SOURCE: Conybeare, F. C. “Introduction.” In The Life of Apollonius of Tyana: The Epistles of Apollonius and the Treatise of Eusebius, by Philostratus, translated by F. C. Conybeare, pp. vii-xvii. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1912.

In the following essay, an introduction to his translation of Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Conybeare summarizes the work and evaluates the veracity of Philostratus's account.

The Life of Apollonius of Tyana has only been once translated in its entirety into English, as long ago as the year 1811, by an Irish clergyman of the name of E. Berwick. It is to be hoped therefore that the present translation will be acceptable to the English reading public; for there is in it much that is very good reading, and it is lightly written. Of its author, Philostratus, we do not know much apart from his own works, from which we may gather that...