The Church Fathers · c. 311–313
Against Hierocles
Eusebius of Caesarea · c. 260 – c. 340
What it is
A governor active in the persecution had written a book setting Apollonius of Tyana beside Christ and arguing that the pagan wonder-worker was the better attested of the two. Eusebius answers by going through Philostratus's biography and asking what in it a reasonable person would actually believe.
Why it lasted
The first Christian book written against a rival miracle-worker rather than against a philosophy, and a direct reply to a work this catalogue already holds. Its method is source criticism turned on an opponent's evidence.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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