Philostratus
Philostratus, was the name of several, three (or four), Greek
sophists of the
Roman imperial period:
- Philostratus "the Athenian" (c. 170-245)\n#his nephew (?) Philostratus "of Lemnos" (born c. 190)\n#a grandson (?) of (2)
Of these the most famous is Philostratus "the Athenian," author of the
Life of Apollonius Tyana, which he dedicated to
Julia Domna, wife of
Septimius Severus and mother of
Caracalla (see
Apollonius of Tyana). He wrote also
Lives of the Sophists,
Gymnasticus and
Epistolae (mainly of an erotic character).
Very little is known of his career. Even his name is doubtful. The
Lives of the Sophists gives the praenomen
Flavius, which, however, is found elsewhere only in Tzetzes.
Eunapius and
Synesius call him a Lemnian;
Photius a
Tyrian; his letters refer to him as an Athenian. It is probable that he was born in
Lemnos, studied and taught at
Athens, and then settled in Rome (where he would naturally be called atheniensis) as a member of the learned circle with which Julia Domna surrounded herself.
He was born probably in
172, and is said by the
Suda to have been living in the reign of
Philip (
244 -
249). The fact that the author of
Apollonius is also the author of the
Lives of the Sophists is confirmed by internal evidence. The latter is dedicated to a consul Antonius Gordianus, perhaps one of the two
Gordians who were killed in
238. The work is divided into two parts: the first dealing with the ancient Sophists, e.g.
Gorgias, the second with the later school, e.g. Herodes Atticus.
The Lives are not in the true sense biographical, but rather picturesque impressions of leading representatives of an attitude of mind full of curiosity, alert and versatile, but lacking scientific method, preferring the external excellence of style and manner to the solid achievements of serious writing. The
philosopher, as he says, investigates truth; the sophist embellishes it, and takes it for granted. The
Gymnasticus contains interesting matter concerning the
Olympic games and athletic contests generally. The Letters breathe the spirit of the New Comedy and the Alexandrine
poets; portions of Letter 33 are almost literally translated in
Ben Jonson's
Song to Celia, "Drink to me only with thine eyes."
The
Heroicus, formerly attributed to
Philostratus the Athenian, is probably the work of
Philostratus the Lemnian. It is a popular disquisition on the heroes of the
Trojan War in the form of a conversation between a
Thracian vine-dresser on the shore of the
Hellespont and a
Phoenician merchant who derives his knowledge from the hero
Protesilaus,
Palamedes is exalted at the expense of
Odysseus, and
Homer's unfairness to him is attacked. It has been suggested that Philostratus is here describing a series of heroic paintings in the palace of Julia Domna. His other work is the
Imagines, ostensibly a description of 64 pictures in a
Neapolitan gallery.
Goethe,
Welcker, Brunn, E. Bertrand and Helbig, among others, have held that the descriptions are of actually existing works of art, while Heyne and Friederichs deny this. In any case they are interesting as showing the way in which ancient artists treated mythological and other subjects, and are written with artistic knowledge and in attractive language This work is imitated by the third Philostratus (or by some later sophist) of whose descriptions of pictures 17 remain.
There is great difficulty, due to a confused statement of the
Suda in disentangling the works and even the personalities of these Philostrati. Reference is there made to Philostratus as the son of Verus, a rhetorician in
Nero's time, who wrote tragedies, comedies and treatises. The
Suda thus appears to give to Philostratus the Athenian a life of 200 years! We must be content to assume two Lemnian Philostrati, both sophists, living in
Rome.
Category:Ancient Rome
