339
The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana.
By Vincent A. Smith.
Professor Flinders Petrie in the chapter entitled "Apollonius or the Eevivalist" of his little book treating of Personal Religion
in Egypt before Christianity, published in 1909^), has discussed
the "general credibility" of the account of Apollonius given by
Philostratus, and come to the conclusion that according to the test 6
of minute connection of separate detail, "we have here a genuine
history correctly transmitted". He even finds "good evidence of the truth of the account" of the alleged visit of the philosopher
to the Indian sages, which has been discredited by a long series
of critics extending from the time of Eusebius (A. D. 300) to the lo
present day, and refers to the "many interesting descriptions of
the monuments and condition" of India, as deserving of serious
attention. The challenge to received opinion thus offered by a
scholar of Professor Petrie's reputation necessitates the re-examination
of the question concerning the credibility of the work by Philo- i8
stratus and, more particularly, concerning the degree of credence,
if any, to be given to his description of the visit to the Indian
sages and the details recorded by him of the condition of the
country and the nature of the monuments alleged to have existed
and to have been seen by the traveller, which, if true, would form 20
a most welcome addition to our knowledge of ancient India. I
have undertaken the required re-examination, which was almost
obligatory on me owing to the preparation of a new edition of
the Early History of India, and now submit the results of the
investigation for the consideration of scholars who may be interested 86
in the subject.
A certain amount of present interest in it is indicated by the
almost simultaneous publication in the year 1913 of two new and
independent English translations of the book by Philostratus
commonly called "The Life of Apollonius of Tyana", and executed
by competent scholars, namely Professor J. S. Phillimore and Mr.
1) In Harper's Library of Living Thought (Harper & Brothers).
Zeitsohrift der D. H. O. Bd. 68 (1914). 22
2 7
330 Smith, The Indian Travels of ApoUonius of Tyana.
F. C. Conybeare. Both translations have many merits, and no
student of the subject can dispense with either^).
Prof Phillimore's version is preceded by an eleborate Introduc¬
tion , in which most of the many controverted questions regarding
5 the author, his work and his hero, are discussed with much learning
and in a lively style. Mr. Conybeare's Introduction, on the other
hand, is slight, but the value of his book is much enhanced by
its presentation of the text as well as the translation, not only of
the Life by Philostratus, but also of the Letters ascribed to
10 Apollonius, and of the treatise written by Eusebius at the beginning
of the fourth century in reply to an essay by Hierocles, who had
drawn a parallel between the man of Tyana and Jesus Christ. In
several instances I have found Mr. Conybeare's version to be closer to
the Greek than that of Prof Phillimore, but in other cases Prof.
16 Phillimore's rendering is to be preferred. Both translators use the
standard text of C. L. Kayser (Teubner, 1870). Prof. Phillimore
has admitted some variant readings and is of opinion tbat "the
j4pollonius greatly needs a new recension". Perhaps some young
scholar may feel disposed to undertake the task thus suggested.
20 He will not find the work easy. Meantime, the text as it stands
is quite good enough to serve as a basis for the discussion of the
general credibility of the work of Philostratus, and more especially
of the value to be attached to his narrative of the alleged Indian
travels of his hero.
25 Prof. Phillimore proves that the customary rendering of the
title of the work of Philostratus as "The Life of Apollonius of
Tyana", is inaccurate. The Greek title, Ta ig tov Tvavia 'AitolXtaviov,
is more correctly rendered, "Memoirs in honour of Apollonius of
Tyana". The learned professor regards the book as a romance
so illustrating the life of the ideal philosopher, represented by Apollonius,
rather than as a matter-of-fact biography of the real man Apollonius ;
whereas Prof. Petrie, as already noted, holds that "we have here
a genuine history correctly transmitted".
I do not propose on this occasion to enter on a full discussion
35 of the issue thus raised , but in order to render my criticism of
the Indian travels intelligible a certain amount of prefatory ex¬
planation is indispensable. I may remark in passing that I see no
reason for doubting the authenticity of the letters ascribed to
Apollonius, most of which are far too uninteresting to be worth
40 forging. Mr. Conybeare is of the same opinion.
1) 1. Philostratus in Honour of Apollonius of Tyana, translated by J. S. Pbillimore, Professor of Latin in the University of Glasgow. Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1913. In two volumes. — 2. Philostratus, the Life of
Apollonius of Tyana; the Epistles of Apollonius and the Treatise of
Eusebius: with an English Translation by F. C. Conybeare, M. A., Late Fellow and Praelector of University College, Oxford. (The Loeb Classical Library) Heinemann & Macmillan, 1913. In two volumes.
2 7
Smith, The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana. 331
Nearly everything that is know about Apollonius is derived
from the work by Philostratus, which was begun by him in A. D. 215,
by command of the Empress Julia Domna, and was finished after
Caracalla's death in 217. The author belonged to a literary family
and is distinguished from his namesakes and relatives by Hierocles 5
and Eusebius as "the Athenian". An elaborate disquisition on
"The Philostrati" will be found in Phillimore's book. It seems to
be clear that Apollonius died in the reign of Nerva about A. D. 97
or 98 at an advanced age. Various stories were current as to the
place at which he passed away. His biographer expressly states lo
that his age was uncertain, some writers giving it as 80, some as
90, and others as exceeding 100 1). Prof. Petrie adopts the highest
estimate and fixes the birth of the sage in 4 B. C. approximately.
Discussion of the question of the date of birth would lead me too
far from my subject, and I pass the controversy by with the remark 15
that in my opinion Apollonius was about 80 when he died, and
was born in or about A. D. 15.
I am disposed to agree with Prof. Petrie, as against Prof.
Phillimore, in accepting as trustworthy two notes of time, namely,
the earthquake accompanied by the formation of a volcanic island 20
in A. D. 46, and the reign of Vardanes as king of Parthia from
about A. D. 39 to about 47. I am also in agreement with Professor
Petrie in holding that the visit to India, if it occurred at all,
should be dated in the cold season of A. D. 43—44, and in believing
that the events of the latter part of the life of Apollonius as 25
related by his biographer form a connected orderly sequence.
Professor Phillimore . exclaims — "What a pity that the elegant
Philostratus so disdained dates!" But that author was far from
being conscious of such a defect. At the beginning of his work
(Bk. I, ch. 2) he explains in considerable detail the nature of his so
authorities, and declares his purpose to "write a true account of
the man, detailing the exact times at which he said or did this
1) "The memoirs then of Apollonius of Tyana which Damis the Assyrian composed, end with the above story; for with regard to the manner in which he died, if he did actually die, there are many stories; though Damis has repeated none. But as for myself, I ought not to omit even this, for my story should, I think , have its natural ending. Neither has Damis told us anything about the age of our horo; but there are some who say that he was eighty, others that he was over ninety, others again who say that his age far exceeded a hundred. He was fresh in all his body and upright when he died and more agreeable to look at than in his youth. For there is a certain beauty even in wrinkles, which was especially conspicuous in his case, as is clear from the likenesses of him which are preserved in the temple at Tyana, and from accounts which praise the old age of Apollonius more than was once praised the youth of Alcibiades". (Philostratus, Bk. VIII, ch: 29, in Conybeare's version.) In another passage (1, 14) Philostratus affirms that Apollonius displayed extraordinary powers of memory at the age of a hundred years. The words are "Indeed when he reached the age of a hundred (ixo!torTOi5rj)s ytv6y,evoi) he still sur¬
passed Simonides in point of memory''.
22*
332 Smith, The Indian Travel» of Apollonius of Tyana.
or that" (i^ax^ißmaat tov avSqa toig te %qövoig, xa'^' cCg tini ri
Tj enqa^t). I am of opinion that Philostratus fulfilled his promise
fairly well as regards the latter part of his hero's life, although
he was apparently misinformed when he represented Apollonius as
6 being about eighteen years of age at the time that Archelaus, King
of Cappadocia, was accused of conspiring against the Eomans, that
is to say between A. D. 14 and 17^). In other respects, too, the
chronology of the earlier years of the life of the sage is unsatis¬
factory, and I accept Prof Phillimore's view that he did not live
10 to be anything like a hundred years of age.
Apollonius throughout his long life was a wanderer, engaged
in expounding his Pythagorean doctrines, which were deeply tinged
with Indian notions, wherever he could secure an audience. He
travelled over nearly the whole of the Roman world, even to the
15 extreme west as far as Gadeira (Cadiz) and the Pillars of Hercules.
None of the early writers seem to doubt that he also visited India.
Eusebius, writing about A. D. 300, while freely ridiculing the
Indian traveller's tales related by Philostratus and repeated with
full belief by Hierocles, never denies that Apollonius actually
«0 visited India. My impression is that he really did go there in or
about the cold season of A. D. 43—44, but that the alleged detailed
narrative of his proceedings written up by Philostratus is almost
wholly fiction. It professes to be based on memoirs written by
one Damis an Assyrian , described by Philostratus as follows : —
a "There was one Damis, a man not without accomplishments,
who at one time inhabited Old Nineveh. His studies drew him
into intimacy with Apollonius, and he has left a written account
of the Sage's travels (in which he claims to have shared), his
maxims, his discourses, and his prophetic sayings. A person who
so was related to this Damis brought the originals of these memoirs,
hitherto undiscovered, to the Empress Julia. And since I had a
place in her majesty's circle (she was a great admirer and patroness
of all literary studies), she laid on me the task of transcribing and
editing these papers. It was her wish also that I should be re-
35 sponsible for the form of expression ; for the Ninevite's language,
though clear, was anything but a model of literary art". (Bk. I,
ch. 3, in Phillimore's translation.)
Opinions differ as to the real existence of Damis. I incline
1) Bk. I, ch. 7, 12. Philostratus made the statement on the authority of Mazimus of Aegae, who held an appointment in the imperial secretariat. He does not expressly state the age of Apollonius at the time, but the context implies that it must have been about eighteen or nineteen. The full examination of the passage would carry me too far from my subject, but 1 may say that Prof.
Phillimore's arguments satisfy me that the date of birth cannot be placed as early as 4 B. C. By post-dating the event about twenty years, we get rid of the improbable twenty years' stay at Antioch which Prof. Petrie is obliged to assume, and we make the sage to be about twenty-eight at the time of tbe alleged Indian travels, which is a reasonable assumption.
Smüh, The Indian Travels of ApoUonius of Tyana. 333
to the view that even if he actually existed, his alleged memoirs
are merely a literary fiction.
I now proceed to examine the story of the Indian travels
with reference to the inherent credibility of the narrative as it
stands, and begin by summarizing the alleged course of the 5
traveller's movements.
Apollonius, accompanied by Damis and certain attendants, is
represented as having stayed for a year and eight months at
Babylon (Bk. I, ch. 40) then under the rule of a Parthian king
named Vardanes or Bardanes, who provided camels and a guide lo
for his guest's overland journey to India. The party crossed the-
Hindu Kush, or Indian Caucasus, and in due course reached the
Indus. The Satrap of the Indus, although not a subject of Vardanes,
paid respect to a letter of introduction from that monarch , and
provided all facilities for the passage of the river, as well as for is
the further progress of the travellers to the Hydraotes, or Ravi
river. The Satrap also begged his own sovereign, that is to say,
the king of the region between the Indus and the Hydraotes, to
receive the strangers with fitting hospitality. After passing the
Indus, the guide led them straight to Taxila, where was the palace 20
of the Indian king, who bore the Parthian name of Phraotes, as
his grandfather had borne it. The king entertained his visitors
for three clear days, and then sent them on with fresh camels to
visit the Indian sages, giving them as introduction to larchas
(? Äryaka), the chief sage. The travellers, after two days' journey 25
from Taxila, visited the battle-field where Alexander had defeated
Porus, crossed the Hydraotes, or Ravi, and passing through the
territory of several tribes (s'&vrf) advanced to the Hyphasis, or Bias,
the easternmost river known to the Greeks *). While still thirty
stadia distant from the stream (avdöia öh ani^ovreg rovzov zqiaKOvra) so
they saw the altars erected by Alexander to mark the limit of
his advance.
The travellers are alleged to have then crossed the part of
the Caucasus which stretches down to the Arabian Sea (Red Sea),
and the description of those mountains as growing pepper and S8
cinnamon shows that the author meant the Western Ghats of
Malabar in the far south. After crossing those mountains they
came to a plain intersected with irrigation channels from the
Ganges, and enjoyed a dragon hunt. They were told of a great,
city called Parax or Paraka , lying at the foot of an undefined 10
great mountain. They travelled then for four days through a
fertile country, until they approached the castle of the sages.
1) The Sutlaj is now the eastern boundary of the Panjäb, but it is not certain where the Sutlaj was eighteen hundred years ago. See Early History of India, 2''d ed., pp. 90, 91.
2 7*
334 Smith, The Indian 2'ravels of Apollonius of Tyana.
perched on a hill. A wonderful fire-pit or well was seen on the
south side of the ridge.
Apollonius stayed four months with the sages, enjoying their
hospitality and conversation, which was conducted in fluent Greek.
5 He met the unnamed local Räja, who is represented as an ignorant
boor, with a strong prejudice against anything Hellenic.
When the long visit approached its end and the time came
for Apollonius to return, he was provided with a guide and fresh
camels. He then travelled lor ten days until he reached the sea,
10 keeping the Ganges on his right, and the Hyphasis on his left hand.
When he came to the unnamed port where passenger ships lay at
anchor, he sent the camels home with a farewell letter to larchas,
and embarked, favoured by a gentle breeze. He was much struck
by the terrific force with which the waters of the Hyphasis entered
15 the sea, plunging through gorges and precipices. He then saw the
mouth of the Indus, and sailing, like Nearchus, along the coast of
Makrän , came to the mouth of the Euphrates , and arriving at
Babylon, called on King Vardanes, whom they found just as they
had known him before.
so Thence they travelled via Nineveh to Seleucia, and from that
port they proceeded by ship to Cyprus, and so to Ionia.
I must now examine the story more in detail and discuss
how far it or any part of it is credible.
I see no reason to doubt that Apollonius really visited Babylon
85 in the reign of Vardanes or Bardanes I (Arsakes XXI). Details
and dates of Parthian history unfortunately are obscure, but we
may accept the date commonly given for the death of Vardanes
in A. D. 47. Prof. Petrie shows good reason for believing that
he ascended the throne in A. D. 39, and that the visits of Apollonius,
so consequently , must fall between A. D. 39 and 47. As I have
already observed, I accept the cold season of A. D. 43—44 as
tho most probable date for the Indian journey. Prof. Phillimore,
having criticized adversely certain chronological data relied on by
Prof. Petrie, goes on to observe: —
35 "Is it rash to infer that when he (seil. Philostratus) is dealing
with such an obscure matter as the chronology of Parthian kings,
he is equally fanciful in his choice of a potantate on whom to
quarter the sage en route for India? If so, it is no use to appeal
to the historical dates of Bardanes' reign". {Introd. p. CXXII)i^).
1) The chronology is precise. The first visit of Apollonius to Babylon is dated two years and two months after the recovery of kingdom by Bardanes.
He had been engaged in a civil war with his brother (Philostratus, Bk. 1, ch. 28).
Mr. Conybeare (vol I, Index, s. v. Vardanes) says: — "The exact length of his reign over Parthia is not known, probably from A. D. 45—49". But Prof.
Petrie shows reason for believing that his reign began earlier, in A. D. 39.
2 7*
Smüh, The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana. 335
That argument does not appear to me to be sound; in fact,
it seems to me inadmissible.
I pass over the alleged movements of the travellers hetween
Babylon and the Indus, the frontier of India Proper, and proceed
to consider the incidents of the Indian journey. In this part of 5
my undertaking the essay by Priaulx is helpful^). It not being
possible to discuss everything without incurring the reproach of
undue prolixity, I will confine myself to examination of the more
salient and interesting passages.
From the point of view of the historian of India it is inter- lo
esting to note that the jurisdiction of the Parthian monarchy under
Bardanes in or about A. D. 43—44 is represented as extending to
the Indus. The guide sent from Babylon did not attempt to cross
that river, about which he said that he knew nothing, but arranged
for the comfort of the party in his charge by presenting a cordial 15
letter of recommendation from Bardanes addressed to the Satrap
of the Indus, who acknowledged the sway of Phraotes, the inde¬
pendent Parthian king of Taxila. We know that at the date
mentioned Parthian princes still governed the Indian borderland.
There is good reason to believe that in those days Gondophares «o
was king of Sind and Arachosia (Kandahar), and there does not
seem to be any difficulty in accepting the statement of Philostratus
that the ruler of Taxila was a Parthian named Phraotes, although
his name has not yet been found in any Indian inscription or
coin-legend. The fact that Philostratus gives the King of Taxila a ss
distinctively Parthian name shows that he had some genuine in¬
formation concerning Indian affairs at his command. About a
generation or two later the Parthian rule in the Western Panjab
was overthrown by the Indo-Scythians or Kushäns. Philostratus
was right in representing the King of Taxila as a Parthian during so
the years (circa A. D. 39—47) that Bardanes was sovereign of
the Parthian empire, including Babylon.
The Parthian kings in India habitually used the Persian title
Satrap as the designation of their Viceroys, and the Indo-Scythians
continued the use of the title. Late in the first century of the ss
Christian era we find foreign Satraps governing the province of
Gujarat in Western India, and even the hills near Bombay.
1) The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana, and the Indian
Embassies to Rome from the Reign of Augustus to the Death of Justinian, by Osmond de Beauvoir Priaulx; London, Quaritcb, 1873. Tbis work, wbicb tbe autbor issued in "a small number of copies" for bis own satisfaction, is now scarce and difficult to obtain. The section on the Indian Travels is a reprint, with variations, of a paper read before the Royal Asiatic Society on Feb. 19, 1859. The narrative which I am about to discuss extends from Book II, cb. 17, to Book III, ch. 58, in the treatise of Philostratus.
336 Smith, The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana.
Philostratus , therefore , correctly designates the governor on the
banks of the Indus as a Satrap^).
The travellers are said (Bk. II, ch. 19) to have seen many
hippopotami {noxufiioi innoi) in the Indus. That statement probably
5 is simply false , and due to the desire to assimilate the Indus to
the Nile. There is no other record of the occurrence of the
hippopotamus in India in historical times. It is true that the
bones of extinct fossil species are found in the Siwalik Hills, but
the existing species, which is now confined to Africa, although it
10 once ranged over a great part of Europe in the Pleistocene period,
does not seem to be recorded for India. The king was credited
with sacrificing bulls and black horses to the river Indus. A Hindu,
of course, could not have done so, but the practice, when ascribed
to a Parthian, is not absolutely incredible.
15 The travellers (ch. 20) next proceeded to Taxila, where Phraotes
had his palace. We know that the city lay three marches beyond
the Indus. Philostratus compares Taxila with Nineveh, and the
comparison is so far just that Taxila undoubtedly was in those
■days , as it had been for ages before , one of the most renowned
20 and advanced cities of the east — the seat of what may be called
a Hindu university, where medicine and all the liberal arts were
studied. The visible mounds of ruins still extend over a space
exceeding twelve square miles. Dr. J. H. Marshall , the Director-
General of Archaeology in India, has recently made a beginning
26 of excavation, but the task of exploration is so vast that it must
occupy many years '').
Apollonius is said to have seen there "a temple outside the
walls not far short of the hundred-foot scale, built of shell-marble (U&ov xoyj^vittttov) and within it was a sanctuary contrived, which
so though inadequate to a peristyle temple of those dimensions, was
a striking piece of architecture. Por it contained tablets (jc/vajceg)
of bronze let into each wall, depicting the feats of Porus and
Alexander; elephants, horses, soldiers, helmets, and spears were
represented in orichalque, and silver and gold, and black bronze;
36 lances, javelins, and swords, all in iron" (Phillimore's trans. Bk. II . ch. 20).
The author proceeds to compare the reliefs with the work of
Zeuxis, Polygnotus, and Euphranor, dilating on the remarkable
artistic quality of the compositions, which might be regarded as
40 relief-pictures wrought by a man equally skilled in the arts of the
1) The Indo-Scythians or Kushäns, undoubtedly superseded Parthian princes.
See Early History of India, chap. IX, 2>»d ed. The subject will be treated afresh in the third edition, now in the press.
2) See the pamphlet containing a lecture entitled "Archaeological Dis¬
coveries at Taxila", delivered by Dr. J. H. Marshall, C. 1. E. before the PanjSb Historical Society, Sept. 4, 1913; aud Early History of India, 3'd ed., p. 61 note.
Smüh, The Indian Travel» of Apollonius of Tyana. 337
designer and of the worker in metal (ch. 22 end), and similar to
the craftsmanship on the shield of Achilles as descrihed by Homer.
There is no other authority for the existence of the wonderful
reliefs thus described or of anything like them. While I cannot
affirm that the production of such works at Taxila about 320 B. C. 5
is incredible, I think it probable that the elaborate description is
pure fiction, invented with the purpose of emphasizing the supposed
Hellenization of India which the author clearly desired to be
accepted as a fact.
The travellers are said to have seen also a temple of the Sun, lo
containing effigies of Alexander in gold, and of Porus in black (or
"dark") bronze. That statement might be true, because the Sun
fcertainly was worshipped in India, and a famous ancient temple
dedicated to the luminary existed at Multen. The effigies may or
may not have existed. But when Philostratus tells us (Bk. II, is
ch. 12, 24) that the sacred elephant named Ajax which had fought
for Porus about 360 years earlier, was still alive and kept in that
temple, he imposes too great a strain on our credulity ^). No modern
authority allows that an elephant ever attains an age greater than
150 years, and some writers do not admit that it ever exceeds 120*). to
An elephant aged anything like 350 years is an absolute impossibility.
, The author being thus convicted of undoubted falsehood in the
matter of the elephant cannot be believed in his connected de¬
scription of the temples and reliefs.
It is interesting to note (ch. 26) that Phraotes, who prided 25
himself on being a man of peace, as much as Porus had been a
man of war, paid blackmail to the highlanders on the border —
the ancestors or predecessors of the modern AfrldTs and similar
clans. The king is reported as saying: — "I keep them quiet
and control them with money, so that my country is patrolled by so
them, and instead of their invading my dominions, they themselves
keep off the barbarians that are on the other side of the frontier,
and are difficult to deal with". The Government of India now
uses the Khyber Rifles and similar forces in the same way. The
observation of Philostratus looks like the genuine report of a fact. 35
It is impossible to say how he learned it, but, like the mention
of Parthian rule in the Western Panjäb and of the reign of Bardanes, 1) The remark that "the natives reckoned that 350 years had elapsed since the battle" helps to indicate the approximate date assigned by the author to the journey of Apollonius. The battle was fought in 326 B. C. so that the 350 years if taken strictly would bring us to A. D. 24. But round numbers are obviously intended, and the statement is not inconsistent with the date A. D. 43—44 assigned to the journey by Prof. Petrie.
2) Balfour, Cyclop, of India; Chambers, Encycl. The writer in the latter work gives about 80 as the average age. Mr. Baker allows 150 as the maximum. A friendly critic suggests that the fiction about the age of the elephant might be due to the guardians of the temple rather than to Philostratus or his alleged authority, Damis the Assyrian.
338 Smith, The Indian Travels of ApoUonius of Tyana.
it shows that our author possessed some real knowledge concerning
the political condition of the north-western frontier of India hetween
A. D. 40 and A. D. 50.
The description of the royal banquet in Book II, ch. 28 is
5 more curious than credible. The king and his family, we are told,
reclined on a couch , while his guests sat on stools round a low
table accommodating thirty people, the provender consisting of fish,
birds, whole lions, gazelles {SoquaScg) swine, and tiger hams. Such
a diet, I need hardly say, is out of the common and wholly un-
10 Indian , and even if it be regarded as Parthian , can hardly be
accepted as credible. Rawlinson notes that game formed a main
portion of the diet of the Parthians, who indulged also in pork,
and probably in other kinds of butcher's meat^). The lion, now
almost extinct in India, undoubtedly was common in the first
16 century of our era, and a modern case of hunters eating lion's
flesh is on record*). The Burmese and Malays are said to eat
tiger-flesh*). It is possible, therefore, that a Parthian chief might
have had such viands served at his table , but I suspect that the
account is as imaginative as that of the elephant Ajax.
20 After leaving Taxila, the party took a journey of two days
to visit the battlefield where Alexander defeated Porus. The distance
is about 100 miles across the Salt Range through difficult country,
so that if the travellers did the journey in two days (Bk. II, ch. 42),
they rode hard. But mounted on camels they could have done it.
26 The battlefield is said to have been marked by triumphal
arches or gates {itvXaC) surmounted by statues of Alexander and
Porus. These, I should think, may be safely condemned as fictitious.
Such monuments are unknown in the history of Indian art.
Apollonius, having crossed the Hydraotes (Ravi), approached
30 the Hyphasis (Bias) , and while still 30 stadia distant from the
bank of that river came upon the altars set up by Alexander to
mark the limit of his advance (Bk. II, ch. 43). The account of
the altars given by Philostratus is as follows: — They bore an
inscription: — "To Father Ammon and Heracles his brother, and
86 to Athena Providence and to the Zeus of Olympus, and to the Cabeiri
of Samothrace, and to the Indian Sun and to the Delphian Apollo".
"And they say there was also a brass column dedicated, and
inscribed as follows: —"
"Alexander stayed his steps at this point".
40 "The altars we may suppose to be due to Alexander who so
honoured the limit of his Empire ; but I fancy the Indians dwelling
1) Parthia (Story of the Nations, 1893), p. 413.
2) Priaulx, p, 6, citing Sir C. Halet in a letter to Forbes telling him of the slaying of a lion near Cambay in GujarSt [Or. Mem. II, 182).
3) Balfour, Cyclop, of India.
Smith, The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana. 339
beyond the Hyphasis erected the column, by way of expressing
their pride at Alexander's having gone no further "'^).
It is difficult to decide on the veracity of this account. The
altars undoubtedly had been erected by order of Alexander in a
very massive fashion at a spot where stone was plentiful and con- 6
sequently not far from the foot of the hills. It is possible that
traces of them may still exist, and a member of the Civil Service
of India now serving in the Panjäb has set himself the task of
searching for them. Pliny placed the altars on the farther or left
bank of the river, but wrongly, I think. Philostratus seems to lo
have been right in placing them on the near or right side of the
Biäs and in a position where they would be out of the reach of
floods. Strabo and Plutarch do not give the number of the
structures ; the other authors, Arrian, Quintus Curtius, and Diodorus
say that they were twelve. The gods to whom the altars were is
dedicated are not named by any of those writers, Diodorus simply
saying that they were dedicated to the twelve gods. Philostratus
enumerates seven deities, and so seems to imply that the altars
were only seven, not twelve. While it is just possible that his
statement may be based on authentic information derived from some so
source now lost, I cannot feel any confidence in its truth. Arrian
is much more deserving of credence. Philostratus is the sole
authority for the inscribed column (at'^Xri) which may have been
a reality.
Our author's account of the Hyphasis or Biäs, which flows ss
and always has flowed through the eastern part of the Panjäb,
until it united with some one of the other rivers, is obviously
fictitious (Bk. Ill, ch. 1, 52). He represents it as being navigable
almost from its source, and as discharging itself into the sea with
terrific force (cpoßeQ&s), passing in the latter part of its course so
through a region of rocks, gorges, and precipices, and so bursting
a passage to the sea, and making navigation dangerous for a sailor
who keeps too close to the shore. The rivers of the Panjäb have
undergone countless and extensive changes throughout the ages,
and the several confluences have shifted their positions enormously ss
from time to time, but it is absolutely certain that the Hyphasis,
which now unites with the Sutlaj , never reached the sea as an
independent river. We do not know what its course may have
been in the first century of the Christian era, but there is reason
to believe that its union with the Sutlaj is of recent date, and 40
that formerly it pursued an independent course until it fell into
the great extinct river known as the Hakrä or Wahindah. What¬
ever may have been the exact course of the Hyphasis in the days
1) Prof. Phillimore errs in translating the plurals ßcoiiolg and ß(oii,ovs as 'an altar", and his rendering of arrjXriv as 'memorial tablet" is hardly defensible. See Early Hist, of India, 3rd ed., pp. 76—78, and Additions.
340 Smith, The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana.
of Apollonius, or the river with which it then united, it certainly did not fall into the sea with terrific force, or pass through gorges
and precipices as it neared the sea. The gorges and precipices
are not there, and never were. The description of the Hyphasis
5 alone is sufficient to damn the alleged memoirs of Damis, on which
the work of Philostratus professes to be based i).
According to our author the travellers, after the passage of
the Hyphasis, crossed the range of mountains which runs down
from the Indian Caucasus (Hindu Kush and Himalaya) to the
10 Arabian (Red) Sea. Those mountains are alleged to have produced
pepper, cinnamon, etc., so that it is obvious that the description
must refer to the Western Ghats of Malabar, in the far south —
otherwise called the "pepper coast". We are told that Apollonius,
after traversing the pepper mountains, emerged in a wide plain
15 intersected with canals derived from the Ganges. The most elementary
acquaintance with the map of India suffices to show the patent
absurdity of these statements, which could not have been made in
good faith by a person who had recently travelled in India 2).
We are then (Bk. Ill, ch. 5) treated to a ludicrous description
ao of a dragon hunt at which the sage is said to have personally
assisted, and are gravely told that "the whole of India is wreathed
(xccrc^aarai) with dragons of immense length; the marshes are full
of them, the mountains are full of them, and not a ridge is free
from them". It is unnecessary to follow our mendacious author
«5 in the details of the habits of those wondrous beasts and the
delights of the chase.
After getting safely away from the dragons, the party crossed
a rich and well-cultivated country until they approached the castle
of the sages (Bk. Ill, ch. 10). This transit should have followed
30 immediately on the passage of the Hyphasis, but the author could
not refrain from dragging in his fantastic stories about the pepper
mountains and the dragons, which he borrowed from books, with
embellishments of his own. A rich and well-cultivated plain pro¬
bably did then exist to the east of the Hyphasis, as it exists now.
35 The account of the sages and their abode in the succeeding
chapters is mostly of the nature of a fairy tale, which I need not
1) For full discussion of the changes in the rivers of the Panjäb, see Raverty's masterly, though difficult, treatise entitled 'The Mihrän of Sind and its Tributaries" (JASB., 1892, part I). The chief results of his researches are utilized in the Early Hist, of India.
2) The introduction of the pepper mountains between the Hyphasis and the sages' castle was made plausible to a certain extent by the error of Eratosthenes and other early Greek geographers who conceived India to be in the form of a rhomboid , and were ignorant of the true configuration of the peninsular region (Strabo, XV, 8, with Mc Crindle's commentary and diagram
in Ancient India as described in Classical Literature, p. 17). But the
tale as told by Philostratus is absurd even when compared with Ptolemy's map (Ind. Ant., vol. XIII, 1884).
Smith, The Indian Travel* of Apollonius of Tyana. 341
stop to examine minutely. The description of the sages' hill-dwelling and the fire-well to the south reads as if it were based on indistinct
knowledge of tne famous hill-fort of Kängfä and the Piremouth or
Jawälamukhi, twenty miles to the south-east of that fort, where
inflammable gas is discharged. I do not know any other locality 5
which could have served as a basis for the story. The fact that
Kängrä and Jawälamukhi are on the right, not the left side of the
Biäs, is a mere detail not to be regarded in a fanciful romance^).
Apollonius is represented as having stayed four months with
the long-haired sages, presumably Brahmans, who used in ancient lo
times to wear their hair long^j. The manners and conversations
described however are not those of Brahmans, and, as Priaulx
pointed out, the sages themselves are more Greek than Indian.
Some authors have been half - inclined to believe that in the
middle of the first century of our era people in north - western i5
India talked Greek fluently, as king Phraotes, the sages, and the
villagers living near the sages' castle did, according to Philostratus.
In my opinion the allegation about the wide diffusion of Greek is
fictitious. It is true that the coins of the Indo - Scythian king
Kanishka about the close of the first century of the Christian era so
bear legends in Greek characters, some of which contain Greek
words such as "Hliog , and that Kanishka, when building his great
relic-tower at Peshäwar, employed an architect or engineer named
Agesilaus. It is also true that the Graeco - Buddhist school of
sculpture , of which the Indian Institute at Oxford now possesses ss
a good though small collection of examples, was in existence in
Kanishka's time, and possibly may have originated a little earlier.
Those facts show that the Greek language and Greek mythology
were not wholly unknown in north-western India during the first
century of our era, but it is a long step from that admission to so
the acceptance of the tale told by Philostratus. The coins evidently
bore legends in Greek for the purposes of foreign trade with the
Roman Empire, and'I think that the Graeco - Buddhist school of
sculpture was worked by foreign artists imported by the Indo-
Scythian kings from Asia Minor, who taught their methods to ss
native sculptors. Looking at .the whole of the archaeological evidence
as it is known, I do not believe for a moment that knowledge of
the Greek language or mythology was at all widely diffused, or
1) KangrS or Nagarkot, in the PanjSb district of KangrS, is situated in 30° 5' N. lat. and 76° 16' E. long. Jawälamukhi, in the same district, is situated in N. lat. 31° 52' and E. long. 76° 20'. See Imperial Gazetteer (1908) and Cunningham, Arch. S. Reports, vol. V, pp. 155—175.
2) The shaven heads now favoured by most Hindus were not fashionable in ancient India. The Indians, we are told, ' frequently comb, but seldom cut, the hair of their head. The beard of the chin they never cut at all, but they shave off the hair from the rest of the face, so that it looks polished".
(Curtius, VIII, 9.)
342 Smith, The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyarui.
that conversations such as those reported by Philostratus could ever
have taken place.
The geography of the return journey from the castle of the
sages to the sea (Book III, ch. 50) is as mythical and impossible
5 as tbat of the journey from the Hyphasis. Apollonius is represented
as moving towards the coast, by keeping the Ganges on bis right
hand and the Hyphasis on his left. That, of course, is absurd —
for the Ganges must have been to his left, and the Hyphasis to
his right. Apparently the author intended to indicate one of the
10 seaports on the western coast — most likely Broach (Bharoch,
Barygaza) — as the place of embarkation, because we are told that
there were there small mercantile factories {i^noqia) and passenger
ships resembling those of the Tyrrhenes lying at anchor. Such things
were to be seen at Broach in tbose days. Moreover, after sailing
16 away from the port, the traveller is represented as passing the
mythical mouth of the Hyphasis, on which I have already commented,
and then the mouth of tbe Indus, as a traveller sailing from Broach
would do. The party could not have reached the sea in ten days
as they are alleged to have done. The travelling distance could
20 not be less than 800 miles. If any sensible meaning is to be
attributed to the talk about "the mouth of the Hyphasis" it can
refer only to the eastern branch of the great river Mihrän of Sind,
which received the waters of all the Panjäb rivers and long ago
discharged into the bay which is now silted up and know as the
26 Runn of Cutch. Anyhow, the story that the river forced its way
to the sea through gorges and precipices is absurd. Such things
have never existed in that region.
The sage is said to have seen Patala at the mouth of the
Indus, although Patala was far away at tbe head of the delta.
so The details of the voyage along the coast of Makrän to the
Persian Gulf seem to be taken from Nearchus and other old travellers,
with some changes of local names. The sacred island, for instance,
which was haunted by a female demon , and is called Sclera by
Philostratus, is the Astola, etc. of other authors.
S6 Prof. Petrie rightly argues that the mere ascription of miracles
to Apollonius is not enough to discredit his biography as a whole.
That proposition may be readily admitted, although it does not
justify the learned professor's belief in the Indian Travels. The
account of the visit to India professes to be derived from the
40 memoirs of Damis, who was supposed to have actually shared in
the adventures of his master. When Damis is represented as saying
that he actually saw the elephant Ajax which bad fought 850 years
earlier , that he crossed the pepper mountains on the way from
the Hyphasis to the castle of the sages, that he beheld the Hyphasis
45 forcing its way to the sea through gorges and precipices , that he
joined in a dragon hunt and so forth, no generalities about the
ascription of miracles will save our author's credit. The stories
Smüh, Tlie Indian Travels of ApoUonius of Tyana. 343
alluded to, and many other incidents represented as having occurred
in the personal experience of Damis, the companion of Apollonius,
are manifestly false. That being so, it is impossible to believe in
other details, such as the description of the metal reliefs at Taxila,
which taken by themselves might conceivably be regarded as credible. 5
I am, therefore, unable to share Prof. Petrie's belief that the
story of the Indian Travels contains "many interesting descriptions
of the monuments and conditions of the country" (p. 160).
Those descriptions would be most interesting and valuable if
they were true, but, unfortunately, they are demonstrably false in 10
most respects, and highly suspect in almost all. The chief exception
to the falsity of the account is to be found in the references to
Parthian sovereignty. The visits of Apollonius to Babylon are
rightly placed in the reign of Bardanes I (Arsakes XXI), and the
Western Panjäb is rightly described as being under the rule of 15
an independent Parthian king, to whom the Satrap of the Indus
was subordinate.
The account, no doubt, is true to life in certain small details,
but those could have been taken from books. The story regarded
as a whole is a fairy tale and cannot be treated as an authority 20
for the life of India in the middle of the first century of the
Christian era. As Priaulx pointed out long ago , stories about
India, including some genuine particulars, could be "easily collected
at that great mart for India commodities and resort for Indian
merchants — Alexandria" (p. 62). 25
The foregoing observations sufficiently state the view which
I take of the credibility of the Indian Travels, in general agreement
with the opinion of almost all writers on the subject from the
time of Eusebius until now, with the exception of Prof. Petrie.
But I desire to put on record in a more formal way the conclusions so
at which I have arrived with regard to the questions discussed
more or less fully in this essay.
1. The belief that Apollonius, who died in A.D. 97 or 98,
was then over 100 years of age, and that he had been born in or
about 4 B.C., is erroneous. In all probability he was not much 35
more than 80 at the time of his death, and his birth may be
dated somewhere about A. D. 15.
2. We may accept his journey to Babylon and India as a fact.
3. That journey was begun and ended during the reign of
the Parthian king , Bardanes I (Arsakes XXI) , who was on the 40
throne from about A. D. 39 to about 47. The Indian journey is
best assigned to the cold season of A. D. 43—44, but the date
cannot be fixed with absolute precision.
4. The memoirs of Damis, on which Philostratus professes to
found his narrative of the Indian Travels , probably were merely 45
a literary fiction. In any case, they are utterly untrustworthy.
344 Smüh, The Indian Travels of ApoUonius of Tyana.
5. No genuine detailed account of the travels in the east was
preserved. The story ascrihed by Philostratus to Damis is demon¬
strably false in most important matters where honest mistake was
impossible, and it is not to be depended on in any important
s particular, except that it correctly records the name of the Parthian
king then residing at Babylon, and rightly describes the Western
Panjab as being then under an independent Parthian ruler. In all
probability the elaborate works of art described as existing at
Taxila and other places are purely imaginary. The account of the
10 Brahman sages is fictitious and at variance with known facts.
6. The statements of Philostratus concerning the diffusion in
the Panjäb of the knowledge of Greek language, literature, and
mythology, are grossly exaggerated.
345
Kollektaneen zum Kautiliya Arthasästra,
Von Jnllns Jelly.
1. Sänäq's Buch über die Gifte.
ünter diesem Titel hat August Müller im 34. Bande dieser
Zeitschrift 501—544 ausführliche Auszüge aus einer arabischen
Handschrift des 13. Jahrhunderts mit deutscher Übersetzung mit-
aeteilt und die darin enthaltenen, angeblich von „Sänäq dem Inder"
herrührenden Angaben, soweit sie überhaupt auf eine indische Quelle s
zurückgehen , aus der Benutzung eines Kapitels des Susruta über
Vergiftungen oder eines darauf basierenden indischen Giftbuches
abgeleitet. Zur Irreführung des Lesers habe der arabische Autor
den Verfassernamen Suäruta unterdrückt und den des Öänäq-Cänakya
an die Stelle gesetzt, „welcher ihm entweder als Verfasser eines lo
Regentenspiegels, in dem u. a. auch von der Vorsicht gegen Gift¬
mischereien die Rede sein mochte, oder aber von der Giftmädchen¬
geschichte her bekannt sein konnte".
Als August Müller seine Untersuchungen veröffentlichte (1880),
war das K. A., als dessen Verfasser bekanntlich Cänakya gilt, noch i5
nicht zugänglich, sonst hätte er wohl die Angaben des arabischen
Giftbuches direkt auf das K. A. zurückgeführt. Daß hier große
Ähnlichkeiten bestehen, sollen die nachstehenden Zusammenstellungen
zeigen, denen ich freilich für den arabischen Text nur die sicher
sorgfältige Übersetzung A. Müllers zugrunde legen kann, was aber 20
keine größere Fehlerquelle sein wird , als die Benutzung der un¬
genauen lateinischen Übersetzung von Hessler anstatt des Sanskrit¬
textes des Suäruta bei A. Müller.
„äänäq der Inder' nach A. Müller. Kautiliya Arthasästra (CSnakya).
34, 503 (vgl. 477 f.). Es ist Vgl. den Schluß des K. A. 25
Sänäq der Inder hervorragend
gewesen bei den Leuten seines
o
Zeitalters , weise ; er hat dieses Buch verfaßt.
503ff. Die Schädigungen lassen 236, 1. Äastrena rasena vä vi- 30
sich einteilen in zwei Abteilungen; kräntam tatraiva ghätayet | . . .
Zeitschrift der D. M. G. Bd. 68 (1914). 23
2 t
