Page:Apollonius of Tyana - the pagan Christ of the third century.pdf/87

82 splendour, whereas it is an established fact that in the first century of our era Babylon was nothing but a gigantic ruin. The individual who is described as the Pagan Christ by Philostratus was not held in any esteem in his own time. Dion Cassius speaks of him as of one Apollonius of Tyana,, and looks upon him as a mere seer or magician who lived, he says, in the reign of the Emperor Domitian. Lucian does not allude to him in a more respectful tone; in his estimation Apollonius is only a clever comedian. We find him mentioned again by Origen in his work against Celsus. Now Celsus, who attributed the miracles of Jesus to sorcery, had said that the arts of magic could have no influence except upon men who were devoid of all cultivation and morality, and that with philosophers they were powerless. Origen replies to him with the remark that in order to convince himself of the contrary he has only to read the memoirs of Apollonius of Tyana, by Maeragenes, who speaks of him as a philosopher and a magician who exercised his magic repeatedly on philosophers.