[55] ἡ φιλόσοφος, see art. “Philostratus” in Smith’s Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Biog. (London; 1870), iii. 327b.
[56] The italics are Gibbon’s.
[57] More correctly Domna Julia; Domna being not a shortened form of Domina, but the Syrian name of the empress.
[58] She died a.d. 217.
[59] The contrary is held by other historians.
[60] Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, I. vi
[61] I use the 1846 and 1870 editions of Kayser’s text throughout.
[62] A collection of these letters (but not all of them) had been in the possession of the Emperor Hadrian (a.d. 117-138), and had been left in his palace at Antium (viii. 20). This proves the great fame that Apollonius enjoyed shortly after his disappearance from history, and while he was still a living memory. It is to be noticed that Hadrian was an enlightened ruler, a great traveller, a lover of religion, and an initiate of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
[63] Nineveh.
[64] τὰς δέλτους, writing tablets. This suggests that the account of Damis could not have been very voluminous, although Philostratus further on asserts its detailed nature (i. 19).