Apollonios Tyanæus (Cappadocia) travelled through Scythia and into India as far as the river Phison to see Hierarchus.--Philostrătos, Life of Apollonios.
Ben Jonson, in 1619, travelled on foot from London to Scotland merely to see W. Drummond, the Scotch poet, whose genius he admired.
Livy went from the confines of Spain to Rome to hold converse with the learned men of that city.--Pliny the Younger, Epistle, iii 2.
Plato travelled from Athens to Egypt to see the wise men or magi, and to visit Archytas of Tarentum, inventor of several automatons, as the flying pigeon, and of numerous mechanical instruments, as the screw and crane.
Pythagoras went from Italy to Egypt to visit the vaticinators of Memphis.--Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras.
Sheba (The queen of) went from “the uttermost parts of the earth” to hear and see Solomon, whose wisdom and greatness had reached her ear.
Wisdom Persecuted.
Anaxagoras of Clazomēnæ held opinions in natural science so far in advance of his age that he was accused of impiety, cast into prison, and condemned to death. It was with great difficulty that Perĭclês got the sentence commuted to fine and banishment.
Averrois, the Arabian philosopher, was denounced as a heretic, and degraded, in the twelfth Christian century (died 1226).
Bacon (Friar) was excommunicated and imprisoned for diabolical knowledge, chiefly on account of his chemical researches (1214-1294).