Classical Tragedy, the Second Sophistic and Greek Criticism of Tyranny in The Roman Empire: Flavius Philostratus and the Life of Apollonius of Tyana Danny PRAET Ghent University Apollonius of Tyana travelled the world, from the Hindu Kush to the shores y of the Atlantic, and Flavius Philostratus, the author of thoe rearly third s i t century biography of the Pythagorean sage, also pdeoscribes his travels to e R Egypt1 and all the way to Upper-Egypt aynd to Ethiopia (Life of Apollonius s i t book 5, 20 ff). This trip to Evgyeptr is a sort of home-coming for Apollonius n i because the sageo is pUresented by Philostratus (Life of Apollonius 1, 4) as the incarnatCiona oifr the god Proteus, whom Homer (Odyssey IV, 355 ff.) had located on the island of Pharos. The godlike philosopher arrived in Alexandria and visited the timeless land in timeless fashion. Apollonius and ten of his disciples (Life of Apollonius 5, 43.3): “after praying to the gods and sacrificing as if about to start on a sea voyage, set out straight for the pyramids on camelback, keeping the Nile on their right. They also crossed the river at many points in order to learn about everything on its banks, and there was no city, sanctuary or any sacred place in Egypt that they passed in silence, but were constantly hearing or giving a kind of sacred discourse, and any vessel that carried Apollonius resembled a pilgrim ship.” 2 The city of Alexandria is chosen by Philostratus in the Vita Apollonii, as the scene of a long discussion (5, 27 - 36) on the best possible political The new emperor Vespasian asked whether his predecessors Nero and Caligula had brought monarchy in disrepute and whether he should restore the Republic. In book V, chapters 27 and the following, the philosophers Classical Papers, vol. xi , 2012 Tragedy, the Second Sophistic and Greek Criticism of Tyranny Dio of Prusa and the Stoic Euphrates, discussed with the emperor Vespasian and with Apollonius. Euphrates pleaded for the restoration of the republic, Dio believed the people of Rome had lost the ability to rule themselves (5, 34): “I think it a greater achievement not to let tyranny come about than to end one already established. I think highly of democracy, for even if it is a constitution perhaps inferior to aristocracy, still the wise prefer it to tyranny and oligarchy. I am afraid, however, that these tyrannies, by reducing the Romans to subservience, will make the change difficult, so that they may be unable to be free or to gaze on democracy, like people emerging from darkness to the light of day.”4 Vespasian should oppose Vitellius to prevent a new tyranny from rising, and then let the people decide: “if you defeat him, as I think you will succeed yin doing o r without effort, give the Romans the choice of their own csoni sttitution. If they o p choose democracy, grant it to them.” ApolloRniues however pleaded for an y enlightened monarchy (V, 35.4): “sJuistt as one man of exceptional virtue e r v changes democracy so ans tio make it appear the rule of one man better than U o the rest; soa thi er rule of one man who is always looking out for the common C good is a democracy.” The link with ancient drama is not to be found in these passages about the best constitution, but in the confrontation between Apollonius and Vespasian’s second son, the tyrant Domitian. Flavius Philostratus has designed a very sophisticated web of allusions to and quotes from Euripides, from Bakchai, to depict Domitian as a god-fighting tyrant and Apollonius as Dionysos, a god in human form. We also hope to show that subtle humour was one of the weapons used by Philostratus to ridicule the emperor.5 First I would like to mention a reference to another Euripidean tragedy from the Dionysian cycle – the Ino – and the allusion is to the fate of tyrants (7.5): ‘A tragic actor visited Ephesus to appear in the play Ino and the governor of Asia was in the audience. Though young and a distinguished consular, he had rather a timid view on these subjects. The 254 Danny PRAET actor was just finishing the iambic lines in which Euripides says that tyrants whose power lasts long are overthrown by trifles, when Apollonius jumped up and said.: “But this coward understands neither Euripides nor me.’6 This little anecdote not only shows us that classical tragedy was still being performed in the Roman provinces but that performances could be used as platforms for political statements. The conflict between Apollonius of Tyana and the emperor Domitian reaches a climax in book 7 of the Vita Apollonii. Apollonius totally abstained from sexual intercourse and wine but he did not present his own asceticism as a model to be followed by all. Philostratus emphasizes that his abstinence from wine did not make him y o r reject the divinity of Dionysos or deny the beneficsiali taspects of the o grapevine. Apollonius said that: ‘everything weaps pure which the earth R y produced unaided. Wine, he said wsais ta pure drink, since it came from a e r plant so beneficial to hunmainvs, but it obstructed mental balance by confusing U the ether in the soou l.’7) His diet consisted of dried fruit and vegetables and a i r his clotChing too, made of linen, was a free gift of Mother Earth. But he criticized Domitian’s decrees against planting grapevines and against making men into eunuchs. Several aspects of his ascetic practices and of his physical appearance were linked to Pythagoreanism or to Dorian traditions. Prominently present in the Vita Apollonii is his long and unkempt hair. Patrick Robiano has discussed the importance of wearing long hair (κομᾶν) from the point of view of philosophical traditions, as part of the appearance of a theios anèr, and as part of second sophistic rhetoric: as a paradoxical praise of unkempt hair.8) His physical appearance was part of the accusations made by Domitian (7.20), who saw it as an indication that Apollonius was a goès or, at least, an advocate of a subversive virtue.9) Apollonius inverted at least one aspect of this tradition: his long hair is explicitly unkempt whereas the appearance of the earlier “Pythagorean” philosopher Empedocles can be 255 Tragedy, the Second Sophistic and Greek Criticism of Tyranny called extravagant and even the Indian Brahmins, whose habit of wearing their hair long (κομᾶν δὲ ἐπιτηδεύουσιν) is linked to ‘all the peoples that valued Spartan ways’ (3.15.4), wear ribbons in their hair. According to Philostratus Apollonius did none of these things, but the author went to great lengths to stylize his hair with literary references. Philostratus focuses on the long hair during the physical confrontation between Domitian and Apollonius. At the beginning of the scene, the emperor is preparing a sacrifice to his favourite goddess Athena.10) As the emperor turns towards Apollonius he was (7.32.1) ‘taken aback by the Master’s appearance, [and he] said: “Aelianus, you have brought a demon before me.”’ Apollonius picks up on the special reverence for Athena and y o r starts a discussion with Domitian about mistaking mesn iftor demons and o p about which humans are worthy to be called godes. With a clear reference to R y Iliad 5.127-8 Apollonius prays thast iAtthena might do for Domitian what e r ‘she once did for Diomendeis vin Troy. She took away from Diomedes’s eyes U the mist (ἀaχλi ὺrν)o th at prevents men from seeing fully, and gave him the C power to distinguish gods from men. But the goddess has not cleansed you in that way.’ This altercation can be read as covert criticism of the infamous dominus et deus aspirations,11) but we will argue that it prepares the reader for the revelation of the divine nature of Apollonius. Athena had taken away the mist from Diomedes’s eyes so as not to fight any of the immortal gods, except Aphrodite,12) and the speech of Athena is followed by the famous sequence in which Diomedes wounds the goddess of love. Since Apollonius states that the goddess Athena has not taken away the mist from Domitian’s eyes, the reader might expect the following confrontation to be one between a mortal and an immortal god. In fact, the reader had already been prepared in book 4 for the qualification of Apollonius’ imperial opponents as ‘godfighters’. The only time θεομαχεῖν or related words are used in the VA is in 4.44.4: in the confrontation with Nero, when Tigellinus took Apollonius for a demon. Philostratus even explicitly (4.44.2) links this 256 Danny PRAET scene with 7.32.1: ‘Apollonius is later said to have had the same effect on Domitian.’ Tigellinus and Apollonius have a discussion about ‘unmasking’ demons and phantoms, and the praetorian prefect ‘decided that these words were supernatural and superhuman, and as if reluctant to fight a god he said, ‘Go where you like, for you are too powerful to be ruled by me.’13) This first confrontation, in the palace, before the actual trial, ends in Domitian’s ‘outrages against the Master, shearing off his beard and his hair, and shackling him in the company of the most hardened criminals. Apollonius said about this shearing, “I had not realized, Majesty, that my hair put me in the dock,” and about being chained up, “If you think me a sorcerer (γόης), how will you chain me? And if you chain me, how will you y o r say I am a sorcerer?” “Yes,” replied the other, “I will nost isett you free until o you turn into water, or some animal or tree.e”’1p4) The reference to the R y metamorphoses of Proteus (Od. 4.s35i0tff) should be called tragic irony in e r light of VA 1.4 where Anpoillvonius is presented as an incarnation of the old U sea god. The traogic undertones become even more clear in what follows. a i r C Philostratus introduces explicit literary parallels for the cutting of hair in 7.36 when one of Domitian’s agents came to the prison, trying to provoke lèse majesté. The ‘agent provocateur’ asked three questions: ‘Who would have expected Apollonius to be in jail? (…) And who would have expected that those heavenly locks would ever be cut off? (τίς δ’ ἂν τὰς ἀμβροσίας ποτὲ ἀποτμηθῆναι χαίτας;) (…) How is your leg taking the pain?’ Apollonius first answered in his typical ‘laconian’ style, but ‘When the man kept recalling his hair and bringing the conversation back to it, Apollonius said, “It is lucky for you, young man, that you were not one of the Greeks at Troy. You would have grieved terribly for the hair of Achilles (τὰς Ἀχιλλείους κόμας), I think, when he cut it for Patroclus, if he really did (τμηθείσας, εἰ δὴ ἐτμήθησαν), and you would have fainted over it. If you say you are sorry for my hair, which was squalid and turning gray, what would you have felt about his hair, which was groomed and 257 Tragedy, the Second Sophistic and Greek Criticism of Tyranny blond?”’ This refers to Iliad 23.141: arguably the most famous haircut in ancient Greek literature. But we should note two inversions (and one subversive version).15 The first inversion was made explicit by Apollonius: his long hair was neither groomed nor blond. The second is actually too obvious to mention but should be made explicit for our argument: Achilles cut his own hair. These discrepancies are indications that Philostratus is conjuring up another famous haircut: Pentheus cutting the blond hair of the imprisoned Dionysos / priest of Dionysos in Euripides’ Bacchae.16) There are many parallels. Pentheus calls the foreigner from Lydia ‘a wizard, an enchanter’ (v. 234: γόης ἐπωιδὸς). Because of his opposition against Dionysos he is described as a ‘godfighter’ (v. 45: θεομαχεyῖ ).17 The o r king criticizes ‘his blond locks reeking of scent’ (2o35s)1i8)t and associates p e long hair with being a goès. He threatens to kRill him: ‘If I catch him in this y country, I’ll stop him from beateingr hsisi tthyrsus on the ground and tossing his v locks: I’ll separate Uhisn hei ad from his body.’19) (239-241) Pentheus has o imprisoneda ainrd put into fetters as many maenads as he could find. He did C the same with the foreigner who, as the audience knows since verse 4, is the god himself: ‘I have exchanged my divine form for a mortal one / μορφὴν δ’ ἀμείψας ἐκ θεοῦ βροτησίαν.’ The king thinks he is able to use force against the priest / the divinity but the prisoner has come out of his own free will and the imprisonment is but an illusion. Pentheus takes away his thyrsus and cuts the long hair of the foreigner, who responds with noted tragic irony (493-4): ‘Pentheus: “First I shall cut off your delicate locks.” Dionysos: “My locks are sacred: I grow them long in the god’s honor.’”20) There is also an ironic inversion in the punishment Pentheus will undergo. The king who threatened the effeminate stranger will appear in women’s clothes and the god will first of all attend to the hair of Pentheus: ‘First on your head I will cause your hair to grow long’ (v. 831). Philostratus has intertwined the Homeric and the Euripidean echoes by switching scene and choice of words. An immortal in human form, accused 258 Danny PRAET of being a goès, imprisoned by a blinded king who cuts off his long hair is clearly the situation from the Bacchae. Euripides uses πλόκαμος, βόστρυχος and τέμνω, ἀποτέμνω (vv. 150, 235, 493-4). Homer describing Achilles cutting his own hair has ἀποκείρω and χαίτη21) and these are exactly the words chosen by Philostratus (7.34): γενείων τε ἀποκείρας αὐτὸν καὶ χαίτης.22) The allusions to the Iliad and the Bacchae are combined with citations. In his study “Quotation of earlier texts in Ta es ton Tyanea Apollonion” Ewen Bowie has shown that Homer is the most frequently quoted author with 46 citations or clear allusions on a total of 138 in the Vita. Both the yIliad and o r the Odyssey are central subtexts for the general narratives oif tthe Life and for o p a large number of its episodes.23) Herodotus sRecoend with 13 quotes; closely y followed by Plato and Euripides ons ai tshared third place with 12 citations e r v each. n i U o Of the Euraipiidrean plays the Bacchae is clearly the most popular with three C clear references. This should not come as a surprise since the mythological travels of Dionysos offer another model for Apollonius’ journey to the East and his triumphant return to the West.24) The explicit references are nicely distributed over books 2, 4 and 6. In 2.36.1 we have a clear but significantly altered allusion to Bacchae 918-9. After a discussion between king Phraotes and Apollonius on madness and sanity, on the effects on the mind of heavy drinking, moderate drinking and abstinence of wine on the quality of one’s nights rest, Apollonius says to his companion Damis: ‘You clearly said that drunkards are confused in their minds and rather inclined to madness. We see those prey to drunkenness thinking that they see two moons and two suns.’ In Bacchae, it is Pentheus and not some drunk, who exits the palace in women’s clothes. He says it is ‘as if he sees two suns and two Thebes.’ Under the influence, not of wine, but of Dionysos the god, he 259 Tragedy, the Second Sophistic and Greek Criticism of Tyranny now sees what he did not see before: the stranger as a bull, the stranger with horns. In book 4.21.2 Apollonius criticizes the degeneration of the Dionysia in Athens and the general loss of manliness in Greece, comparing his contemporaries with the generation who fought the Persians: ‘These used to go to the sanctuary of Agraulos swearing to die and take up arms for their native city, but now perhaps they will swear to be Bacchants on their city’s behalf and carry a wand, not wearing any helmet, but shamefully resplendent in “woman-like” disguise, as Euripides says.’ The word γυναικομίμωι is a quote from Bacchae 980 where the chorus talks about the fool Pentheus in his women’s clothes. The third locus (7.11.18: ‘If y o r Edonians or Lydians are possessed by Bacchus, you arse irteady to believe o p that the earth will give them streams of milk aend wine, and quench their R y thirst.’) contains an allusion to Bacschiate 704-711: the report by the servant e r of Pentheus sent to spyn oinv the Maenads. The reference is clearly not to U Pentheus directlyo, a lthough it is remarkable that, in the previous sentence, a i r C Apollonius refers to how ‘Homer in his description of the Cyclops says that the earth feeds that most rustic and uncivilized race without their sowing or reaping.’ The Cyclops has long been identified as an intertextual characterization of Domitian,25 and it could be argued that the Bacchae and the Odyssey are here united in two references not pointing directly to Domitian, as these texts are united elsewhere in giving Philostratus two types to characterize the fierce tyrant. There were several other reasons to link Domitian with Pentheus, and to include all these references to haircuts in the Vita Apollonii, although this was also a favourite topic in other writings by Philostratus.26 The official iconography and literary texts show the emperor with full hair, but we know from Suetonius that the tyrant was bald at a fairly young age: ‘He was so sensitive about his baldness, that he regarded it as a personal insult if anyone else was twitted with that defect in jest or in earnest; though in a book “On the Care of the Hair”, which he published and dedicated to a 260 Danny PRAET friend, he wrote the following by way of consolation to the man and himself: “Do you not see that I am too tall and comely to look on?” And yet the same fate awaits my hair, and I bear with resignation the ageing of my locks in youth. Be assured that nothing is more pleasing than beauty, but nothing shorter-lived.’27) The words quoted by Domitian (Il. 21, 108) are again by Achilles: they belong to the famous speech in which the son of Peleus, enraged by the death of Patroclus, refuses to spare the life of Lykaon. Domitian adapted the next verses arguing that even fair Achilles himself was destined to die to the tragic loss of hair awaiting us all. Llewelyn Morgan has analyzed this Libellus de cura capillorum, its literary allusions, its humour and its historical context.28) Domitian combined the “strong association between Achilles and (early) death” with they “strong o r association between Achilles and hair.”29) Morgan sciont cluded: “Hair o p preoccupied this emperor. He composed Rliteerature on baldness. He y displayed paranoia about it; he sciulttivated an image which actively e r v emphasized the hair he dnidi not possess. His fixation – as it is fair to call it – U o manifesteda itiserlf in more ways than one. Wit – a work on hair care written C by a bald man – was one outlet.”30 We can not be sure that Philostratus had read or even knew this libellus, and even if he did, we can not be sure that Domitian also referred explicitly to the mourning Achilles who dedicated his long, blond locks to Patroclus, but enough was known about Domitian and his hair-issues to make the association almost inescapable. Although he had issued a law against castration, Domitian kept a eunuch as his personal ‘Ganymedes’: Earinus. Dio Cassius remarked: ‘Accordingly, though he himself entertained a passion for a eunuch named Earinus, nevertheless, since Titus also had shown a great fondness for eunuchs, in order to insult his memory, he forbade that any person in the Roman Empire should thereafter be castrated.’31) This Earinus had cut his own hair and dedicated it to Asclepius in the sanctuary at Pergamon, hoping to preserve his youthful beauty for Domitian. The hair was kept in a golden box, adorned with precious stones. Although Philostratus probably hadn’t 261 Tragedy, the Second Sophistic and Greek Criticism of Tyranny read any of the (numerous) Latin poems written by Statius or Martial on this eunuch and the dedication of his hair, many of which were commissioned by the emperor32) other Greek contemporaries of must have known Earinus. If only to criticize Domitian as a hypocrite, the eunuch was mentioned in the epitome of Dio Cassius. We believe we have come full circle. Domitian, the tyrant who made laws against vines, is depicted as a godfighter: a fool who did not realize that in opposing Apollonius he was fighting the god Proteus, just as Pentheus did not recognize the god Dionysos in human form. Domitian and Pentheus imprison the god and cut his hair. Domitian was bald and rather obsessed with hair. His lover sacrificed his hair to the god in whose sanctuary y Apollonius started to wear his hair long. As he was made to looork a fool by s i t Dionysos in Euripides, so we can wonder about theo subtle irony used by p e R Philostratus at the expense of Domitiayn. Apollonius wears long hair in s i t honour of Dorian traditions. Hee forllows and partially inverts the example of v n i the Pythagorean EmUpedocles who had groomed hair and claimed he was o ‘an immoratali grod to you and no longer a mortal’ (quoted in VA 1.1.3). The C intertextual references support the claims made by some about the divine nature of Apollonius. The sophist Philostratus managed to weave a web of allusions between Homer, Euripides, philosophy, and history - both Greek and Roman – that does not cease to amaze. We hope the analysis of these references has shown how Philostratus used classical tragedy to add a literary and one might argue religious element to his criticism against tyranny. The humour Philostratus used against the tyrant was very subtle and even if his irony was understood he was at no personal risk, writing more than 120 years after the death of Domitian, but we thought this analysis of the use of ancient drama as elements for a humoristic attack against a tyrant was appropriate for the theme of the Cairo Conference in 2012. 262