GREEK IDENTITY AND THE ROMAN IMPERIAL POWER IN INDIAN REPRESENTATIONS: REFLECTIONS FROM LIFE OF APOLLONIUS OF TYANA, WRITTEN BY PHILOSTRATUS

Abstract

This article presents our interpretations of representations from India and from the contacts established by the philosopher Apollonius of Tyana. This is mentioned in the biography “Life of Apollonius of Tyana” written by Flavius Philostratus in the first half of III century AD. Our aim is to show, how your author, a Greek sophist, inserted in the structures of the Roman Imperial Power  during  Severan Dinasty (193-235), when the work was written, realizes India in these established relationships by your character, the wise Apollonius, in his trips around this region.  We attempt to show how in these excerpts there is a construction of boundaries identities and the identity affirmation and of the Greek paideia from the author, Philostratus. That was projected in the protagonist of the work and amid your representations of the “other”.  Furthermore, we intend to reflect about the perspective and possible aspirations of Philostratus related to features of the Severan background that author lived and written.