King’s eye and ears (1)

Text
Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 1.21:
After he (= Apollonius) had passed Ctesiphon and was crossing the borders of Babylon, he found there a royal guardpost. This you could not pass without being asked your identity, your city, and the purpose of your voyage. A governor had been made responsible for this guardpost, a sort of “King’s Eye,” I suppose, for having just come to power the Mede did not allow himself to live in security, but feared everything, real or unreal, and had fallen into terrors and tremblings.

Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 1.28:
Then he himself rushed off to the potentates they consider to be the King’s Ears, and described Apollonius to them, warning them that he refused to bow down and was nothing like an ordinary human.

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 1.21
Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 1.28

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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