Damis

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All that we know about Damis comes from Philostratus in his Life of Apollonius of Tyana. Accordingly, it is difficult to tell how much of what Philostratus says about him is fact and how much is fiction, and many scholars have thought that Damis never existed at all.

According to Philostratus, Apollonius of Tyana met Damis in a city which Philostratus calls "Old Ninos," which from its location cannot be Nineveh but is more probably the "holy city" of Hierapolis in Syria. Damis admired Apollonius so much that he became his disciple, and kept a record of Apollonius' actions and sayings down to near the end of the philosopher's life. These notes came into the possession of the empress Julia Domna, and it was she who commissioned Philostratus to prepare a biography of Apollonius, the extant Life of Apollonius of Tyana.