state of inspiration (?e?as??) (iv. 40). And so we are told that Apollonius was apprised of all things of this nature by the energy of his dmonial nature (da?o????) (vii. 10). Now for the student of the Pythagorean and Platonic schools the dmon of a man was what may be called the higher self, the spiritual side of the soul as distinguished from the purely human. It is the better part of the man, and when his physical consciousness is at-oned with this dweller in heaven, he has (according to the highest mystic philosophy of ancient Greece) while still on earth the powers of those incorporeal intermediate beings between G.o.ds and men called dmons; a stage higher still, the living man becomes at-oned with his divine soul, he becomes a G.o.d on earth; and yet a stage higher he becomes at one with the Good and so becomes G.o.d.

Hence we find Apollonius indignantly rejecting the accusation of magic ignorantly brought against him, an art which achieved its results by means of compacts with those low ent.i.ties with which the outermost realm of inner Nature swarms. Our philosopher repudiated equally the idea of his being a soothsayer or diviner. With such arts he would have nothing to do; if ever he uttered anything which savoured of foreknowledge, let them know it was not by divination in the vulgar sense, but owing to that wisdom which G.o.d reveals to the wise (iv. 44).

The most numerous wonder-doings ascribed to Apollonius are instances precisely of such foreknowledge or prophecy.[109] It must be confessed that the utterances recorded are often obscure and enigmatical, but this is the usual case with such prophecy; for future events are most frequently either seen in symbolic representations, the meaning of which is not clear until after the event, or heard in equally enigmatical sentences. At times, however, we have instances of very precise foreknowledge, such as the refusal of Apollonius to go on board a vessel which foundered on the voyage (v. 18).

The instances of seeing present events at a distance, however--such as the burning of a temple at Rome, which Apollonius saw while at Alexandria--are clear enough. Indeed, if people know nothing else of the Tyanean, they have at least heard how he saw at Ephesus the a.s.sa.s.sination of Domitian at Rome at the very moment of its occurrence.

It was mid-day, to quote from the graphic account of Philostratus, and Apollonius was in one of the small parks or groves in the suburbs, engaged in delivering an address on some absorbing topic of philosophy.

At first he sank his voice as though in some apprehension; he, however, continued his exposition, but haltingly, and with far less force than usual, as a man who had some other subject in his mind than that on which he is speaking; finally he ceased speaking altogether as though he could not find his words. Then staring fixedly on the ground, he started forward three or four paces, crying out: Strike the tyrant; strike!

And this, not like a man who sees an image in a mirror, but as one with the actual scene before his eyes, as though he were himself taking part in it.

Turning to his astonished audience he told them what he had seen. But though they hoped it were true, they refused to believe it, and thought that Apollonius had taken leave of his senses. But the philosopher gently answered: You, on your part, are right to suspend your rejoicings till the news is brought you in the usual fas.h.i.+on; as for me, I go to return thanks to the G.o.ds for what I have myself seen (viii. 26).

Little wonder, then, if we read, not only of a number of symbolic dreams, but of their proper interpretation, one of the most important branches of the esoteric discipline of the school. (See especially i. 23 and iv. 34.) Nor are we surprised to hear that Apollonius, relying entirely on his inner knowledge, was instrumental in obtaining the reprieve of an innocent man at Alexandria, who was on the point of being executed with a batch of criminals (v. 24). Indeed, he seems to have known the secret past of many with whom he came in contact (vi. 3, 5).

The possession of such powers can put but little strain on the belief of a generation like our own, to which such facts of psychic science are becoming with every day more familiar. Nor should instances of curing disease by mesmeric processes astonish us, or even the so-called casting out of evil spirits, if we give credence to the Gospel narrative and are familiar with the general history of the times in which such healing of possession and obsession was a commonplace. This, however, does not condemn us to any endors.e.m.e.nt of the fantastic descriptions of such happenings in which Philostratus indulges. If it be credible that Apollonius was successful in dealing with obscure mental cases--cases of obsession and possession--with which our hospitals and asylums are filled to-day, and which are for the most part beyond the skill of official science owing to its ignorance of the real agencies at work, it is equally evident that Damis and Philostratus had little understanding of the matter, and have given full rein to their imagination in their narratives. (See ii. 4; iv. 20, 25; v. 42; vi. 27, 43.) Perhaps, however, Philostratus in some instances is only repeating popular legend, the best case of which is the curing of the plague at Ephesus which the Tyanean had foretold on so many occasions. Popular legend would have it that the cause of the plague was traced to an old beggar man, who was buried under a heap of stones by the infuriated populace. On Apollonius ordering the stones to be removed, it was found that what had been a beggar man was now a mad dog foaming at the mouth (iv. 10)!

On the contrary, the account of Apollonius restoring to life a young girl of n.o.ble birth at Rome, is told with great moderation. Our philosopher seems to have met the funeral procession by chance; whereupon he suddenly went up to the bier, and, after making some pa.s.ses over the maiden, and saying some inaudible words, waked her out of her seeming death. But, says Damis, whether Apollonius noticed that the spark of the soul was still alive which her friends had failed to perceive--they say it was raining lightly and a slight vapour showed on her face--or whether he made the life in her warm again and so restored her, neither himself nor any who were present could say (iv. 45).

Of a distinctly more phenomenal nature are the stories of Apollonius causing the writing to disappear from the tablets of one of his accusers before Tigellinus (iv. 44); of his drawing his leg out of the fetters to show Damis that he was not really a prisoner though chained in the dungeons of Domitian (vii. 38); and of his disappearing (?fa??s??) from the tribunal (viii. 5).[110]

We are not, however, to suppose that Apollonius despised or neglected the study of physical phenomena in his devotion to the inner science of things. On the contrary, we have several instances of his rejection of mythology in favour of a physical explanation of natural phenomena.

Such, for instance, are his explanations of the volcanic activity of tna (v. 14, 17), and of a tidal wave in Crete, the latter being accompanied with a correct indication of the more immediate result of the occurrence. In fact an island had been thrown up far out to sea by a submarine disturbance as was subsequently ascertained (iv. 34). The explanation of the tides at Cadiz may also be placed in the same category (v. 2).

SECTION XIII.

HIS MODE OF LIFE.

We will now present the reader with some general indications of the mode of life of Apollonius, and the manner of his teaching, of which already something has been said under the heading Early Life.

Our philosopher was an enthusiastic follower of the Pythagorean discipline; nay, Philostratus would have us believe that he made more superhuman efforts to reach wisdom than even the great Samian (i. 2).

The outer forms of this discipline as exemplified in Pythagoras are thus summed up by our author.

Naught would he wear that came from a dead beast, nor touch a morsel of a thing that once had life, nor offer it in sacrifice; not for him to stain with blood the altars; but honey-cakes and incense, and the service of his song went upward from the man unto the G.o.ds, for well he knew that they would take such gifts far rather than the oxen in their hundreds with the knife. For he, in sooth, held converse with the G.o.ds and learned from them how they were pleased with men and how displeased, and thence as well he drew his nature-lore. As for the rest, he said, they guessed at the divine, and held opinions on the G.o.ds which proved each other false; but unto him Apollos self did come, confessed, without disguise,[111] and there did come as well, though unconfessed, Athena and the Muses, and other G.o.ds whose forms and names mankind did not yet know.

Hence his disciples regarded Pythagoras as an inspired teacher, and received his rules as laws. In particular did they keep the rule of silence regarding the divine science. For they heard within them many divine and unspeakable things on which it would have been difficult for them to keep silence, had they not first learned that it was just this silence which spoke to them (i. 1).

Such was the general declaration of the nature of the Pythagorean discipline by its disciples. But, says Apollonius in his address to the Gymnosophists, Pythagoras was not the inventor of it. It was the immemorial wisdom, and Pythagoras himself had learnt it from the Indians.[112] This wisdom, he continued, had spoken to him in his youth; she had said:

For sense, young sir, I have no charms; my cup is filled with toils unto the brim. Would anyone embrace my way of life, he must resolve to banish from his board all food that once bore life, to lose the memory of wine, and thus no more to wisdoms cup befoul--the cup that doth consist of wine-untainted souls. Nor shall wool warm him, nor aught thats made from any beast. I give my servants shoes of bast and as they can to sleep. And if I find them overcome with loves delights, Ive ready pits down into which that justice which doth follow hard on wisdoms foot, doth drag and thrust them; indeed, so stern am I to those who choose my way, that een upon their tongues I bind a chain. Now hear from me what things thoult gain, if thou endure. An innate sense of fitness and of right, and neer to feel that anys lot is better than thy own; tyrants to strike with fear instead of being a fearsome slave to tyranny; to have the G.o.ds more greatly bless thy scanty gifts than those who pour before them blood of bulls. If thou art pure, Ill give thee how to know what things will be as well, and fill thy eyes so full of light, that thou mayst recognise the G.o.ds, the heroes know, and prove and try the shadowy forms that feign the shapes of men (vi. 11).

The whole life of Apollonius shows that he tried to carry out consistently this rule of life, and the repeated statements that he would never join in the blood-sacrifices of the popular cults (see especially i. 24, 31; iv. 11; v. 25), but openly condemned them, show not only that the Pythagorean school had ever set the example of the higher way of purer offerings, but that they were not only not condemned and persecuted as heretics on this account, but were rather regarded as being of peculiar sanct.i.ty, and as following a life superior to that of ordinary mortals.

The refraining from the flesh of animals, however, was not simply based upon ideas of purity, it found additional sanction in the positive love of the lower kingdoms and the horror of inflicting pain on any living creature. Thus Apollonius bluntly refused to take any part in the chase, when invited to do so by his royal host at Babylon. Sire, he replied, have you forgotten that even when you sacrifice I will not be present?

Much less then would I do these beasts to death, and all the more when their spirit is broken and they are penned in contrary to their nature (i. 38).[113]