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APOLLONIUS. 



APPENDIKI, FRANCESCO MARIA. 



263 



the son of Sillcus, and spent his early years at Alexandria under the 

 direction of the poet Callimachus. He had afterwards a quarrel with 

 his former teacher : it is said to have been respecting the ' Argonau- 

 tica' of Apollonius, which was not sufficiently admired by Callimachus. 

 In what way the disappointed poet took his revenge we are not told ; 

 but it produced a bitter retort from Callimachus. His poem entitled 

 'Ibis' was directtd against Apollonius, and though no fragments of it 

 remain, we cau form some opinion of its character and leading features 

 from the 'Ibis' of Ovid, which is eaid to be an imitation of this poem. 

 Apollonius left Alexandria probably in consequence of this quarrel, 

 and took up his residence at Rhodes, where he lived for many years, 

 and was at last recalled, B.C. 194, to occupy the place of the learned 

 Eratosthenes as keeper of the great library of the Ptolemies at 

 Alexandria. 



Of the works of Apollonius Rhodius, which do not appear to have 

 been very numerous, the ' Argonautica,' in four books, is the only one 

 that has come down to u*. As regards the materials of the ' Argo- 

 nautica,' Apollonius, like all the poets of that period, collected them 

 by extensive reading. The legends they took for their subjects had 

 ceased to live in tha minds of the people, and had become the exclu- 

 sive property of the learned, who gathered them from the early poets, 

 logographers, historians, and geographers, and combined them into new 

 forms. The Scholia on Apollom'us seldom lose an opportunity of telling 

 us from what source the particular statements are derived. The arrange- 

 ment of the materials in the 'Argonautica' is of the simplest kind': 

 there is no artificial contrivance for the purpose of making a plot; 

 and at first sight it might even appear that the plan of the ' Argonau- 

 tica ' in simpler than that of the ' Odyssey.' The course of the narrative 

 is seldom interrupted by episodes, and generally speaking they are not 

 introduced except where they are essential, and they are scarcely ever 

 mere ornaments. The interference of the gods in the events described 

 is very rare, and occurs only incidentally. The interest of the whole 

 poem therefore do"s not lie in its plot, but in the manner in which the 

 whole subject and each part is treated, and in the peculiar interest 

 which is attached to the story. But as this interest was no longer 

 sufficiently fresh to secure popularity, Apollonius enlivened it witli his 

 descriptions of the tender passion of love, and of the emotions of the 

 heart, which are rarely introduced in the earlier epics. The portions 

 of the poem containing such descriptions are executed with great 

 felicity, and the ' Argonautica' on the whole shows that the author 

 was superior to most of his contemporary poets. But, notwithstand- 

 ing these and other excellencies, the narrative is occasionally tedious ; 

 and notwithstanding all the variety of character and incident, the poem 

 wants that freshness of conception and execution which in the best 

 epic poem secures the interest and wins the sympathy of the reader. 

 We cannot help feeling that it is the work of labour rather than of 

 faith and inspiration : the poet proceeds throughout with the utmost 

 caution. Even Quintiliau and Longinug appear to have felt this, for 

 Quintiliau speaks of the mediocrity that pervades the whole poem ; 

 and Longinus speaks of his thoughtfulnegs, which indeed prevented 

 him from rushing into errors and inconsistencies, but is at the same 

 time one of the causes of his inferiority to the earlier epic poets. 

 The style and language are imitations of Homer ; but the language 

 10 cramped by the aim of the author to be brief and grammatically 

 correct Apollonius however is free from all studied obscurity and the 

 learned pomp and ostentation of the poets of that period. 



Many learned Greeks wrote commentaries on Apollouius : and the 

 Latin poet Valerius Flaccus closely imitated him in his work entitled 

 'Argonautica.' Terentius Varro translated it into Latin : in still 

 later times it was turned into Iambic verse by Marianus. The first 

 edition of this work was published at Florence, 1496, and ia of great 

 value to book collectors. Editions were published at Leipzig in 1797 

 and 1828. It has bien translated into English by Green, Fawkes 

 (1797), and Preston (1803); into Italian by Flangini(Uoma, 1791); into 

 German by Bodmer (Zurich, 1779) ; and into French by Caussin (1797). 



(Schb'nemann, Comment, de Geograph. Aryan., Gottiug., 1788 ; Ger- 

 hard, Lectionu Apolloniance, Lips., 1816; Weichert, Uebcr das Lebeu 

 vnd dot Qedicht de* Apollonius von Rhodus, Meissen, 8vo., 1821.) 



APOLLO'NIUS of Tyana, a Pythagorean philosopher, who lived in 

 the first century after Christ. He appears to have been a compound of 

 the philosopher, the fanatic, and the impostor, respecting whom authen- 

 tic accounts were sufficiently scanty to leave plenty of room for fiction 

 to play in, while what was known of him was remarkable enough to 

 give an air of credibility to the most extravagant fictions of a later 

 and uncritical age. We have what professes to be an historical account 

 of him in a circumstantial narrative of his life by Flavius Philostratus 

 the elder. This work was undertaken at the desire of Julia Domna, 

 the wife of the emperor Septimius Severus, who lent Philostratus an 

 account of the travels and adventures of Apollonius, written by au 

 Assyrian named Damis, who had accompanied him. His account seems 

 to have beun the groundwork of the narrative of Philostratus. His 

 biographer has written down in his book many absurdities and impos- 

 sibilities. On a rock of Mount Caucasus, Apollonius saw the chains 

 of Prometheus. Kiug Bardanes, his priests, and magi honoured him 

 at Babylon. In Taxila, a town of India, he met with the king, Phra- 

 ortes, a descendant of Porus. In India he saw also a woman conse- 

 crated I" Venus, who was black from the head to the chest, and white 

 from the chest to the feet. He joined a party who hunted dragons by 



the phoenix, the precious stone pautarbas casting rays of fire, and 

 attracting all other gems, which adhered to it like swarms of bees. 

 So preposterous are most of these fictions, that some have even doubted 

 the personal existence of Apollouius himself. That such a person 

 however lived, and by his ascetic habits and pretended supernatural 

 gifts attracted not merely the wonder but the adoration of the vulgar 

 appears unquestionable. The assertion of Dion Cassius that he lived 

 in the time of Domitian, and the religious reverence paid to him ia 

 many temples, are inconsistent with any other supposition. The 

 following is a narrative of his career, as described by Philostratus : 



Apollonius was born, at the commencement of the Christian era, 

 in Tyaun, a town of Cappadocia. At the age of fourteen, his father^ 

 Apollonius, sent him to Tarsus to study grammar and rhetoric under 

 Euthydemu?, a Phoenician. Dissatisfied with the luxury and indolence 

 of the citizens, Apollonius obtained his father's permission to retire to 

 -Egse (Ayas), a town near Tarsus, where he became acquainted with 

 the doctrines of various philosophers, and observed the Pythagorean 

 rules strictly, took up his abode in the temple of ^Esculapius at ^Ega;, 

 famous for miraculous cures, abstained from animal food and wine 

 lived upon fruits and herbs, avoided in his dress every article rnadu 

 of animal substance, walked barefoot, and let his hair and beard grow. 

 Apollonius recommended his moral and ascetic doctrines by example, 

 and by an appeal to the heathen gods. He healed a young Assyrian 

 afflicted by a disease which was a consequence of intemperance, by 

 teaching him that the gods were willing to give health to all who were 

 willing to receive this gift. Having finished his studies at JEgx and 

 other cities of Cilicia and Pamphylia, Apollouius travelled by laud to 

 India. At Nineveh' he met with Damis, who became his interpreter 

 and travelling companion. 



Apollouius returned from India by sea, was much admired in the 

 towns of Asia Minor, conversed at the grave of Achilles with the ghost 

 of this hero, enchanted the demons, and uttered prophecies. The 

 Greek priests at Athens, in the Peloponnesus, the oracles at 1'aphos, 

 Pcrgamus, and Colophon, heaped their marks of honour upon Apol- 

 lonius. He afterwards went to Crete, and finally arrived in the reign 

 of Nero at Rome, where he and his followers being questioned by the 

 magistrates concerning the object of their journey, overcame their 

 mistrust by restoring to life the dead body of a noble lady, and pre- 

 dicting an eclipse yf the sun. When Nero left Rome for Greece, he 

 ordered all foreign philosophers to quit the city. Apollonius went 

 to Spain, and stirred up a rebellion against Nero and the Romans. 

 He then visited Africa, the south of Italy, and Sicily, where he heard 

 of the death of Nero. Apollouius again visited Athens, and was 

 initiated by the hierophant of Eleusis into the mysteries of that place. 

 He next visited Egypt and Ethiopia, and sought for the sources of the 

 Nile. In Egypt ho joined Vespasian, who probably found it politic to 

 gain a man whose sanctity and miracles had raised him to the rauk of 

 a deity ; for during his lifetime', and still more after his death, Apol- 

 lonius enjoyed this distinction. (' Life of Alexander Severus,' by Lam- 

 pridiua, cap. 29.) Afterwards he revisited Asia Minor and Rome, where 

 he was accused of high treason against Domitian, and cast into prison. 

 On his release he removed to Puteoli, where he met his followers, Damis 

 and Demetrius. He again visited Sicily, Greece, and Asia Minor, per- 

 formed miracles, and had many adventures, until he died, eighty, or 

 ninety, or one hundred, or, as some accounts say, one hundred and 

 seventeen years old, either at Ephesus, or at Liudus in the temple of 

 Pallas. 



A great deal of the celebrity of Apollonius has arisen from the 

 circumstance that several attempts have been made to set him up as 

 a rival to Our Saviour. Such aii attempt was made by Hierocle* of 

 Nicomedia, iu the time of Diocletian, a refutation of whose work by 

 Eusebius, bishop of Csesarea, we still possess. The attempt has been. 

 renewed by deistical writers of modern times : for example, Blount 

 and Lc-d Herbert. Blount wrote a translation of the life of Apollo- 

 nius by Philostratus, accompanied by a commentary. In consequence 

 of the deistical tendency of the latter, the work was suppressed after 

 the publication of the first two books. (Note I. ia Bayle's 'Diet. 

 Crit.,' art. ' Apollonius de Tyane.') The coincidence between many 

 circumstances in the narrative of Philostratus and those recorded iu 

 the evangelical history, has led many to suppose that he wrote his 

 account of Apollonius with a similar view, it contains however no 

 sufficient traces of an intention on the part of the writer to institute 

 any comparison at all between Apollouius and Christ. It is at all 

 events clear that he did not write with any feeling of hostility towards 

 Christianity. If he intended to draw any parallel at all, it was pro- 

 bably between Apollonius and Pythagoras. He seems to have borrowed 

 from all sources any wonderful circumstances which promised to 

 jive interest to his narrative (as may be shown with regard to Ctesms, 

 Agatharchides, and others), and amongst the rest ho has taken several 

 from the history' of Jesus Christ recorded by the. evangelists. The 

 absurdities and incongruities of his story have been pointed out by 

 several writers, as Bishop Lloyd (iu a letter to Bentley), Bishop Parker, 

 and Du Pin. 



APPENDI'NI, FRANCESCO MARIA, born near Turin, in 1763, 



