Page:Apollonius of Tyana - the pagan Christ of the third century.pdf/61

56 the fourth century agree in attributing the miracles of Apollonius to magic, which would imply that the miracles themselves were recorded as being opposed to it. As late as the fifth century we find one Volusian, a proconsul of Africa, descended from an old Roman family and still strongly attached to the religion of his ancestors, almost worshipping Apollonius of Tyana as a supernatural being. All these circumstances combined tend to prove that the work of Philostratus, far from being read as a mere romance, held a much more important place in the religious discussions of the third and fourth centuries than any book could have done which had only been written to amuse a select circle of wits.

From the fifth century downwards, little is said about the book or its hero, at least in the West. The undoubted triumph of the Church deprives it of all positive interest. The night of the Middle Ages had set in. Not till the time of the Renaissance do we see the life of Apollonius brought to light again with many other specimens of ancient art, all