8 Moreover, the VA’s account of Apollonios’ philosophy is occasionally supplanted (or even contradicted) by other sources, which may reflect more accurately the historical Apollonios. The VA is of course no philosophical treatise, and scholars have often noted the contradictions and inaccuracies that characterise the eclectic blend of ideas that are adopted, taught and propagated by Apollonios (but the lack of philosophical consistency in Philostratos’ hero should not create doubts about the predominantly Pythagorean vocation of the historical sage). The glorification of philosophy is inextricably linked with the emphasis on virtue in Philostratos’ work, and the common interest in virtue ethics in the teachings of Greco-Roman philosophical schools, 7 despite their disagreement on a number of topics. What is more, philosophical discourses have healing powers (king Vardanes recovers from an illness after hearing Apollonios’ expositions on the soul, 1.38.3). 6 Philosophy is also presented as the highest form of wisdom in an ‘Aesopic’ context, with reference to the distribution of intellectual skills by Hermes – philosophy stands at the top, followed, significantly, by oratory (5.15.2). Characteristically, Apollonios states explicitly that there is nothing greater than ‘a true man who pursues wisdom (φιλοσοφοῦντα) honestly and sincerely’ a philosopher has more greatness than the Rhodian statue of Kolossos (5.21.1). 10 On these, see Lauwers (2015, 44-45 130-131 on VA 4.2, the summary of Apollonios’ dialexis to the E (.)ĢPhilosophy is of primary importance in the VA.9 Such as some of Apollonios’ letters and his book On sacrifice (Περὶ θυσιῶν) twice mentioned in the (.).
There is perhaps the exception of the Sceptics, on (.) 70, where the blame for the decline of Athens is put on the absence of philosophers (.)
But Pythagoras was credited not only with teaching a new way of life (circumscribed by a set of distinct religious and ethical prescriptions), 4 but also with founding philosophy in Italy (as Diogenes Laertios notes, 1.13), and with inventing no less than the word (φιλοσοφία itself. 3 The doctrines of Pythagoras were, however, the ones to absorb him the most, and he decided to follow the Pythagorean way, which as Plato remarked ( Republic 600b), brought distinction to its followers. 2 Apollonios is then said to have studied philosophy together with followers of Plato, of the Stoic Chrysippos and at the Peripatos, while ‘he also heard the doctrines of Epikouros, considering not even these unworthy of his attention’ (1.7.2). See Dillon (2014, 258- (.)ġPhilostratos’ fictionalised account of the life of Apollonios begins with a summary of the philosophical influences allegedly exercised on the sage (1.1): firstly that of Pythagoras (who is believed, like Apollonios, to have had a special relationship with the gods and to have survived his physical death), secondly of Empedokles, ‘who followed the same school of wisdom’ (his philosophy was clearly influenced by Pythagoreanism), 1 and thirdly that of other wise men of Pythagoras’ kind, whom the author does not have the time or space to mention.