, writing against the Christians, maintained
that the apparitions of Jesus Christ to his apostles were not real,
but that they were simply shadowy forms which appeared. Origen,
retorting his reasoning, tells him[456] that the pagans give an
account of various apparitions of AEsculapius and Apollo, to which they
attribute the power of predicting future events. If these appearances
are admitted to be real, because they are attested by some, why not
receive as true those of Jesus Christ, which are related by ocular
witnesses, and believed by millions of persons?

He afterwards relates this history. Aristeus, who belonged to one of
the first families of Proconnesus, having one day entered a foulon
shop, died there suddenly. The __________ having locked the door, ran
directly to inform the relations of the deceased; but as the report
was instantly spread in the town, a man of Cyzica, who came from
Astacia, affirmed that it could not be, because he had met Aristeus on
the road from Cyzica, and had spoken to him, which he loudly
maintained before all the people of Proconnesus.

Thereupon the relations arrive at the foulon's, with all the necessary
apparatus for carrying away the body; but when they entered the house,
they could not find Aristeus there, either dead or alive. Seven years
after, he showed himself in the very town of Proconnesus; made there
those verses which are termed Arimaspean, and then disappeared for the
second time. Such is the story related of him in those places.

Three hundred and forty years after that event, the same Aristeus
showed himself in Metapontus, in Italy, and commanded the Metapontines
to build an altar to Apollo, and afterwards to erect a statue in honor
of Aristeus of Proconnesus, adding that they were the only people of
Italy whom Apollo had honored with his presence; as for himself who
spoke to them, he had accompanied that god in the form of a crow; and
having thus spoken he disappeared.

The Metapontines sent to consult the oracle of Delphi concerning this
apparition; the Delphic oracle told them to follow the counsel which
Aristeus had given them, and it would be well for them; in fact, they
did erect a statue to Apollo, which was still to be seen there in the
time of Herodotus;[457] and at the same time, another statue to
Aristeus, which stood in a small plantation of laurels, in the midst
of the public square of Metapontus. Celsus made no difficulty of
believing all that on the w