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having spoken secrets» having made him see the marvel. Therefore, the previous things were accomplished for the man by curious contrivance, which is why Damis was neither struck with awe by them, nor marveled; and so it is reasonable that he has now suffered this for the first time, as something strange had been done by him contrary to his usual practice. And in response to the phantom of the fetter that was shown and the withdrawal from the court, I would quote the words of Apollonius himself to Domitian; for when the emperor ordered him to be handed over in chains, Apollonius very consistently reasoned thus: «If you think me a magician, how will you bind me? And if you bind me, how will you say I am a magician?» At any rate, someone starting from these points might refute him thus: if you are not a magician, how was your leg freed? And if it was freed, how are you not a magician? And if by enduring the bond you are not a magician, by not enduring it you are confessed, even by your own standard, to be a magician. And again, if by enduring the court you are not a magician, by escaping from it and from those around the emperor—I mean also the bodyguards in a circle—you are clearly revealed to be a magician. And this, it seems to me, the account, being conscious of, remedies what happened by saying that the marvel appeared without sacrifices 403 and incantations, by some ineffable and superhuman power. But indeed not long after, the refutation of his nature will present itself again; for immediately, when someone came to him and said, «The emperor releases you, O Apollonius, from these bonds and permits you to live in an unguarded prison,» the one who is greater than a man and a foreknower of the future, who understands the deaf and hears the one not speaking, having fallen from his foreknowledge because of excessive joy, as is likely, asks, saying «Who then will move me from here?» And he said, «I will, and follow.» Then the most divine man also very thoughtfully composes a speech of defense, not knowing that indeed his writing would be undertaken in vain. For he thinks that the emperor will hear him making his defense, and as if he were going to be heard, he prepares his defense very persuasively, but the emperor, not waiting for it, rendered his effort pointless. Hear then also about these things, what the refutation says: «And since a certain speech was also written by him, as if he were to deliver his defense against a water-clock, but the tyrant confined him to the questions I have mentioned, let the speech also be written down.» See then, how the all-divine man, being very far from knowing the future, took pains with the greatest care to make his defense against a water-clock. But we must also go through the defense he made in vain, in which, as in many other parts of it, addressing Domitian he speaks insolently, saying that Vespasian «made you emperor, but became so by my doing.» Alas for the arrogance, 404 which no ordinary man, no, not even if one were a true philosopher and had surpassed human nature, would have uttered prodigiously without incurring the penalty for folly among the sensible. Then, absolving himself of the suspicion against him, he says these things about magicians: «But I call magicians false philosophers, for things that are not, are among them, and things that are, are unbelievable.» One might then learn from the whole treatise and from the things shown in part, whether he should be ranked among divine men and philosophers or among magicians, paying attention both to what he himself has said about magicians and false philosophers and to what his history has shown: for oaks and elms speaking with an articulate and female voice, and tripods moving of their own accord, and bronze servants ministering, and jars of rain and winds and reddish water, and as many other such things have been introduced, among those he considered gods, whom he did not hesitate to register as his teachers, of what would they be indicative, if not of those who demonstrate that «things that are not, are, and things that are, are unbelievable»? Whom he himself, calling them magicians, declares to be false philosophers. Therefore, on these grounds the divine and virtuous man, favored by the gods, having bound on the prize of wisdom of Pythagoras himself and of as many as came after him,

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ἀπορρήτων εἰρηκότα» τὸ παράδοξον ἰδεῖν αὐτὸν πεποιηκότα. οὐκοῦν τὰ πρότερον διὰ περιέργου μηχανῆς ἐτελεῖτο τῷ ἀνδρί, διὸ μηδὲ καταπλήττεσθαι αὐτά, μηδὲ θαυμάζειν τὸν ∆άμιν, εἰκότως δὲ νῦν τοῦτο πρῶτον πέπονθεν, ὡς ξένου τινὸς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ παρὰ τὰ συνήθη διαπεπραγμένου. πρὸς τὸ δειχθὲν δὲ τοῦ δεσμοῦ φάσμα καὶ τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ δικαστηρίου ἀναχώρησιν τὰς πρὸς ∆ομετιανὸν αὐτοῦ τοῦ Ἀπολλωνίου φωνὰς παραθείμην ἄν· δεσμοῖς γάρ τοι αὐτὸν παραδοθῆναι προστάξαντος βασιλέως πάνυ γε ἀκολούθως ὁ Ἀπολλώνιος συνελογίσατο ὡδί πως· «εἰ μὲν γόητά με ἡγῇ, πῶς δήσεις; εἰ δὲ δήσεις, πῶς γόητα εἶναι φήσεις;» ἀντικρούσει γοῦν αὐτῷ τις ὡδί πως ἐκ τούτων ὁρμώμενος· εἰ μὲν οὐ γόης, πῶς λέλυταί σου τὸ σκέλος; εἰ δὲ λέλυται, πῶς οὐ γόης; καὶ εἰ τῷ ὑπομεῖναι τὸν δεσμὸν οὐ γόης, τῷ μὴ ὑπομεῖναι καὶ κατ' αὐτὸν ὡμολόγηται γόης. καὶ αὖ πάλιν, εἰ ὑπομείνας τὸ δικαστήριον οὐ γόης, τῷ δὲ διαδρᾶναι τοῦτο καὶ τοὺς ἀμφ' αὐτὸν βασιλέα, λέγω καὶ τοὺς ἐν κύκλῳ δορυφόρους, σαφῶς ἀναπέφανται γόης. ὃ δή μοι δοκῶ, συνῃσθημένος ὁ λόγος θεραπεύει τὸ γεγονὸς ὡς δὴ ἄνευ θυσιῶν 403 καὶ ἐπῳδῶν ἀρρήτῳ τινὶ καὶ ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον δυνάμει τοῦ παραδόξου πεφηνότος. ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐκ ἐς μακρὰν αὖθις ὁ τῆς φύσεως παραστήσεται ἔλεγχος· αὐτίκα γάρ τινος ἐπιστάντος αὐτῷ καὶ φήσαντος «ἀφίησί σε, ὦ Ἀπολλώνιε, τουτωνὶ τῶν δεσμῶν ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ ἐλευθέριον δεσμωτήριον συγχωρεῖ οἰκεῖν» ὁ κρείττων ἢ ἄνθρωπος καὶ τῶν μελλόντων προγνώστης κωφοῦ τε ξυνιεὶς καὶ οὐ λαλέοντος ἀκούων ὑπὸ τῆς ἄγαν, ὡς εἰκός, περιχαρείας ἀποπεσὼν τῆς προγνώσεως πυνθάνεται λέγων «τίς οὖν ὁ μετασκευάσων με ἐντεῦθεν;» ὁ δὲ «ἐγώ,» ἔφη «καὶ ἕπου.» εἶτα καὶ λόγον ἀπολογίας ὁ θειότατος μάλα γε πεφροντισμένως συντάττει, ἀγνοῶν, ὅτι δῆτα εἰς μάτην αὐτῷ σπουδασθήσεται ἡ γραφή. οἴεται μὲν γὰρ ἀκούσεσθαι αὐτοῦ ἀπολογουμένου βασιλέα, καὶ ὡς ἀκουσομένου γε σφόδρα πιθανῶς παρασκευάζεται τὴν ἀπολογίαν, ὁ δὲ ταύτην μὴ ἀναμείνας εἰς οὐ δέον αὐτοῦ τὴν σπουδὴν κατεστήσατο. ἄκουε δὴ οὖν καὶ περὶ τούτων, οἷά φησιν ὁ ἔλεγχος· «ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ λόγος αὐτῷ συνεγράφη τις ὡς πρὸς ὕδωρ τὴν ἀπολογίαν ἀφήσοντι, ξυνεῖλε δὲ αὐτὸν ὁ τύραννος ἐς ἃς εἴρηκα ἐρωτήσεις, ἀναγεγράφθω καὶ ὁ λόγος.» ὅρα δή, πῶς τοῦ μέλλοντος πορρωτάτω τυγχάνων ὁ πάντα θειότατος μετὰ πλείστης ὅσης φροντίδος ὡς πρὸς ὕδωρ τὴν ἀπολογίαν ποιησόμενος ἐσπούδαζεν. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ διεξιτητέον καὶ τὴν εἰς μάτην αὐτῷ πεποιημένην ἀπολογίαν, ἅ, ὡς πολλὰ καὶ ἄλλα ἐν ταύτῃ, ∆ομετιανῷ προσφωνῶν ἀπαυθαδίζεται λέγων, ὡς ἄρα Οὐεσπασιανὸς «σὲ μὲν βασιλέα ἐποίησεν, ὑπ' ἐμοῦ δὲ ἐγένετο.» βαβαὶ τῆς ἀλαζονείας, 404 ἣν οὔτι γε ὁ τυχών, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ εἰ φιλόσοφός τις ἀληθῶς καὶ τὴν ἀνθρωπείαν ὑπεραίρων ἐγεγόνει φύσιν, ἐτερατεύσατο ἂν μὴ οὐχὶ δίκην ἀνοίας παρὰ τοῖς ἔμφροσιν ὑποσχών. εἶτα δὲ τῆς κατ' αὐτὸν ὑποψίας ἑαυτὸν ἀπολυόμενος ταῦτα περὶ γοήτων φησίν· «ἀλλὰ τοὺς γόητας ψευδοσόφους φημί, τὰ γὰρ οὐκ ὄντα εἶναι παρ' αὐτοῖς, καὶ τὰ ὄντα ἄπιστα εἶναι.» καταμάθοι δ' οὖν τις ἔκ τε τῆς ὅλης πραγματείας καὶ τῶν ἐν μέρει δεδηλωμένων, πότερα ἐν θείοις καὶ φιλοσόφοις ἢ ἐν γόησιν αὐτὸν κατατακτέον, ἐπιστήσας οἷς τε αὐτὸς περὶ γοήτων καὶ ψευδοσόφων εἴρηκε καὶ οἷς δεδήλωκεν ἡ κατ' αὐτὸν ἱστορία· δρύες τε γὰρ καὶ πτελέαι ἐνάρθρῳ καὶ θήλει φωνῇ λαλοῦσαι καὶ τρίποδες αὐτόματοι φοιτῶντες καὶ χάλκεοι θεράποντες διακονούμενοι πίθοι τε ὄμβρων καὶ ἀνέμων καὶ σανδαράκινον ὕδωρ καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα τοιαῦτα εἰσῆκται, παρ' οἷς ἡγεῖτο θεοῖς, οὓς καὶ οὐκ ὤκνει διδασκάλους ἐπιγράφεσθαι, τίνος ἂν εἶεν παραστατικὰ ἢ τῶν «τὰ οὐκ ὄντα εἶναι καὶ τὰ ὄντα ἄπιστα εἶναι» παραδεικνύντων; οὓς αὐτὸς γόητας ὀνομάζων ψευδοσόφους ὑπάρχειν ἀποφαίνεται. ἤτοι οὖν ἐπὶ τούτοις ὁ θεῖος καὶ ἐνάρετος καὶ θεοῖς κεχαρισμένος τὸ σοφίας ἀναδησάμενος βραβεῖον αὐτοῦ Πυθαγόρου καὶ τῶν, ὅσοι μετ' ἐκεῖνον,