Graeme Miles on Apollonius of Tyana
Apollonius of Tyana was a first-century philosopher and holy man. He looms large in the later esoteric traditions, being an important authority on magic, particularly talismanic magic, in the East Roman and Islamicate traditions of the Middle Ages and beyond; he was even conjured up from the dead by the French occultist Eliphas Levi.
Primary Sources
Life of Apollonius of Tyana, vol. 1
Philostratus writes to vindicate Apollonius, presenting him as a divine sage rather than a common sorcerer. He follows a man who rejects the comforts of luxury for a life of wandering, silence, and intellectual rigor. The text tracks his encounters with kings and his refusal to be silenced by the au
Life of Apollonius of Tyana, vol. 2
This volume moves beyond simple biography to capture the life of a man who claimed wisdom was a weapon against both charlatanism and political violence. Philostratus records the debates of an ancient world where Egyptian, Indian, and Greek thinkers vied for the definition of truth. Apollonius emerge