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Sometime between the years 220 and 230 AD, the wife of the Roman emperor Septimus Severus commissioned a man by the name of Lucius Flavius Philostratus, a wise and noble sophist, to write a book telling the incredible story of one man¡¯s journey. Domna, Severus¡¯ wife, believed that this man¡¯s legacy needed to be saved from the destructive hands of the church. So, Philostratus traveled to distant lands, gathering information, the memoirs of a trusted companion, and the writings of all those who knew of him, and with it, he wrote a legendary tale.
In the first century city of , Anatolia, a woman dreamed of a great god that roamed the depths of the sea, witnessed the past and future, and could change shape at will. This god, Proteus, a primordial elder amongst the Greek pantheon, spoke as she asked who the child in her belly would be. He answered, ¡°myself.¡± Soon, she gave birth to a boy, naming him Apollonius, a name consecrated to Apollo, the god of oracles and divination.
Ever so wise, the boy¡¯s impeccable memory and demeanor were well beyond his years. He was beautiful, courageous, and eagerly inquisitive. For his exceptional talents, Apollonius was sent to Tarsus, a famed learning center, at the age of fourteen, but grew bored with the monotony of lectures and the life of an average student. As quickly as he arrived, he left and traveled east to the coastal city of Aigai in Macedonia, where he hoped to find purpose. Little did he know, this would lead him on a lifelong adventure that would take him to the far reaches of his known world and challenge everything he thought he knew about wisdom.
A Philosophy of His Own
In Aigai, Apollonius was introduced to prevailing Greek philosophies of the time, yet it was the Pythagorean school of thought that satiated his longing for something more. Pythagorean philosophy believed in a balance of harmony and discipline. Followers shared modest clothing and possessions and were prohibited from consuming non-sacrificial animals. The cosmos was a mathematical enigma, and the soul was an immortal entity capable of multiple incarnations. They were a secretive and selective religious community centered around a mathematician philosopher who viewed himself as semidivine.
At age sixteen, Apollonius grew bored again, deciding to take what he had learned and admirably find his own path. He began to abstain from eating animals of any kind, seeing it as a toxin that hardened the mind, living on the plants of the earth. He also refrained from sips of wine, for it extinguished the precious cosmic aether of the soul. Wearing only linen and shoes of bark, he neither cut his hair nor shaved his beard.
During his time in Aigai, Apollonius developed a close bond with the priests at the temple of Aesculapius, a god who could heal the sick and raise the dead. After leaving the Pythagorean school, he joined his friends in the temple at the approval of the god¡¯s oracle. Word soon spread that Apollonius had a specialty in curing any illness, and his reputation soared. It may have been short-lived, however, because his wealthy parents both perished in his twentieth year. Most of his inheritance went to his less fortunate friends and acquaintances, while the remainder stayed with his brother. |
