APOLLODO´RUS, a Greek writer who flourished 140 B.C. Among the numerous works he wrote on various subjects, the only one extant is his _Bibliothec[=e]_, which contains a concise account of the mythology of Greece down to the heroic age.
APOLLO´NIUS OF PERGA, Greek mathematician, called the 'great geometer', flourished about 240 B.C., and was the author of many works, only one of which, a treatise on _Conic Sections_, partly in Greek and partly in an Arabic translation, is now extant.
APOLLO´NIUS OF RHODES, a Greek rhetorician and poet, flourished about 230 B.C. Of his various works we have only the _Argonautica_, an epic poem of considerable merit, though perhaps written with too much care and labour. It deals with the story of the Argonautic expedition.
APOLLO´NIUS OF TY´ANA, in Cappadocia, a Pythagorean philosopher who was born in the beginning of the Christian era, early adopted the Pythagorean doctrines, abstaining from animal food and maintaining a rigid silence for five years. He travelled extensively in Asia, professed to be endowed with miraculous powers, such as prophecy and the raising of the dead, and was on this account set up by some as a rival to Christ. His ascetic life, wise discourses, and wonderful deeds obtained for him almost universal reverence, and temples, altars, and statues were erected to him. He died at Ephesus about the end of the first century. A narrative of his strange career, containing many fables, with, perhaps, a kernel of truth, was written by Philostratus about a century later.
APOLLO´NIUS OF TYRE, the hero of a tale which had an immense popularity in the Middle Ages and which indirectly furnished the plot of Shakespeare's _Pericles, Prince of Tyre_. The story, originally in Greek, first appeared in the third century after Christ.
APOLL´OS, a Jew of Alexandria, who learned the doctrines of Christianity at Ephesus from Aquila and Priscilla, became a preacher of the gospel in Achaia and Corinth, and an assistant of Paul in his missionary work. Some have regarded him as the author of the _Epistle to the Hebrews_.
APOLL´YON ('the Destroyer'), a name used in _Rev._ ix, 11 for the angel of the bottomless pit.
APOLOGETICS (-jet´iks), this term, as used in Christian theology, does not carry with it the idea of excuse or regretful acknowledgment, but signifies a defensive or vindicatory statement, which accords with its meaning in the original Greek. In the conventional division of systematic theology apologetics comes first in order, and is followed by the disciplines of dogmatics and ethics, which expound Christian belief and Christian duty respectively. There is a tendency, however, in the more recent treatment of systematic theology, to include the defence or vindication of the various Christian doctrines within the dogmatic scheme, leaving to apologetics--in so far as it may be regarded as a separate discipline from dogmatics--the discussion of such general themes as religion and revelation, authority and inspiration, and the essence and truth of Christianity. Such discussions belong essentially to what is now often called philosophy of religion. The preference of the term philosophy of religion to that of apologetics is indicative at once of the wider theological outlook of our time and of the conciliatory, adaptable, and more sympathetic spirit in which the Christian apologist approaches the new thought and culture.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. B. Bruce, _Apologetics_; R. Mackintosh, _First Primer of Apologetics_; J. R. Illingworth, _Reason and Revelation_; A. E. Garvie, _A Handbook of Christian Apologetics_.