Listed 13 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "CENTRAL ASIA MINOR Region TURKEY" .
Ariobarzanes (Old Persian: *Ariyabrdna): Persian nobleman, between 387 and
363/362 satrap op Hellespontine Phrygia. Ariobarzanes was the son of a Persian
nobleman named Pharnabazus, who was satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia, i.e., the
northwest of what is now Turkey.
The family belonged to the highest Persian elite: its founder was
another Pharnaces, who had in the late sixth century been mayor of the palace
of his cousin, king Darius the Great. The descendants of this Pharnaces remained
closely related to the great king: for example, Ariobarzanes' father was married
to a daughter of king Artaxerxes II Mnemon, Apama. (She was not Pharnabazus' first
wife and not Ariobarzanes' mother.)
In 407, Ariobarzanes served as envoy. He had to bring back several
Athenian ambassadors, who had been staying at the satrapal court of his father
at Dascylium, to the coast,
from where they could return to Athens. It seems that in these days, Ariobarzanes
also became friends with Antalcidas, a Spartan nobleman.
His father Pharnabazus played an important role during the so-called
Corinthian war between Sparta and the other Greek towns (395-387). He supported
Sparta, which had to pay for the Persian help: it had to sacrifice the Greek cities
in Asia, which became subjects of the great king. Pharnabazus was rewarded with
another, more important office, and Ariobarzanes succeeded him (387).
The new satrap had good connections with Athens
and Sparta, and when he decided
to revolt -for unknown reasons- against king Artaxerxes II Mnemon in his twentieth
year in office, he received support from both Greek towns. For example, the Spartan
king Agesilaus came to Asia with a mercenary force. Several other satraps sided
with Ariobarzanes: Maussolus of Caria
(briefly), Orontes of Armenia,
Autophradates of Lydia and Datames of Cappadocia.
The rebel satraps also received support from the pharaoh of Egypt,
Teos. In return for the support from Athens, Ariobarzanes presented the Greek
city with Sestos, a town
at the entrance of the Hellespont that had once been Athenian.
In return, the Athenians made him citizen of their city. In the winter
of 363/362, the rebels were defeated; Ariobarzanes was betrayed by his son Mithradates
and crucified. He was succeeded by his half-brother Artabazus.
Jona Lendering, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Arsites, the satrap of the Hellespontine Phrygia when Alexander the Great invaded Asia. After the defeat of the Persians at the Granicus, Arsites retreated to Phrygia, where he put an end to his own life, because he had advised the satraps to fight with Alexander, instead of retiring before him and laying waste the country, as Memnon had recommended. (Arrian, Anab. i. 13, 17; Paus. i. 29.7)
GALATIA (Ancient country) TURKEY
Amyntas. A king of Galatia and several of the adjacent countries, mentioned by
Strabo (xii.) as contemporary with himself. He seems to have first possessed Lycaonia,
where he maintained more than 300 flocks. To this he added the territory of Derbe
by the murder of its prince, Antipater, the friend of Cicero (Cic. ad Fam. xiii.
73), and Isaura and Cappadocia by Roman favour. Plutarch, who enumerates him among
the adherents of Antony at Actium, speaks probably by anticipation in calling
him king of Galatia, for he did not succeed to that till the death of Deiotarus;
and the latter is mentioned by Plutarch himself (Ant.) as deserting to Octavius,
just before the battle, together with Amyntas.
While pursuing his schemes of aggrandizement, and endeavouring to reduce the refractory
highlanders around him, Amyntastas made himself master of Homonada, or Homona
(Plin. H. N. v. 27), and slew the prince of that place; but his death was avenged
by his widow, and Amyntas fell a victim to an ambush which she laid for him.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ISSAVROS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Candidus Isaurus (Kandidos Isauros), a Byzantine historian, a native of Isauria, whence his surname Isaurus. He lived in the reign of the emperor Anastasius, and held a high public office in his native country. He is called a man of great influence and an orthodox Christian, which is inferred from his advocating the decrees of the council of Chalcedon. His history of the Byzantine empire, in three books, which is now lost, began with the election of the emperor Leo the Thracian, and came down to the death of Zeno the Isaurian. It therefore embraced the period from A. D. 457 to 491. A summary of its contents is preserved in Photius (cod. 79), to whom we are also indebted for the few facts concerning the life of Candidus which we have mentioned, and who censures the style of the historian for its affectation of poetical beauties. A small fragment of the work is preserved by Suidas (s. v. Cheirizo). The extant fragments of Candidus are printed in the appendix to "Eclogae Historicorum de Reb. Byz.," ed. Labbe, which forms an appendix to " Excerpta de Legationibus, &c." ed. D. Hoeschelius, published by C. A. Fabrotus, Paris, 1648. They are also contained in the edition of Dexippus, Eunapius, &c. published in the Bonn collection of Byzantine writers.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KESSARIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Bemarchius (Bemarchios), a Greek sophist and rhetorician of Caesareia in Cappadocia, who lived in or shortly after the time of the emperor Constantine, whose history he wrote in a work consisting of ten books. He also wrote declamations and various orations; but none of his works have come down to us. (Suidas, s. v. Bemarchios; Liban. Orat. p. 24, &c. ed. Reiske.)
Julianus of Caesareia in Cappadocia, was a contemporary of Aedesius, and a disciple of Maximus of Ephesus. He was one of the sophists of the time, and taught rhetoric at Athens, where he enjoyed a great reputation, and attracted youths from all parts of the world, who were anxious to hear him and receive his instruction. It is not known whether Julianus wrote any works or not. (Eunap. Vit. Soph.)
TYANA (Ancient city) TURKEY
The charismatic teacher and miracle worker Apollonius lived in the
first century AD. He was born in Tyana (in the south of modern Turkey)
and may have belonged to a branch of ancient philosophy called neo-Pythagoreanism.
He received divine honors in the third century. Although the Athenian sophist
(professional orator) Philostratus wrote a lengthy Life of Apollonius, hardly
anything about the sage is certain. However, there are several bits and pieces
of information that may help us reconstruct something of the life of this man,
who was and is frequently compared to the Jewish sage and miracle worker Jesus
of Nazareth.
This is the first part of an article in nine pieces.
Philostratus' Life of Apollonius
The longest and most important source on the life of Apollonius is
a vie romancee by the Athenian author Philostratus (c.170-c.245 CE). It describes
the sage of Tyana as a superhuman, neo-Pythagorean philosopher who tried to reform
cultic practices in modern Greece,
Turkey and Syria.
We learn that he had several disciples, traveled extensively, met important Roman
officials (a.o. the emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian), and discussed with
several other philosophers. The author of the Life of Apollonius (LoA) takes a
special stand against the accusation that the man from Tyana had been a magician
and stresses that the miracles that Apollonius performed were the result of his
superior knowledge, not of wizardry.
The LoA is not a biography in our sense. It is written by a professional
orator who wanted to show that the divine Apollonius was above all a champion
of the Greek culture and a wise philosopher. Unfortunately, Philostratus had little
affinity with philosophy; when the sage of Tyana speaks his words of wisdom, they
are very hackneyed (e.g., an emperor must act as emperor as far as his imperial
duties require, but as a private citizen as far as his own person is concerned)
or even silly (e.g., although the soul wants to ascend to heaven, mountaineering
does not bring it closer to God). Philostratus' lack of interest in philosophy
and his own preoccupation with rhetoric, make the LoA a very unreliable source.
However, it is possible -but difficult- to study the sources of Philostratus'
book and try to see a little bit more of the true Apollonius. Philostratus mentions
several sources:
•local traditions from towns like Ephesus,
Tyana, Aegae, and Antioch;
•Apollonius' own letters and books;
•a book about Apollonius' infancy by Maximus of Aegae;
•the memoirs of his disciple Damis of Nineveh. Finally, he refers to the
Memorabilia of Apollonius of Tyana, magician and philosopher, written by one Moeragenes.
According to Philostratus, this book is utterly unreliable because its author
does not know enough about the man from Tyana. In this article, we will try to
analyze the pre-Philostratean traditions and try to find out which parts of the
LoA antedate Philostratus. When these older accounts are independent from each
other and in agreement, we may assume that they contain some element of historical
truth. The result will be a portrait of Apollonius rather different from the one
offered by Philostratus.
Jona Lendering, ed.
This extract is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Apollonius Apollonios), of Tyana, in Cappadocia, the most celebrated of the Neo-Pythagoreans, lived after the middle of the first century A.D. By a severely ascetic life on the supposed principles of Pythagoras, and by pretended miracles, he obtained such a hold upon the multitude that he was worshipped as a god, and set up as a rival to Christ. The account of his life by the elder Philostratus is more romance than history, and offers little to build upon. Having received his philosophical education, and lived in the temple of Asclepius at Aegae till his twentieth year, he divided his patrimony among the poor, and roamed all over the world; he was even said to have reached India and the sources of the Nile. Twice he lived at Rome: first under Nero, until the expulsion of the philosophers; and again in Domitian's reign, when he had to answer a charge of conspiring against the emperor. Smuggled out of Rome during his trial, he continued his life as a wandering preacher of morals and worker of marvels for some years longer, and is said to have died at a great age, the master of a school at Ephesus. Of his alleged writings, eighty-five letters have alone survived.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Apollonius Tyanaeus (Apollonios Tuanaios), a Pythagorean philosopher, born at
Tyana in Cappadocia about four years before the Christian era. Much of his reputation
is to be attributed to the belief in his magical or supernatural powers, and the
parallel which modern and ancient writers have attempted to draw between his character
and supposed miracles, and those of the Author of our religion. His life by Philostratus
is a mass of incongruities and fables: whether it have any groundwork of historical
truth, and whether it were written wholly or partly with a controversial aim,
are questions we shall be better prepared to discuss after giving an account of
the contents of the work itself.
Apollonius, according to the narrative of his biographer, was of noble
ancestry, and claimed kindred with the founders of the city of Tyana. We need
not stop to dispute the other story of the incarnation of the god Proteus, or
refer it, with Tillemont, to demoniacal agency. At the age of fourteen he was
placed under the care of Euthydemus, a rhetorician of Tarsus; but, being disgusted
at the luxury of the inhabitants, he obtained leave of his father and instructor
to retire to the neighbouring town of Aegae. Here he is said to have studied the
whole circle of the Platonic, Sceptic, Epicurean, and Peripatetic philosophy,
and ended by giving his preference to the Pythagorean, in which he had been trained
by Euxenus of Heraclea (Phil. i. 7). Immediately, as if the idea of treading in
the footsteps of Pythagoras had seized him in his earliest youth, he began to
exercise himself in the severe asceticism of the sect; abstained from animal food
and woollen clothing, foreswore wine and the company of women, suffered his hair
to grow, and betook himself to the temple of Aesculapius at Aegae, who was supposed
to regard him with peculiar favour. He was recalled to Tyana, in the twentieth
year of his age, by his father's death: after dividing his inheritance with a
brother whom he is said to have reclaimed from dissolute living, and giving the
greater part of what remained to his poorer relatives (Phil. i. 13), he returned
to the discipline of Pythagoras, and for five years preserved the mystic silence,
during which alone the secret truths of philosophy were disclosed. At the end
of the five years, he travelled in Asia Minor, going from city to city, and everywhere
disputing, like Pythagoras, upon divine rites. There is a blank in his biography,
at this period of his life, of about twenty years, during which we must suppose
the same employment to have continued, unless indeed we have reason to suspect
that the received date of his birth has been anticipated twenty years. He was
between forty and fifty years old when he set out on his travels to the east;
and here Philostratus sends forth his hero on a voyage of discovery, in which
we must be content rapidly to follow him. From Aegae he went to Nineveh, where
he met Damis, the future chronicler of his actions, and, proceeding on his route
to India, he discoursed at Babylon with Bardanes, the Parthian king, and consulted
the magi and Brahmins, who were supposed to have imparted to him some theurgic
secrets. He next visited Taxila, the capital of Phraortes, an Indian prince, where
he met Iarchas, the chief of the Brahmins, and disputed with Indian Gymnosophists
already versed in Alexandrian philosophy (Phil iii. 51). This eastern journey
lasted five years: at its conclusion, he returned to the Ionian cities, where
we first hear of his pretensions to miraculous power, founded, as it would seem,
on the possession of some divine knowledge derived from the east. If it be true
that the honours of a god were decreed to him at this period of his life, we are
of course led to suspect some collusion with the priests (iv. 1), who are said
to have referred the sick to him for relief. From Ionia he crossed over into Greece
(iv. 11), visited the temples and oracles which lay in his way, everywhere disputing
about religion, and assuming the authority of a divine legislator. At the Eleusinian
mysteries he was rejected as a magician, and did not obtain admission to them
until a later period of his life: the same cause excluded him at the cave of Trophonius
(from whence he pretended to have obtained the sacred books of Pythagoras), and
which he entered by force (viii. 19). After visiting Lacedaemon, Corinth, and
the other towns of Greece, he bent his course towards Rome, and arrived there
just after an edict against magicians had been issued by Nero. He was immediately
brought before Telesinus the consul, and Tigellinus, the favourite of the emperor,
the first of whom dismissed him, we are told, from the love of philosophy, and
the latter from the fear of a magic power, which could make the letters vanish
from the indictment. On his acquittal, he went to Spain, Africa, and Athens, where,
on a second application, he was admitted to the mysteries; and from Athens proceeded
to Alexandria, where Vespasian, who was maturing his revolt, soon saw the use
which might be made of such an ally. The story of their meeting may be genuine,
and is certainly curious as exhibiting Apollonius in the third of the threefold
characters assumed by Pythagoras -philosopher, mystic, and politician. Vespasian
was met at the entrance of the city by a body of magistrates, praefects and philosophers,
and hastily asked whether the Tyanean was among the number. Being told that he
was philosophizing in the Serapeum, he proceeded thither, and begged Apollonius
to make him emperor: the philosopher replied that "he had already done so, in
praying the gods for a just and venerable sovereign"; upon which Vespasian declared
that he resigned himself entirely into his hands. A council of philosophers was
forthwith held, including Dio and Euphrates, Stoics in the emperor's train, in
which the question was formally debated, Euphrates protesting against the ambition
of Vespasian and the base subserviency of Apollonius, and advocating the restoration
of a republic (v. 31). This dispute laid the foundation of a lasting quarrel between
the two philosophers, to which Philostratus often alludes. The last journey of
Apollonius was to Ethiopia, whence he returned to settle in the Ionian cities.
The same friendship which his father had shewn was continued towards him by the
emperor Titus, who is said to have invited him to Argos in Cilicia, and to have
obtained a promise that he would one day visit Rome. On the accession of Domitian,
Apollonius endeavoured to excite the provinces of Asia Minor against the tyrant.
An order was sent to bring him to Rome, which he thought proper to anticipate
by voluntarily surrendering himself, to avoid bringing suspicion on his companions.
On being conducted into the emperor's presence, his prudence deserted him: he
launched forth into the praise of Nerva, and was hurried to prison, loaded with
chains. The charges against him resolved themselves into three heads -the singularity
of his dress and appearance, his being worshipped as a god, and his sacrificing
a child with Nerva for an augury. As destruction seemed impending, it was a time
to display his miraculous powers: he vanished from his persecutors; and after
appearing to Darius at Puteoli at the same hour he disappeared from Rome, he passed
over into Greece, where he remained two years, having given out that the emperor
had publicly acquitted him. The last years of his life were probably spent at
Ephesus, where he is said to have proclaimed the death of the tyrant Domitian
at the instant it took place. Three places -Ephesus, Rhodes, and Crete- laid claim
to the honour of being his last dwelling-place. Tyana, where a temple was dedicated
to him, became henceforth one of the sacred cities, and possessed the privilege
of electing its own magistrates.
We now proceed to discuss very briefly three questions. I. The historical groundwork
on which the narrative of Philostratus was founded. II. How far, if at all, it
was designed as a rival to the Gospel history. III. The real character of Apollonius
himself.
I. However impossible it may be to separate truth from falsehood in the narrative
of Philostratus, we cannot conceive that a professed history, appealed to as such
by contemporary authors, and written about a hundred years after the death of
Apollonius himself, should be simply the invention of a writer of romance. It
must be allowed, that all the absurd fables of Ctesias, the confused falsehoods
of all mythologies (which become more and more absurd as they are farther distant),
eastern fairy tales, and perhaps a parody of some of the Christian miracles, are
all pressed into the service by Philostratus to adorn the life of his hero: it
will be allowed further, that the history itself, stripped of the miracles, is
probably as false as the miracles themselves. Still we cannot account for the
reception of the narrative among the ancients, and even among the fathers themselves,
unless there had been some independent tradition of the character of Apollonius
on which it rested. Eusebius of Caesarea, who answered the Logos philalethes pros
Christianous of Hierocles (in which a comparison was attempted between our Lord
and Apollonius), seems to allow the truth of Philostratus's narrative in the main,
with the exception of what is miraculous. And the parody, if it may be so termed,
of the life of Pythagoras, may be rather traceable to the impostor himself than
to the ingenuity of his biographer. Statues and temples still existed in his honour;
his letters and supposed writings were extant; the manuscript of his life by Damis
the Assyrian was the original work which was dressed out by the rhetoric of Philostratus;
and many notices of his visits and acts might be found in the public records of
Asiatic cities, which would have at once disproved the history, if inconsistent
with it. Add to this, that another life of Apollonius of Tyana, by Moeragenes,
is mentioned, which was professedly disregarded by Philostratus, because, he says,
it omitted many important particulars, and which Origen, who had read it, records
to have spoken of Apollonius as a magician whose imposture had deceived many celebrated
philosophers. The conclusion we seem to come to on the whole is, that at a period
when there was a general belief in magical powers Apollonius did attain great
influence by pretending to them, and that the history of Philostratus gives a
just idea of his character and reputation, however inconsistent in its facts and
absurd in its marvels.
II. We have purposely omitted the wonders with which Philostratus has garnished
his narrative, of which they do not in general form an essential part. Many of
these are curiously coincident with the Christian miracles. The proclamation of
the birth of Apollonius to his mother by Proteus, and the incarnation of Proteus
himself, the chorus of swans which sung for joy on the occasion, the casting out
of devils, raising the dead, and healing the sick, the sudden disappearances and
reappearances of Apollonius, his adventures in the cave of Trophonius, and the
sacred voice which called him at his death, to which may be added his claim as
a teacher having authority to reform the world--cannot fail to suggest the parallel
passages in the Gospel history. We know, too, that Apollonius was one'among many
rivals set up by the Eclectics (as, for instance, by Hierocles of Nicomedia in
the time of Diocletian) to our Saviour--an attempt, it may be worth remarking,
renewed by the English freethinkers, Blount and Lord Herbert. Still it must be
allowed that the resemblances are very general, that where Philostratus has borrowed
from the Gospel narrative, it is only as he has borrowed from all other wonderful
history, and that the idea of a controversial aim is inconsistent with the account
which makes the life written by Damis the groundwork of the more recent story.
Moreover, Philostratus wrote at the command of the empress Julia Domna, and was
at the time living in the palace of Alexander Severus, who worshipped our Lord
with Orpheus and Apollonius among his Penates: so that it seems improbable he
should have felt any peculiar hostility to Christianity; while, on the other hand,
he would be acquainted with the general story of our Lord's life, from which he
might naturally draw many of his own incidents. On the whole, then, we conclude
with Ritter, that the life of Apollonius was not written with a controversial
aim, as the resemblances, although real, only indicate that a few things were
borrowed, and exhibit no trace of a systematic parallel.
III. The character of Apollonius as well as the facts of his life bear a remarkable
resemblance to those of Pythagoras, whom he professedly followed. Travel, mysticism,
and disputation, are the three words in which the earlier half of both their lives
may be summed up. There can be no doubt that Apollonius pretended to supernatural
powers, and was variously regarded by the ancients as a magician and a divine
being. The object of his scheme, as far as it can be traced, was twofold--partly
philosophical and partly religious. As a philosopher, he is to be considered as
one of the middle terms between the Greek and Oriental systems, which he endeavoured
to harmonize in the symbolic lore of Pythagoras. The Pythagorean doctrine of numbers,
and their principles of music and astronomy, he looked upon as quite subordinate,
while his main efforts were directed to reestablish the old religion on a Pythagorean
basis. His aim was to purify the worship of Paganism from the corruptions which
he said the fables of the poets had introduced, and restore the rites of the temples
in all their power and meaning. In his works on divination by the stars, and on
offerings, he rejects sacrifices as impure in the sight of God. All objects of
sense, even fire, partook of a material and corruptible nature: prayer itself
should be the untainted offering of the heart, and was polluted by passing through
the lips (Euseb. Prep. Ev. iv. 13). This objection to sacrifice was doubtless
connected with the Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of souls. In the
miracles attributed to him we see the same trace of a Pythagorean character: they
are chiefly prophecies, and it is not the power of controlling the laws of nature
which Apollonius lays claim to, but rather a wonderworking secret, which gives
him a deeper insight into them than is possessed by ordinary men. Upon the whole
we may place Apollonius midway between the mystic philosopher and the mere impostor,
between Pythagoras and Lucian's Alexander; and in this double character he was
regarded by the ancients themselves.
The following list of Apollonius's works has come down to us:
1. Humnos eisMnemosunan (Philostr. Vit. Apoll. i. 14; Suidas, s. v. Apoll.).
2. Puthagorou doxai, and
3. Puthagorou bios, mentioned by Suidas, and probably one of the works which,
according to Philostratus (viii. 19), Apollonius brought with him from the cave
of Trophonius.
4. Diatheke, written in Ionic Greek (Phil. i. 3; vii. 39).
5. Apologia against a complaint of Euphrates the philosopher to Domitian. (viii.
7).
6. Peri manteias aosteron.
7. Teletai e peri Duaion (iii. 41, iv. 19; Euseb. Prep. Ev. iv. 13).
8. Chresmoi, quoted by Suidas.
9. Nuchthemeron, a spurious work.
10. Epistolai LXXXV.
Bp. Lloyd supposes those which are still extant to be a spurious work.
On the other hand, it must be allowed that the Laconic brevity of their style
suits well with the authoritative character of the philosopher. They were certainly
not inventions of Philostratus, and are not wholly the same with the collection
to which he refers. The Apologia which is given by Philostratus (viii. 7) is the
only other extant writing of Apollonius.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
FRYGIA (Ancient country) TURKEY
Hilarius, (Hilarios), a Phrygian, an interpreter of oracles, implicated in the proceedings of Theodorus, who attempted to discover by magic who should succeed the emperor Valens. He was executed in the course of the judicial proceedings which followed. (Amm. Marc. xxix. 1; Zosim. iv. 15; Tillemont, Hist. des Emp. vol. v.)
Chrysippus (Chrusippos), of Tyana, a learned writer on the art of cookery, or more properly speaking, on the art of making bread or sweetmeats, is called by Athenaeus sophos pemmatolopsos, and seems to have been little known before the time of the latter author. One of his works treated specially of the art of bread-making, and was entitled Artokopikos. (Athen. iii., xiv.)
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