Such then was the oration which the sage had prepared beforehand, at the end whereof I found the last words of the earlier speech, namely :

"For thou shalt not kill me, since I tell thee I am not mortal,"

together with the words which preceded and led up to this quotation. But the effect upon the despot [Emperor Domitian of Rome] of his quitting the court in the manner so godlike and inexplicable was quite other than that which the many expected; for they expected him to make a terrific uproar and institute a hunt for the man, and to send forth proclamations over his Empire to arrest him wherever they should find him. But he did nothing of the kind, as if he set himself to defeat men's expectations; or because he now at last realised that as against the sage he had no resources of his own. But whether he acted from contempt, let us conjecture from what ensued, for he will be seen to have been confounded with astonishment rather than filled with contempt.

For he had to hear another case after that of Apollonius, an action brought, I think, in connection with a will by some city against a private individual; and he had forgotten not only the names of the parties, but also the matter at issue in the suit; for his questions were without meaning and his answers were not even relevant to the cause, -- all which argued the degree of astonishment and perplexity under which the despot laboured, the more so because his flatterers had persuaded him that nothing could escape his memory.

Such was the condition to which Apollonius reduced the despot, making him a plaything of his philosophy, he who had been the terror of Hellenes and barbarians; and before midday he [Apollonius] left the court and at dusk appeared to Demetrius and Damis at Dicaearchia. And this accounts for his having instructed Damis to go by land to Dicaearchia, without waiting to hear his defence. For he had given no previous notice of his intentions, but had merely told the man who was mostly in his intimacy to do what best accorded with his plans.

Now Damis had arrived the day before and had talked with Demetrius about the preliminaries of the trial; and the account filled the latter, when he listened to it, with more apprehension than you might expect of a listener when Apollonius was in question. The next day also he asked him afresh about the same particulars, as he wandered with him along the edge of the sea, which figures in the fables told about Calypso, for they were almost in despair of their master's coming to them, because the tyrant's hand was hard upon all; yet out of respect for Apollonius' character they obeyed his instructions.

Discouraged, then, they sat down in the chamber of the nymphs, where there is the cistern of white marble, which contains a spring of water which neither overflows its edges nor recedes, even if water be drawn from it. They were talking about the quality of the water in no very serious manner; and presently, owing to the anxiety they felt about the sage, brought back their conversation to the circumstances which preceded the trial.

Damis' grief had just broken out afresh, and he had made some such exclamation as the following : "Shall we ever behold, O ye gods, our noble and good companion?" when Apollonius, who had heard him, -- for as a matter of fact he was already present in the chamber of the nymphs, -- answered : "Ye shall see him, nay, ye have already seen him."

"Alive?" said Demetrius, "for if you are dead, we have anyhow never ceased to lament you."

Whereupon Apollonius stretched out his hand and said : "Take hold of me, and if I evade you, then I am indeed a ghost come to you from the realm of Persephone, such as the gods of the underworld reveal to those who are dejected with much mourning. But if I resist your touch, then you shall persuade Damis also that I am both alive and that I have not abandoned my body."

They were no longer able to disbelieve but rose up and threw themselves on his neck and kissed him, and asked him about his defence. For while Demetrius was of the opinion that he had not even made his defence, -- for he expected him to be destroyed without any wrong being proved against him, -- Damis thought that he had made his defence but perhaps more quickly than was expected; for he never dreamed that he had made it only that day.

But Apollonius said : "I have made my defence, gentlemen, and have gained my cause; and my defence took place this very day not so long ago, for it lasted on even to midday."

"How then," said Demetrius, "have you accomplished so long a journey in so small a fraction of the day?"

And Apollonius replied : "Imagine what you will, flying ram or wings of wax excepted, so long as you ascribe it to the intervention of a divine escort."

"Well," said Demetrius, "I have always thought that your actions and words were providentially cared for by some god, to whom you owe your present preservation; nevertheless, pray tell us about the defence you made, what it consisted of and what the accusation had to say against you, and about the temper of the judge, and what questions he put, and what he allowed to pass of your pleas and whatnot, -- tell us all at once in order that I may tell everything in turn to Telesinus, for he will never leave off asking me about your affairs; for about fifteen days back he was drinking with me in Antium, when he fell asleep at the table, and just as the middle cup in honour of the good genius was being passed round, he dreamed a dream; and he saw a fire spreading like a sea over the land, and it enveloped some men, and caught up others as they fled; for it flowed along, he said, exactly like water, but you alone suffered not the fate of the rest, but swam clean through it as it divided to let you through. And in honour of the gods who inspire such happy presages, he poured out a libation in consequence of this dream, and he bade me be of good cheer on your account."

And Apollonius said : "I am not surprised at Telesinus dreaming about me, for in his vigils, I assure you, he long ago occupied his mind about me; but as regards the trial, you shall learn everything, but not in this place; for it is already growing late in the evening, and it is time for us to proceed to the town; and it is pleasant, too, to talk as you go along the road, for conversation assists you on your way like an escort. Let us then start and discuss your questions as we go along, and I will certainly tell you of today's events in the court. For both of you know the circumstances which preceded the trial, the one of you because he was present, and the other because I am sure, by Zeus, he has not heard it once only, but again and again, if I know you well, my Demetrius. But I will relate to you what you do not know as yet, beginning with my being summoned into the Emperor's presence, into which I was ushered naked."

And he proceeded to detail to them his own words, and above all at the end of them the citation : "For thou shalt not kill me," and he told them exactly how he vanished from the seat of judgment.

Whereupon Demetrius cried out : "I thought you had come hither because you were saved; but this is only the beginning of your dangers, for he will proscribe you, seize your person, and cut off all means of escape."

Apollonius, however, told Demetrius not to be afraid and encouraged him by saying : "I only wish that you were both no more easy for him to catch than I am. But I know exactly in what condition of mind the tyrant is at this moment; hitherto he has never heard anything except the utterances of flatterers, and now he has had to listen to the language of rebuke; such language breaks despotic natures down and enrages them. But I require some rest, for I have not bent the knee since I had this struggle."

And Damis said : "Demetrius, my own attitude towards our friend's affairs was such that I tried to dissuade him from taking the journey which he has taken, and I believe you, too, gave him the same advice, namely, that he should not rush of his own accord into dangers and difficulties; but when he was thrown into fetters, as I saw with my own eyes, and I was perplexed and in despair of his case, he told me that it rested with himself to release himself and he freed his leg from the fetters and showed it to me.

"Well, it was then for the first time that I understood our master to be a divine being, transcending all our poor wisdom and knowledge. Consequently, even if I were called upon to expose myself to still greater risks than these, I should not fear anything, as long as I was under his protection. But since the evening is at hand, let us go into the inn to minister to and take care of him."

And Apollonius said : "Sleep is all I want, and everything else is a matter of indifference to me, whether I get it or whether I do not."

And after that, having offered a prayer to Apollo and also to the Sun, he passed into the house in which Demetrius lived, and having washed his feet and instructed Damis and his friend to take their supper, for he saw that they were fasting, he threw himself upon the bed; and having intoned some verses of Homer as a hymn to sleep, he took his repose, as if his circumstances gave him no just cause whatever for anxiety.

About dawn Demetrius asked him where on earth he would turn his steps, for there resounded in his ears the clatter of imaginary horsemen who he thought were already in hot pursuit of Apollonius on account of the rage of the tyrant, but Apollonius merely replied : "Neither he nor anyone else is going to pursue me, but as for myself I shall take sail for Hellas."

"That is anyhow a dangerous voyage," said the other, "for the region is most exposed and open; and how are you going to be hid out in the open from one whom you cannot escape in the dark?"

"I do not need to lie hid," said Apollonius, "for if, as you imagine, the entire earth belongs to the tyrant, it is better to die out in the open than to live in the dark and in hiding."

And turning to Damis, he said : "Do you know of a ship that is starting for Sicily?"

"I do," he replied, "for we are staying on the edge of the sea, and the crier is at our doors, and a ship is just being got ready to start, as I gather from the shouts of the crew, and from the exertions they are making over weighing the anchor."

"Let us embark," said Apollonius, "upon this ship, O Damis, for we will now sail to Sicily, and thence on to the Peloponissus."

"I am agreeable," said the other, "so let us sail."

They then said farewell to Demetrius, who was despondent about them, but they bade him hope for the best, as one brave man should for others as brave as himself; and then they sailed for Sicily with a favourable wind, and having passed Missina, they reached Tauromenium on the third day. After that they arrived at Syracuse and put out for the Peloponissus about the beginning of the autumn; and having traversed the gulf, they arrived after six days at the mouth of the Alpheus, where that river pours its waters, still sweet, into the Adriatic and Sicilian Seas. Here then they disembarked; and thinking it well worth their while to go to Olympia, they went and stayed there in the temple of Zeus, though without ever going further away than Scillus.

A rumour as sudden as insistent now ran through the Hellenic world that the sage was alive and had arrived at Olympia. At first, the rumour seemed unreliable; for besides that, they were, humanly speaking, unable to entertain any hope for him inasmuch as they heard that he was cast into prison, they had also heard such rumours as that he had been burnt alive, or dragged about alive with grapnels fixed in his neck, or cast into a deep pit, or into a well. But when the rumour of his arrival was confirmed, they all flocked to see him from the whole of Greece, and never did any such crowd flock to any Olympic festival as then, all full of enthusiasm and expectation.

People came straight from Elis and Sparta, and from Corinth away at the limits of the Isthmus; and the Athenians, too, although they are outside the Peloponissus; nor were they behind the cities which are are the gates of Pisa, for it was especially the most celebrated of the Athenians that hurried to the temple, together with the young men who flocked to Athens from all over the earth. Moreover, there were people from Megara just then staying in Olympia, as well as many from Boeotia, and from Argos, and all the leading people of Phocis and Thessaly.

Some of them had already made Apollonius' acquaintance, anxious to pick up his wisdom afresh, for they were convinced that there remained much to learn, more striking than what they had so far heard; but those who were not acquainted with him thought it a shame that they should seem never to have heard so great a man's discourse.

In answer to their questions then, of how he had escaped the clutches of the tyrant, he did not deem it right to say anything boastful; but he merely told them that he had made his defence and got away safely. However, when several people arrived from Italy, who openly rumoured abroad the episode of the law court, the attitude of Hellas towards him came near to that of worship; the main reason why they thought him divine being this, that he never made the least parade about the matter.

Among the arrivals from Athens there was a youth who asserted that the goddess Athene was very well disposed to the Emperor, whereupon Apollonius said to him : "In Olympia please stop your chatter of such things, for you will prejudice the goddess in the eyes of her father."

But as the youth increased their annoyance by declaring that the goddess was quite right, because the Emperor was Archon Eponym of the city of Athene, he said : "Would that he also presided at the Panathenaic festival."

By the first of his answers he silenced him, for he showed that he held a poor opinion of the gods, if he considered them to be well disposed to tyrants : by his second he showed that the Athenians would stultify the decree which they passed in honour of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, if after seeing fit to honour these two citizens in the marketplace, for the deed they committed at the Panathenaic festival, they ended by conferring on tyrants the privilege of being elected to govern them.

Damis approached him at this time to ask him about money, because they had so very little left to defray the expense of their journey.

"Tomorrow," said Apollonius, "I will attend to this."

And on the next day he went into the temple and said to the priest : "Give me a thousand drachmas out of the treasury of Zeus, if you think he will not be too much annoyed."

And the priest answered : "Not at that; what will annoy him will be if you do not take more."

There was a man of Thessaly named Isagoras, whom he met at Olympia, and said : "Tell me, Isagoras, is there such a thing as a religious fair or festival?"

"Why yes," he replied, "and by Heaven there is nothing in the world of men so agreeable and so dear to the gods."

"And what is the material of which it is composed?" asked Apollonius. "It is as if I asked you about the material of which this image is made, and you answered me that it was composed of gold and ivory."

"But," said the other, "what material, Apollonius, can a thing which is incorporeal be composed of?"

"A most important material," replied Apollonius, "and most varied in character; for there are sacred groves in it, and shrines, and race-courses and, of course, a theatre, and tribes of men, some of them from the neighbouring countries, and others from over the borders, and even from across the sea.

"Moreover," he added, "many arts go to make up such a festival, and many designs, and much true genius, both of poets, and of civil counsellors, and of those who deliver harangues on philosophic topics, and contests between naked athletes, and contests of musicians, as is the custom in the Pythian festival."

"It seems to me," said the other, "O Apollonius, that the festival is not only something corporeal, but is made up of more wonderful material than are cities; for there is summoned together into one community on such occasions the best of the best, and the most celebrated of the celebrated."

"Then," said Apollonius, "O Isagoras, are we to consider the people we meet there in the same light as some people regard walls and ships, or do you need some other opinion of the festival?"

"The opinion," answered the other, "which we have formulated, is quite adequate and complete, O man of Tyana, and we had better adhere to it."

"And yet," said the other, "it is neither adequate nor complete to one who considers about it as I do; for it appears to me that ships are in need of men and men of ships, and that men would never have thought about the sea at all if they had not had a ship; and men are kept safe by walls and walls by men; and in the same way I consider a festival to be not only the meeting of human beings, but also the place itself in which they have to meet, and the more so, because walls and ships would never have come into being, unless there had been men's hands to build them, while these places, so far forth as they are deprived of their natural and original characteristics, are by the hands of men spoiled.

"For it was owing to their natural advantages that they were held worthy of being made their meeting places; for though the gymnasiums and porticoes and fountains and houses have been all created by human art, just like the walls and the ships, yet this River Alphaeus with the hippodrome and the stadium and the groves, existed, I suppose, before men came here, the one providing water for drinking and for the bath, and the second a broad plain for the horses to race in, and the third provided just the space required for the athletes to raise the dust in as they run along in their races, namely, a valley a stadium in length, and the groves around supplied wreaths for the winners and served the athletes who were runners as a place to practise in. For I imagine that Hercules considered these facts, and because he admired the natural advantages of Olympia, he found the place worthy of the festival and games which are still held here."

After forty days, given up to discussions in Olympia, in which many topics were handled, Apollonius said : "I will also, O men of Hellas, discourse to you in your several cities, at your festivals, at your religious processions, at your mysteries, your sacrifices, at your public libations, and they require the services of a clever man; but for the present I must go down to Lebadea, for I have never yet had an interview with Trophonius, although I once visited his shrine."

And with these words he at once started for Boeotia attended by everyone of his admirers. Now the cavern in Lebadea is dedicated to Trophinius, the son of Apollo, and it can only be entered by those who resort thither in order to get an oracle, and it is not visible in the temple, but by iron spits which surround it, and you descend into it, as it were, sitting down and being drawn down. Those who enter it are clad in white raiment, and are escorted thither with honey-cakes in their hands to appease the reptiles which assail them as they descend. But the earth brings them to the surface again, in some cases close by, but in other cases a long way off; for they are sent up to the surface beyond Locri and beyond Phocis, but most of them about the borders of Boeotia.

Accordingly Apollonius entered the shrine and said : "I wish to descend into the cave in the interests of philosophy."

But the priests opposed him and, though they told the multitude that they would never allow a wizard like him to examine and test the shrine, they pretended to the sage himself that there were forbidden days and days unclean for consulting. So on that day he delivered a discourse at the springs of Hercyne, about the origin and conduct of the shrine; for it is the only oracle which gives responses through the person himself who consults it.

And when the evening approached, he went to the mouth of the cave with his train of youthful followers, and having pulled up four of the obelisks, which constitute a bar to the passage, he went down below ground wearing his philosopher's mantle, having dressed himself as if he were going to deliver an address upon philosophy, -- a step which the god Trophonius so thoroughly approved of, that he appeared to the priests and not only rebuked them for the reception they had given Apollonius, but enjoined them all to follow him to Aulis, for he said it was there that he would come to the surface in such a marvellous fashion as no man before.

And, in fact, he emerged after seven days, a longer period than it had taken anyone of those who until then had entered the oracle, and he had with him a volume thoroughly in keeping with the questions he had asked : for he had gone down saying : "What, O Trophonius, do you consider the most complete and purest philosophy?"

And the volume contained the tenets of Pythagoras, a good proof this, that the oracle was in agreement with this form of wisdom.

This book is preserved in Antium, and the village in question, which is on the Italian seacoast, is much visited for the purpose of seeing it. I must acknowledge that I only heard these details from the inhabitants of Lebadea; but in regard to the volume in question I must set on record my conviction that it was subsequently conveyed to the Emperor Hadrian [117 CE] at the same time as certain letters of Apollonius, though by no means all of them, and it remained in the palace at Antium, which was that one of his Italian palaces in which this Emperor took most pleasure.

From Ionia also there came to see him the band of companions who were named in Hellas the company of Apollonius; and mixing with the people of the place, they formed a band of youths, remarkable for their number and for their philosophic enthusiasm. For the science of rhetoric had been left neglected and little attention was paid to the professors of the art, on the ground that the tongue was their only teacher; but now they were all impelled to study his philosophy. But he, like Gyges and Croesus, who they say left the door of their treasuries unlocked, in order that all who needed might fill their pockets from them, threw open the treasures of his wisdom to those who loved it, and allowed them to ask him questions upon every subject.

But certain persons accused him of avoiding attendance on governors at their visits, and of influencing his hearers rather to live in retirement instead; and one of them uttered the jest that he drove away his sheep as soon as he found any forensic orator approaching.

"Yes, by Zeus," said Apollonius, "lest these wolves should fall upon my flock."

What was the meaning of this sally? He saw these forensic orators looked up to by the multitude as they made their way up from poverty to great riches; and he saw that they so welcomed the feuds of others, that they actually conducted a traffic in hatred and feud; accordingly he tried to dissuade these young men from associating with them, and those that did so associate with them, he sharply reproved, as if to wash off them a monstrous stain. For he had been long before on bad terms with them; and his experience of the prisons in Rome, and of the persons who were confined and perishing in them, so prejudiced him against the forensic art, as that he believed all these evils were due to sycophants and lawyers puffed up by their own cleverness, rather than to the despot himself.

Just at the time when he was holding these conversations with the people of Hellas, the following remarkable portent overspread the heavens. The orb of the sun was surrounded by a wreath which resembled a rainbow but dimmed the sunlight. That the heavenly sign portended a revolution was, of course, clear to all. However, when the governor of Hellas summoned Apollonius from Athens to Boeotia and said : "I hear that you have a talent for understanding things divine," he replied : "Yes, and perhaps you have heard that I have some understanding of human affairs."

"I have heard it," he replied, "and I quite agree."

"Since, then," said Apollonius, "you are of one opinion with me, I would advise you not to pry into the intentions of the gods; for this is what human wisdom recommends you to do."

And when he besought Apollonius to tell him what he thought, for he said he was afraid lest night should ensue and swallow up everything.

"Be of good cheer," said Apollonius, "for there will be some light following such a night as this."

After this, seeing that he had had enough of the people of Hellas, after living for two years among them, he set sail for Ionia, accompanied by his society; and the greater part of his time he spent teaching philosophy at Smyrna and Ephesus, though he also visited the rest of the cities; and in none of them was he found to be an unwelcome guest, indeed they all considered him to be worth their regret when he left them, and to the better class of people he was a great boon.

And now the gods were about to cast down Domitian from his presidency of mankind. For it happened that he had just slain Clemens, a man of consular rank, to whom he had lately given his own sister in marriage; and he issued a command about the third or fourth day after the murder, that she also should follow her husband and join him.

Thereupon Stephanus, a freedman of the lady, he who was signified by the form of the late portent, whether because the latest victim's fate rankled in his mind, or the fate of all others, made an attempt upon the tyrant's life worthy of comparison with the feats of the champions of Athenian liberty. For he concealed a dagger against his left forearm; and carrying his hand in a bandage, as if it were broken, he approached the Emperor as he left the law court and said : "I would have a private interview with you, my prince, for I have important news to communicate to you."

The latter did not refuse him the audience but took him apart into the men's apartment where he transacted business of state. Whereupon the assassin said : "Your bitter enemy, Clemens, is not dead, as you imagine, but he lives and I know where he is; and he is making ready to attack you."

When the Emperor uttered a loud cry over this information, before he could recover his composure, Stephanus threw himself upon him; and drawing the dagger from the hand which he had trussed up, he stabbed him in the thigh, inflicting a wound which was not immediately mortal, though it was well timed in view of the struggle which followed.

The Emperor was still strong and full of bodily vigour, although he was about five and forty years of age; and in spite of the wound, he closed with his assailant, and throwing him down, kneeled upon him and dug out his eyes and crushed his cheeks with the stand of a gold cup which lay thereby for use in sacred ceremonies, at the same time calling upon Athene to assist him. Thereupon his bodyguard, realising that he was in distress, rushed into the room pellmell and dispatched the tyrant, who had already swooned.

Although this deed was done in Rome, Apollonius was a spectator of it in Ephesus. For about midday he was delivering an address in the groves of the colonnade, just at the moment when it all happened in the palace at Rome; and first he dropped his voice, as if he were terrified, and then, though with less vigour than was usual with him, he continued his exposition, like one who between his words caught glimpses of something foreign to his subject, and at last he lapsed into silence, like one who has been interrupted in his discourse.

And with an awful glance at the ground, and stepping forward three or four paces from his pulpit, he cried : "Smite the tyrant, smite him!" -- not like one who derives from some looking-glass a faint image of the truth, but as one who sees things with his own eyes, and is taking part in a tragedy.

All Ephesus, for all Ephesus was at his lecture, was struck dumb with astonishment; but he, pausing like those who are trying to see and wait until their doubts are ended, said : "Take heart, gentlemen, for the tyrant has been slain this day; and why do I say today? Now it is, by Athene, even now at the moment I uttered my words, and then lapsed into silence."

The inhabitants of Ephesus thought that this was a fit of madness on his part; and although they were anxious that it should be true, yet they were anxious about the risk they ran in giving ear to his words, whereupon he added :

"I am not surprised at those who do not yet accept my story, for not even all Rome as yet is cognizant of it. But behold, Rome begins to know it : for the rumour runs this way and that, and thousands are convinced of it; and they begin to leap for joy, twice as many as before, and twice as many as they, and four times as many, yea, the whole of the populace there. And this news will travel hither also; and although I would have you defer your sacrifices in honour thereof to the fitting season, when you will receive this news, I shall proceed at once to pray to the gods for what I have seen."

They were still sceptical, when swift runners arrived with the good news, and bore testimony to the sage's wisdom; for the tyrant's murder, and the day which brought the event to birth, the hour of midday and the murderers to whom he addressed his exhortation, everything agreed with the revelation which the gods had made to Apollonius in the midst of his harangue.

And thirty days later Nerva sent a letter to him to say that he was already in possession of the Empire of the Romans, thanks to the goodwill of the gods and to his good counsels; and he added that he would more easily retain it, if Apollonius would come to advise him.

Whereupon at the moment the latter wrote to him the following enigmatical sentence : "We will, my prince, enjoy one another's company for a very long time during which neither shall we govern others, nor others us."

Perhaps he realised, when he wrote thus, that it was not to be long before he himself should quit this human world, and that Nerva was only to retain the throne for a short time; for his reign lasted but one year and four months, when he left behind him the reputation of having been a sober and serious ruler.

But as he did not wish to seem to neglect so good a friend and ruler, he composed later on for him a letter giving him advice about matters of state; and calling Damis to him, he said : "You are wanted here, for this letter which I have written to the king contains secrets, and though it is written, they are of such a kind that they must be communicated orally either by myself or through you."

And Damis declares that he only understood his master's device much later; for that the letter was composed in admirable style, and though it treated of important subjects, yet it might equally well have been sent through anyone else. What then was the sage's device? All through his life, he is said often to have exclaimed : "Live unobserved; and if that cannot be, slip unobserved from life." His letter, then, and Damis' visit to Rome were of the nature of an excuse for getting the latter out of the way, in order that he might have no witnesses of his dissolution.

Damis accordingly says that, though he was much affected at leaving him, in spite of his having no knowledge of what was coming, yet Apollonius, who knew full well, said nothing of it to him, and far from addressing him after the manner of those who are never to see one another again, so abundant was his conviction that he would exist forever, merely pledged him in these words : "O Damis, even if you have to philosophize by yourself, keep your eyes upon me."

The memoirs then of Apollonius of Tyana which Damis the Assyrian composed end with the above story; for with regard to the manner in which he died, if he did actually die, there are many stories, though Damis has repeated none. But as for myself, I ought not to omit even this, for my story should, I think, have its natural ending. Neither has Damis told us anything about the age of our hero; but there are some who say that he was eighty, others that he was over ninety, others again who say that his age far exceeded a hundred. He was fresh in all his body and upright, when he died, and more agreeable to look at than in his youth. For there is a certain beauty even in wrinkles, which was especially conspicuous in his case, as is clear from the likenesses of him which are preserved in the temple at Tyana and from accounts which praise the old age of Apollonius more than was once praised the youth of Alcibiades.

Now there are some who relate that he died in Ephesus, tended by two maid servants; for the freedmen of whom I spoke at the beginning of my story were already dead. One of these maids he emancipated, and was blamed by the other one for not conferring the same privilege upon her; but Apollonius told her that it was the better for her to remain the other's slave, for that would be the beginning of her well-being.

Accordingly after his death this one continued to be the slave of the other, who for some insignificant reason sold her to a merchant, from whom she was purchased. Her new master, although she was not good-looking, nevertheless fell in love with her; and being a fairly rich man, he made her his legal wife and had legitimate children by her.

Others again say that he died in Lindus, where he entered the temple of Athene and disappeared within it. Others again say that he died in Crete in a much more remarkable manner than the people of Lindus relate. For they say that he continued to live in Crete, where he became a greater centre of admiration than ever before, and that he came to the temple of Dictynna late at night. Now this temple is guarded by dogs, whose duty it is to watch over the wealth deposited in it, and the Cretans claim that they are as good as bears or any other animals equally fierce. Nonetheless, when he came, instead of barking, they approached him and fawned upon him, as they would not have done even with people they knew familiarly.

The guardians of the shrine arrested him in consequence, and threw him in bonds as a wizard and a robber, accusing him of having thrown to the dogs some charmed morsel. But about midnight he loosened his bonds, and after calling those who had bound him, in order that they might witness the spectacle, he ran to the doors of the temple, which opened wide to receive him; and when he had passed within, they closed afresh, as they had been shut; and there was heard a chorus of maidens singing from within the temple, and their song was this :

"Hasten thou from earth, hasten thou to Heaven, hasten."

In other words : "Thou, go upwards from earth."

And even after his death, he continued to preach that the soul is immortal; but although he taught this account of it to be correct, yet he discouraged men from meddling in such high subjects. For there came to Tyana a youth who did not shrink from acrimonious discussions, and would not accept truth in argument. Now Apollonius had already passed away from among men, but people still wondered at his passing, and no one ventured to dispute that he was immortal.

This being so, the discussions were mainly about the soul, for a band of youths were there passionately addicted to wisdom. The young man in question, however, would on no account allow the tenet of the immortality of the soul and said : "I myself, gentlemen, have done nothing now for over nine months but pray to Apollonius that he would reveal to me the truth about the soul; but he is so utterly dead that he will not appear to me in response to my entreaties, nor give me any reason to consider him immortal."

Such were the young man's words on that occasion, but on the fifth day following, after discussing the same subject, he fell asleep where he was talking with them; and of the young men who were studying with him, some were reading books, and others were industriously drawing geometrical figures on the ground, when all of a sudden, like one possessed, he leapt up still in a half-sleep, streaming with perspiration, and cried out : "I believe thee!"

And when those who were present asked him what was the matter, he said, "Do you not see Apollonius the sage, how that he is present with us and is listening to our discussion, and is reciting wondrous verses about the soul?"

"But where is he?" they asked, "for we cannot see him anywhere, although we would rather do so than possess all the blessings of mankind."

And the youth replied : "It would seem that he is come to converse with myself alone concerning the tenets which I would not believe. Listen, therefore, to the inspired argument which he is delivering :

"'The soul is immortal, and 'tis no possession of thine own, but of Providence; and after the body is wasted away, like a swift horse freed from its traces, it lightly leaps forward and mingles itself with the light air, loathing the spell of harsh and painful servitude which it has endured. But for thee, what use is there in this? Someday when thou art no more, thou shalt believe it. So why, as long as thou art among living beings, dost thou explore these mysteries?'"

Here we have a clear utterance of Apollonius, establishing like an oracular tripod, to convince us of the mysteries of the soul, to the end that cheerfully, and with due knowledge of our own true nature, we may pursue our way to the goal appointed by the Fates. With any tomb, however, or cenotaph of the sage I never met, that I know of, although I have traversed most of the earth, and have listened everywhere to stories of his divine quality. [foregoing sentence SIC]

And his shrine at Tyana is singled out and honoured with royal officers : for neither have the Emperors denied to him the honours of which they themselves were held worthy.