apollonius of tyana, philosopher reformer of the first century ce - g r s mead

7/30/2019 Apollonius of Tyana, Philosopher Reformer of the First Century CE - G R S Mead

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APOLLONIUS OFTYANATHE PHILOSOPHER-REFORMEROF THE FIRST CENTURY A.D.A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE ONLY EXISTINGRECORD OF HIS LIFE WITH SOME ACCOUNTOF THE WAR OF OPINION CONCERNING HIMAND AN INTRODUCTION ON THE RELIGIOUSASSOCIATIONS AND BROTHERHOODS OF THETIMES AND THE POSSIBLE INFLUENCE QF ,^INDIAN THOUGHT ON GREECE BY of Rf

MEAD, B.A., M.R.A.S.

LONDON AND BENARESTHEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY

1901


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TABLE OF CONTENTS.SECTION PAGE

I. INTRODUCTORY 1II. THE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS AND COMMUN

ITIES OF THE FIRST CENTURY ... 9III. INDIA AND GREECE 17IV. THE APOLLONIUS OP EARLY OPINION . . 28V. TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND LITERATURE . 42VI. THE BIOGRAPHER OF APOLLONIUS . . 53

VII. EARLY LIFE 65VIII. THE TRAVELS OF APOLLONIUS ... 73IX. IN THE SHRINES OF THE TEMPLES AND THE

RETREATS OF RELIGION .... 82X. THE GYMNOSOPHISTS OF UPPER EGYPT . . 99

XI. APOLLONIUS AND THE RULERS OF THE EMPIRE 106XII. APOLLONIUS THE PROPHET AND WONDER

WORKER . . . . . . .110XIII. His MODE OF LIFE 119XIV. HIMSELF AND HIS CIRCLE . . . .126XV. FROM HIS SAYINGS AND SERMONS . . .132XVI. FROM HIS LETTERS 145XVII. THE WRITINGS OF APOLLONIUS . .153XVIII. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES . . . .156


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APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.

SECTION I.

INTRODUCTORY.To the student of the origins of Christianitythere is naturally no period of Western historyof greater interest and importance than the firstcentury of our era; and yet how little comparatively is known about it of a really definite andreliable nature. If it be a subject of lastingregret that no non-Christian writer of the firstcentury had sufficient intuition of the future torecord even a line of information concerning thebirth and growth of what was to be the religionof the Western world, equally disappointing isit to find so little definite information of thegeneral social and religious conditions of thetime. The rulers and the wars of the Empireseem to have formed the chief interest of thehistoriographers of the succeeding century, andeven in this department of political history, though


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Z APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.the public acts of the Emperors may be fairlywell known, for we can check them by recordsand inscriptions, when we come to their privateacts and motives we find ourselves no longer onthe ground of history, but for the most part in theatmosphere of prejudice, scandal, and speculation.The political acts of Emperors and their officers,however, can at best throw but a dim side-lighton the general social conditions of the time, whilethey shed no light at all on the religious conditions, except so far as these in any particularcontacted the domain of politics. As well mightwe seek to reconstruct a picture of the religiouslife of the time from Imperial acts and rescripts,as endeavour to glean any idea of the intimatereligion of this country from a perusal of statutebooks or reports of Parliamentary debates.

The Roman histories so-called, to which wehave so far been accustomed, cannot help us inthe reconstruction of a picture of the environment into which, on the one hand, Paul led thenew faith in Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome ; andin which, on the other, it already found itself inthe districts bordering on the south-east of theMediterranean. It is only by piecing togetherlaboriously isolated scraps of information andfragments of inscriptions, that we become aware ofthe existence of the life of a world of religiousassociations and private cults which existed at


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INTRODUCTORY. 3this period. Not that even so we have anyvery direct information of what went on in theseassociations, guilds, and brotherhoods ; but wehave sufficient evidence to make us keenly regretthe absence of further knowledge.

Difficult as this field is to till, it is exceedinglyfertile in interest, and it is to be regretted thatcomparatively so little work has as yet been donein it ; and that, as is so frequently the case, thework which has been done is, for the most part,not accessible to the English reader. What workhas been done on this special subject may beseen from the bibliographical note appended tothis essay, in which is given a list of books andarticles treating of the religious associationsamong the Greeks and Romans. But if we seekto obtain a general view of the condition ofreligious affairs in the first century we find ourselves without a reliable guide ; for of worksdealing with this particular subject there arefew. arid from them we learn little that doesnot immediately concern, or is thought to concern,Christianity ; whereas, it is just the state of thenon-Christian religious world about which, inthe present case, we desire to be informed.

If, for instance, the reader turn to works of ~general history, such as Merivale s History of theRomans under theEmpire (London ; last ed. 1865),he will find, it is true, in chap, iv., a description


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4 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.of the state of religion up to the death of Nero,but he will be little wiser for perusing it. Ifhe turn to Hermann Schiller s Geschichte derromischen Kaiserreichs unter der Eegierung desNero (Berlin; 1872), he will find much reasonfor discarding the vulgar opinions about themonstrous crimes imputed to Nero, as indeed hemight do by reading in English G. H. Lewesarticle " Was Nero a Monster? " (Cornhill Magazine ; July, 1863) and he will also find (bk.IV. chap, iii.) a general view of the religion andphilosophy of the time which is far more intelligent than that of Merivale s ; but all is still veryvague and unsatisfactory, and we feel ourselvesstill outside the intimate life of the philosophersand religionists of the first century.

If, again, he turn to the latest writers of Churchhistory who have treated this particular question,he will find that they are occupied entirely withthe contact of the Christian Church with theRoman Empire, and only incidentally give usany information of the nature of which we arein search. On this special ground C. J. Neumann,in his careful study Der romische Staat und dieallgemeine Kirche bis auf Diocletian (Leipzig;1890), is interesting ; while Prof. W. M. Ramsay,in The Church in the Roman Empire before A.D.170 (London; 1893), is extraordinary, for heendeavours to interpret Roman history by the


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INTRODUCTORY. 5New Testament documents, the dates of themajority of which are so hotly disputed.

But, you may say, what has all this to dowith Apollonius of Tyana? The answer issimple : Apollonius lived in the first century ;his work lay precisely among these religiousassociations, colleges, and guilds. A knowledgeof them and their nature would give us thenatural environment of a great part of his life ;and information as to their condition in the firstcentury would perhaps help us the better tounderstand some of the reasons for the taskwhich he attempted.

If, however, it were only the life andendeavours of Apollonius which would be illuminated by this knowledge, we could understandwhy so little effort has been spent in thisdirection ; for the character of the Tyanean, aswe shall see, has since the fourth century beenregarded with little favour even by the few,while the many have been taught to look uponour philosopher not only as a charlatan, but evenas an anti-Christ. But when it is just a knowledge of these religious associations and orderswhich would throw a flood of light on the earliestevolution of Christianity, not only with regardto the Pauline communities, but also with regardto those schools which were subsequently condemned as heretical, it is astonishing that we


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6 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.have had no more satisfactory work done on thesubject.

It may be said, however, that this informationis not forthcoming simply because it is unprocurable. To a large extent this is true ; nevertheless, a great deal more could be done than hasas yet been attempted, and the results of researchin special directions and in the byways of historycould be combined, so that the non-specialistcould obtain some general idea of the religiousconditions of the times, and so be less inclinedto join in the now stereotyped condemnationof all non-Jewish or non-Christian moral andreligious effort in the Roman Empire of thefirst century.

But the reader may retort : Things social andreligious in those days must have been in a veryparlous state, for, as this essay shows, Apol-lonius himself spent the major part of his life intrying to reform the institutions and cults of theEmpire. To this we answer : No doubt therewas much to reform, and when is there not?But it would not only be not generous, butdistinctly mischievous for us to judge our fellowsof those days solely by the lofty standard of anideal morality, or even to scale them against theweight of our own supposed virtues and knowledge. Our point is not that there was nothingto reform, far from that, but that the wholesale


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INTRODUCTORY. 7accusations of depravity brought against thetimes will not bear impartial investigation. Onthe contrary, there was much good materialready to be worked up in many ways, and ifthere had not been, how could there among otherthings have been any Christianity ?The Roman Empire was at the zenith of its

power, and had there not been many admirableadministrators and men of worth in the governingcaste, such a political consummation could neverhave been reached and maintained. Moreover,as ever previously in the ancient world, religiousliberty was guaranteed, and where we find persecution, as in the reigns of Nero and Domitian,it must be set down to political and not totheological reasons. Setting aside the disputedquestion of the persecution of the Christiansunder Domitian, the Neronian persecution wasdirected against those whom the Imperial powerregarded as Jewish political revolutionaries.So, too, when we find the philosophers imprisonedor banished from Rome during these two reigns,it was not because they were philosophers, butbecause the ideal of some of them was therestoration of the Republic, and this renderedthem obnoxious to the charge not only of beingpolitical malcontents, but also of actively plottingagainst the Emperor s majestas. Apollonius,however, was throughout a warm supporter of


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8 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.monarchical rule. When, then, we hear of thephilosophers being banished from Rome or beingcast into prison, we must remember that thiswas not a wholesale persecution of philosophythroughout the Empire ; and when we say thatsome of them desired to restore the Republic, weshould remember that the vast majority of themrefrained from politics, and especially was thisthe case with the disciples of the religio-philo-sophical schools.


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SECTION II.

THE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS ANDCOMMUNITIES OF THE FIRST

CENTURY.IN the domain of religion it is quite true thatthe state cults and national institutionsthroughout the Empire were almost withoutexception in a parlous state, and it is tobe noticed that Apollonius devoted much timeand labour to reviving and purifying them.Indeed, their strength had long left the generalstate-institutions of religion, where all was nowperfunctory ; but so far from there being noreligious life in the land, in proportion as theofficial cultus and ancestral institutions affordedno real satisfaction to their religious needs, themore earnestly did the people devote themselvesto private cults, and eagerly baptised themselvesin all that flood of religious enthusiasm whichflowed in with ever increasing volume from theEast. Indubitably in all this fermentation therewere many excesses, according to our presentnotions of religious decorum, and also grievous


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10 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.abuses ; but at the same time in it many founddue satisfaction for their religious emotions, and,if we except those cults which were distinctlyvicious, we have to a large extent before us inpopular circles the spectacle of what, in theirlast analysis, are similar phenomena to thoseenthusiasms which in our own day may befrequently witnessed among such sects as theShakers or Eanters, and at the general revivalmeetings of the uninstructed.

It is not, however, to be thought that theprivate cults and the doings of the religious associations were all of this nature or confined to thisclass ; far from it. There were religious brotherhoods, communities, and clubs thiasi, erani,and orgeones of all sorts and conditions. Therewere also mutual benefit societies, burial clubs,and dining companies, the prototypes of ourpresent-day Masonic bodies, Oddfellows, andthe rest. These religious associations were notonly private in the sense that they were notmaintained by the State, but also for the mostpart they were private in the sense that whatthey did was kept secret, and this is perhapsthe main reason why we have so defective arecord of them.Among them are to be numbered not only

the lower forms of mystery-cultus of variouskinds, but also the greater ones, such as the


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RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 1 1Phrygian, Bacchic, Isiac, and Mithriac Mysteries,which were spread everywhere throughout theEmpire. The famous Eleusinia were, however,still under the aegis of the State, but though sofamous were, as a state-cultus, far more perfunctory.It is, moreover, not to be thought that thegreat types of mystery-cultus above mentionedwere uniform even among themselves. Therewere not only various degrees and grades withinthem, but also in all probability many forms ofeach line of tradition, good, bad, and indifferent.For instance, we know that it was considered derigueur for every respectable citizen of Athensto be initiated into the Eleusinia, and thereforethe tests could not have been very stringent ;whereas in the most recent work on thesubject, De Apuleio Isiacorum MysteriorumTeste (Leyden; 1900), Dr. K. H. E. De Jongshows that in one form of the Isiac Mysteriesthe candidate was invited to initiation by meansof dream ; that is to say, he had to be psychicallyimpressionable before his acceptance.

Here, then, we have a vast intermediateground for religious exercise between the mostpopular and undisciplined forms of private cultsand the highest forms, which could only beapproached through the discipline and trainingof the philosophic life. The higher side of these


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RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 1 3mysteries, and it is very evident that such sternlivers and deep thinkers could not have beencontented with a low form of cult. Their influence also spread far and wide in generalBacchic circles, so that we find Euripides puttingthe following words into the mouth of a chorusof Bacchic initiates : " Clad in white robes Ispeed me from the genesis of mortal men, andnever more approach the vase of death, for Ihave done with eating food that ever housed asoul." * Such words could well be put into themouth of a Brahman or Buddhist ascetic, eagerto escape from the bonds of Samsara ; and suchmen cannot therefore justly be classed togetherindiscriminately with ribald revellers the general mind-picture of a Bacchic company.

But, some one may say, Euripides and thePythagoreans and Orphics are no evidence forthe first century ; whatever good there mayhave been in such schools and communities, ithad ceased long before. On the contrary, theevidence is all against this objection. Philo,writing about 25 A.D., tells us that in his daynumerous groups of men, who in all respects ledthis life of religion, who abandoned their property,retired from the world and devoted themselvesentirely to the search for wisdom and the culti-

* From a fragment of The Cretans. See Lobeck s Aglao-phamus, p. 622.


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14 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.vation of virtue, were scattered far and widethroughout the world. In his treatise, On the Contemplative Life, he writes : " This natural classof men is to be found in many parts of theinhabited world, both the Grecian and non-Grecian world, sharing in the perfect good.In Egypt there are crowds of them in everyprovince, or nome as they call it, and especiallyround Alexandria." This is a most importantstatement, for if there were so many devoted tothe religious life at this time, it follows that theage was not one of unmixed depravity.

It is not, however, to be thought that thesecommunities were all of an exactly similarnature, or of one and the same origin, least ofall that they were all Therapeut or Essene. Wehave only to remember the various lines ofdescent of the doctrines held by the innumerableschools classed together as Gnostic, as sketchedin my recent work, Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, and to turn to the beautiful treatises of theHermetic schools, to persuade us that in thefirst century the striving after the religious andphilosophic life was wide-spread and various.We are not, however, among those whobelieve that the origin of the Therapeut com

munities of Philo and of the Essenes of Philoand Josephus is to be traced to Orphic andPythagorean influence. The question of precise


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16 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.court life, but no feeling for the life of religion.It is only indirectly that the Life of Apollonius,as it is now depicted, can throw any light onthese most interesting communities, but even anoccasional side-light is precious where all is insuch obscurity. Were it but possible to enterinto the living memory of Apollonius, and seewith his eyes the things he saw when he livednineteen hundred years ago, what an enormouslyinteresting page of the world s history could berecovered He not only traversed all thecountries where the new faith was taking root,but he lived for years in most of them, and wasintimately acquainted with numbers of mysticcommunities in Egypt, Arabia, and Syria.Surely he must have visited some of the earliestChristian communities as well, must even haveconversed with some of the " disciples of theLord " And yet no word is breathed of this,not one single scrap of information on thesepoints do we glean from what is recorded of him.Surely he must have met with Paul, if not elsewhere, then at Eome, in 66, when he had toleave because of the edict of banishment againstthe philosophers, the very year according to somewhen Paul was beheaded


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SECTION III.

INDIA AND GEEECE.THERE is, however, another reason why Apol-lonius is of importance to us. He was anenthusiastic admirer of the wisdom of India.Here again a subject of wide interest opens up.What influences, if any, had Brahmanism andBuddhism on Western thought in these earlyyears ? It is strongly asserted by some thatthey had great influence ; it is as strongly deniedby others that they had any influence at all. Itis, therefore, apparent that there is no reallyindisputable evidence on the subject.

Just as some would ascribe the constitutionof the Essene and Therapeut communities toPythagorean influence, so others would ascribetheir origin to Buddhist propaganda; and notonly would they trace this influence in theEssene tenets and practices, but they wouldeven refer the general teaching of the Christ toa Buddhist source in a Jewish monotheisticsetting. Not only so, but some would have it2


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INDIA AND GREECE. 19hesitate entirely to reject the possibility ofPythagoras having visited ancient Aryavarta.And even if we cannot go so far as to entertain the possibility of direct personal contact,there has to be taken into consideration the factthat Pherecydes, the master of Pythagoras, mayhave been acquainted with some of the mainideas of Vaidic lore. Pherecydes taught atEphesus, but was himself most probably a Persian, and it is quite credible that a learnedAsiatic, teaching a mystic philosophy and basinghis doctrine upon the idea of rebirth, may havehad some indirect, if not direct, knowledge ofIndo-Aryan thought.

Persia must have been even at this time inclose contact with India, for about the date ofthe death of Pythagoras, in the reign of Dareius,son of Hystaspes, at the end of the sixth andbeginning of the fifth century before our era,we hear of the expedition of the Persian generalScylax down the Indus, and learn from Herodotus that in this reign India (that is thePunjab) formed the twentieth satrapy of thePersian monarchy. Moreover, Indian troopswere among the hosts of Xerxes ; they invadedThessaly and fought at Platsea.From the time of Alexander onwards therewas direct and constant contact between Aryavarta and the kingdoms of the successors of the


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INDIA AND GREECE. 21records, the evidence on the side of India is soclear and indubitable, all the more extraordinaryis it that we have no direct testimony on our sideof so great a missionary activity. Although, then,merely because of the absence of all direct information from Greek sources, it is very unsafe togeneralize, nevertheless from our general knowledge of the times it is not illegitimate to conclude that no great public stir could have beenmade by these pioneers of the Dharma in the West.In every probability these Buddhist Bhikshusproduced no effect on the rulers or on the people.But was their mission entirely abortive ; and didBuddhist missionary enterprise westwards ceasewith them?

The answer to this question, as it seems tous, is hidden in the obscurity of the religiouscommunities. We cannot, however, go so far asto agree with those who would cut the gordianknot by asserting dogmatically that the asceticcommunities in Syria and Egypt were foundedby these Buddhist propagandists. Already evenin Greece itself were not only Pythagorean buteven prior to them Orphic communities, for evenon this ground we believe that Pythagoras ratherdeveloped what he found already existing, thanthat he established something entirely new. Andif they were found in Greece, much more then isit reasonable to suppose that such communities


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INDIA AND GREECE. 23lofty mystic metaphysic of the Gnostic doctorBasilides, who lived at the end of the first andbeginning of the second century A.D., and Vedanticideas. Moreover, both the Hermetic and theBasilidean schools and their immediate predecessors were devoted to a stern self-disciplineand deep philosophical study which would makethem welcome eagerly any philosopher or mysticstudent who might come from the far East.

But even so, we are not of those who by theirown self-imposed limitations of possibility arecondemned to find some direct physical contact toaccount for a similarity of ideas or even of phrasing. Granting, for instance, that there is much resemblance between the teachings of the Dharmaof the Buddha and of the Gospel of the Christ,and that the same spirit of love and gentlenesspervades them both, still there is no necessity tolook for the reason of this resemblance to purelyphysical transmission. And so for other schoolsand other teachers ; like conditions will producesimilar phenomena ; like effort and like aspirationwill produce similar ideas, similar experience, andsimila,r response. And this we believe to be thecase in no general way, but that it is all verydefinitely ordered from within by the servantsof the real guardians of things religious in thisworld.We are, then, not compelled to lay so much


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24 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.stress on the question of physical transmission,or to be seeking even to find proof of copying.The human mind in its various degrees is muchthe same in all climes and ages, and its innerexperience has a common ground into which seedmay be sown, as it is tilled and cleared of weeds.The good seed comes all from the same granary,and those who sow it pay no attention to theman-made outer distinctions of race and creed.However difficult, therefore, it may be to

prove, from unquestionably historical statements,any direct influence of Indian thought on theconceptions and practices of some of thesereligious communities and philosophic schoolsof the Graeco-Roman Empire, and although inany particular case similarity of ideas need notnecessarily be assigned to direct physical transmission, nevertheless the highest probability, ifnot the greatest assurance, remains that evenprior to the days of Apollonius there was someprivate knowledge in Greece of the general ideasof the Vedanta and Dharma ; while in the caseof Apollonius himself, even if we discount nine-tenths of what is related of him, his one ideaseems to have been to spread abroad among thereligious brotherhoods and institutions of theEmpire some portion of the wisdom which hebrought back with him from India.When, then, we find at the end of the first


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INDIA AND GREECE. 25and during the first half of the second century,among such mystic associations as the Hermeticand Gnostic schools, ideas which strongly remindus of the theosophy of the Upanishads or thereasoned ethics of the Suttas, we have alwaysto take into consideration not only the highprobability of Apollonius having visited suchschools, but also the possibility of his havingdiscoursed at length therein on the Indianwisdom. Not only so, but the memory of hisinfluence may have lingered for long in suchcircles, for do we not find Plotinus, the coryphaeus of Neo-Platonism, as it is called, soenamoured with what he had heard of thewisdom of India at Alexandria, that in 242 hestarted off with the ill-starred expedition ofGordian to the East in the hope of reaching thatland of philosophy? With the failure of theexpedition and assassination of the Emperor,however, he had to return, for ever disappointedof his hope.

It is not, however, to be thought thatApollonius set out to make a propaganda ofIndian philosophy in the same way that theordinary missionary sets forth to preach hisconception of the Gospel. By no means ;Apollonius seems to have endeavoured to helphis hearers, whoever they might be, in the waybest suited to each of them. He did not begin


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26 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.by telling them that what they believed wasutterly false and soul-destroying, and that theireternal welfare depended upon their instantlyadopting his own special scheme of salvation ;he simply endeavoured to purge and furtherexplain what they already believed andpractised. That some strong power supportedhim in his ceaseless activity, and in hisalmost world-wide task, is not so difficult ofbelief; and it is a question of deep interest forthose who strive to peer through the mists ofappearance, to speculate how that not only aPaul but also an Apollonius was aided anddirected in his task from within.The day, however, has not yet dawned when

it will be possible for the general mind in theWest to approach the question with such freedom from prejudice, as to bear the thought that,seen from within, not only Paul but alsoApollonius may well have been a "disciple ofthe Lord " in the true sense of the words ; andthat too although on the surface of things theirtasks seem in many ways so dissimilar, and even,to theological preconceptions, entirely antagonistic.

Fortunately, however, even to-day there is anever-growing number of thinking people whowill not only not be shocked by such a belief, butwho will receive it with joy as the herald of the


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SECTION IV.

THE APOLLONIUS OF EARLY OPINION.APOLLONIUS of Tyana* was the most famous

I philosopher of the Grseco-Roman world of thefirst century, and devoted the major part of hislong life to the purification of the many cults ofthe Empire and to the instruction of the ministersand priests of its religions. With the exceptionof the Christ no more interesting personageappears upon the stage of Western history inthese early years. Many and various and oft-times mutually contradictory are the opinionswhich have been held about Apollonius, for theaccount of his life which has come down to usis in the guise of a romantic story rather than inthe form of a plain history. And this is perhapsto some extent to be expected, for Apollonius,besides his public teaching, had a life apart, alife into which even his favourite disciple does

* Pronounced T^ana, with the accent on the firstsyllable and the first a short.


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30 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.Apollonius with Moses and Zoroaster, and otherfamous Magi of antiquity.*

About the same period, in a work entitledQuaestiones et Responsiones ad Orthodoxos, formerly attributed to Justin Martyr, who flourishedin the second quarter of the second century, wefind the following interesting statement :

" Question 24 : If God is the maker andmaster of creation, how do the consecratedobjects t of Apollonius have power in the[various] orders of that creation ? For, as wesee, they check the fury of the waves and thepower of the winds and the inroads of verminand attacks of wild beasts." {

Dion Cassius in his history, which he wroteA.D. 211-222, states that Caracalla (Emp. 211-216) honoured the memory of Apollonius witha chapel or monument (heroum).

It was just at this time (216) that Philostratuscomposed his Life of Apollonius, at the requestof Domna Julia, Caracalla s mother, and it iswith this document principally that we shallhave to deal in the sequel.

* De Magia, xc. (ed. Hildebrand, 1842, ii. 614).f TeAeoyxaTa. Telesma was "a consecrated object, turned

by the Arabs into telsam (talisman) " ; see Liddell and Scott sLexicon, sub voc.

J Justin Martyr, Opera, ed. Otto (2nd ed. ; Jena,1849), iii. 32.

Lib. Ixxvii. 18.


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THE APOLLONIUS OF EARLY OPINION. 31Lampridius, who flourished about the middle

of the third century, further informs us thatAlexander Severus (Emp. 222-235) placedthe statue of Apollonius in his larariumtogether with those of Christ, Abraham, andOrpheus. ^

Vopiscus, writing in the last decade of thethird century, tells us that Aurelian (Emp. 270-275) vowed a temple to Apollonius, of whom hehad seen a vision when besieging Tyana. Vopiscus speaks of the Tyanean as " a sage of themost wide-spread renown and authority, anancient philosopher, and a true friend of theGods," nay, as a manifestation of deity. " Forwhat among men," exclaims the historian, " wasmore holy, what more worthy of reverence, whatmore venerable, what more god-like than he ?He, it was, who gave life to the dead. He, itwas, who did and said so many things beyondthe power of men." t So enthusiastic is Vopiscusabout Apollonius, that he promises, if he lives,to write a short account of his life in Latin, sothat his deeds and words may be on the tongueof all, for as yet the only accounts are in Greek.JVopiscus, however, did not fulfil his promise, but

* Life of Alexander Severus, xxix.f Life of Aurelian, xxiv.| " Qux qui velit nosse, grcecos legat libros qui de ejus

vita conscripti sunt." These accounts were probably thebooks of Maximus, Moeragenes, and Philostratus.


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THE APOLLONIUS OF EARLY OPINION. 33called A Truthful Address to the Christians,or more shortly The Truth-lover. He seemsto have based himself for the most part on theprevious works of Celsus and Porphyry,* butintroduced a new subject of controversy byopposing the wonderful works of Apollonius tothe claims of the Christians to exclusive rightin " miracles " as proof of the divinity of theirMaster. In this part of his treatise Hieroclesused Philostratus Life of Apollonius.To this pertinent criticism of HieroclesEusebius of Csesarea immediately replied in atreatise still extant, entitled Contra Hieroclem.tEusebius admits that Apollonius was a wise andvirtuous man, but denies that there is sufficientproof that the wonderful things ascribed to himever took place ; and even if they did take place,they were the work of " daemons," and not ofGod. The treatise of Eusebius is interesting ; heseverely scrutinises the statements in Philostratus,and shows himself possessed of a first rate critical

* See Duchesne on the recently discovered works ofMacarius Magnes (Paris; 1877).

t The most convenient text is by Gaisford (Oxford ; 1852),Eusebii Pamphili contra Hieroclem ; it is also printed in anumber of editions of Philostratus. There are two translations in Latin, one in Italian, one in Danish, all bound upwith Philostratus Vita, and one in French printed apart(Discours d Eusebe Evque de Cesaree touchant les Miraclesattribuez par les Payens & Apollonius de Tyane, tr. byCousin. Paris; 1584, 12ino, 135pp.).3


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36 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.the controversy, in referring to Apollonius simplyclasses him among Magi, such as Zoroaster andothers mentioned in the passage of Appuleius towhich we have already referred.*

But even after the controversy there is a widedifference of opinion among the Fathers, foralthough at the end of the fourth century JohnChrysostom with great bitterness calls Apolloniusa deceiver and evil-doer, and declares that thewhole of the incidents in his life are unqualifiedfiction, t Jerome, on the contrary, at the verysame date, takes almost a favourable view, for, afterperusing Philostratus, he writes that Apolloniusfound everywhere something to learn and something whereby he might become a better man.|At the beginning of the fifth century also Augustine, while ridiculing any attempt at comparisonbetween Apollonius and Jesus, says that thecharacter of the Tyanean was "far superior" tothat ascribed to Jove, in respect of virtue.

* Arnobius, Adversus Nationes, i. 52; ed. Hildebrand(Halle ; 1844), p. 86. The Church Father, however, withthat exclusiveness peculiar to the Judseo-Christian view,omits Moses from the list of Magi.

f John Chrysostom, Adversus Judseos, v. 3 (p. 631) ;De Laudibus Sancti Pauli Apost. Homil., iv. (p. 493 D. ; ed.Montfauc.).

t Hieronymus, Ep. ad Paullinum, 53 (text ap. Kayser,prsef. ix.).

August., Epp., cxxxviii. Text quoted by Legrandd Aussy, op. cit., p. 294


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38 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.highest terms of Apollonius. Sidonius translatedthe Life of Apollonius into Latin for Leon, thecouncillor of King Euric, and in writing to hisfriend he says : " Eead the life of a man who(religion apart) resembles you in many things ; aman sought out by the rich, yet who never soughtfor riches ; who loved wisdom and despisedgold; a man frugal in the midst of feastings,clad in linen in the midst of those clothed inpurple, austere in the midst of luxury. ... Infine, to speak plainly, perchance no historian willfind in ancient times a philosopher whose life isequal to that of Apollonius." *

Thus we see that even among the ChurchFathers opinions were divided ; while among thephilosophers themselves the praise of Apollonius was unstinted.

For Ammianus Marcellinus, " the last subjectof Rome who composed a profane history in theLatin language," and the friend of Julian thephilosopher-emperor, refers to the Tyanean as" that most renowned philosopher " ; t while afew years later Eunapius, the pupil of Chrys-anthius, one of the teachers of Julian, writing inthe last years of the fourth century, says that

* Sidonius Apollinaris, Epp., viii. 3. Also Fabricius,Bibliotheca Grseca, pp. 549, 565 (ed. Harles). The work ofSidonius on Apollonius is unfortunately lost.

t Amplissimus ille philosophus (xxiii. 7). See also xxi.14; xxiii. 19


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THE APOLLONIUS OP EARLY OPINION. 39Apollonius was more than a philosopher ; he was"a middle term, as it were, between gods andmen."* Not only was Apollonius an adherentof the Pythagorean philosophy, but " he fullyexemplified the more divine and practical sidein it." In fact Philostratus should have calledhis biography " The Sojourning of a God amongMen."t This seemingly wildly exaggerated estimate may perhaps receive explanation in the factthat Eunapius belonged to a school which knew thenature of the attainments ascribed to Apollonius.

Indeed, " as late as the fifth century we findone Volusian, a proconsul of Africa, descendedfrom an old Eoman family and still stronglyattached to the religion of his ancestors, almostworshipping Apollonius of Tyana as a supernatural being."|

* rt Oe&v re KOL avOpwTrov fLcrov, meaning therebypresumably one who has reached the grade of beingsuperior to man, but not yet equal to the gods. This wascalled by the Greeks the "daemonian" order. But theword "daemon," owing to sectarian bitterness, has longbeen degraded from its former high estate, and the originalidea is now signified in popular language by the term"angel." Compare Plato, Symposium, xxiii., irav TOSaifJAVLOv fJLCTav etrri 6fov re KOL OmjTOVy "all that isdaemonian is between God and man."

t Eunapius, Vitae Philosophorum, Prooemium, vi. ; ed.Boissonade (Amsterdam; 1822), p. 3.+ Reville, Apollonius of Tyana (tr. from the French),p. 56 (London ; 1866). I have, however, not been able todiscover on what authority this statement is made.


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40 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA,Even after the downfall of philosophy we find

Cassiodorus, who spent the last years of his longlife in a monastery, speaking of Apollonius asthe "renowned philosopher."* So also amongByzantine writers, the monk George Syncellus,in the eighth century, refers several times toour philosopher, and not only without theslightest adverse criticism, but he declares thathe was the first and most remarkable of all theillustrious people who appeared under theEmpire, t Tzetzes also, the critic and grammarian, calls Apollonius "all-wise and a fore-knower of all things." JAnd though the monk Xiphilinus, in theeleventh century, in a note to his abridgmentof the history of Dion Cassius, calls Apolloniusa clever juggler and magician, neverthelessCedrenus in the same century bestows onApollonius the not uncomplimentary title of an"adept Pythagorean philosopher," || and relatesseveral instances of the efficacy of his powers

* Insignis philosophus ; see his Chronicon, written downto the year 519.

f In his Chronographia. See Legrand d Aussy, op. cit,,p. 313.

J Chiliades, ii. 60.Cited by Legrand d Aussy, op. cit., p. 286.

|| iAoo-o os HvOayopeios 0-Toixa>/>umKos Cedrenus, Compendium Historiarium, i. 346 ; ed. Bekker. The wordwhich I have rendered by " adept " signifies one "whohas power over the elements."


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SECTION V.

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, ANDLITERATUEE.WE will now turn to the texts, translations,and general literature of the subject in morerecent times. Apollonius returned to thememory of the world, after the oblivion of thedark ages, with evil auspices. From the verybeginning the old Hierocles-Eusebius controversy was revived, and the whole subject was atonce taken out of the calm region of philosophyand history and hurled once more into the stormyarena of religious bitterness and prejudice. Forlong Aldus hesitated to print the text ofPhilostratus, and only finally did so (in 1501)with the text of Eusebius as an appendix, so that,as he piously phrases it, " the antidote might accompany the poison." Together with it appeareda Latin translation by the Florentine Rinucci.*

* Philostratus de Vita Apollonii Tyanei Libri Octo,tr. by A. Rinuccinus, and Eusebius contra Hieroclem,tr. by Z. Acciolus (Venice; 1501-04, fol.). Kinucci stranslation was improved by Beroaldus and printed atLyons (1504?), and again at Cologne, 1534.


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TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND LITERATURE. 43In addition to the Latin version the sixteenth

century also produced an Italian^ and Frenchtranslation, t

The editio princeps of Aldus was supersededa century later by the edition of Morel,^ whichin its turn was followed a century still later bythat of Olearius. Nearly a century and a halflater again the text of Olearius was supersededby that of Kayser (the first critical text), whosework in its last edition contains the latest criticalapparatus. || All information with regard to theMSS. will be found in Kayser s Latin Prefaces.

* F. Baldelli, Filostrato Lemnio della Vita di ApollonioTianeo (Florence; 1549, 8vo).

t B. de Vignere, Philostrate de la Vie d Apollonius(Paris; 1596, 1599, 1611). Blaise de Vignere s translationwas subsequently corrected by Frederic Morel and later byThomas Artus, Sieur d Embry, with bombastic notes inwhich he bitterly attacks the wonder-workings of Apollonius.A French translation was also made by Th. Sibiletabout 1560, but never published ; the MS. was in theBibliotheque Imperiale. See Miller, Journal des Savants,1849, p. 625, quoted by Chassang, op. infr. cit., p. iv.

J F. Morellus, Philostrati Lemnii Opera, Gr. and Lat.(Paris; 1608).

G. Olearius, Philostratorum quae supersunt Omnia, Gr.and Lat. (Leipzig; 1709).

|| C. L. Kayser, Flavii Philostrati quse supersunt, etc.(Zurich; 1844, 4to). In 1849 A. Westermann also editeda text, Philostratorum et Callistrati Opera, in Didot s"Scriptorum Grsecorum Bibliotheca" (Paris; 1849, 8vo).But Kayser brought out a new edition in 1853 ("?),and again a third, with additional information in thePreface, in the "Bibliotheca Teubneriana" (Leipzig; 1870).


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48 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.again by the great authority of Baur, who sawin a number of the early documents of theChristian era (notably the canonical Acts)tendency-writings of but slight historical content, representing the changing fortunes ofschools and parties and not the actual historiesof individuals. The Life of Apollonius was oneof these tendency-writings ; its object was to putforward a view opposed to Christianity in favourof philosophy. Baur thus divorced the wholesubject from its historical standpoint andattributed to Philostratus an elaborate schemeof which he was entirely innocent. Baur s viewwas largely adopted by Zeller in his Philosophieder Griechen (v. 140), and by KeVille in Holland.

This " Christusbild " theory (carried by a fewextremists to the point of denying that Apollonius ever existed) has had a great vogue amongwriters on the subject, especially compilers ofencyclopaedia articles ; it is at any rate a widerissue than the traditional miracle-wrangle, whichwas again revived in all its ancient narrownessby Newman, who only uses Apollonius as anexcuse for a dissertation on orthodox miracles,to which he devotes eighteen pages out of thetwenty-five of his treatise. Noack also followsBaur, and to some extent Pettersch, though hetakes the subject onto the ground of philosophy ;while Mockeberg, pastor of St. Nicolai in Ham-


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50 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.instead of that of Eusebius, the problem of Apol-lonius would have been considered in its naturalhistorical environment four hundred years ago,and much ink and paper would have been saved.

"With the progress of the critical method,however, opinion has at length partly recoveredits balance, and it is pleasant to be able to turnto works which have rescued the subject fromtheological obscurantism and placed it in theopen field of historical and critical research. Thetwo volumes of the independent thinker, Legrandd Aussy, which appeared at the very beginningof the last century, are, for the time, remarkablyfree from prejudice, and are a praiseworthyattempt at historical impartiality, but criticismwas still young at this period. Kayser, thoughhe does not go thoroughly into the matter,decides that the account of Philostratus is purelya "fabularis narratio" but is well opposed byI. Miiller, who contends for a strong element ofhistory as a background. But by far thebest sifting of the sources is that of Jessen.*Priaulx s study deals solely with the Indianepisode and is of no critical value for theestimation of the sources. Of all previousstudies, however, the works of Chassang and

* I am unable to offer any opinion on Nielsen s book,from ignorance of Danish, but it has all the appearance ofa careful, scholarly treatise with abundance of references.


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52 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.sketch, which is descriptive rather than criticalor explanatory.

So far then for the history of the Apolloniusof opinion ; we will now turn to the Apolloniusof Philostratus, and attempt if possible todiscover some traces of the man as he was inhistory, and the nature of his life and work.


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58 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.attention, for he knows nothing of most of thefacts of his life " (i. 2, 3).

These are the sources to which Philostratuswas indebted for his information, sources whichare unfortunately no longer accessible to us,except perhaps a few letters. Nor did Philostratus spare any pains to gather information onthe subject, for in his concluding words (viii. 31),he tells us that he has himself travelled intomost parts of the "world" and everywhere metwith the " inspired sayings "* of Apollonius, andthat he was especially well acquainted with thetemple dedicated to the memory of our philosopher at Tyana and founded at the imperialexpense ("for the emperors had judged him notunworthy of like honours with themselves"),whose priests, it is to be presumed, had gottogether as much information as they couldconcerning Apollonius.A thoroughly critical analysis of the literaryeffort of Philostratus, therefore, would have totake into account all of these factors, and endeavour to assign each statement to its originalsource. But even then the task of the historianwould be incomplete, for it is transparentlyevident that Philostratus has considerablyOrigenes, Contra Celsum, vi. 41 ; ed. Lommatzseh (Berlin ;1841), ii. 373.* Xoyots


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62 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.trained to feel at home, and all in antiquity thattreats of religion in a different mode to theJewish or Christian way, is felt to be strange, and,if obscure or extraordinary, to be even repulsive.The sayings and doings of the Jewish prophets,of Jesus, and of the Apostles, are related withreverence, embellished with the greatest beautiesof diction, and illumined with the best thoughtof the age ; while the sayings and doings of otherprophets and teachers have been for the mostpart subjected to the most unsympathetic criticism, in which no attempt is made to understandtheir standpoint. Had even-handed justice beendealt out all round, the world to-day would havebeen richer in sympathy, in wide-mindedness, incomprehension of nature, humanity, and God, inbrief, in soul-experience.

Therefore, in reading the Life of Apollonius letus remember that we have to look at it throughthe eyes of a Greek, and not through those ofa Jew or a Protestant. The Many in theirproper sphere must be for us as authentic a manifestation of the Divine as the One or the All, forindeed the " Gods " exist in spite of commandment and creed. The Saints and Martyrs andAngels have seemingly taken the places of theHeroes and Daemons and Gods, but the changeof name and change of view-point among menaffect but little the unchangeable facts. To sense


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SECTION VII.

EARLY LIFE.APOLLONIUS was born* at Tyana, a city in thesouth of Cappadocia, somewhen in the earlyyears of the Christian era. His parents wereof ancient family and considerable fortune (i. 4).At an early age he gave signs of a very powerfulmemory and studious disposition, and wasremarkable for his beauty. At the age of fourteen he was sent to Tarsus, a famous centre oflearning of the time, to complete his studies.But mere rhetoric and style and the life of the" schools" were little suited to his serious disposition, and he speedily left for Mgsd, a town on thesea-coast east of Tarsus. Here he found surroundings more suitable to his needs, and plunged withardour into the study of philosophy. He becameintimate with the priests of the temple of^Esculapius, where cures were still wrought, and

* Legends of the wonderful happenings at his birth werein circulation, and are of the same nature as all such birth-legends of great people. 5


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68 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.portion to him, and by his gentle admonitionsrestored him to his manhood. In fact he seemsto have devoted his time to setting in order theaffairs of the family, for he distributed the restof his patrimony among certain of his relatives,and kept for himself but a bare pittance ; herequired but little, he said, and should nevermarry (i. 13).He now took the vow of silence for five years,for he was determined not to write on philosophyuntil he had passed through this wholesomediscipline.

These five years were passed mostlyin Pamphylia and Cilicia, and though he spentmuch time in study, he did not immure himself ina community or monastery but kept moving aboutand travelling from city to city. The temptationsto break his self-imposed vow were enormous.His strange appearance drew everyone s attention,the laughter-loving populace made the silentphilosopher the butt of their unscrupulous wit,and all the protection he had against theirscurrility and misconceptions was the dignityof his mien and the glance of eyes that nowcould see both past and future. Many a timehe was on the verge of bursting out againstsome exceptional insult or lying gossip, but everhe restrained himself with the words : " Heart,patient be, and thou, my tongue, be still "* (i. 14).

* Compare Odyssey, xx. 18.


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70 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.Even from Philostratus himself we learn incidentally later on (i. 20 ; iv. 38) that Apolloniushad spent some time among the Arabians, andhad been instructed by them. And by Arabiawe are to understand the country south ofPalestine, which was at this period a regularhot-bed of mystic communities. The spots hevisited were in out-of-the-way places, wherethe spirit of holiness lingered, and not thecrowded and disturbed cities, for the subjectof his conversation, he said, required " men andnot people."* He spent his time in travellingfrom one to another of these temples, shrines,and communities ; from which we may concludethat there was some kind of a common freemasonry, as it were, among them, of the natureof initiation, which opened the door of hospitalityto him.

But wherever he went, he always held to acertain regular division of the day. At sun-risehe practised certain religious exercises alone, thenature of which he communicated only to thosewho had passed through the discipline of a " fouryears " ( 1 five years ) silence. He then conversed with the temple priests or the heads ofthe community, according as he was staying ina Greek or non-Greek temple with public rites,

ycras OVK avOpwTTutv eavrw Scti/, dXX*


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74 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.Buddha and his constant companion, Damisadvanced but slowly in comprehension of thereal nature of spiritual science ; he had ever toremain in the outer courts of the temples andcommunities into whose shrines and innerconfidence Apollonius had full access, while hefrequently states his ignorance of his master splans and purposes.^ The additional fact thathe refers to his notes as the " crumbs "t fromthe " feasts of the Gods"(i. 19), those feasts ofwhich he could for the most part only learn atsecondhand what little Apollonius thought fitto tell him, and which he doubtless largely misunderstood and clothed in his own imaginings,would further confirm this view, if any furtherconfirmation were necessary. But indeed it isvery manifest everywhere that Damis was outsidethe circle of initiation, and this accounts bothfor his wonder-loving point of view and hisgeneral superficiality.

Another fact that comes out prominently fromthe narrative is his timid nature. ;f He is continually afraid for himself or for his master;and even towards the end, when Apolloniusis imprisoned by Domitian, it requires thephenomenal removal of the fetters before his

* See especially iii. 15, 41 ; v. 5, 10 ; vii. 10, 13 ; viii. 28.f K Des Associations religieuses chez les Grecs, Thiases,Cranes, Orgeons, avec le Texte des Inscriptions relatives a cesAssociations (Paris ; 1873).

Liiders (H. 0.), Die dionyschischen Kiinstler (Berlin ; 1873).Cohn (M.), Zum romischen Vereinsrecht : Abhandlung aus derRechtsgeschichte (Berlin ; 1873). Also the notice of it in Bursian s

Philol. Jaresbericht (1873), ii. 238-304.Henzen (G. ), Acta Fratrum Arvalium quse supersunt ; . . . .accedunt Fragmenta Fastorum in Luco Arvalium effossa (Berlin ;1874).

Heinrici (G.), "Die Christengemeinde Korinths und diereligibsen genossenschaften der Griechen " ; " Zur Geschichte der An-fange paulinischer Geraeinden " ; arts, in Zeitschr. fiir wissensch.Theol. (Jena, etc. ; 1876), pp. 465-526, particularly pp. 479 sqq. ;1877, pp. 89-130.Duruy (V.), " Du Regime municipal dans 1 Empire romain," art. inLa Revue historique (Paris ; 1876), pp. 355 sqq. ; also his Histoiredes Romanis (Paris ; 1843, 1844), i. 149 sqq.De Rossi, Roma Sotteranea (Rome; 1877), iii. 37 sqq., andespecially pp. 507 sqq.Marquardt (J.), Rbmische Staatsverwaltung, iii. 131-142, in vol.

vi. of Marquardt and Mommsen s Handbuch der romischen Alther-thiimer (Leipzig ; 1878) ; an excellent summary with valuable notes,especially the section "Ersatz der Gentes durch die Sodalitates fiirfremde Culte."Boissier (G.), La Religion romaine d Auguste aux Antonins (Paris ;2nd ed. 1878), ii. 238-304 (1st ed. 1874).Hatch (E.), The Organization of the Early Christian Churches : The

Bampton Lectures for 1880 (London ; 2nd ed. 1882) ; see especiallyLecture ii., "Bishops and Deacons," pp. 26-32; German ed. DieGesellschaftsverfassung der christlichen Kirchen in Aithertum (1883),p. 20 ; see this for additional literature.Newmann (K. J.), " Qia.rai I7j(ro0,"art. in Jahrbb. fiir prot. Theol.(Leipzig, etc. ; 1885), pp. 123-125.

Schiirer(E.), A History of the Jewish People in the Time of JesusChrist, Eng. tr. (Edinburgh ; 1893), Div. ii. vol. ii. pp. 255 and 300.Owen (J.), " On the Organization of the Early Church," an Introductory Essay to the English translation of Harnack s Sources of theApostolic Canons (London ; 1895).Anst (E. ), Die Religion der Romer ; vol. xiii. Darstellungen ausdem Gebiete der nichtchristlichen Religionsgeschichte (Miinster i.W. ; 1899).


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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 159See also Whiston and "Wayte s art. Arvales Fratres, " and Moyle s

arts. "Collegium" and " Universitas, " in Smith, Wayte andMarindin s Diet, of Greek and Roman Antiquities (London; 3rd ed.1890-1891); and also, of course, the arts. "Collegium" and1 Sodalitas " in Pauly s Realencyclopadie der classichen Alterthums-wissenschaft, though they are now somewhat out of date.

PRINTED BY NEILL AND CO,, LTD., EDINBURGH.


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WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

THE PISTIS SOPHIA: A Gnostic Gospel.(With Extracts from the Books of the Saviour appended).

Originally translated from Greek into Coptic, and nowfor the first time Englished from Schwartze s LatinVersion of the only known Coptic MS., and checked byAme"lineau s French Version. With an Introduction andBibliography. 394 pp., large octavo. Cloth, 7s. 6d. net.

SOME PRESS OPINIONS."The Pistis Sophia has long been recognised as one of themost important Gnostic documents we possess, and Mr Mead

deserves the gratitude of students of Church History and of theHistory of Christian Thought, for his admirable translation andedition of this curious Gospel." Glasgow Herald.

" Mr Mead has done a service to other than Theosophists byhis translation of the Pistis Sophia. This curious work has nottill lately received the attention which it deservesHe has prefixed a short Introduction, which includes an excellentbibliography. Thus, the English reader is now in a position tojudge for himself of the scientific value of the only Gnostictreatise of any considerable length which has come down to us."Guardian.

"From a scholar s point of view the work is of value asillustrating the philosophico-mystical tendencies of the secondcentury." Record.

" Mr Mead deserves thanks for putting in an English dressthis curious document from the early ages of Christian philosophy."

Manchester Guardian.

THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY,LONDON AND BENARES.


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WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.FRAGMENTS OF A FAITH FORGOTTEN.

Some short Sketches among the Gnostics, mainly of the First TwoCenturies a Contribution to the Study of Christian Origins

based on the most Recently Discovered Materials.I. Introduction. Outlines of the Background of the Gnosis ; Literatureand Sources of Gnosticism.II. The GnosIS according: to its FOGS. Gnostic Fragments recoveredfrom the Polemical Writings of the Church Fathers; the Gnosis in theUncanonical Acts.

III. The Gnosis according to its Friends. Greek Original Works inCoptic Translation ; the Askew, Bruce, and Akhmim Codices.

Classified Bibliographies are appended. 630, xxviii. pp., Large Octavo,Cloth. 10s. 6d. net.SOME PRESS NOTICES.

" Mr Mead has done his work in a scholarly and painstaking fashion." The Guardian."The ordinary student of Christian evidences, if he confines his reading to the Fathers,learns nothing of these opinions [the so-called Gnostic heresies ] except by way of refutation and angry condemnation. In Mr Mead s pages, however, they are treated with

impartiality and candour These remarks will suffice to show the unique characterof this volume, and to indicate that students may find here matter of great service to therational interpretation of Christian thought." Bradford Observer.

11 The book, Mr Mead explains, is not intended primarily for the student, but for thegeneral reader, and it certainly should not be neglected by anyone who is interested inthe history of early Christian thought." The Scotsman." The work is one of great labour and learning, and deserves study as a sympatheticestimate of a rather severely-judged class of heretics." Glasgow Herald." Written in a clear and elegant style The bibliographies in the volume are ofworld-wide range, and will be most valuable to students of theosophy." Asiatic Quarterly."Mr Mead writes with a precision and clearness on subjects usually associated with

bewildering technicalities and mystifications. Even the long-suffering general readercould go through this large volume with pleasure. That is a great deal to say of a bookon such a subject." Light." This striking work will certainly be read not only with the greatest interest in the

select circle of the cultured, but by that much larger circle of those longing to learn allabout Truth May be summed up as an extraordinary clear exposition of theGnosis of Saints and the Sages of philosophic Christianity." The Roman Herald."Comprehensive, interesting, and scholarly The chapters entitled SomeRough Outlines of the Background of the Gnosis are well written, and they tend tofocus the philosophic and religious movement of the ancient world. There is a veryexcellent bibliography." The Spectator."Mr Mead does us another piece of service by including a complete copy of theGnostic Hymn of the Robe of Glory .... and a handy epitome of the Pistis Sophia isanother item for which the student will be grateful." The Literary Guide."The author has naturally the interest of a theosophist in Gnosticism, and approachesthe subject accordingly from a point of view different from our own. But while his pointof view emerges in the course of the volume, this does not affect the value of his workfor those who do not share his special standpoint Mr Mead has at anyrate renderedus an excellent service, and we shall look forward with pleasure to his future studies."

The Primitive Methodist Quarterly.This is the First Attempt that has been made to bring together All theExisting Sources of Information on the Earliest Christian Philosophers.

THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY,LONDON AND BENARES.


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WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.SIMON MAGUS: An Essay.

The most complete work on the subject. Quarto. Price :5s. net. Wrappers.

THE WORLD MYSTERY : Four Essays.Contents: The World-Soul ; The Vestures of the Soul ; TheWeb of Destiny ; True Self-reliance. Octavo. Price :

cloth, 3s. 64 net.

THE THEOSOPHY OF THE GREEKS.PLOTINUS.

With an exhaustive Bibliography. Octavo. Price : cloth,Is. net.

ORPHEUS,With three Charts and Bibliography. Will serve as an

Introduction to Hellenic Theology. Octavo. Price :cloth, 4s. 6d. net.

THE THEOSOPHY OF THE VEDAS.THE UPANISHADS : 2 Volumes.

Half Octavo. Paper, 6d. ; cloth, Is. 6d. each net.VOLUME I.

Contains a Translation of the Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashna,Mundaka, and Mandukya Upanishads, with a GeneralPreamble, Arguments, and Notes by G. R. S. Mead andJ. C. Chattopadhyaya (Roy Choudhuri).

VOLUME II.Contains a Translation of the Taittiriya, Aitareya, and

Shvetashvatara Upanishads, with Arguments and Notes.


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B Mead, George Robert Stow536 Apollonius of Tyanacop. 2

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apollonius of tyana, philosopher reformer of the first century ce - g r s mead

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