PHILOSTRATUS, FLAVIUS, THE ATHENIAN

born AD 170 died c. 245 ancient Greek writer who studied at Athens and some time after 202 entered the circle of the philosophical Syrian empress of Rome, Julia Domna. On her death he settled in Tyre. He wrote the Gymnasticus (a treatise dealing with athletic contests); a life of the Pythagorean philosopher Apollonius of Tyana; Bioi sophiston (Lives of the Sophists), treating both the classical Sophists of the 5th century BC and later philosophers and rhetoricians; a discourse on nature and law; and the epistles ("Love Letters"), of which one forms the basis of the English poet Ben Jonson's "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes."