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the coastal region of Tyre saw a shepherd's dog eating the so-called purple-shellfish, and a shepherd, thinking the dog was bleeding, took a tuft of wool from the sheep to wipe what was coming from the dog's mouth. But Heracles, paying attention and seeing it to be some extraordinary dye, was amazed; and knowing that it was from the purple-shellfish, he took the tuft of wool and brought it as a great gift to Phoenix, the king of Tyre, who, astonished at the sight of the dye, ordered wool to be dyed from it and made into a royal garment for himself, which he was the first to put on and was admired by all; for before this, people did not know how to dye colors. So, after many years, the Romans, having taken possession of the land of the Phoenicians, wore the original, true royal form from the purple-shellfish. And after Remus and Romulus, Numa, having become king of the Romans, and having received ambassadors from the land of the so-called Pelasgians wearing cloaks with red panels, just like those from the land of Isauria, and being delighted by the style, was the first in Rome to devise that cloaks be worn—the royal ones of purple, having 1.35 golden panels, and the cloaks of the senators and of those in high office and military service having emblems of the royal attire, purple panels indicating Roman civic dignity and subordinate conduct, ordering that no one be allowed to enter his palace without the style of such a cloak. And Phoenix, the son of Agenor, became a wise man, who composed in Phoenician letters the philosophy of numbers, and he also set forth incorporeal principles, and that bodies are transformed, and that souls enter into animals of other kinds. He was the first to set these things forth, as the most wise Clement wrote. And after the death of Hermes, Hephaestus reigned over Egypt for four and a half years. He was, they say, a warrior, who, having fallen with his horse, was wounded in the foot and remained lame until the end. And Hephaestus was deified by the Egyptians because he enacted a law for the women of the Egyptians to be faithful to one husband and to live chastely, and for adulteresses to be punished, and also because, as Plato says, he showed them the manufacture from iron of tools for war and for farming; for before him they made war with stones and clubs, but they say that he, through a mystical prayer, received the tongs from the air, and thus handed down the art of smithing to the Egyptians. 1.36 And after Hephaestus, his son called Helios reigned over Egypt for twenty and a half years, and after him Sosis, then Osiris, after whom Horus, and after him Thoules, who also took all the land as far as the Ocean. And returning to Africa, he inquired at the oracle who before him and who after him would be so powerful; and he heard the oracle thus: "First God, then the Word, and the Spirit with them; these are of one nature, whose power is eternal. Go with swift feet, mortal, completing an uncertain life." Immediately after he had come out of the oracle, his own men slaughtered him in Africa itself. And after him Sesostris of the Egyptians reigned for twenty years. He subjugated the Assyrians and Chaldeans and Persians as far as Babylon, and Asia, Europe, Mysia and Scythia. And returning, he settled fifteen thousand young men, chosen from the most warlike Scythians, in the land of Persia. In his time, they say that Hermes in Egypt was known as a wonderful man and terrible for his wisdom; who declared that there are three greatest powers of God the creator of all things, and said they are one divinity; for which reason he was also named Hermes Trismegistus. Who thus spoke to a certain Asclepius in these very words: "There was intellectual light before intellectual light, and mind was always the cause of mind, and there was nothing else than its unity. Always being in itself, always by its own mind 1.37 and light and spirit it contains all things. Apart from this there is no god, no angel, no demon, no other substance; for it is lord and god and father of all; and

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τὸ παράλιον μέρος τῆς Τύρου εἶδε ποιμενικὸν κύνα ἐσθίοντα τὴν λεγομένην κογχύλην, καὶ ποιμένα νομίζοντα αἱμάσσειν τὸν κύνα, ἀπὸ τῶν προβάτων πόκον ἐρέας λαβόντα καταμάσσειν τὰ καταφερόμενα ἐκ τοῦ στόματος τοῦ κυνός. ὁ δὲ Ἡρακλῆς προσεσχηκὼς καὶ ἰδὼν αὐτὸ βάμμα τι ἐξαίσιον ἐθαύμασε· καὶ γνοὺς ὅτι ἐκ τῆς κογχύλης ἐστίν, εἰληφὼς τὸν πόκον ὡς μέγα δῶρον προσήνεγκε τῷ βασιλεῖ τῆς Τύρου Φοί νικι, ὃς καὶ ἐκπλαγεὶς ἐπὶ τῇ θεᾷ τοῦ βάμματος ἐκέλευσεν ἐξ αὐ τοῦ βαφῆναι ἐρέαν καὶ γενέσθαι αὐτῷ βασιλικὸν περιβόλαιον, ὃ περιβαλόμενος αὐτὸς πρῶτος ἐθαυμάζετο ὑπὸ πάντων· πρὸ τού του γὰρ οὐκ ᾔδεισαν οἱ ἄνθρωποι βάπτειν χροιάς. μετὰ γοῦν χρόνους πολλοὺς οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι τὴν Φοινίκων χώραν κατασχόντες τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἀληθινὸν ἐκ τῆς κογχύλης σχῆμα βασιλικὸν ἐφόρεσαν. μετὰ δὲ Ῥέμον καὶ Ῥωμύλον Νουμᾶς βασιλεύσας Ῥωμαίων, καὶδεξάμενος πρεσβευτὰς ἐκ τῆς χώρας τῶν λεγομένων Πελασγῶν φοροῦντας χλαμύδας ἐχούσας ταβλία ῥούσια καθάπερ οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰσαυρίας χώρας, καὶ τερφθεὶς τῷ σχήματι, ἐπενόησε πρῶτος ἐν τῇ Ῥώμῃ χλαμύδας φορεῖσθαι τὰς μὲν βασιλικὰς πορφύρας, ἐχού 1.35 σας ταβλία χρύσεα, τὰς δὲ τῶν συγκλητικῶν καὶ τὰς τῶν ἐν ἀξίαις καὶ στρατείαις χλαμύδας ἐχούσας σήμαντρα τῆς βασιλικῆς φορε σίας, ταβλία πορφυρᾶ δηλοῦντα ἀξίαν Ῥωμαϊκὴν πολιτείας καὶ ὑποταγὴν διαγωγήν, κελεύσας μηδένα εἰς τὸ αὐτοῦ παλάτιον εἰσελθεῖν συγχωρεῖσθαι ἄνευ τοῦ σχήματος τῆς τοιαύτης χλα μύδος. Φοῖνιξ δὲ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Ἀγήνορος ἀνὴρ ἐγένετο σοφός, ὃς συνεγράψατο Φοινικοῖς γράμμασι τὴν ἀριθμητικὴν φιλοσοφίαν, ὑπεξέθετο δὲ καὶ ἀσωμάτους ἀρχάς, καὶ σώματα δὲ μεταβάλλε σθαι, καὶ τὰς ψυχὰς εἰς ἀλλογεννῆ ζῷα εἰσιέναι. οὗτος πρῶτος ἐξέθετο ταῦτα, ὡς Κλήμης συνεγράψατο ὁ σοφώτατος. Μετὰ δὲ τὴν Ἑρμοῦ τελευτὴν ὁ Ἥφαιστος ἐπὶ τέσσαρα ἥμισυ ἔτη τῆς Αἰγύπτου ἐβασίλευσεν. ἦν δέ, φασί, πολεμιστής, ὃν συμπεσόντα τῷ ἵππῳ πληγῆναι τὸν πόδα καὶ χωλεύοντα ἄχρι τέλους διαρκέσαι. ἀπεθεώθη δὲ ὁ Ἥφαιστος ὑπὸ Αἰγυπτίων διὰ τὸ νομοθετῆσαι μονανδρεῖν καὶ σωφρόνως βιοῦν τὰς γυναῖκας τῶν Αἰγυπτίων, τὰς δὲ μοιχευομένας τιμωρεῖσθαι, ἀλλὰ μὴν καὶ ὡς ὁ Πλάτων, πολεμικῶν καὶ γεωργικῶν ἐργαλείων τὴν ἐκ σιδήρου κατασκευὴν αὐτοῖς ὑποδείξαντα· λίθοις γὰρ καὶ ῥοπάλοις ἐπολέ μουν πρὸ αὐτοῦ, τοῦτον δέ φασι διὰ μυστικῆς εὐχῆς τὴν ὀξυλά βην δεξάμενον ἐκ τοῦ ἀέρος, οὕτω τὴν χαλκευτικὴν Αἰγυπτίοις παραδοῦναι. 1.36 Μετὰ δὲ Ἥφαιστον ὁ υἱὸς αὐτοῦ Ἥλιος καλούμενος ἐπὶ εἴκοσι καὶ ἥμισυ ἔτη τῆς Αἰγύπτου ἐβασίλευσε, καὶ μετ' αὐτὸν Σῶσις, εἶτα Ὄσιρις, μεθ' ὃν Ὧρος, καὶ μετ' αὐτὸν Θούλης,ὃς καὶ ἕως τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν παρείληφεν. ἐπὶ δὲ τὴν Ἀφρικὴν ὑποστρέφων εἰς τὸ μαντεῖον ἐπυνθάνετο τίς πρὸ αὐτοῦ καὶ τίς μετ' αὐτὸν οὕτω δυνήσεται· ἀκοῦσαι δὲ τοῦ χρησμοῦ οὕ τως "πρῶτα θεός, μετέπειτα λόγος, καὶ πνεῦμα σὺν αὐτοῖς· σύμ φυτα δέ εἰσι τάδε, ὧν κράτος αἰώνιον. ὠκέσι ποσὶ βάδιζε, θνητέ, ἄδηλον διανύων βίον." τοῦτον εὐθὺς τοῦ μαντείου ἐξεληλυθότα οἱ ἴδιοι ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ Ἀφρικῇ κατέσφαξαν. μετὰ δὲ τοῦτον Σέσωστρις τῶν Αἰγυπτίων ἐπὶ εἴκοσιν ἔτη ἐβασίλευσεν. οὗτος Ἀσσυρίους καὶ Χαλδαίους καὶ Πέρσας ἕως Βαβυλῶνος ὑπέταξε, καὶ τὴν Ἀσίαν Εὐρώπην καὶ Μυσίαν καὶ Σκυθίαν. ὑποστρέφων δὲ δεκαπέντε χιλιάδας ἀνδρῶν νεανίσκων, Σκυθῶν μαχιμωτάτων ἐπιλέκτων, ἐν τῇ Περσικῇ γῇ κατῴκισεν. ἐπὶ τούτου Ἑρμῆν φασὶν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ θαυμαστὸν ἄνδρα γνωσθῆναι καὶ φοβερὸν ἐπὶ σοφίᾳ· ὃς ἔφρασε τρεῖς μεγίστας εἶναι δυνάμεις τοῦ δημιουργοῦ τῶν ὅλων θεοῦ, μίαν θεότητα εἶναι εἶπε· διὸ καὶ τρισμέγιστος Ἑρμῆς κατωνόμα σται. ὃς οὕτω πρός τινα Ἀσκληπιὸν αὐτοῖς ῥήμασιν ἔφη "ἦν φῶς νοερὸν πρὸ φωτὸς νοεροῦ, καὶ ἦν ἀεὶ νοῦς νοῦ αἴτιον, καὶ οὐδὲν ἕτερον ἦν ἢ ἡ τούτου ἑνότης. ἀεὶ ἐν αὐτῷ ὢν ἀεὶ τῷ ἑαυτοῦ νοῒ 1.37 καὶ φωτὶ καὶ πνεύματι πάντα περιέχει. ἐκτὸς τούτου οὐ θεός, οὐκ ἄγγελος, οὐ δαίμων, οὐκ οὐσία τις ἄλλη· πάντων γὰρ κύριος καὶ θεὸς καὶ πατήρ· καὶ