Apollonius

APOLLONIUS, ap"el-lō´ni-us: 1. A Roman martyr under Commodus. Eusebius (Hist. eccl., v. 21) states that he was renowned for his learning and wisdom; he was accused by an “instrument of the devil” at a time when the government did not favor religious persecution, and consequently the accuser suffered the death penalty; the judge, Perennis, wished to save Apollonius, allowed him to make an eloquent defense before the senate, but was ultimately compelled by the law to condemn the Christian to death by beheading. Jerome expands these notices (De vir. ill., xlii., liii.; Epist. lxx., ad Magnum). As the downfall of Perennis took place in 185, the martyrdom must be dated between 181 and that year, probably in 184.

N. Bonwetsch.

Bibliography: (1) Apology and Acis of Apollonius, ed. and transl. from the Armenian by F. C. Conybeare, London, 1894 (cf. The Guardian, June 21, 1893); Greek transl. of the same in Analecta Bollandiana, xiv. (1895) 284-294, and cf. xxiii. (1899) 50, and E. T. Klette, Der Process und die Acta S. Apollonii, in TU, xv. 2, Leipsic, 1897; O. von Gebhardt, Acta martyrum selecta, pp. 44 sqq., Berlin, 1902. Also A. Harnack, in Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie, 1893, pp. 721-746, and in TLZ, xx. (1895) 590 sqq.; Seeberg, NKZ, iv. (1893) 836 sqq.; E. G. Hardy, Christianity and the Roman Empire, London, 1894; Max, Prinz von Sachsen, Der heilige Märtyrer Apollonius von Rom, Mainz, 1903; O. Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirchlichen Litteratur, vol. ii., Freiburg, 1903.

2. Author of a work against the Montanists, of which Eusebius gives a fragment (Hist. eccl., v.18). It was written forty years after the appearance of Montanus and shows that the deliverances of the new prophets were false and that the conduct of the Montanist authorities was opposed to the manner of true prophets. According to Jerome (De vir. ill., 1., liii.), Tertullian added to his six books De ecstasi, a seventh against the charges of Apollonius; but he is mistaken (De vir. ill., xl.) in ascribing to Apollonius what is related by Eusebius in Hist. eccl., v. 16. The designation of Apollonius as “leader of the Ephesians,” in Prœdestinatus, xxvi. is a fiction.

N. Bonwetsch.

Bibliography: N. Bonwetsch, Geschichte des Montanismus, pp. 30, 49, Erlangen 1881; G. Voigt, Eine antimontanistische Urkunde, Leipsic, 1891; T. Zahn, Forschungen zur Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons, pp. 21 sqq., Leipsic, 1893.