[351] Philostr. vi. 11. See Euseb. in Hierocl. 26, 27.
[352] Hence the first of the charges brought against him by Domitian was the strangeness of his dress.—Philostr. viii. 5. By way of contrast, Cf. 1 Cor. ii. 3, 4; 2 Cor. x. 10.
[353] Philostr. iv. 1. See also i. 19, 21, iv. 17, 20, 39, vii. 31, etc., and i. 10, 12 etc.
[354] Brucker, vol. ii. p. 144.
[355] Brucker supposes that, as in the case of Alexander, gain was his object; but we seem to have no proof of this, nor is it necessary thus to account for his conduct. We discover, indeed, in his character, no marks of that high enthusiasm which would support him in his whimsical career without any definite worldly object; yet the veneration he inspired, and the notice taken of him by great men, might be quite a sufficient recompense to a conceited and narrow mind.
[356] Cf. also Acts xx. 22, 23; xxi. 4, 11-14.
[357] Philostr. i. 8, 11, iv. 36, 38, 44, vii. 34, viii. 5, 11.
[358] See the description of his raising the Roman maid as above given. Or take again the account of his appearance to Damis and Demetrius at Puteoli, after vanishing from Court, viii. 12; in which there is much incautious agreement with Luke xxiv. 14-17, 27, 29, 32, 36-40. Also more or less in the following: vii. 30, init. and 34, fin. with Luke xii. 11, 12; iii. 38, with Matt. xvii. 14, etc., where observe the contrast of the two narratives: viii. 30, fin. with Acts xii. 7-10: iv. 44, with John xviii. 33, etc.: vii. 34, init. with Mark xiv. 65: iv. 34, init. with Acts xvi. 8-10: i. 19, fin. with Mark vii. 27, 28. Brucker and Douglas notice the following in the detection of the Empusa: 916()#;ακρὑοντι εὡκει το φἁσμα, και εδεἱτο μἡ βασανιζεω αὑτο, μηδἑ αναγκἁζεω ομολογεἱν οτι εἱν, iv. 25, Cf. Mark v. 7-9. Olearius compares an expression in vii. 30, with 1 Cor. ix. 9.
[359] E. G. his ambitious descriptions of countries, etc. In iv. 30, 32, v. 22, vi. 24, he ascribes to Apollonius regular Socratic disputations, and in vi. 11, a long and flowery speech in the presence of the Gymnosophists—modes of philosophical instruction totally at variance with the genius of the Pythagorean school, the Philosopher's Letters still extant, and the writer's own description of his manner of teaching, i. 17. Some of his exaggerations and mis-statements have been noticed in the course of the narrative. As a specimen of the rhetorical style in which the work is written, vid. his account of the restoration of the Roman damsel, Ὁ δἑ οὑδεν αλλ ἡ προσαψἁμενος αὑτἡς αφὑπνισε,—contrast this with the simplicity of the Scripture narrative. See also the last sentence of v. 17, and indeed passim.
[360] E. G. his accounts of Indian and Æthiopian monsters; of serpents whose eyes were jewels of magical virtue; of pygmies; of golden water; of the speaking tree; of a woman half white and half black, etc.; he incorporates in his narrative the fables of Ctesias, Agatharchidas, and other writers. His blunders in geography and natural philosophy may be added, as far as they arise from the desire of describing wonders, etc. See also his pompous description of the wonders of Babylon, which were not then in existence.—Prideaux, Connection, Part 1. Book viii. For his inconsistencies, see Eusebius and Brucker. It must be remembered, that in the age of Philostratus the composition of romantic histories was in fashion.