SOURCE: Bowie, Ewen Lyall. “Apollonius of Tyana: Tradition and Reality.” Aufstieg und Niedergang der Romischen Welt 2, no. 16, 2 (1978): 1652-71.

In the following excerpt, Bowie asserts that although Philostratus's work is a primary source of information on Apollonius of Tyana, the writer altered and amplified the subject of his biography, and therefore, the information contained in this text must be studied with discrimination.

Modern accounts of Apollonius of Tyana are necessarily dominated by the biographic work of Philostratus¹. Earlier independent testimony is exiguous, and much of the later tradition in antiquity betrays the influence of his work. But it is clear that the sophist Philostratus has greatly altered and amplified the picture of a Cappadocian magician such as must have been presented to him by part at least of his material: investigators of Apollonius must try to determine how much belongs to the first century character and how much is...