Search

Sossianus Hierocles, governor of Bithynia and adviser of the emperor Dio­cletian, at the beginning of the “great persecution” of the Christians published his propagandistic writing under the title The Lover of Truth, in which he drew a comparison between Apollonius of Tyana and Christ. In the apologetic treatise of Eusebius of Caesarea Against Hierocles we find a statement, that this compari­son was something new in the hitherto existing attacks of the pagan intellectuals on Christianity and demanded a polemic response from the Christian part. Mod­ern studies regarding the works of Porphyry, famous enemy of the Christians and exponent of the Neo-Platonic philosophy, seem to indicate that even before Hie­rocles the personage of Apollonius was used in the anti-Christian polemics and was confronted with Christ. The present article try to explain, what the originality of Hierocles’ comparison, testified by Eusebius, consisted in.

In the period of the growing importance of Christianity the pagan culture put forward Apollonius of Tyana as its eminent representative and a rival of Christ. At the beginning of the “great persecution” of the Christians Sossianus Hierocles, a high official in the administration of Diocletian, published his anti-Christian tract called The Lover of Truth, in which he drew a formal comparison between Apollonius and Christ. This way he tried to exalt Apollonius and the authors of the stories about him and the followers of the pagan culture. On the other hand he wanted to humiliate Christ and his apostles and all the Christians. Eusebius of Caesarea, the Christian historian, wrote a treatise in answer, in which he submitted the imagine of Apollonius, used by Hierocles in his anti- Christian propaganda, to a critical examination. His historical and philosophical critique reverses the objections of the adversary and shows some elements of pa­gan culture, represented by Apollonius, which should pass away.

The apologetic treatise Against Hierocles is a polemical reply of Eusebius of Caesarea to an antichristian work of Sossianus Hierocles who drew a comparison between Apollonius of Tyana and Christ. The philosophical aspect of the Euse­bius’ polemics contains his critique of the image of Apollonius as a „divine man” in the Philostratus’ The Life of Apollonius of Tyana. Eusebius negates the alleged divinity of the hero of Philostratus on the ground of the providential conception of the world, according to which human nature, in virtue of the order established by the Providence, is not able to rise to divine because of its limits. An approach of both natures is possible solely through a mission of a being that belongs to the heavenly sphere and is illuminated and sent by God. Only the envoy of heavens, who brings the salvation to the whole human race and leaves „the effects of eter­nal divinity” to people, can be really considered divine.