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was adorned with golden images, such as it is fitting for philosophers to craft, toiling with fire and iron in the manner of vulgar artisans, or else to make their creation work automatically in the manner of wonder-workers, but the chairs of the other teachers after him were of bronze, he says, but unadorned and less high. For it was necessary, I suppose, that in the manner of a tyrant the teacher of divine philosophy should be deemed worthy of the privilege of images and gold. And he says that Iarchas, on first seeing Apollonius, addressed him by name in the Greek tongue and asked for the letter which 386 he was bringing to him from Phraotes, having already perceived this through foreknowledge, and showed the divine quality of his foreknowledge by stating beforehand that the letter was missing one letter, the delta, and began tastelessly from the very first conversation, like someone with boundless wealth, to show off the advantage of his foreknowledge, enumerating the father and mother of Apollonius, his family and upbringing and education, and his travels over time and his journey to him and what he had done and said on the way. Then this wonderful writer says that the Brahmans, along with Apollonius, anointed themselves with an amber-colored drug, washed, and standing around as in a chorus, struck the earth with their staves; and it, arching up, sent them two cubits into the air, and they stood suspended in the air itself for a certain period of time, and they drew fire from the sun, whenever they wished, automatically. To these things the wonder-monger adds the marvel that four Pythian tripods came wheeling out, moving of their own accord, and he compares them to the Homeric ones; and in addition to these, he sets up four serving cup-bearers made of bronze, and adds that the earth automatically strewed grass for them. Of the tripods, two of them, he says, flowed with wine, and of the other two, one provided a mixture of hot water, and the other of cold. And the bronze cup-bearers drew in due measure from both the wine and the water, and passed the cups around in a circle, as at drinking-parties. These things seem true and trustworthy to Hierocles, who was entrusted with the highest and most universal courts, after much examination, and while our credulity and frivolity 387 has been thoroughly condemned by him, he himself, believing such things from Philostratus, prides himself in these very words, saying, "Let us consider, at any rate, how much better and more intelligently we receive such things, and the opinion which we have concerning virtuous men." At such a symposium, according to the same Philostratus, a native king of the Indians is introduced drinking with the philosophers, and he relates that this man insults and acts insolently toward philosophy, gets drunk in their presence, compares himself to the Sun, and acts arrogantly, and again that Apollonius learned what this man said through an interpreter and again conversed with him with Iarchas interpreting. And how is it not worthy of wonder, how it was fitting for one so insolent and most strange to behave drunkenly and get drunk in the presence of such great men, one who is not even worthy to be present at the hearth of philosophers, let alone of men equal to gods? But why should I call these men equal to gods and insult their worth? When Apollonius asked what they considered themselves to be, Iarchas said 'gods'; who also, to his fellow drinkers, as a god indeed, but least of all in the manner of a philosopher, far from it, let alone worthily of the god he claimed to be, leaning over into the cup, began the song, and it, says the writer, gave all sufficient to drink, and gave more, just as the secret springs do for those who draw from them. After this there were common conversations and serious discussions of the philosophers, with Iarchas teaching that his soul had once been in the body of another man, a king, and had done such and such things, and Apollonius, that he had once been the pilot of an Egyptian ship, and had accomplished such things, and the questions and answers of each, of which wisdom it is worthwhile 388 in no way to omit the

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πεποίκιλτο χρυσέοις ἀγάλμασιν, οἷαδὴ εἰκὸς τεχνουργῶν βαναύσων τρόπον πυρὶ καὶ σιδήρῳ μοχθοῦντας τοὺς φιλοσόφους τεχνουργεῖν, ἡ καὶ θαυματοποιῶν δίκην αὐτόματον ἀποτελεῖν τὸ δημιούργημα, οἱ δὲ τῶν αλλων τῶν μετ' αὐτὸν διδασκάλων δίφροι χαλκοῖ μέν, φησιν, ασημοι δ' ησαν καὶ ηττον ὑψηλοί. εδει γάρ που πάντως τυράννου σχήματι προνομίας τῆς ἐν ἀγάλμασι καὶ χρυσῷ τὸν τῆς θείας φιλοσοφίας ἀξιοῦσθαι διδάσκαλον. πρῶτον δὲ τὸνἸάρχαν ἰδόντα φησὶ τὸνἈπολλώνιον ἐξ ὀνόματός τε προσειπεῖνἙλλάδι τῇ φωνῇ καὶ ἣν 386 αὐτῷ παρὰ Φραώτου κομίζοι, ἐπιστολὴν αἰτῆσαι κατὰ πρόγνωσιν ηδη τοῦτο προειληφότα ἐνδείξασθαί τε τὸ ενθεον τῆς προγνώσεως προειρηκότα, ὡς αρα ἑνὶ γράμματι τῷ δέλτα λείποι ἡ ἐπιστολὴ ἄρξασθαί τε ἀπειροκάλως εὐθὺς ἀπὸ πρώτης ὁμιλίας ἀπειροπλούτου δίκην ἐνεπιδείκνυσθαι τὸ τῆς προγνώσεως πλεονέκτημα πατέρα καὶ μητέρα καταλέγοντα τοῦἈπολλωνίου γένος τε καὶ τροφὴν καὶ παιδείαν καὶ τὰς κατὰ χρόνους ἀποδημίας καὶ τὴν εἰς αὐτὸν πορείαν καὶ τὰ κατ' αὐτὴν πεπραγμένα τε αὐτῷ καὶ ὡμιλημένα. εἶτα δέ φησιν αὐτὸς οὗτος ὁ θαυμάσιος συγγραφεὺς τοὺς Βραχμᾶνας ἅμα τῷἈπολλωνίῳ χρισαμένους ἠλεκτρίνῳ φαρμάκῳ λούσασθαι καὶ περιστάντας ὡς ἐν χορῷ τὴν γῆν τύψαι ταῖς ῥάβδοις, τὴν δὲ κυρτωθεῖσαν ἀναπέμψαι αὐτοὺς εἰς δίπηχυ τοῦ ἀέρος, ἑστάναι τε αὐτοὺς μετεώρους ἐν αὐτῷ ἀέρι ἐπί τι χρόνου διάστημα, ελκειν δὲ καὶ πῦρ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου, οτε βούλοιντο, αὐτομάτως. τούτοις δ' ἐπιφέρει παράδοξον ὁ θαυματολόγος, ὡς αρα τρίποδες Πυθικοὶ τέτταρες ἐξεκυκλήθησαν αὐτόματοι φοιτῶντες, καὶ εἰκάζει δὴ οὖν αὐτοὺς τοῖςὉμηρείοις οἰνοχόους τε ἐπὶ τούτοις ἐκ χαλκοῦ διακόνους τὴν υλην ιστησι τέτταρας, ἐπιλέγει δέ, ὡς αρα καὶ ἡ γῆ αὐτομάτως ὑπεστόρνυτο αὐτοῖς πόας. τῶν δὲ τριπόδων οἱ μὲν δύο, φησίν, οἴνου ἀπέρρεον, οἱ δὲ ετεροι δύο ὁ μὲν υδατος θερμοῦ κρᾶσιν παρεῖχεν, ὁ δ' αὖ ψυχροῦ. τοὺς δὲ οἰνοχόους τοὺς χαλκοῦς ἀρύεσθαι εὐμέτρως τοῦ τε οινου καὶ τοῦ υδατος, περιελαύνειν τε κύκλῳ τὰς κύλικας, ωσπερ ἐν τοῖς πότοις. ταῦταἹεροκλεῖ τὰ ἀνωτάτω καὶ καθόλου δικαστήρια πεπιστευμένῳ μετὰ πολλῆς ἀνετάσεως ἀληθῆ καὶ πιστὰ εἶναι δοκεῖ καὶ ἡμῶν μὲν εὐχέρεια καὶ κουφότης 387 πλείστη ὅση κατέγνωσται παρ' αὐτῷ, αὐτὸς δὲ τοιαῦτα Φιλοστράτῳ πιστεύων αὐτοῖς δὴ ῥήμασι σεμνύνεται λέγων «ἐπισκεψώμεθά γε μήν, οσῳ βέλτιον καὶ συνετώτερον ἡμεῖς ἐκδεχόμεθα τὰ τοιαῦτα, καὶ ην περὶ τῶν ἐναρέτων ἀνδρῶν εχομεν γνώμην.» ἐπὶ τοιούτῳ δὴ τῷ συμποσίῳ κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν Φιλόστρατον βασιλεὺς ἐγχωριάζωνἸνδοῖς εἰσάγεται συμπίνων τοῖς φιλοσόφοις, τοῦτον δὲ ἐνυβρίζειν καὶ ἐμπαροινεῖν φιλοσοφίᾳ μεθύσκεσθαί τε παρ' αὐτοῖς καὶ ἀντιπαρεξάγεινἩλίῳ καὶ ἀλαζονεύεσθαι ἱστορεῖ, καὶ πάλιν τὸνἈπολλώνιον δι' ἑρμηνέως τὰ παρὰ τούτου μανθάνειν καὶ αὖ πάλιν πρὸς αὐτὸν διαλέγεσθαι ὑφερμηνεύοντος τοῦἸάρχα· καὶ πῶς οὐ θαυμάζειν αξιον, οπως τὸν ουτως ὑβριστὴν καὶ ἀτοπώτατον παροινεῖν καὶ μεθύσκεσθαι παρὰ τηλικούτοις εἰκὸς ἦν, ὃν οὐδὲ παρεῖναι αξιον ἐν φιλοσόφων μή τί γε καὶ ἰσοθέων ἑστίᾳ; τί δέ μοι ἰσοθέους τούτους καλεῖν καὶ τῆς ἀξίας ἐνυβρίζειν τοὺς ανδρας; ὁπότε πυθομένου τοῦἈπολλωνίου, τίνας ἑαυτοὺς ἡγοῦνται, θεοὺς εφη ὁἸάρχας, ος καὶ τοῖς συμπόταις, οἷα δὴ θεὸς φιλοσόφου μὲν ηκιστα τρόπῳ, πολλοῦ γε δεῖ, μή τί γε μᾶλλον, οὗ εφησε, θεοῦ ἀξίως, ἐς τὴν φιάλην ἐπικύπτων ἐξῆρχεν, ἡ δέ, φησιν ὁ συγγραφεύς, ὡς ἄρα ἐπότιζεν ἱκανῶς πάντας, καὶ ἐπεδίδου, καθάπερ αἱ ἀπόρρητοι πηγαὶ τοῖς ἀνιμωμένοις. μετὰ ταῦτα κοιναὶ λόγων ὁμιλίαι καὶ σπουδαιολογίαι τῶν φιλοσόφων τοῦ μὲνἸάρχα διδάσκοντος, ὡς ἄρα ποτὲ αὐτῷ ἡ ψυχὴ ἐν ἑτέρῳ ἀνθρώπου βασιλέως γένοιτο σώματι καὶ τοιαδί τινα αὐτῷ πεπραγμένα εἴη, τοῦ δὲἈπολλωνίου, ὡς νηὸς Αἰγυπτίας ποτὲ γένοιτο κυβερνήτης, καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα διαπράξαιτο, πεύσεις τε καὶ ἀποκρίσεις ἑκάστου, ων καὶ τῆς σοφίας αξιον 388 μηδαμῶς παρεκθέσθαι τὴν