L 17 Apollonius of Tyana, Vol II, Books 5-8

The life and miracles of a pagan holy man.

This biography of a first-century AD holy man has become one of the most widely discussed literary works of later antiquity. In a grandly baroque style style Philostratus portrays a charismatic teacher and religious reformer from Tyana in Cappadocia (modern central Turkey) who travels the length of the known world, from the Atlantic to the river Ganges. His miracles, which include extraordinary cures and mysterious disappearances, together with his apparent triumph over death, caused pagans to make Apollonius a rival to Jesus of Nazareth.

In his three-volume Loeb edition of this third-century work, Christopher Jones gives a much improved Greek text and an elegant translation with full explanatory notes. The Life of Apollonius is formally a biography (by far the longest that survives from antiquity), but in reality a combination of travel narrative, rhetorical showpiece, and much else. In the introduction, Jones addresses the question of how far the Life is history and how far fiction. He also discusses the survival and reception of the work through Late Antiquity and up to modern times, and the role that it continues to play in controversies about Christianity.

Review: Jones has produced a superlative edition... The text is judicious and the translation stylishly captures the sophist's rhetorical range. It is based on, but betters, [his] abridged translation for Penguin Classics, published in 1970. It is a good read in its own right: no mean feat. Excellent introductory material and maps help chart Apollonius's imaginary journey. He may no longer be worshiped (except in the wackier corners of cyberspace), but nonetheless we can rightly say: Apollonius Lives! -- Helen Morales * Times Literary Supplement *
This new Loeb edition of Apollonius... fulfills admirably the aims of this series... The introduction, as one would expect from Jones, touches upon all the important features of this rich text and reflects great familiarity with the scholarship in all fields-from history and literature to philosophy and theology-which have been concerned with it. -- Owen Hodkinson * Classical Bulletin *