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to assign time. Indeed, he himself testifies this to the barbarians in many places in his own writings, doing well, it seems to me, and not ungraciously denying 10.4.21 that he imported the finest things for philosophy from the barbarians. Therefore, it is possible to hear him in many places, but not least also in the *Epinomis*, mentioning Syrians and Egyptians together in this way: "The cause of this was the first man to perceive these things, being a barbarian. For an ancient place nurtured the first men who conceived these things on account of the beauty of the summer season, which both Egypt and Syria possess in abundance. From where it has also come everywhere and to here, tested by a countless and infinite time." 10.4.22 And following this he adds next: "Let us then take it that whatever the Greeks receive from barbarians, they bring it to a finer perfection in the end." 10.4.23 Thus Plato. And Democritus, even earlier, is said to have composed ethical discourses of the Babylonians. And somewhere, boasting about himself, he says: "Of the men of my time, I have wandered over the most land, investigating the most distant things, and I have seen the most climates and countries and heard the most learned men, and in the composition of lines with proof, no one has yet surpassed me, not even the Egyptians who are called Harpedonaptae, with whom I spent eighty years in a foreign land in all." 10.4.24 For he also visited Babylon and Persia and Egypt, 10.4.25 studying under the Egyptians and their priests. And what if I were to enumerate for you Heraclitus and the other Greeks, by whom the Hellenic way of life is convicted of being impoverished for a long age and left 10.4.26 destitute of all learning? Therefore, it was adorned with temples of the gods, with statues and images, with divinations and oracles, and with the great vanity of the people-deceiving demons, but it was utterly bereft of true wisdom and of learning useful for life. 10.4.27 Nor did the useless oracles contribute anything to them for the discovery of good doctrines, but not even the wonderful Pythian himself helped them at all toward philosophy, nor did any other of the gods assist them in the pursuit of anything necessary. But wandering here and there and running through their whole life, they decked themselves out with others' feathers, according to the fable, so that for them 10.4.28 all philosophy was already constituted from a contribution. For taking impressions of different teachings from different peoples, they got geometry from the Egyptians, and astrology from the Chaldeans, and again other things from others; but among no 10.4.29 others did some of them find such a good thing as among the Hebrews. And this was the knowledge of the God of all things and the condemnation of their own gods, which the argument as it 10.4.30 proceeds will demonstrate in brief. But for the present, it points this much out to its readers, that the ancient Greeks were deprived not only of true theology, but also of the studies that are profitable for philosophy, and not only of these, but also of common and civic 10.4.31 pursuits. And I think that this observation will contribute to the proof of the proposed aim, if indeed the task is to offer a defense for our not having irrationally preferred the theology among the Hebrews and what they would call 10.4.32 the barbarian philosophy to the Hellenic. If, at any rate, they themselves should be seen long before to have contrived everything from barbarians, and to have been helped not at all by their own gods toward philosophy, but also to have justly found fault with their gods and some on account of this to have preferred atheism to the worship of the gods, what reason is there left to find fault with us, and not rather to accept and praise, that, having loved what is better, or rather having found and received the only true thing, we have withdrawn from what is false, neither turning aside into an atheistic reasoning like the wise men of the Greeks, nor again, similarly to the wonderful philosophers, mixing indiscriminately the

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ἀναθεῖναι χρόνον. τοῦτό τοι καὶ αὐτὸς τοῖς βαρβάροις πολλαχοῦ τῶν ἰδίων λόγων μαρτυρεῖ, εὖ μοι δοκεῖ ποιῶν καὶ τὰ κάλλιστα ἐμπορεύεσθαι εἰς φιλοσοφίαν παρὰ τῶν βαρβάρων εὐγνωμόνως οὐκ 10.4.21 ἀπαρνούμενος. ἀκοῦσαι δ' οὖν αὐτοῦ πολλαχοῦ μὲν πάρεστιν, οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν Ἐπινομίδι, Σύρων ὁμοῦ καὶ Αἰγυπτίων ὧδέ πη μνημονεύοντος· «Τούτου δ' αἴτιος ὁ πρῶτος ταῦτα κατιδών, βάρβαρος ὤν. παλαιὸς γὰρ δὴ τόπος ἔθρεψε τοὺς πρώτους ταῦτα ἐννοήσαντας διὰ τὸ κάλλος τῆς θερινῆς ὥρας, ἣν Αἴγυπτός τε Συρία θ' ἱκανῶς κέκτηται. ὅθεν καὶ πανταχόσε καὶ δεῦρο ἐξήκει, βεβασανισμένα χρόνῳ μυριετεῖ τε καὶ ἀπείρῳ.» 10.4.22 Καὶ ὑποβὰς ἑξῆς ἐπιλέγει· «Λάβωμεν δὴ ὡς ὅ τι περ ἂν Ἕλληνες βαρβάρων παραλάβωσι, κάλλιον τοῦτο εἰς τέλος ἀπεργάζονται.» 10.4.23 Ταῦτα ὁ Πλάτων. καὶ ∆ημόκριτος δὲ ἔτι πρότερον τοὺς Βαβυλωνίων λόγους ἠθικοὺς πεποιῆσθαι λέγεται. καί που σεμνυνόμενος περὶ ἑαυτοῦ φησιν· «Ἐγὼ δὲ τῶν κατ' ἐμαυτὸν ἀνθρώπων πλείστην γῆν ἐπεπλανησάμην, ἱστορέων τὰ μήκιστα, καὶ ἀέρας τε καὶ γαίας πλείστας εἶδον καὶ λογίων ἀνδρῶν πλείστων ἐπήκουσα καὶ γραμμέων συνθέσιος μετ' ἀποδείξεως οὐδεὶς κἀμὲ παρήλλαξεν, οὔτε Αἰγυπτίων οἱ καλεόμενοι Ἁρπεδονάπται, οἷς ἐπὶ πᾶσιν ἐπ' ἔτεα ὀγδώκοντα ἐπὶ ξένης ἐγενήθην.» 10.4.24 Ἐπῆλθε γὰρ καὶ οὗτος Βαβυλῶνά τε καὶ τὴν Περσίδα καὶ Αἴγυπτον, 10.4.25 τοῖς τε Αἰγυπτίοις καὶ τοῖς ἱερεῦσι μαθητεύων· τί δ' εἴ σοι καταλέγοιμι Ἡράκλειτον καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους Ἑλλήνων, δι' ὧν ἀπελέγχεται ἡ παρ' Ἕλλησιπολιτεία τὸν μακρὸν αἰῶνα πτωχεύουσα καὶ γυμνὴ παντὸς μαθήματος ἀπολει10.4.26 φθεῖσα; ἱεροῖς μὲν οὖν θεῶν, ἀγάλμασί τε καὶ ἀφιδρύσεσι, μαντείαις τε καὶ χρησμοῖς, καὶ τῷ πολλῷ τύφῳ τῶν λαοπλάνων δαιμόνων ἐκαλλωπίζετο, σοφίας δὲ ἀληθοῦς καὶ μαθήματος βιωφελοῦς εἰς τὸ παντελὲς ἐχήρευεν. 10.4.27 οὐδέ τι πρὸς ἀγαθῶν λόγων εὕρεσιν αὐτοῖς τὰ ἄχρηστα χρηστήρια συνεβάλλετο, ἀλλ' οὐδ' αὐτὸς ὁ θαυμαστὸς Πύθιος εἰς φιλοσοφίαν αὐτοὺς τὸ παράπαν ὠφέλει, οὐδέ τις ἄλλος θεῶν αὐτοῖς εἰς ἀναγκαίου τινὸς ἐπιτήδευσιν συνήργει· ἀλώμενοι δὲ ὧδε κἀκεῖσε καὶ τὸν βίον ἅπαντα περιτρέχοντες ἀλλοτρίοις πτίλοις σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐφαίδρυνον κατὰ τὸν μῦθον, ὥστε αὐτοῖς 10.4.28 ἤδη τὴν πᾶσαν φιλοσοφίαν ἐξ ἐράνου συστῆναι. ἄλλα γὰρ παρ' ἄλλων ἀποματτόμενοι μαθήματα γεωμετρίαν μὲν παρ' Αἰγυπτίων ἔσχον, ἀστρολογίαν δὲ παρὰ Χαλδαίων καὶ αὖ πάλιν ἕτερα παρ' ἑτέρων· οὐδὲν δὲ παρά τισιν 10.4.29 ἄλλοις οἷόν τινες αὐτῶν τὸ παρ' Ἑβραίοις ἀγαθὸν εὕραντο. τοῦτο δὲ ἦν ἡ τοῦ τῶν ὅλων θεοῦ γνῶσις καὶ ἡ τῶν οἰκείων θεῶν κατάγνωσις, ἣν μι10.4.30 κρὸν μὲν ὅσον ὁ λόγος προϊὼν ἐπιδείξει· τοσοῦτον δὲ ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος τοὺς ἐντυγχάνοντας ἐπισημαίνεται, ὡς οὐ μόνης ἐστέρηντο τῆς ἀληθοῦς θεολογίας οἱ παλαιοὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν φιλοσοφίᾳ λυσιτελούντων μαθημάτων, καὶ οὐδὲ μόνων τούτων, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν κοινῶν καὶ πολιτικῶν ἐπι10.4.31 τηδευμάτων. ἡγοῦμαι δέ μοι τήνδε συμβαλεῖσθαι τὴν σημείωσιν εἰς ἀπόδειξιν τοῦ προκειμένου σκοποῦ, εἰ δὴ πρόκειται τὸν ἀπολογισμὸν ὑποσχεῖν τοῦ μὴ ἀλόγως ἡμᾶς τὴν παρ' Ἑβραίοις θεολογίαν καὶ τὴν ὡς ἂν 10.4.32 αὐτοὶ φαῖεν βάρβαρον τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς προτετιμηκέναι φιλοσοφίας. εἰ γοῦν ὀφθεῖεν αὐτοὶ πολὺ πρότερον τὰ πάντα παρὰ βαρβάρων ἐσκευωρημένοι, μηδὲν δὲ μηδ' ὅλως παρὰ τῶν οἰκείων θεῶν εἰς φιλοσοφίαν ὠφελημένοι, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς θεοῖς αὐτῶν ἐνδίκως ἐπιμεμψάμενοι καί τινες διὰ ταῦτα ἀθεότητα μᾶλλον τῆς τῶν θεῶν θεραπείας προτετιμηκότες, τί χρὴ λοιπὸν ἡμᾶς ἐπιμέμφεσθαι, οὐχὶ δὲ ἀποδέχεσθαι καὶ ἐπαινεῖν, ὅτι τὸ κρεῖττον ἀγαπήσαντες, μᾶλλον δὲ τὸ μόνον ἀληθὲς εὑρόντες καὶ ἀπειληφότες τοῦ ψεύδους ἀνεχωρήσαμεν, οὔτε εἰς ἄθεον λογισμὸν τοῖς σοφοῖς Ἑλλήνων ὁμοίως περιτραπέντες οὔτε πάλιν τοῖς θαυμαστοῖς παραπλησίως φιλοσόφοις ἀναμὶξ τὴν