Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/623

 APOLLONIUS PEEG^EUS APOLLYON 587 APOLLONIUS PERGJEUS, an ancient geometer of Alexandria, born at Perga in Pamphylia, flourished about 230 B. 0. His work upon the conic sections gained for him from his contem- poraries the title of the Geometer. Only four books of this work have come down to us in the original language. Three more are pre- served in Arabic, and the 8th is lost. APOLLONIUS RHODIUS, the author of the Argonautics, an epic poem on the voyage of the Argo, flourished at the close of the 3d century B. 0. He spent much of his youth in Alexandria, of which he is supposed to have been a native, and there composed his poem, which is still extant. He read it pub- licly, but the Alexandrians treated it with contempt; and this so angered hjm that he left the city and went to Rhodes, where he long resided, taking his surname from the town. The Rhodians received his work with the great- est favor. Later in life he returned to Alex- andria, and, by reading the revised poem. in full, so changed the opinion of it held by the Alexandrians that they covered him with honors. He was made librarian of the mu- seum, an office which he* is supposed to have held till his death. He was buried in the same tomb with Callimachus, with whom in his youth he had had a violent quarrel regard- ing the merits of his poem. His epic, in four books (Argonautica), gives a simple, beautiful, and vigorous sketch of the Argo's expedition. Apollonius also wrote epigrams (of which one on Callimachus is still extant), and several works which are lost. APOLLONIUS TYAN.EUS, a Pythagorean phi- losopher, born at Tyana, Oappadocia, about 4 B. 0. He travelled for many years through Asia Minor and the East, disputing everywhere concerning the mysteries of nature and religion. From Babylon he journeyed to India, where he disputed with the Brahmins on the comparative merits of the Alexandrine and oriental philos- ophers. He laid claim to supernatural power, and is said to have received from priests and people divine honors. At Athens he was denied admission to the Eleusinian mysteries, because he was regarded as a magician. It was only by force that he obtained an entrance into the cave of Trophonius, where he is said to have found the theological books of Pythagoras. At Rome he was arrested and brought to trial as a practiser of the black art, but acquitted. After visiting Spain, Africa, and Greece a sec- ond time, he bent his course to Alexandria. Vespasian was then in Egypt preparing to strike a blow for the imperial purple, and hearing of Apollonius's arrival, he determined to turn to account the influence which the philosopher possessed with the people as a prophet and thaumaturgist. Accordingly, when Vespasian, on his entrance into the city, was met by the magistrates and philosophers, he inquired with affected anxiety whether the Tyansean was pres- ent. Being answered in the negative, he at once proceeded to the place where he was, and entreated Apollonius to make him emperor. The Pythagorean rejoined that he had already done it in praying to the gods for a just and venerable sovereign. At a council of philos- ophers presently held in Alexandria to consider the claims of Vespasian, Apollonius warmly advocated the cause of his new patron. Hav- ing, after the death of Titus (81), been accused of attempting to excite the Greek cities of Asia against the tyrant Domitian, he voluntarily surrendered himself, and was cast into prison at Rome loaded with chains. His biographer, Philostratus, says that he freed himself from captivity by the exercise of his supernatural powers. Apollonius himself, at a subsequent period, publicly stated in Greece that he owed his liberty to the clemency of the emperor. Several cities contended for the honor of having been the last residence of Apollonius, but it seems most probable that his old age was spent at Ephesus. Tyana, the place of his birth, was raised to the rank of a sacred city, and invested with peculiar privileges, and here during the supremacy of paganism a temple existed in which the Pythagorean was worshipped. He used no animal food, wore no woollen garment, suffered his hair to grow, and abjured the so- ciety of women. As a philosopher he labored to reconcile the oriental and Greek systems with the symbolism of his master. As a re- ligious reformer he sought to restore the rites of paganism to their pristine purity. He held that all sensible objects were material and cor- ruptible ; that all sacrifice was impure in the sight of the gods ; and that even prayer itself became polluted when it passed the lips of the supplicant. Except some letters and a reply against a complaint of the philosopher Eu- phrates, all his works have perished. APOLLOS, an Alexandrian Jew, converted to Christianity about A. D. 54. He began (Acts xviii. 24) to preach at Ephesus, " knowing only the baptism of John," and was afterward in- structed by Aquila and Priscilla, and sent into Achaia. At Corinth he was very popular, di- viding fame with Paul and Peter, as it appears from that apostle's reference in 1 Cor. i. 12 : "Every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas." APOLLYON (Gr. 'AiroMvuv, the destroyer), used in Rev. ix. 11 as a translation of the He- brew abaddon. In the Old Testament abad- don signifies the subterranean region, or place of the dead, equivalent to the Greek Hades. The rabbins, however, divide this region into two portions, the upper being the grave, the lower abaddon, founding this distinction espe- cially upon Ps. Ixxxviii. 11, " Shall thy lov- ing kindness be declared in the grave, or thy faithfulness in destruction [abaddon] ? " In Revelation Apollyon is personified as the angel who has dominion over the bottomless pit, the chief of the destroying agents, represented under the figure of locusts, who emerge from the abyss at the sounding of the fifth trumpet. Some apocalyptic expositors have held that