Chapter XXII.—The Druids; Progenitors of Their System.
And the Celtic Druids investigated to the very highest point the Pythagorean philosophy, after Zamolxis,123 Or “Zamalxis,” or “Zametris” (see Menagius on Diogenes Laertius, viii. 2). by birth a Thracian,124 Or, “of Thracian origin.” The words are omitted in two mss. a servant of Pythagoras, became to them the originator of this discipline. Now after the death of Pythagoras, Zamolxis, repairing thither, became to them the originator of this philosophy. The Celts esteem these as prophets and seers, on account of their foretelling to them certain (events), from calculations and numbers by the Pythagorean art; on the methods of which very art also we shall not keep silence, since also from these some have presumed to introduce heresies; but the Druids resort to magical rites likewise.
[25] Δρυΐδαι [δὲ] οἱ ἐν Κελτοῖς τῇ Πυθαγορείῳ φιλοσοφίᾳ κατ' ἄκρον ἐγκύψαντες, αἰτίου αὐτοῖς γενομένου ταύτης τῆς ἀσκήσεως Ζαμόλξιδος δούλου Πυθαγόρου, γένει Θρᾳκίου: ὃς μετὰ τὴν Πυθαγόρου τελευτὴν ἐκεῖ χωρήσας αἴτιος τούτοις ταύτης τῆς φιλοσοφίας ἐγένετο. τούτους Κελτοὶ ὡς προφήτας καὶ προγνωστικοὺς δοξάζουσιν διὰ τὸ ἐκ ψήφων καὶ ἀριθμῶν Πυθαγορικῇ τέχνῃ προαγορεύειν αὐτοῖς τινα, ἧς καὶ αὐτῆς τέχνης τὰς ἐφόδους οὐ σιωπήσομεν, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἐκ τούτων τινὲς αἱρέσεις παρεισάγειν ἐτόλμησαν. χρῶνται δὲ Δρυΐδαι καὶ μαγείαις.