s are various." The work of Philostratus composed at the
instance of Julia, wife of Severus, is generally regarded as a religious
work of fiction. It contains a number of obviously fictitious stories,
through which, however, it is not impossible to discern the general
character of the man. In the 3rd century, Hierocles (q.v.) endeavoured
to prove that the doctrines and the life of Apollonius were more
valuable than those of Christ, and, in modern times, Voltaire and
Charles Blount (1654-1693), the English freethinker, have adopted a
similar standpoint. Apart from this extravagant eulogy, it is absurd to
regard Apollonius merely as a vulgar charlatan and miracle-monger. If we
cut away the mass of mere fiction which Philostratus accumulated, we
have left a highly imaginative, earnest reformer who laboured to infuse
into the flaccid dialectic of paganism a saner spirit of practical
morality.

See L. Dyer, _Studies of the Gods in Greece_ (New York, 1891); A.
Chassang, _Le Merveilleux dans l'antiquite_ (1882); D.M. Tredwell,
_Sketch of the Life of Apollonius of Tyana_ (New York, 1886); F.C.
Baur, _Apollonius von Tyana und Christus_, ed. Ed. Zeller (Leipzig,
1876,--an attempt to show that Philostratus's story is merely a pagan
counterblast to the New Testament history); J. Jessen, _Apollonius v.
Tyana und sein Biograph Philostratos_ (Hamburg, 1885); J. Gottsching,
_Apollonius von Tyana_ (Berlin, 1889); J.A. Froude, _Short Studies_,
vol. iv.; G.R.S. Mead, _Apollonius of Tyana_ (London, 1901); B.L.
Gildersleeve, _Essays and Studies_ (New York, 1890); Philostratus's
_Life of Apollonius_ (Eng. trans. New York, 1905); O. de B. Priaulx,
_The Indian Travels of Apollonius_ (1873); F.W.G. Campbell, _Apoll. of
Tyana_ (1908); see also NEO-PYTHAGOREANISM.

APOLLONIUS OF TYRE, a medieval tale supposed to be derived from a lost
Greek original. The earliest mention of the story is in the _Carmina_
(Bk. vi. 8, II. 5-6) of Venantius Fortunatus, in the second half of the
6th century, and the romance may well date from three centuries earlier.
It bears a marked resemblance to the _Antheia and Habrokomes_ of
Xenophon of Ephesus. The story relates that King Antiochus, maintaining
incestuous relations with his daughter, kept off her suitors by asking
them a riddle, which they must solve on pain of losing their heads.
Apollonius of Tyre solved the riddle, which had to do with Antiochus's
secret. He returned to Tyre,