Book 5

As for the Pillars, which they say Heracles fixed as the boundaries of the earth, I leave aside the fabulous parts and will set out rather what is worth hearing and worth telling. The headlands of Europe and Libya, holding between them a strait of sixty stades, carry the Ocean into the inner seas; and the headland of Libya, whose name is Abinna, lions range over about the ridges of the mountains that look out beyond it, where it borders on the Gaetulians and the Tingae, both of them savage Libyan peoples. As one sails in along the Ocean it extends for nine hundred stades as far as the mouths of the Salex; but beyond that no one could reckon how far, for after this river Libya is without life and inhabited by men no longer. The headland of Europe, which is called Calpis, lies on the right of the entrance, six hundred stades in length, and ends at the ancient Gadeira.

As for the turnings of the Ocean, I myself saw them among the Celts, of the kind that are reported; and considering on many grounds the cause by which so boundless a sea both advances and is drawn back, I think Apollonius observed how the matter truly stands. For in one of his letters to the Indians he says that the Ocean, driven by winds beneath its surface from many chasms which the earth provides under it and around it, moves outward and again withdraws, whenever the breath sinks back, as in a man's breathing. He confirms this also from those who lie sick at Gadeira: for during the time that the water is at the flood, the souls do not leave those who are dying — which would not happen unless a breath were also advancing upon the land. And what they say is seen of the moon as it is born, grows full, and wanes, this I know of the Ocean, for it makes equal the measures of the moon, diminishing with her and growing full along with her.

Day succeeds night and night day; among the Celts as the darkness or the light gradually retires, as it does here, but about Gadeira and the Pillars they are said to fall upon the eyes all at once, like flashes of lightning. They say too that the Isles of the Blest are bounded by the Libyan limit, where it rises toward the uninhabited headland.

Gadeira lies at the very limit of Europe, and its people are extravagant in matters of religion. They have set up an altar to Old Age, and they alone of men sing a paean to Death; and there are altars there to Poverty and to Art, and to the Egyptian Heracles, and others to the Theban. For the one, they say, drove his cattle to the neighbouring Erytheia, when he took Geryon and his cattle; while the other by his wisdom measured out the whole earth to its limit. Moreover they say that the people of Gadeira are Greek and are educated in our own manner. They cherish the Athenians above all the Greeks, and sacrifice to Menestheus the Athenian; and admiring Themistocles, the hero of the sea-fight, for his wisdom and his courage, they have set up a bronze statue of him deep in thought and, as it were, declaring an oracle.

They say too that they saw there trees of a kind found nowhere else on earth, called the trees of Geryon. There are two of them, and they grow from the mound which stands over Geryon, of a form between the pine and the fir, but of a different kind, and they drip with blood, just as the poplar of the Heliades drips with gold. The island on which the temple stands is just the size of the temple, and there is nothing rocky about it, but it is like a smoothed starting-line. In the temple both the Heracleses are honoured, they say, but there are no images of them; only altars — two of bronze and without inscription for the Egyptian, and one of stone for the Theban — on which they say are carved the hydras and the mares of Diomedes and the twelve labours of Heracles. The golden olive of Pygmalion is also dedicated there in the Heracleion, worthy of wonder, they say, both for its branch, which it resembles, but to be wondered at still more for its fruit, for it teems with emerald. They say too that the golden belt of Teucer son of Telamon is shown there; but how he came to sail to the Ocean, or for what purpose, neither does Damis himself say he could make out, nor that he heard it from them. As for the pillars in the temple, they are made of gold and silver fused into a single colour, more than a cubit in height and of square workmanship, like anvils; and their tops are inscribed with letters neither Egyptian nor Indian, nor of any kind one could interpret. So Apollonius, since the priests told him nothing, said: "The Egyptian Heracles does not allow me to keep silent about what I know. These pillars are the bonds of earth and Ocean, and he inscribed them in the house of the Fates, that no strife might arise among the elements, nor that they should dishonour the friendship which they have toward one another."

They say too that he sailed up the river Baetis, which best of all shows the nature of the Ocean. For when the sea is at the flood, the river runs back toward its sources, the breath, it seems, driving it back from the sea. The land of Baetica, after which this river is named, they say is the best of all countries, for it is well provided with cities and pastures, and the river is led through to all the towns; it is full of every kind of husbandry and of seasons such as the autumnal and mystic seasons of Attica.

Damis says that there were many discussions between him and Apollonius concerning what they met with there, but that the following are worth recording. As they were once sitting in the Heracleion, Menippus laughed aloud — for he had been reminded of Nero — and said: "What are we to make of the noble fellow? In which of the games has he been crowned, and do not the best of the Greeks resort to the festivals with their whole heart in laughter?" Apollonius said: "As I heard from Telesinus, the worthy Nero is afraid of the whips of the Eleans. For when his flatterers urged him to win the Olympia and to have Rome proclaimed, he said, 'If only the Eleans do not begrudge it, for they are said to use the whip and to think themselves above me'; and many other things still more foolish than these he uttered. As for me, I say that Nero will win at Olympia — for who is so bold as to set himself against him? — but that he will not win the Olympia, since they are not even held at the right season. For though the Olympia belonged of ancestral right to last year, Nero ordered the Eleans to postpone them to the time of his own visit, that they might sacrifice to him rather than to Zeus. He has proclaimed a tragedy and a citharody for men who have neither theatre nor stage for such things, but only a natural stadium and everything in the open; and he wins prizes for things that ought to be hidden away. Having thrown off the garb of Augustus and of Julius, he now reclothes himself in that of Amoebeus and Terpnus — what will you say to that? And while he perfects the parts of Creon and Oedipus so exactly that he fears to make some slip about a door or a robe or a sceptre, yet of his own self and of the Romans he falls so far away that, instead of making laws, he sings songs, and goes round begging outside the doors within which a king ought to sit and transact business on behalf of land and sea. There are many tragic heroes, Menippus, among whom Nero enrols himself. And what then? If one of them, after playing Oenomaus or Cresphontes, should leave the theatre so full of his mask that he wished to rule over others and thought himself a tyrant, what would you call such a man? Would he not need hellebore and a draught of the drug that purges the wits? But if the very man who holds the throne brings his own affairs round to the level of tragic actors and stage-artists, softening his voice and fearing the Elean or the Delphian judge — or not fearing him, but acting his own art so badly that he does not think he will be whipped by those whom he is appointed to rule — what will you say of the wretched men who live under such a piece of filth? And whom, Menippus, do you think the Greeks the worse off for: Xerxes burning their cities, or Nero singing? For if you would consider the market they bring to his songs, and how they are driven out of their houses, and how they are not allowed to keep a single article of value, whether vessel or slave; and how grievously they suffer in respect of their wives and children, while Nero culls from every house the pleasures that are spoken of with shame; and how many lawsuits will spring up — leave the others aside and consider those concerning his theatres and songs: 'You did not come to hear Nero,' or, 'You were present, but listened carelessly; you laughed, you did not applaud, you did not sacrifice for the sake of his voice, that it might go the brighter to Pytho' — many a spectator's Iliad of woes will you think there is among the Greeks. As for the cutting of the Isthmus, whether it will be cut or not — and it is being cut now, they say — I learned long ago, the god having revealed it." Then Damis broke in and said: "But to me, Apollonius, this work of the cutting seems to outdo all that Nero has done, for the conception, you see, is a great one." "It seems so to me too, Damis," he said, "but its incompleteness disgraces him, as one who sings without finishing and digs without finishing. When I read the deeds of Xerxes I praise the man, not because he bridged the Hellespont, but because he crossed it; whereas Nero I see neither sailing through the Isthmus nor reaching the end of his digging; and I think too that he will withdraw from Greece full of fear — unless the truth has perished."

When afterwards one of those who run the swift courses came to Gadeira and bade them sacrifice for the good news, singing of Nero as thrice victor at Olympia, the people of Gadeira understood about the victory and that there was some famous contest in Arcadia, since, as I said, they are eager for the affairs of the Greeks; but the cities neighbouring Gadeira knew neither what the Olympia were, nor what a contest or games might be, nor for what they were to sacrifice, but were carried off into absurd notions, thinking these things a victory of war and that Nero had taken captive certain Olympian men; for they had never been spectators of tragedy or citharody.

The people who dwell at Hippola — and this too is a city of Baetica — Damis says suffered a strange thing at the hands of a tragic actor, which is worth recording. For when the cities were sacrificing frequently for the victories, since the Pythian successes too were now being announced, a tragic actor of the kind not thought worthy to contend against Nero went round the western cities collecting money; and plying his art he was held in repute among the less barbarous, first for the very reason that he came among men who had never yet heard tragedy, and then because he claimed to render Nero's melodies exactly. But when he entered Hippola he seemed terrible to them even during the time he was silent upon the stage; and the people, seeing him walk grandly, and gape so wide, and stand upon buskins so high, and the monstrous robes about him, were not without fear of his appearance; and when, raising his voice, he uttered a loud cry, most of them took to flight, as though smitten by a daemon. Such are the manners of the barbarians there, and so primitive.

The governor of Baetica was eager to come to a meeting with Apollonius, but he said that his company would seem unpleasant to those who were not philosophers; yet the man pressed his request. And since he was said to be a worthy man and at variance with the mimes of Nero, Apollonius wrote him a letter that he should come to Gadeira; and laying aside the pomp of his office he came with a few of those most attached to him. When they had greeted one another and had sent away those present, what they discussed no one knows; but Damis conjectures that they came to an agreement against Nero. For after they had conferred privately for three days, the one departed embracing Apollonius, and the other said, "Farewell, and remember Vindex." What was this? Against Nero, while he sang in Achaea, the western peoples are said to have been stirred up by Vindex, a man fit to cut the strings which Nero so ignorantly twanged; for he addressed to the camps over which he was set a speech against him such as one might breathe forth against a tyrant out of a most noble philosophy: he said that Nero was anything rather than a player of the lyre, and a player of the lyre rather than a king; and he charged him with madness and avarice and cruelty and every kind of wantonness, but the cruellest of his deeds he did not lay to his charge — that he had justly killed his own mother, since she had borne such a son. Knowing then that this would be so, Apollonius set the neighbouring governor in array with Vindex, all but taking up arms himself on behalf of Rome.

As things were aflame about the west, they turned thence toward Libya and the Tyrrhenians, going partly on foot and partly by ship, and put in at Sicily, where Lilybaeum is. Sailing on past Messene and the strait, where the Tyrrhenian sea, meeting the Adriatic, makes the Charybdis dangerous, they say they heard that Nero had fled, that Vindex was dead, and that some men from Rome itself, and others from wherever it might be among the nations, were laying hold of the empire. When his companions asked him to what these things would come and to whom the empire would belong, he said, "To many Thebans." For he likened the power which Vitellius and Galba and Otho used for a short time to the Thebans, who for a very brief time were brought into the affairs of the Greeks.

That he foreknew such things by a divine impulse, and that those who think the man a wizard reason unsoundly, the things already told make plain; but let us consider this also. Wizards — and I hold them the most wretched of men — some by torturing phantoms, some by barbarous sacrifices, some by some incantation or anointing, claim to alter what is fated; and many of them, brought to trial on such charges, have admitted that they are skilled in these things. But he followed what came from the Fates, and foretold that these things must come to pass; and he foreknew, not by wizardry, but from what the gods revealed. And when among the Indians he saw the tripods and the cup-bearers and all the things that came in of themselves, as I have told, he neither asked how they were contrived, nor desired to learn it, but praised them, while not thinking it right to emulate them.

When they had come to Syracuse, a woman of no obscure family gave birth to a monster, such as no midwife ever delivered: for the infant had three heads, each on its own neck, but all the parts below them belonged to a single body. The cruder interpreters said that Sicily — for it is Trinacria — would perish, unless it should come to agreement and breathe as one; for many of its cities were in faction against themselves and against one another, and ordered life was absent from the island. Others said that Typho, who is many-headed, was threatening Sicily with fresh troubles. But Apollonius said, "Go, Damis, and look at it, whether it is so put together." For it was exposed in public to those who understand portents; and when Damis reported that it was three-headed and male, Apollonius gathered his companions and said: "Three are the emperors of the Romans, whom I lately called Thebans; and none of them will bring his rule to completion, but some, prevailing at Rome itself, and one in the regions bordering on Rome, will perish, casting off the mask sooner than the tyrants of the tragedies." And the saying at once came to light: for Galba died at Rome itself after laying hold of the empire; Vitellius too died after dreaming of empire; and Otho, dying among the western Gauls, did not even obtain a splendid tomb, but lies like a private man; and fortune flew through all this in a single year.

Passing on to Catana, where the mountain Aetna is, they say they heard the people of Catana, who believe that Typho is bound there and that the fire rises from him which makes Aetna smoke; but they themselves came to more credible accounts, befitting men who practise philosophy. Apollonius began with them thus, asking his companions: "Is there such a thing as mythology?" "Yes, by Zeus," said Menippus, "such as the poets praise." "And what do you think of Aesop?" "A teller of myths," he said, "and altogether a maker of fables." "And which of the myths are wise?" "Those of the poets," he said, "since they are sung as having happened." "And what of those of Aesop?" "Frogs," he said, "and asses, and trifles fit for old women and children to chew over." "And yet," said Apollonius, "to me the myths of Aesop seem the more suited to wisdom. For those concerning the heroes, on which all poetry depends, also corrupt their hearers, since the poets recount monstrous loves and marriages of brothers and slanders against the gods and the eating of children and base knaveries and lawsuits; and the air of their having happened draws on the lover and the jealous man and him who desires to be rich or to be a tyrant to do the very things the myths describe. But Aesop, out of wisdom, first of all did not set himself in the common ranks of those who sing such tales, but took a road of his own; then, like those who give a good feast on humbler dishes, from small matters he teaches great ones; and having set forth his story, he adds to it the 'do this' or 'do not do this.' Then he laid hold of truthfulness more than the poets do; for they force their own tales to appear plausible, whereas he, by announcing a tale that is false, as everyone knows, speaks truth by the very fact that he does not profess to speak of true things. And the poet, after telling his own tale, leaves it to the sound-minded hearer to examine whether it happened; whereas Aesop, after telling a false tale and adding an admonition, as he does, shows that he has used falsehood for the usefulness of the hearing. There is charm too in his making the dumb creatures pleasanter to men and worthy of their attention; for having from childhood kept company with these tales and been brought up by them out of infancy, we take up opinions about each of the animals — that some are royal, some simple, some clever, some guileless. And the poet, after saying 'many are the shapes of the divine powers' or some such thing, performs his dance and departs; but Aesop, after delivering his tale as an oracle, brings his discourse to a close in the end he had proposed.

"And to me, Menippus, my mother, when I was a mere infant, taught a myth too about the wisdom of Aesop: that Aesop was once a shepherd, and pastured his flock by a temple of Hermes, and was in love with wisdom and prayed to him for it. And many others too came to Hermes asking the same — one bringing gold, another silver, another an ivory herald's wand, another kindling some such bright offering; but Aesop was so circumstanced as to have none of such things, and was sparing even of what he had: he poured a libation of milk to him, as much as a ewe gives when milked, and brought a honeycomb to the altar, as much as would fill his hand, and thought to feast him with myrtle-berries too, setting beside them a very few roses or violets. 'For what need is there, Hermes,' he said, 'to weave garlands and neglect the sheep?' And when on the appointed day they came for the distribution of wisdom, Hermes, being eloquent and a god of gain, said: 'Take you philosophy' — to him who had dedicated the most — 'and you, go to the ways of orators' — to the one who had given the second offering — 'and for you there is a place in astronomy, and for you to be a musician, for you to be a poet of heroic measure, and for you of iambic.' But when, eloquent as he was, he had unwittingly used up all the parts of philosophy and had failed to notice that Aesop had fallen out of the reckoning, he remembered the Seasons, by whom he himself had been reared on the heights of Olympus — how, when he was still in swaddling-clothes, they had told him a myth about the cow, the tale which the cow told the man on behalf of herself and of the earth, and how it set him in love with the cattle of Apollo — and from this source he gave mythology to Aesop, as the last thing left in the house of wisdom: 'Take what I learned first.' Thus from this the many shapes of his art came to Aesop, and such was the issue of the matter of mythology. Yet perhaps I have done a foolish thing.

"For having intended to turn you to accounts more in keeping with nature and more true than those which most men sing about Aetna, I have myself been carried off into the praise of myths. Yet the digression has not been graceless; for the myth which we set aside is not of the tales of Aesop, but of the more theatrical kind, which the poets harp upon. For they say that some Typho or Enceladus is bound beneath the mountain, and that, dying hard, he breathes out this fire; but I say that giants did exist, and that in many parts of the earth bodies of this kind are revealed when their tombs are broken open — yet that they did not come to battle with the gods, but perhaps outraged their temples and shrines; while to say that they leapt up against heaven and would not allow the gods to be in it is madness to say and madness to think. Nor let that account, though it seems more reverent, be honoured: that Hephaestus busies himself with smith-work in Aetna, and that some anvil is struck there by him; for there are many other mountains in many parts of the earth that are on fire, and we should never have done in ascribing to them giants and Hephaestuses.

"What then is the cause of such mountains? Earth that yields a mixture of bitumen and sulphur smoulders of itself by nature, but does not yet give out fire; but if it happens to be full of caverns and a breath runs beneath it, it now raises a beacon-flame. And the flame, when it gets the upper hand, like water, flows off the mountains and is poured out over the plains, and a mass of fire moves toward the sea, making outfalls such as rivers do. As for the Region of the Pious, around whom the fire flowed, let some account of it be given here too; but let us hold that for those who do holy deeds all the earth is a safe place, and the sea easy to traverse, not only for those who sail but for those who try to swim." For he always brought his discourses to rest in profitable precepts.

After he had spent in Sicily a time long enough for his purpose, he made his way to Greece about the rising of Arcturus. The voyage being without trouble, he put in at Leucas and said, "Let us leave this ship, for it is not well for her to sail to Achaea." No one heeded the saying except those who knew the man; but he himself, in a Leucadian ship, together with those who wished to sail with him, put in at Lechaeum, while the Syracusan ship sank as she was entering the Crisaean gulf.

Initiated at Athens — and the hierophant who initiated him was the one whom he had himself foretold to the former one — he met also Demetrius the philosopher; for after the affair of Nero's bath and what he said about it, Demetrius lived at Athens so nobly that he did not even leave Greece during the time that Nero was committing his outrages about the games. Demetrius said that he had met Musonius too about the Isthmus, bound and ordered to dig; and that he himself spoke such words of comfort as were fitting, while the other clung to his mattock and struck the earth stoutly, and looking up said, "Do I grieve you, Demetrius, by digging the Isthmus for Greece? But if you had seen me playing the lyre, like Nero, what would you have felt?" And let the sayings of Musonius be passed over, many and more wonderful as they are, lest I should seem to presume upon the man who reported them carelessly.

After Apollonius had wintered among all the Greek sanctuaries, he set out about spring on the road to Egypt, having much rebuked the cities and much advised them, and given praise to many — for he did not refrain from praise whenever anything was soundly done. Going down to the Piraeus, he found a ship lying at anchor under sail, about to put off for Ionia; but the merchant would not allow him to embark, for he was sailing her as his own private vessel. When Apollonius asked what the cargo was, he said, "I am carrying images of the gods to Ionia, some of gold and stone, some of ivory and gold." "To set them up, or what?" "To sell them," he said, "to those who wish to set them up." "Do you fear, then, my good man, lest we plunder the images in the ship?" "It is not that I fear," he said, "but that they should sail with many others and be filled with the company of common men and the kind of life there is on shipboard — that I think a dreadful thing." "And yet, my good fellow" — for you seem to me to be some Athenian — "into the ships which you used against the barbarians, filled though they were with the disorder of sailors, the gods embarked along with you and did not think themselves defiled by you; while you so ignorantly thrust philosophic men from your ship, men in whom the gods most delight — and this when you have made merchandise of the gods themselves? The ancient image-making did not do this, nor did men go round the cities selling the gods, but only bringing their own hands and their stone-cutting and ivory-working tools, and setting beside them the unworked material, they wrought their craft in the very temples; whereas you, like Hyrcanian and Scythian wares — far be it from me to say of what — leading the gods thus into harbours and market-places, think you do nothing impious? And some men too, like gleaners, fasten upon some image of Demeter or Dionysus and say they are fed by the gods whom they carry; but that the gods themselves should be fed, and not even have their fill of this, is a dreadful trafficking — and I would call it folly too, if you fear nothing from it." Having rebuked him thus, he sailed on another ship.

When he had put in at Chios, without even setting foot on land he leapt across to the ship lying near — the ship was being announced for Rhodes — and his companions leapt across too, saying nothing, for their philosophy lay above all in following him in word and deed. Crossing with a favouring wind, he busied himself thus in Rhodes. As he came toward the statue of the Colossus, Damis asked him what he thought greater than that. And he said, "A man who pursues philosophy soundly and without guile." There was at that time staying in Rhodes a flute-player named Canus, who seemed to play the flute best of men. So calling him, Apollonius said, "What does the flute-player accomplish?" "Everything," he said, "that the hearer wishes." "And yet," he said, "many of those who hear wish rather to be rich than to hear the flute. Do you then make rich those whom you perceive to desire this?" "By no means," he said, "as I should wish." "What then? Do you make beautiful the young among your hearers? Since all those who are in their youth wish to seem fair." "Not this either," he said, "though there is the most of love in the flute." "What then is it," he said, "that you think the hearer wishes?" "What else," said Canus, "than that the grieving man should have his grief lulled to sleep by the flute, that the joyful should become more cheerful than himself, the lover warmer, and the lover of sacrifice more inspired and full of hymns?" "This then, Canus," he said, "does the flute itself accomplish, because it is composed of gold and orichalc and the shin-bone of deer — and some are of asses' bones — or is it something else that has this power?" "Something else, Apollonius," he said; "for music, and the modes, and the mingling and the ready variety of the playing, and the characters of the harmonies — these fit the hearers and make their souls such as they wish." "I understand, Canus," he said, "what your art accomplishes; for its variety and its reaching out to every mood, this you practise and supply to those who come to you. But to me the flute seems to need other things besides what you have said: good breath, good lip, and a deft hand in the player. There is good breath when the breath is clear and pure and the throat does not strike against it — for that is like an unmusical sound; good lip, when the lips, set against the flute's tongue, play without the face being puffed out; and the deft-handed player I hold of great worth, when neither the wrist gives out as it bends back, nor the fingers are slow to fly upon the notes — for the quick change from mode to mode belongs more to the deft-handed. If then you supply all these, play with confidence, Canus, for Euterpe will be with you."

There was also a certain young man, newly rich and uneducated, who was building himself a house in Rhodes and bringing into it varied paintings and stones from all nations. So Apollonius asked him how much money he had spent on teachers and education; and he said, "Not even a drachma." "And on the house, how much?" "Twelve talents," he said, "and I would spend as much again." "And what," he said, "does the house mean for you?" "It will be a splendid way of living for the body," he said, "for there are running-tracks in it and groves, and I shall walk but a little to the market-place, and those who come in will address me with more pleasure, as though resorting to a temple." "And are men more to be envied," he said, "for themselves, or for the things about them?" "For their wealth," he said, "for money has the greatest power." "And of money, young man," he said, "which is the better guardian — the educated man or the uneducated?" And when he was silent, Apollonius said, "You seem to me, young man, not to possess the house, but the house to possess you. As for me, on entering a temple, I should far rather see in it, though small, an image of ivory and gold, than in a great one an image of clay and worthless."

Seeing a young man, fat and proud of eating most of all men and drinking most wine, he said, "Are you then the man who stuffs himself?" "Yes," he said, "and I sacrifice for it." "And what have you got from this gluttony?" "To be wondered at and gazed upon; for perhaps you have heard of Heracles, how his eating was sung of like his labours." "That was because it was Heracles," he said; "but of you, you offscouring, what virtue is there? For the only way left for you to be gazed at is to burst."

Such were his doings in Rhodes; and now those in Alexandria, after he sailed in. Even while he was absent Alexandria loved and longed for Apollonius, as one man for another; and upper Egypt too, being full of theology, prayed that he would visit their lands. For since many came from there to Egypt and many mingled here from Egypt, Apollonius was sung of among them, and the ears of the Egyptians were pricked up toward him. As he advanced from the ship to the city, they looked upon him as upon a god, and gave way in the narrow streets, as to those who carry the holy things. As he was being escorted with more pomp than the governors of the nations, men were being led off to death, twelve in number, charged with brigandage; and looking at them he said, "Not all of them; for this man here has been falsely accused and will go free." And to the executioners by whom they were led he said, "I bid you slacken your pace and come more slowly to the pit, and to kill this man last, for he has no part in the charge; you would do a holier thing to spare these men a small part of a day — men whom it were better not to put to death at all." And meanwhile he lingered over what he was saying, drawing out a length not usual with him. What he intended by this was at once shown: for when eight had already had their heads cut off, a horseman riding to the pit cried out, "Spare Pharion! For he is no brigand, but accused himself falsely for fear of the rack, and when others were tortured he was acknowledged a good man." I pass over the leaping of Egypt for joy, and how they applauded at this — though they are in any case prone to wonder.

When he had gone up into the temple, the order about it and the account given of each thing seemed to him divine and composed according to wisdom; but the blood of bulls and the geese and all that was sacrificed — these things he did not approve, nor did he bring them to the feasts of the gods. When the priest asked him why he learned not to sacrifice thus, Apollonius said, "Do you rather answer me: why have you learned to sacrifice thus?" And when the priest said, "And who is so clever as to set right the customs of the Egyptians?" he said, "Every wise man, if he comes from the Indians." "And I shall roast a bull today," he said, "and do you share the smoke with us; for you will not grieve over your portion, if the gods too shall feast on it." When the figure of the victim was melting, he said, "Look at the sacred signs." "What signs?" said the Egyptian. "For I see nothing here." And Apollonius said, "Then the Iamidae, my good man, and the Telliadae and the Clytiadae, and the oracle of the Melampodidae, talked nonsense, saying so much about fire and gathering so many prophecies from it? Or do you hold the fire from pine and that from cedar prophetic and able to declare something, but the fire kindled from the richest and purest of tears not far more to be chosen? But if you were skilled in the wisdom of fire, you would see many things revealed even in the disk of the sun, when it rises."

With these words he checked the Egyptian as ignorant of divine things. And since Alexandria is devoted to horses and gathers to the hippodrome for that spectacle, while the people murder one another over it, he made a rebuke concerning this; and coming into the temple he said: "How long will you go on dying, not for children nor for sanctuaries, but so as to defile the temples by coming to them full of slaughter, and to perish within the walls? One horse, it seems, sacked Troy, which the Achaeans contrived in those days; but against you chariots and horses are yoked, through which you cannot live in good order. You perish, then, not at the hands of the sons of Atreus, nor of the sons of Aeacus, but at one another's — a thing not even the Trojans did in their drunkenness. At Olympia, where there are prizes for wrestling and boxing and the pancratium, no one ever died for the athletes, though pardon might exist if a man were over-zealous about his own kinsman; but here, over horses, you draw naked swords against one another, and stones are ready to be thrown. Fire upon such a city, where there is wailing and outrage of men slaying and slain, and the earth runs with blood! Have respect for the Nile, the common mixing-bowl of Egypt. But why do I mention the Nile to men who measure out the risings of blood rather than of water?" And he discoursed many other things in this rebuke, as Damis instructs us.

When Vespasian was meditating the imperial power about the nations bordering on Egypt, and was advancing upon Egypt, Dio and Euphrates — of whom a little later — bade men rejoice. For after the first emperor, by whom the affairs of the Romans were set in order, tyrannies so harsh prevailed for fifty years that not even Claudius, who ruled the middle thirteen of them, seemed good; though he came to power at fifty, when men's minds are most sound, and seemed to love all learning. Yet he too, at that age, suffered many childish things, and gave up his rule as a pasture to women, by whom he so carelessly died that, foreknowing as he did what he was to suffer, he did not guard even against what he had foreknown. Apollonius, like Euphrates and Dio, rejoiced at these things, but did not make a public exercise of them, holding such a manner of speech too rhetorical for all men; and as the emperor approached, the sacred things met him before the gates, and the revenues of Egypt and the nomes by which Egypt is divided, and the philosophers likewise and all wisdom. But Apollonius busied himself with none of these, but applied himself to the temple. When the emperor had spoken nobly and gently and gone through a discourse not long, he said, "Is the Tyanean staying here?" "Yes," they said, "and he has made us better." "How then might he meet with us?" he said; "for I greatly need the man." "He will meet you about the temple," said Dio; "for to me, when I came here, he agreed to this." "Let us go," said the king, "to pray to the gods and to be in the company of a noble man." From this arose a story that the empire entered his thoughts while he was besieging Solyma, and that he summoned Apollonius for counsel about it, but that Apollonius refused to come to a land which its inhabitants had defiled both by what they had done and by what they had suffered; and that therefore the emperor himself came to Egypt, having already won the empire, to discourse with the man on the matters I shall relate.

For after sacrificing, and before he had yet dealt with the cities as their worth required, he addressed Apollonius, and as if praying to him said, "Make me king." And he said, "I have made you so; for when I prayed already for a king who should be just and noble and temperate, adorned with grey hairs and the father of true-born children, it was surely you that I asked from the gods." The king was overjoyed at this, for the crowd in the temple cried out, agreeing with the saying; and he said, "What did the rule of Nero seem to you?" And Apollonius said, "Nero knew, perhaps, how to tune a lyre, but he disgraced the empire by slackening and tightening it." "Do you bid the ruler, then, keep the mean?" "Not I," he said, "but God, who has defined equality as the mean. And good counsellors in these matters are these men too" — pointing to Dio and Euphrates, who had not yet come to disagreement with him. Then the king, raising his hands, said, "O Zeus, may I rule over the wise, and the wise over me." And turning to the Egyptians he said, "Draw from me as from the Nile."

So Egypt revived in this way, men being already worn out by what oppressed them. And coming down from the temple he joined his hand to Apollonius, and leading him into the palace said, "Perhaps I seem childish to some in laying hold of empire about the sixtieth year of my life; so I will give a defence, that you may make my defence to others. For I have never, even as a youth, known myself overcome by wealth; and the offices and splendours that belong to the Roman empire I administered so temperately and moderately as to seem neither arrogant nor again cowed. Nor did I meditate any revolution even against Nero; but since he held the empire, even if not according to the laws, yet received it from a man who was emperor, I yielded to him for the sake of Claudius, who appointed me consul and a counsellor of his own. And by Athena, whenever I saw Nero behaving unseemly, the tears fell from me when I considered Claudius, by what a piece of filth the greatest of his possessions had been inherited. But seeing that not even when Nero was got out of the way did men's affairs change for the better, but that the empire fared so dishonourably as to lie at the mercy of Vitellius, I now go against it with confidence: first, because I wish to offer myself to men as one of much worth; and then, because the struggle will be against a man who is besotted. For Vitellius bathes in more perfume than I in water, and seems to me, even if struck with a sword, likely to give out perfume rather than blood; joining wine to wine he is mad; and he plays at dice, fearing lest the counters trip him up, yet over empire he flings the cast in sport; and lying beneath courtesans he assails married women, saying that love mixed with danger is the sweeter. I pass over his more wanton acts, that I may not speak such things before you. May I never look on while Romans are ruled by such a man, but, making the gods my leaders, may I become a man like myself. Therefore from you, Apollonius, I cast my cable; for they say you perceive most of what comes from the gods, and I make you a counsellor of cares on which land and sea depend, that if the signs from the gods appear favourable, I may do these things, but if they are adverse, and not for my good nor the Romans', I may not trouble the gods against their will."

Apollonius, invoking the divine upon his words, said: "O Zeus of the Capitol — for I know you to be the arbiter of present affairs — guard yourself for this man, and this man for yourself; for it is fated that the temple which unjust hands burned yesterday should be raised again for you by this man." When the king marvelled at the saying, he said, "The events themselves will declare it; ask nothing of me, but carry through what you have rightly resolved." Now it had happened at Rome that Domitian, the son of Vespasian, had been drawn up against Vitellius on behalf of his father's empire; and being surrounded by a siege in the Capitol, he had escaped his besiegers, but the temple had been burned — and this appeared to Apollonius much sooner than if it had taken place in Egypt. After such conferences the one departed from the king, saying that the ancestral customs of the Indians did not allow him to do anything at noon other than what they do; while the other glowed yet more brightly and would not let affairs slip from him, but held to what he had heard as things secure and confirmed to him.

On the next day, about dawn, Apollonius came to the palace and asked the guards what the king was doing; and they said he had long been awake and was busy with letters. Hearing this he went away, saying to Damis, "The man will rule." Returning about sunrise he found Dio and Euphrates at the doors, and when they eagerly asked about the meeting he went through the defence which he had heard from the king, but kept silent about his own opinions. Being called in first, he said, "O king, Euphrates and Dio, long known to you, are at the doors, not careless of your affairs; call them in too to the common discussion, for they are wise men." "I keep my doors unbarred to wise men," he said, "and to you my very breast seems to be opened."

When they had been called in, he said, "Concerning my own purpose, gentlemen, I made my defence yesterday to the noble Apollonius." "We heard the defence," said Dio, "and it was sensible." "Today, then, dear Dio," he said, "let us philosophize together about what has been resolved, that I may do all as nobly as may be and for the salvation of men. For when I consider, first, Tiberius, how he turned the empire to inhumanity and cruelty; then Gaius after him, how, raving like a bacchant and aping the Lydian in his dress and winning wars that did not exist, he played the shameful bacchant over all the affairs of the Romans; then the worthy Claudius, how, overcome by women, he forgot to rule, and even to live, for he died at their hands, as they say; and as for Nero, why should I lay hold of him, when Apollonius has uttered a short and pithy saying about the slackening and tightening by which Nero disgraced the empire? And what should I say of the schemes of Galba, who died in the middle of the market-place, adopting as his own sons men who had sold themselves, Otho and Piso? And if we hand the empire to Vitellius, the most wanton of all, Nero will come to life again. Seeing then, gentlemen, that ruling has been brought into ill repute by the tyrannies I have named, I make you my counsellors how I might so dispose of it, now that it has already offended men." To this Apollonius said, "A flute-player of the most skilled used to send his pupils to the baser flute-players to learn how one ought not to play the flute. How one ought not to rule you have learned, O king, from these men who ruled badly; let us now be earnest about how one ought to rule."

Now Euphrates was already secretly envious of Apollonius, seeing the king attached to him more than those who come to the oracles are attached to them; and swelling beyond measure then, and raising his voice beyond his wont, he said: "We must not flatter men's impulses, nor be foolishly carried away with those who do anything contrary to the rein, but bring them into order, if indeed we are philosophers. For what ought to have been shown by deliberating whether it is fitting to do at all, you bid us discuss the manner in which it is to be done, not having yet learned whether deliberation is even in place. I bid Vitellius be overthrown, for I know the man to be foul and drunk with every wantonness; but you, whom I know to be a good man and pre-eminent in nobility, I say ought not to set right the affairs of Vitellius while not yet knowing your own. As for the outrages of monarchies, you need not learn them from me, for you have said them yourself; but you would know that youth leaping upon tyranny does something suited to it, for to be a tyrant is as natural to the young as to be drunk or to be in love; and a young man who has been a tyrant is not yet wicked, even if he seem murderous in the course of his tyranny, and cruel and wanton; but for an old man coming to tyranny the first charge is that he wished for such things. For even if he appear humane and orderly, men do not credit this to him, but to his age and to his being settled; and he will seem to have desired this long ago and to have erred while still young. And such errors lie close to misfortune, and close to cowardice; for a man seems either to have despaired of his own fortune, the design to be a tyrant being already in his mind, or to have given way to another who wished to be a tyrant, fearing him, no doubt, as a man. Let the matter of misfortune be passed over; but how will you escape the charge of cowardice, seeming as you do to have feared Nero, the most cowardly and idle of men? For the things which Vindex devised against him called you first, by Heracles. For you had an army, and the force you were leading against the Jews was the better fitted to punish Nero; for they have long ago revolted not only from the Romans but from all mankind. For men who have found out a life unsociable, and who share with men neither a common table nor libations nor prayers nor sacrifices, are further from us than Susa and Bactra and the Indians beyond them; so that it was not even reasonable to punish those who revolted, whom it were better not even to have acquired. But who would not have prayed to slay Nero with his own hand, a man all but drinking the blood of men and singing in the midst of slaughter? Yet my ears were pricked up toward the reports about you; and whenever anyone came from there saying that thirty thousand Jews had perished at your hands, and fifty thousand in the next battle, I took the newcomer aside and asked him measuredly, 'And the man? Nothing greater than this?' But since, making Vitellius an image of Nero, you march against him — what you have resolved, do, for these things too are noble; but for what comes after, let it be thus. To Romans the rule of the people is of great worth, and many of their possessions were gained under that polity. Put an end to monarchy, of which you have spoken such things, and give the Romans the power of the people, and to yourself the glory of having begun their freedom."

When Euphrates had said so much, Apollonius, seeing Dio assent to the opinion — for he showed this both by his nod and by his praise as the other spoke — said, "Do you, Dio, add anything to what has been said?" "Yes, by Zeus," he said; "in part the same, in part not the same. For that he would have been far better overthrowing Nero than setting right the affairs of the Jews, I think has been said by me too to you; but you seemed to make it a contest that Nero should never be overthrown, for he who set in good order the disorder of his affairs strengthened the man, no doubt, against all whom he was wickedly strong against. But the impulse against Vitellius I praise; for I hold it a greater thing than to put an end to an established tyranny not even to let one come to birth. As for democracy, I welcome it — for even if this polity is inferior to aristocracy, yet it is to be chosen by sober men above tyrannies and oligarchies — but I fear lest these tyrannies, having already made the Romans tractable, may make the change a hard one, and lest they prove unable either to live freely or to look up to democracy, like men who from darkness look at sudden light. Therefore I say that Vitellius must be thrust out of affairs, and let this be done as quickly and as well as may be; but it seems to me that you should prepare as if to make war, yet not proclaim war upon him, but punishment, unless he give up the empire; and when you have taken him — and this I think will be within your power even without effort — give the Romans the choice of their own polity, and if they choose democracy, grant it; for this will be greater for you than many tyrannies and many Olympiads, and everywhere you will be inscribed in the city, everywhere you will stand in bronze, and you will give us themes for discourse to which neither Harmodius nor Aristogeiton will be compared. But if they accept monarchy, to whom else but you will all vote the rule? For what you already hold and would surrender to the commonwealth, they will surely give to you rather than to another."

There was silence at this, and the king's face showed the struggle of his judgement, since, after dealing and acting in all things like an emperor, he seemed to be drawn away from this resolve. And Apollonius said: "You seem to me to err in unmaking a king about matters already resolved, falling into a chatter that is childish and more idle than the occasion. For if you were counsellors to me, who possessed power as great as his and was deliberating what good I might do men, the discourse would go forward with you — for the opinions of philosophers set right the philosophers among their hearers; but for men giving counsel to a consul, accustomed to rule, and to whom it is a thing prepared, once he falls from rule, to perish — what need to rebuke him, if he does not thrust away the gifts of fortune, but receives them as they come, and deliberates how he may use temperately what he has? Just as, then, if seeing an athlete fitted out with courage and stature and a frame harmonious for the purpose, walking through Arcadia already on his way to Olympia, we should come up and strengthen him against his adversaries, yet bid him, when he has won the Olympia, not to be proclaimed victor, nor to put his head beneath the wild-olive — we should be thought to talk nonsense, or to make sport of other men's toils — so, considering this man, and how great the spear-point about him, how great the bronze that flashes, how great the multitude of horses, and himself, how noble and temperate and fitted to hold what he purposes, let us send him to what he has set out for, speaking auspicious words to him and enjoining things more reverent than these. For you have not even considered this: that he is the father of two sons who already command armies, and whom, if he does not hand over the empire, he will have as bitterest foes; and what then remains but that he be at war with his own house? But if he takes up the empire, he will be tended by his own sons, and will be supported by them, and the sons by him, and he will use as his guards — no, by Zeus, not hired men, nor men forced, nor men feigning a kindly face, but his most intimate and dearest. For my part I care for no polity, for I live under the gods; but I do not think it right that the flock of mankind should perish for want of a herdsman just and temperate. For just as one man pre-eminent in virtue changes democracy so that it appears the rule of a single best man, so the rule of one man, looking to the advantage of all in common, is the people. 'You did not overthrow Nero,' he says. And did you, Euphrates? Or Dio? Or I? Yet no one rebukes us for this, nor thinks us cowards, if, when philosophic men have already brought down countless tyrannies, we were left behind in seeming to do something for freedom. And yet, so far as in me lay, I did set myself in array against Nero, having both maliciously argued and checked the most savage Tigellinus to his face; and what I did about the western regions to help Vindex was surely a fortifying against Nero. But neither for these things will I say that I overthrew the tyrant, nor will I hold you, because you did not do them, softer than befits philosophy. A philosophic man, then, will speak what comes into his mind, and will do it, I think, taking care not to say anything foolish or mad; but a consul who purposes to overthrow a tyrant needs first more counsel, that he may come at affairs from concealment; then a fitting pretext, that he may not seem to break his oath. For if against the very man who declared him general, and to whom he swore to counsel and do the best, he should mean to use arms, he must first surely make his defence to the gods, that he breaks his oath with holiness; and he needs more friends — for one ought not to do such things unfenced and unguarded — and money as much as possible, that he may win over the forces, and this when he sets upon a man possessed of all that is upon the earth. What delay there is about these things, what time! And these matters take as you will, for let us not come to a testing of what this man, as is likely, devised, but which fortune brought to pass for him without even his striving. But to this, what will you say? The man who yesterday ruled, and was crowned by the cities in the sanctuaries here, and transacted business splendidly and lavishly — this man you bid proclaim publicly today that he is henceforth a private man and came to empire out of madness? For just as, in carrying out what was resolved, he will set beside himself ready guards in whom he trusted when he devised it, so, in coming to change what was decided, he will have for an enemy the man thenceforth distrusted."

The king, hearing this gladly, said, "If you had dwelt in my own soul, you could not have reported so clearly what I had in mind. I follow you, then, for I hold everything from you divine; and teach me all that a good king ought to do." And Apollonius said, "You ask me things not to be taught; for kingship is the greatest of human things, but not to be taught. Yet what seems to me that you would do soundly in doing, I will tell you. Hold not that wealth which is laid away — for how is this better than sand brought together from anywhere? — nor that which comes from men who lament their contributions; for gold is base and black when it comes from tears. You would use wealth best of kings by relieving those in need, and by making secure the wealth of those who possess much. Fear the power to do whatever you wish, for so you will use it more temperately. Do not cut the high ears of corn that overtop the rest — the saying of Aristotle is unjust — but rather root out disaffection, as thorns from the crops; and be terrible to those who plot revolution, not in punishing, but in being ready to punish. Let the law, O king, rule even you; for you will legislate more soberly if you do not despise the laws. Serve the gods more than before; for you have received great things from them, and pray for great things. The things that belong to your office, do as a king; the things of the body, as a private man. About dice and drunkenness and loves and the ill repute that goes with such things, what should I advise you, who they say did not approve them even in youth? You have two sons, O king, and noble ones, they say. Rule these above all, for their faults will surely bring reproach on you. Let there be too a threat against them, that you will not hand over the empire to them unless they remain good and noble men, that they may hold the empire not an inheritance but the prize of virtue. The pleasures that are at home in Rome — and they are many — it seems to me, O king, that you should check in measure, for it is hard to change a people to sobriety all at once, but one must little by little work rhythm into their minds, setting some things right openly and some in secret. From the freedmen and slaves whom your office gives you, let us take away luxury, training them to think the more humbly in proportion as they are the slaves of a greater master. What remains but to speak about the governors who go out to the nations? — not those whom you yourself will send, for you will give the offices by merit, but those who will obtain the rule by lot. Of these I say you must send each man suited to the nations he has drawn by lot, so far as the lot allows: men who Hellenize to rule Greeks, men who Romanize to rule those of like tongue and speech. And whence this came into my mind, I will tell you. In the time when I lived in the Peloponnese, the governor of Greece was a man who knew nothing of Greek affairs, and the Greeks understood nothing of his; so he both deceived and was deceived in most things, for his assessors and partners in the judgement in the courts trafficked in the lawsuits, having got the governor in their grip like a slave. These things came to my mind today, O king; but if anything else should occur to me, we shall come together again. Now do the things that belong to your office, lest you seem too idle to your subjects."

Euphrates said, "I consent to what has been resolved; for what more should I accomplish by trying to unteach it? But philosophy, O king — this last word I shall add — the philosophy that is according to nature, praise and welcome; but that which claims to invoke the gods, decline, for by lying much about the divine they puff us up with foolish things." This was said by him against Apollonius; but Apollonius, not at all moved, departed with his own acquaintances, having finished his business. And when Euphrates wished to say something more insolent about him, the king understood, and putting him off said, "Call in those who have business with the empire, and let the council resume its own form." So Euphrates, without knowing it, discredited himself, for he seemed to the king both envious and insolent; and his words on behalf of democracy he was thought to have spoken not as he believed, but in contradiction of Apollonius, because of the views the other held about empire. Yet the king did not cast him off, nor show any anger at this. And Dio he did not praise for siding with him, yet did not cease to love him; for he seemed pleasant in discourse and avoided wrangling, and showed a grace upon his words, such as breathes from the vapour about the sanctuaries, and he had besides the gift of improvising best of men. But Apollonius the king not only loved but submitted to him as he recounted ancient things, and told of the Indian Phraotes, and described the rivers and the beasts by which India is inhabited, and foretold all that the gods revealed about the empire. As he was setting out from Egypt, now settled and growing young again, he made Apollonius his companion of the road; but Apollonius did not think well of this, for he had not yet seen the whole of Egypt, nor had he come into discourse with the Naked Sages, being very eager to match the wisdom of Egypt against that of India. "Nor," he said, "have I drunk of the Nile where it begins." So the king, understanding that he was setting out for Ethiopia, said, "And of us will you keep no memory?" "Yes, by Zeus," he said, "if you remain a good king and keep memory of yourself."

After this the king, having sacrificed in the temple, publicly proclaimed gifts to him. And Apollonius, as though he would ask for some, said, "And what gifts, O king, will you give?" "Ten now," he said, "and when I come to Rome, all that is mine." And Apollonius said, "Then I ought to spare what is yours as my own, and not waste now what will be laid up for me all together; but rather attend to these men, O king, for they seem to be in need." And he pointed to those about Euphrates. The king bade them ask with confidence; and Dio, blushing, said, "Reconcile me, O king, with Apollonius my teacher, concerning the things in which I seemed to contradict him, never before having contradicted the man." So the king, praising him, said, "This I asked yesterday, and it is granted; but ask for a gift." And Dio said, "Lasthenes is from Apamea among the Bithynian people, and while philosophizing with me he fell in love with the cloak and the soldier's life; this man, since he says he is again in love with the philosopher's mantle, release from his military service — he himself asks this. You will gratify me by making him a good man, and him by letting him live as he wishes." "Let him be released," he said; "and I give him the privileges of those who have served, since he loves wisdom and loves you." After him he turned to Euphrates, who had drawn up a letter about what he wished to ask. He held out the letter, as though for the king to read it by himself; but the king, wishing to give occasion against him, read it publicly before all; and it appeared that he was asking some things for himself, some for others, and of the gifts some were money, some in place of money. So Apollonius laughed and said, "Then it was you who counselled democracy, when you meant to ask a king for so much?"

Such, then, I found to be the matter of the quarrel that arose between Apollonius and Euphrates; and when the king had set out, they laid hold of one another openly — Euphrates with anger and abuse, Apollonius again philosophically and rather with refutation. As for all that he charged against Euphrates, as acting unbecomingly for philosophy, it is possible to learn from his letters to him, for they are many; but I must keep off the man, for I did not set out to slander him, but to hand down the life of Apollonius to those who do not yet know it. As for the story told about the cudgel — it is said that Euphrates raised it against Apollonius as he was speaking, but did not bring it down — most attribute this to the formidable nature of the man who was to be struck, but I to the reflection of the man who was to strike, through which he became stronger than an anger that had already won the day.

The philosophy of Dio seemed to Apollonius too rhetorical and contrived rather for delight; and so, setting him right, he says, "Charm with flute and lyre rather than with speech," and in many places of his letters to Dio he rebukes this demagoguery.

As for his not coming again to the king, nor consorting with him after Egypt, though the king called him and wrote much about it, I wish to make clear how it came about. Nero had set Greece free, having taken a wiser resolve than was his wont, and the cities returned to Dorian and Attic ways, and all things grew young again in concord among the cities, which not even of old had Greece possessed. But Vespasian, when he came, took this from her, alleging factions and other things not deserving of so great a wrath. This seemed bitter, not only to those who suffered, but also to Apollonius, as beyond the character of his kingship; whence he wrote to the king thus: "Apollonius to the Emperor Vespasian, greeting. You have enslaved Greece, they say, and you think you have something more than Xerxes; but you have failed to see that you have less than Nero. For Nero, having it in his power, gave it up. Farewell." To the same: "Having shown yourself so ill-disposed toward the Greeks as to enslave free men, what need have you of my company? Farewell." To the same: "Nero in sport set the Greeks free, but you in earnest have enslaved them. Farewell." Such were the things that estranged Vespasian from Apollonius; but hearing that he ordered well all his rule thereafter, he was plainly glad, and thought it a good thing done for himself.

This too seemed a marvel of Apollonius in Egypt. A man was leading a tame lion by a leash, like a dog, and the lion fawned not only on the man who led it, but on whoever approached; and it begged in many of the cities, and was admitted even into the temples because it was clean — for it neither licked up the blood of the victims, nor sprang upon the flayed and dismembered offerings, but was fed on honey-cakes and bread and sweetmeats and boiled meats; and one might meet with it drinking wine too without departing from its nature. Coming to Apollonius as he sat in the temple, it whined at his knees and entreated him beyond all men, as most thought, for the sake of a fee; but Apollonius said, "The lion begs me to teach you whose soul of a man it has. It is Amasis, the king of Egypt about the Saite nome." And when the lion heard this, it roared piteously and mournfully, and lamented, crouching down, shedding tears. So Apollonius, stroking it, said, "It seems best to me to send the lion to Leontopolis, to be dedicated to the temple; for I do not think it right that a king, changed into the most kingly of beasts, should beg, like the poor among men." Thereupon the priests came together and sacrificed to Amasis, and adorning the beast with a collar and fillets escorted it into Egypt, piping and singing hymns and chanting over it.

When he had had enough of Alexandria, he set out for Egypt and Ethiopia, to consort with the Naked Sages. Menippus, since he was now among the company of those who could discourse and was formidable in using frank speech, he left there as a match for Euphrates; and Dioscorides, seeing him not strongly disposed toward the journey, he excused from the road. The rest he gathered together — for after those who had left him about Aricia, more others had joined — and went through with them about the journey, beginning thus: "I have need, gentlemen, of an Olympic proclamation toward you. An Olympic proclamation would be of this kind. The Eleans train the athletes, when the Olympia come, for thirty days in Elis itself; and gathering them — as the Delphian does at the Pythia, and the Corinthian at the Isthmia — they say, 'Go to the stadium, and be men such as to conquer'; but the Eleans, when they go to Olympia, address the athletes thus: 'If you have toiled worthily of coming to Olympia, and have wrought nothing idle or ignoble, go with confidence; but those of you who have not so trained, depart wherever you wish.'" The disciples understood the saying, and about twenty remained with Menippus; the rest, ten, I think, in number, having prayed to the gods and sacrificed as it were the offerings for embarking on a voyage, went straight toward the pyramids mounted on camels, keeping the Nile on their right. In many places too the river was crossed by them for the study of all that is in it; for neither city nor temple nor any of the precincts throughout Egypt did they pass by in silence, but always learning and teaching some sacred discourses; and the ship which Apollonius boarded was like a sacred vessel.