Magic and religious authority in Philostratus' 'Life of Apollonius of Tyana'

This dissertation examines Flavius Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana, an eight-book biography written in the early third century CE about a Cappadocian sage who lived in the first century. Prior to Philostratus' biography, Apollonius had a reputation of being a magician. Philostratus isolates two explicit reasons for Apollonius negative reputation: his association with eastern sages, particularly Indian Brahmans, and his gift of foreknowledge. I examine how Philostratus defends Apollonius by (1) representing India as a Hellenistic utopia, a land of pure Greek identity, uncomplicated by the realities of the Roman Empire, and (2) creating a theory of Apollonius' foreknowledge (prognosis) rooted in contemporary Middle Platonic physical and ethical philosophy. I conclude that the implicit reason for the accusation of being a magician made against Apollonius stems from the threat he presents to traditional political and religious authority. In my analysis, Philostratus' Apollonius represents both the contours of Greek identity under the Roman Empire and the rise of the pagan holy man.