Apollonius of Tyana
Apollonius of TyanaSECTION 1 - IntroductorySECTION 2 The Religious Associations and Communities of the First CenturySECTION 3 - India and GreeceSECTION 4 - The Apollonius of Early OpinionSECTION 5 - Texts, Translations, and LiteratureSECTION 6 - The Biographer of ApolloniusSECTION 7 - Early LifeSECTION 8 - The Travels of ApolloniusSECTION 9 In the Shrines of the Temples and the Retreats of ReligionSECTION 10 - The Gymnosophists of Upper EgyptSECTION 11 - Apollonius and the Rulers of the EmpireSECTION 12 - Apollonius The Prophet and Wonder-WorkerSECTION 13 - His Mode of LifeSECTION 14 - Himself and His CircleSECTION 15 - From His Sayings and SermonsSECTION 16 - From His LettersSECTION 17 - The Writings of ApolloniusCopyright
Apollonius of Tyana
G.R.S. Mead
SECTION 1 - Introductory
To the student of the origins of Christianity there is naturally no
period in Western history of greater interest and importance than
the first century of our era; and yet how little comparatively is
known about it of a really definite and reliable nature. If it be a
subject of lasting regret that no non-Christian writer of the first
century had sufficient intuition of the future to record even a
line of information concerning the birth and growth of what was to
be the religion of the Western world, equally disappointing is it
to find so little definite information of the general social and
religious conditions of the time. The rulers and the wars of the
Empire seem to have formed the chief interest of the
historiographers of the succeeding century, and even in this
department of political history, though the public acts of the
Emperors may be fairly well known, for we can check them by records
and inscriptions, when we come to their private acts and motives we
find ourselves no longer on the ground of history, but for the most
part in the atmosphere of prejudice, scandal, and speculation. The
political acts of Emperors and their officers, however can at best
throw but a dim side-light on the general social conditions of the
time, while they shed no light at all on the religious conditions,
except so far as these in any particular contacted the domain of
politics. As well might we seek to reconstruct a picture of the
religious life of the time from Imperial acts and rescripts, as
endeavour to glean any idea of the intimate religion of this
country from a perusal of statute books or reports of Parliamentary
debates.
The Roman histories so-called, to which we have so far been
accustomed, cannot help us in the reconstruction of a picture of
the environment into which, on the one hand, Paul led the new faith
in Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome; and in which, on the other, it
already found itself in the districts bordering on the south-east
of the Mediterranean. It is only by piecing together labouriously
isolated scraps of information and fragments of inscriptions, that
we become aware of the existence of the life of a world of
religious associations and private cults which existed at this
period. Not that even so we have any very direct information of
what went on in these associations, guilds, and brotherhoods; but
we have sufficient evidence to make us keenly regret the absence of
further knowledge.
Difficult as this field is to till, it is exceedingly fertile in
interest, and it is to be regretted that comparatively so little
work has as yet been done in it; and that, as is so frequently the
case, the work which has been done is, for the most part, not
accessible to the English reader. What work has been done on this
special subject may be seen from the bibliographical note appended
to this essay, in which is given a list of books and articles
treating of the religious associations among the Greeks and Romans.
But if we seek to obtain a general view of the condition of
religious affairs in the first century we find ourselves without a
reliable guide; for of works dealing with this particular subject
there are few, and from them we learn little that does not
immediately concern, or is thought to concern, Christianity;
whereas, it is just the state of the non-Christian religious world
about which, in the present case, we desire to be informed.
If, for instance, the reader turn to works of general history, such
as Merivale’s History of the Romans under the Empire (London; last
ed. 1865), he will find, it is true, in chap iv., a description of
the state of religion up to the death of Nero, but he will be
little wiser for perusing it. If he turn to Hermann Schiller’s
Geschichte der römischen Kaiserreichs unter der Regierung des Nero
(Berlin; 1872), he will find much reason for discarding the vulgar
opinions about the monstrous crimes imputed to Nero, as indeed he
might do by reading in English G H. Lewes’ article “Was Nero a
Monster?” (Cornhill Magazine; July 1863)—and he will also find (bk
IV chap III.) a general view of the religion and philosophy of the
time which is far more intelligent than that of Merivale’s; but all
is still very vague and unsatisfactory, and we feel ourselves still
outside the intimate life of the philosophers and religionists of
the first century.
If, again, he turn to the latest writers of Church history who have
treated this particular question, he will find that they are
occupied entirely with the contact of the Christian Church with the
Roman Empire, and only incidentally give us any information of the
nature of which we are in search. On this special ground C J.
Neumann, in his careful study Der römische Staat und die allgemeine
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 he endeavours to interpret
Roman history by the New Testament documents, the dates of the
majority of which are so hotly disputed.
But, you may say, what has all this to do with Apollonius of Tyana?
The answer is simple: Apollonius lived in the first century; his
work lay precisely among these religious associations, colleges and
guilds. A knowledge of them and their nature would give us the
natural environment of a great part of his life; and information as
to their condition in the first century would perhaps help us the
better to understand some of the reasons for the task which he
attempted.
If, however, it were only the life and endeavours of Apollonius
which would be illuminated by this knowledge, we could understand
why so little effort has been spent in this direction; for the
character of the Tyanean, as we shall see, has since the fourth
century been regarded with little favour even by the few, while the
many have been taught to look upon our philosopher not only as a
charlatan, but even as an anti-Christ. But when it is just a
knowledge of these religious associations and orders which would
throw a flood of light on the earliest evolution of Christianity,
not only with regard to the Pauline communities, but also with
regard to those schools which were subsequently condemned as
heretical, it is astonishing that we have no more satisfactory work
done on the subject.
It may be said, however, that this information is not forthcoming
simply because it is unprocurable. To a large extent this is true;
nevertheless, a great deal more could be done than has yet been
attempted, and the results of research in special directions and in
the byways of history could be combined, so that the non-specialist
could obtain some general idea of the religious conditions of the
times, and so be less inclined to join in the now stereotyped
condemnation of all non-Jewish or non-Christian moral and religious
effort in the Roman Empire of the first century.
But the reader may retort: Things social and religious in those
days must have been in a very parlous state, for, as this essay
shows, Apollonius himself spent the major part of his life in
trying to reform the institutions and cults of the Empire. To this
we answer: No doubt there was much to reform, and when is there
not? But it would not only be not generous, but distinctly
mischievous for us to judge our fellows of those days solely by the
lofty standard of an ideal morality, or even to scale them against
the weight of our own supposed virtues and knowledge. Our point is
not that there was nothing to reform, far from that, but that the
wholesale accusations of depravity brought against the times will
not bear impartial investigation. On the contrary, there was much
good material ready to be worked up in many ways, and if there has
not been, how could there among other things have been any
Christianity?
The Roman Empire was at the zenith of its power, and had there not
been many admirable administrators and men of worth in the
governing caste, such a political consummation could never have
been reached and maintained. Moreover, as ever previously in the
ancient world, religious liberty was guaranteed, and where we find
persecution, as in the reigns of Nero and Domitian, it must be set
down to political and not to theological reasons. Setting aside the
disputed question of the persecution of the Christians under
Domitian, the Neronian persecution was directed against those whom
the Imperial power regarded as Jewish political revolutionaries.
So, too, when we find the philosophers imprisoned or banished from
Rome during those two reigns, it was not because they were
philosophers, but because the ideal of some of them was the
restoration of the Republic, and this rendered them obnoxious to
the charge not only of being political malcontents, but also of
actively plotting against the Emperor’s majestas. Apollonius,
however, was throughout a warm supporter of monarchical rule. When,
then, we hear of the philosophers being banished from Rome or being
cast into prison, we must remember that this was not a wholesale
persecution of philosophy throughout the Empire; and when we say
that some of them desired to restore the Republic, we should
remember that the vast majority of them refrained from politics,
and especially was this the case with the disciples of the
religio-philosophical schools.
SECTION 2 The Religious Associations and Communities of the First
Century
In the domain of religion it is quite true that the state cults and
national institutions throughout the Empire were almost without
exception in a parlous state, and it is to be noticed that
Apollonius devoted much time and labour to reviving and purifying
them. Indeed, their strength had long left the general
state-institutions of religion, where all was now perfunctory; but
so far from there being no religious life in the land, in
proportion as the official cultus and ancestral institutions
afforded no real satisfaction to their religious needs, the more
earnestly did the people devote themselves to private cults, and
eagerly baptised themselves in all that flood of religious
enthusiasm which flowed in with ever increasing volume from the
East. Indubitably in all this fermentation there were many
excesses, according to our present notions of religious decorum,
and also grievous abuses; but at the same time in it many found due
satisfaction for their religious emotions, and, if we except those
cults which were distinctly vicious, we have to a large extent
before us in popular circles the spectacle of what, in their last
analysis, are similar phenomena to those enthusiasms which in our
own day may be frequently witnessed among such sects as the Shakers
and Ranters, and at the general revival meetings of the
uninstructed.
It is not, however, to be thought that the private cults and the
doings of the religious associations were all of this nature or
confined to this class; far from it. There were religious
brotherhoods, communities and clubs— thiasi, erani, and orgeônes—of
all sorts and conditions. There were also mutual benefit societies,
burial clubs, and dining companies, the prototypes of our
present-day Masonic bodies, Oddfellows, and the rest. These
religious associations were not only private in the sense that they
were not maintained by the State, but also for the most part they
were private in the sense that what they did was kept secret, and
this is perhaps the main reason why we have so defective a record
of them.
Among them are to be numbered not only the lower forms of
mystery-cultus of various kinds, but also the greater ones, such as
the Phrygian, Bacchic, Isiac, and Mithriac Mysteries, which were
spread everywhere throughout the Empire. The famous Eleusinia were,
however, still under the ægis of the State, but though so famous
were, as a state-cultus, far more perfunctory.
It is, moreover, not to be thought that the great types of
mystery-cultus above mentioned were uniform even among themselves.
There were not only various degrees and grades within them, but
also in all probability many forms of each line of tradition, good,
bad, and indifferent. For instance, we know that it was considered
de rigueur for every respectable citizen of Athens to be initiated
into the Eleusinia, and therefore the tests could not have been
very stringent; whereas in the most recent work on the subject, De
Apuleio Isiacorum Mysteriorum Teste (Leyden; 1900), Dr K H E. De
Jong shows that in one form of the Isiac Mysteries the candidate
was invited to initiation by means of dream; that is to say, he had
to be psychically impressionable before his acceptance.
Here, then, we have a vast intermediate ground for religious
exercise between the most popular and undisciplined forms of
private cults and the highest forms, which could only be approached
through the discipline and training of the philosophic life. The
higher side of these mystery-institutions aroused the enthusiasm of
all that was best in antiquity, and unstinted praise was given to
one or another form of them by the greatest thinkers and writers of
Greece and Rome; so that we cannot but think that here the
instructed found that satisfaction for their religious needs which
was necessary not only for those who could not rise into the keen
air of pure reason, but also for those who had climbed so high upon
the heights of reason that they could catch a glimpse of the other
side. The official cults were notoriously unable to give them this
satisfaction, and were only tolerated by the instructed as an aid
for the people and a means of preserving the traditional life of
the city or state.
By common consent the most virtuous livers of Greece were the
members of the Pythagorean schools, both men and women. After the
death of their founder the Pythagoreans seem to have gradually
blended with the Orphic communities and the “Orphic life” was the
recognised term for a life of purity and self-denial. We also know
that the Orphics, and therefore the Pythagoreans, were actively
engaged in the reformation, or even the entire reforming, of the
Baccho-Eleusinian rites; they seem to have brought back the pure
side of the Bacchic cult with their reinstitution or reimportation
of the Bacchic mysteries, and it is very evident that such stern
livers and deep thinkers could not have been contented with a low
form of cult. Their influence also spread far and wide in general
Bacchic circles, so that we find Euripides putting the following
words into the mouth of the chorus of Bacchic initiates: “Clad in
white robes I speed me from the genesis of mortal men, and never
more approach the vase of death, for I have done with eating food
that ever housed a soul.” [From a fragment of The Cretans. See
Lobeck’s Aglaophamus p 622.] Such words could well be put into the
mouth of a Brâhman or Buddhist ascetic, eager to escape the bonds
of Samsâra; and such men cannot therefore justly be classed
together indiscriminately with ribald revelers -- the general
mind-picture of a Bacchic company.
But, some one may say, Euripides and the Pythagoreans and Orphics
are no evidence for the first century; whatever good there may have
been in such schools and communities, it had ceased long before. On
the contrary, the evidence is all against this objection. Philo,
writing about 25 A.D., tells us that in his day numerous groups of
men, who in all respects led this life of religion, who abandoned
their property, retired from the world and devoted themselves
entirely to the search for wisdom and the cultivation of virtue,
were scattered far and wide throughout the world. In his treatise,
On the Contemplative Life, he writes: “This natural class of men is
to be found in many parts of the inhabited world, both the Grecian
and non-Grecian world, sharing in the perfect good. In Egypt there
are crowds of them in every province, or nome as they call it, and
especially round Alexandria.” This is a most important statement,
for if there were so many devoted to the religious life at this
time, it follows that the age was not one of unmixed
depravity.
It is not, however, to be thought that these communities were all
of an exactly similar nature, or of one and the same origin, least
of all that they were all Therapeut or Essene. We have only to
remember the various lines of descent of the doctrines held by
innumerable schools classed together as Gnostic, as sketched in my
recent work, Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, and to turn to the
beautiful treatises of the Hermetic schools, to persuade us that in
the first century the striving after the religious and philosophic
life was wide-spread and various.
We are not, however, among those who believe that the origin of the
Therapeut communities of Philo and of the Essenes of Philo and
Josephus is to be traced to Orphic and Pythagorean influence. The
question of precise origin is as yet beyond the power of historical
research, and we are not of those who would exaggerate one element
of the mass into a universal source. But when we remember the
existence of all these so widely scattered communities in the first
century, when we study the imperfect but important record of the
very numerous schools and brotherhoods of a like nature which came
into intimate contact with Christianity in its origins, we cannot
but feel that there was the leaven of a strong religious life
working in many parts of the Empire.
Our great difficulty is that these communities, brotherhoods, and
associations kept themselves apart, and with rare exceptions left
no records of their intimate practices and beliefs, or if they left
any it has been destroyed or lost. For the most part then we have
to rely upon general indications of a very superficial character.
But this imperfect record is no justification for us to deny or
ignore their existence and the intensity of their endeavours; and a
history which purports to paint a picture of the times is utterly
insufficient so long as it omits this most vital subject from its
canvas.