 The veracity of this is not certain, but proves the desire of the early Christians to escape an association with magic.The third magus of interest in the period of the Roman Empire is Apollonius of Tyana ( 40 AD- c. 120 AD).Between 217 and 238 Flavius Philostratus wrote his "Life of Apollonius of Tyana", a lengthy, but unreliable novelistic source.