Against Hierocles

Contents

Reading pages: 369–385 · 386–401 · 402–413

1. 369Eusebius proposes to examine only Hierocles' comparison of Apollonius of Tyana with Christ, since the rest of his Lover of Truth was borrowed and already refuted by Origen against Celsus.
2. 370Eusebius quotes Hierocles' claim that Apollonius of Tyana, a man of Nero's time, worked many wonders greater than those told of Jesus.
3. 371Eusebius quotes Hierocles' contrast between the uneducated apostles and the learned biographers of Apollonius, and describes the sources of Philostratus's Life of Apollonius.
4. 372Eusebius lists the proofs of Christ's superiority, prophecy, disciples, teaching, the conversion of the world, triumph over persecution and the expulsion of demons, which he will not even seek in Apollonius.
5. 373Eusebius states his own moderate view: Apollonius may be counted among philosophers, but if his biographers make him more than a philosopher, he will be shown a sorcerer.
6. 374Eusebius argues that nature has fixed limits for every kind, so that no man can go beyond the human condition.
7. 375Eusebius argues that the divine nature may come down to men in its goodness, and that one sent from God would enlighten the world and leave lasting works.
8. 376Eusebius demands that if Apollonius was divine, his biographer show it consistently and in lasting works, and begins to examine the story of his birth.
9. 377Eusebius collects the claims of Philostratus that Apollonius was divine, knew all languages untaught and ascended bodily, and asks why he was then sent to a teacher.
10. 378Eusebius points out that Philostratus has Apollonius taught by rhetoricians, philosophers and Arabs who learned animal speech by eating serpents' hearts, contrary to his supposed innate knowledge and Pythagorean diet.
11. 379Eusebius notes that Philostratus has Apollonius study privately with the Magi and claim the wisdom of Pythagoras, though his Pythagorean teacher was an Epicurean in practice.
12. 380Eusebius argues that no Pythagorean ever claimed converse with the gods, so that either Apollonius's teachers or his divinity must be a fiction.
13. 381Eusebius is willing to accept the credible human traits of Apollonius, his family, sensible cures, temperance and Pythagorean silence.
14. 382Eusebius points out that Apollonius allowed Damis to eat meat contrary to Pythagoras, and that he who understood all languages needed an interpreter in India.
15. 383Eusebius mocks Apollonius, who knew men's thoughts yet needed an interpreter and was surprised that the Indian king spoke Greek, and begins to discuss his judgment about a found treasure.
16. 384Eusebius shows that Apollonius's judgment makes wealth the sign of divine favour, and turns to Philostratus's marvels of the Brahmans in the third book.
17. 385Eusebius recounts the marvels on the way to the Brahmans and the throne of Iarchas, mocking them as fables.
18. 386Eusebius recounts Iarchas's display of foreknowledge and the Brahmans' levitation, self-moving tripods and bronze cupbearers, which Hierocles believes.
19. 387Eusebius mocks the drunken Indian king at the Brahmans' banquet, Iarchas's claim that they are gods, and their talk of former lives.
20. 388Eusebius recounts Apollonius's questions to Iarchas about fabulous creatures and the Brahman's cures, ironically thanking the writer for discrediting his own tales.
21. 389Eusebius exposes the contradiction between Apollonius's secret study with Iarchas, his rings of the stars, and Philostratus's claim that he did not imitate the Brahmans' wonders.
22. 390Eusebius objects that Apollonius begins his wonders only after his foreign schooling, and turns to the sparrow, the plague at Ephesus, and its averting.
23. 391Eusebius ridicules the story of the plague of Ephesus as an old beggar turned dog, arguing that plague is a corruption of the air, and turns to the apparition of Achilles.
24. 392Eusebius mocks Apollonius's trivial questions to Achilles' ghost and asks why the meeting was held secretly at night if it was not necromancy.
25. 393Eusebius argues that Achilles' ghost, which fled at cockcrow and showed anger and spite, was a wicked demon, and dismisses the exorcisms and the raising of the girl at Rome.
26. 394Eusebius notes Philostratus's doubts about the girl's death, the silence of the accuser Euphrates, the Eleusinian priest's refusal, and Philostratus's defence of Apollonius against the charge of sorcery.
27. 395Eusebius shows that Philostratus implicitly calls the Brahmans sorcerers while Apollonius calls them gods and teachers, so that he falls under the same charge.
28. 396Eusebius mocks Apollonius's claim to have made Vespasian king and his commendation of Euphrates, whom he later reviles.
29. 397Eusebius contrasts Apollonius's abuse of Euphrates before Domitian with his earlier praise of him before Vespasian, as a disproof of his foreknowledge.
30. 398Eusebius continues with the talking elm, the satyr, and the cure of the youth bitten by a mad dog, and proposes that every marvel, if true, was worked with a demon's help.
31. 399Eusebius argues that Apollonius's foreknowledge, his meeting with Achilles and his exorcisms came, if real, from demons, and that the girl was not truly raised.
32. 400Eusebius passes to the seventh book: Apollonius's boast of knowing everything, Damis's disguise, and the charges against him at Rome.
33. 401Eusebius recounts the release from the fetter, the trial before Domitian, and Apollonius's disappearance from court, and quotes Damis's remark on the fetter.
34. 402Eusebius argues that Damis's surprise shows Apollonius's earlier marvels were done by magical means, and turns Apollonius's own dilemma to Domitian against him.
35. 403Eusebius shows Apollonius's lack of foreknowledge in his surprise at release and his useless written defence, and quotes his boast to Domitian that he made Vespasian king.
36. 404Eusebius turns Apollonius's definition of sorcerers as false sages against the marvels of his own teachers, and introduces his teaching on the Fates.
37. 405Eusebius quotes Apollonius's doctrine that the Fates are unchangeable and his flattering words to Domitian, contrasting them with his earlier sayings against the emperor.
38. 406Eusebius quotes Apollonius's secret plotting against Domitian and his words to Domitian's statue to show that his later flattery convicts him of servility and his biographers of falsehood.
39. 407Eusebius notes that the people of Lebadea refused Apollonius as a sorcerer, contrasts him with Pythagoras, Democritus and Plato, and turns to the uncertain accounts of his death.
40. 408Eusebius exposes the conflicting accounts of Apollonius's death and bodily ascension, and begins to refute his fatalism from the soul's self-motion and responsibility.
41. 409Eusebius argues that Apollonius's fatalism destroys praise and blame, his own censures of Euphrates and sorcerers, his praise of Pythagoras and the Brahmans, and his preaching of virtue.
42. 410Eusebius asks why a fated Apollonius needed teachers, sacrifices and prayers, and why he could avert a plague against destiny.
43. 411Eusebius shows that fatalism erases all difference between wise and foolish, just and unjust, and proclaims that under God's providence each man is lord of his own choices.
44. 412Eusebius distinguishes what is and is not in our power, declares that the cause of actions lies in choice and not in Fate, and condemns consistent fatalism as atheism and inconsistent fatalism as folly.
45. 413Eusebius concludes that Apollonius may be counted a philosopher if stripped of Philostratus's fables, but that to deify him is only to convict him of sorcery.