d; but without appealing
to the prediction in proof of his authority.[350] Since, then, he is so
far from insisting on his pretended extraordinary powers, and himself
connects the acquisition of them with his Eastern expedition,[351] we
may conclude that credit for possessing magical secrets was a _part_ of
the reputation which that expedition conferred. A foreign appearance,
singularity of manners, a life of travel, and pretences to superior
knowledge, excite the imagination of beholders;[352] and, as in the case
of a wandering people among ourselves, appear to invite the persons who
are thus distinguished, to fraudulent practices. Apollonius is
represented as making converts as soon as seen.[353] It was not, then
his display of marvels, but his Pythagorean dress and mysterious
deportment, which arrested attention, and made him thought superior to
other men, because he was different from them. Like Lucian's
Alexander[354] (who was all but his disciple), he was skilled in
medicine, professed to be favoured by AEsculapius, pretended to
foreknowledge, was in collusion with the heathen priests, and was
supported by the Oracles; and being more strict in conduct than the
Paphlagonian,[355] he established a more lasting celebrity. His
usefulness to political aspirants contributed to his success; perhaps
also the real and contemporary miracles of the Christian teachers would
dispose many minds easily to acquiesce in any claims of a similar
character.

7.

5. In the foregoing remarks we have admitted, the general fidelity of
the history, because ancient authors allow it, and there was no
necessity to dispute it. Tried however on his own merits, it is quite
unworthy of serious attention. Not only in the miraculous accounts (as
we have already seen), but in the relation of a multitude of ordinary
facts, an effort to rival our Saviour's history is distinctly visible.
The favour in which Apollonius from a child was held by gods and men;
his conversations when a youth in the Temple of AEsculapius; his
determination in spite of danger to go up to Rome;[356] the cowardice
of his disciples in deserting him; the charge brought against him of
disaffection to Caesar; the Minister's acknowledging, on his private
examination, that he was more than man; the ignominious treatment of him
by Domitian on his second appearance at Rome; his imprisonment with
criminals; his vanishing from Court and sudden reappearance to his
mourning disciples