And though the monk Xiphilinus, in the eleventh century, in a note to his abridgment of the history of Dion Cassius, calls Apollonius a clever juggler and magician,[31] nevertheless Cedrenus in the same century bestows on Apollonius the not uncomplimentary title of an “adept Pythagorean philosopher,”[32] and relates several instances of the efficacy of his powers in Byzantium. In fact, if we can believe Nicetas, as late as the thirteenth century there were at Byzantium certain bronze doors, formerly consecrated by Apollonius, which had to be melted down because they had become an object of superstition even for the Christians themselves.[33]
Had the work of Philostratus disappeared with the rest of the Lives, the above would be all that we should have known about Apollonius.[34] Little enough, it is true, concerning so distinguished a character, yet ample enough to show that, with the exception of theological prejudice, the suffrages of antiquity were all on the side of our philosopher.
Section V.
TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND LITERATURE.
We will now turn to the texts, translations, and general literature of the subject in more recent times. Apollonius returned to the memory of the world, after the oblivion of the dark ages, with evil auspices. From the very beginning the old Hierocles-Eusebius controversy was revived, and the whole subject was at once taken out of the calm region of philosophy and history and hurled once more into the stormy arena of religious bitterness and prejudice. For long Aldus hesitated to print the text of Philostratus, and only finally did so (in 1501) with the text of Eusebius as an appendix, so that, as he piously phrases it, “the antidote might accompany the poison.” Together with it appeared a Latin translation by the Florentine Rinucci.[35]
In addition to the Latin version the sixteenth century also produced an Italian[36] and French translation.[37]
The editio princeps of Aldus was superseded a century later by the edition of Morel,[38] which in its turn was followed a century still later by that of Olearius.[39] Nearly a century and a half later again the text of Olearius was superseded by that of Kayser (the first critical text), whose work in its last edition contains the latest critical apparatus.[40] All information with regard to the MSS. will be found in Kayser’s Latin Prefaces.