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Philostratus
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Philostratus

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Also known as Philostratus Atheniensis, Philostratus the Athenian, Lucius Flavius Philostratus

Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; ; 170s – 240s AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He flourished during the reign of Septimius Severus (193–211) and died during that of Philip the Arab (244–249), probably in Tyre.

OverviewAI-generated

Philostratus was a male writer, sophist, orator, and philosopher from Ancient Rome. Born in Lemnos in 170, he died in Athens in 250. He belonged to the Flavia gens and was the son of a man also named Philostratus. Writing in Ancient Greek during the Roman Empire, he is identified as Philostratus the Athenian.

His notable works include *Life of Apollonius of Tyana*, *The lives of the sophists*, and *Imagines*. Open Library lists 93 works attributed to him, while Crossref records five. He is described in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary. One of his quotes reads: "I, whenever I see thee, thirst, and holding the cup, apply it to my lips more for thy sake than for drinking."

Synthesized by Vinony from 26 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Crossref, Wikiquote, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
2nd/3rd cent.
Died
ca. 245
Works
93

Top works

  • The lives of the sophists
  • Les images (The Renaissance and the gods)
  • Imagines
  • Lives of the sophists
  • Vida De Apolonio De Tiana

via Open Library + Wikidata

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

  1. Lives of the Sophists

    · 1921 · cited 17x

  2. The Life of Apollonius of Tyana

    · 2005 · cited 10x

  3. Imagines 17. Philoctetes

    · 1931 · cited 4x

  4. Discourses 1

    · 2014 · cited 4x

  5. Heroicus

    · 2014 · cited 3x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

  • Drink to me with your eyes alone…. And if you will, take the cup to your lips and fill it with kisses, and give it so to me.
  • I, whenever I see thee, thirst, and holding the cup, apply it to my lips more for thy sake than for drinking.
  • One day the king was going to hunt the animals in the parks in which the barbarians keep lions and bears and leopards, and he asked Apollonius to accompany him on the chase, but the latter replied: "You have forgotten, O king, that I never attend you, even when you are sacrificing. And moreover, it is no pleasure to me to attack animals that have been ill-treated and enslaved in violation of their nature."
  • Apollonius … explained his motive in practicing wisdom, declaring that the sole use he had made of it was to gain knowledge of the gods and an understanding of human affairs, for that the difficulty of knowing another man exceeded that of knowing oneself.
  • "What induces you, he [] said, "Apollonius, to dress yourself differently from everybody else, and to wear this peculiar and singular garb?" "Because," said Apollonius, "the earth which feeds me also clothes me, and I do not like to bother the poor animals."

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Gender
male
Citizenship
Ancient Rome
Place of birth
Lemnos
Place of death
Athens
Occupation
philosopher
Languages spoken
Ancient Greek
Show 8 more facts
date of birth
0170-01-01
date of death
0245-00-00
time period
Roman Empire
writing language
Ancient Greek
different from
Philostratus
Commons Creator page
Philostratus
significant place
Lemnos
Sources (6)

via Wikidata · CC0

~7 min read

Encyclopedic overview

7 sections
Contents
  • Name and life
  • Works attributed to Philostratus
  • Translations
  • Notes
  • References
  • Further reading
  • External links

Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; ; 170s – 240s AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He flourished during the reign of Septimius Severus (193–211) and died during that of Philip the Arab (244–249), probably in Tyre.

==Name and life== thumb|Bust of Julia Domna, Philostratus' patron in the early third century AD. Some ambiguity surrounds his name. The nomen Flavius is given in The Lives of the Sophists and Tzetzes. Eunapius and Synesius call him a Lemnian; Photius a Tyrian; his letters refer to him as an Athenian. His praenomen was probably Lucius, although this is not entirely confirmed.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Philostratus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (2)