ABSTRACT

Even with Damis revindicated we still have to fit Apollonius into the familiar framework of the early empire. Philostratus’ presentation of his sage’s effect on the Emperor Domitian does not inspire confidence:

Let us go to the court-room to listen to our hero pleading his cause; for already it is dawn and the doorway is open for the dignitaries to pass through. And the emperor’s entourage are saying that he has not even taken any food, doubtless because he is carefully reviewing the court proceedings. For they say he even has to hand a scroll which he sometimes reads angrily, sometimes less so. One must imagine him as someone angry at the laws for inventing law-courts. (Life of Apollonius VIII. 1)

[Apollonius secures his acquittal and leaves the hearing with a flourish of defiance.]

But since he left the court in a godlike and inexplicable way, the tyrant did not react as many imagined; for some expected him to make a terrific hue and cry over Apollonius, have him outlawed throughout his dominions, and bar his way at every turn. But he took no such course, as if he was making an effort to counter popular expectations, or because he was at last aware that his powers availed him nothing against Apollonius. But whether he merely disregarded him altogether we must infer from subsequent events, for he would seem to have been thrown into confusion rather than contempt for Apollonius. For there was another hearing after Apollonius, a city against an individual over a will; not only did the names of the parties escape him, but also the point at issue in the case; for his questions were meaningless and his answers off the point — all this absolutely confirmed that the tyrant was confounded and confused, particularly when his flatterers convinced him that nothing could escape him. (Life of Apollonius VIII. 8f)