crowds. Thence he passed into Crete, and last of all went to Rome.
Nero was emperor at the time. The sworn enemy of all philosophers, he persecuted them under the pretext that they Were magicians; accordingly the majority of the disciples of Apollonius forsook him, not daring to face the furious onslaughts of a tyrant like Nero. Apollonius, however, fearless of everything, entered the capital and spent his time in the various temples, where his religious discourses produced an immense sensation. Tegellinus, the praetorian prefect, ordered him to be arrested as a seditious person; but, astounded by his surprising replies, and thinking that he had to do with some evil spirit, and not with a man, he directed that he should be set at liberty. Apollonius at once embraced the opportunity of his being liberated to restore to life a young girl who had been dead some time; and then, as Nero, on his departure for Greece, had expelled all the philosophers from Rome, he determined to visit what was then supposed to be the far West—i.e., Spain and Africa.
