Apollonius of Tyana

Apollonius of Tyana was a Neopythagorean philosopher and ascetic holy man of the first century CE, famed in his own time and after as a sage, healer, and worker of wonders. He lived the strict Pythagorean life — vegetarian, celibate, robed in linen — and was said to have travelled as far as India in search of wisdom.

His fame rests largely on the long, semi-legendary Life written more than a century later by Philostratus. In late antiquity, as paganism contended with the rising Christian faith, some set Apollonius up as a pagan holy man to rival the Gospels' miracle-worker — making him a charged figure in the religious struggles of the age.