[709] Aristot. Metaphysic. i, 5, p. 986, Bek. μικρὸν ἀγροικότερος.
[710] Xenophanês, Fr. xiv, ed. Mullach; Sextus Empiric. adv. Mathematicos, vii, 49-110; and Pyrrhon. Hypotyp. i, 224; Plutarch adv. Colôtên, p. 1114; compare Karsten ad Parmenidis Fragmenta, p. 146.
[711] See Brandis, Handbuch der Griech. Röm. Philosophie, ch. xxii.
[712] Herodot. iv, 95. The place of his nativity is certain from Herodotus, but even this fact was differently stated by other authors, who called him a Tyrrhenian of Lemnos or Imbros (Porphyry, Vit. Pythag. c. 1-10), a Syrian, a Phliasian, etc.
Cicero (De Repub. ii, 15: compare Livy, i, 18) censures the chronological blunder of those who made Pythagoras the preceptor of Numa; which certainly is a remarkable illustration how much confusion prevailed among literary men of antiquity about the dates of events even of the sixth century B. C. Ovid follows this story without hesitation: see Metamorph. xv, 60, with Burmann’s note.
[713] Cicero de Fin. v, 29; Diogen. Laërt. viii, 3; Strabo, xiv, p. 638; Alexander Polyhistor ap. Cyrill. cont. Julian. iv, p. 128, ed. Spanh. For the vast reach of his supposed travels, see Porphyry, Vit. Pythag. 11; Jamblic 14, seqq.
The same extensive journeys are ascribed to Demokritus, Diogen. Laërt. ix, 35.
[714] The connection of Pythagoras with Pherekydês is noticed by Aristoxenus ap. Diogen. Laërt. i, 118, viii, 2; Cicero de Divinat. i, 13.
[715] Xenophanês, Fragm. 7, ed. Schneidewin; Diogen. Laërt. viii, 36: compare Aulus Gellius, iv, 11 (we must remark that this or a like doctrine is not peculiar to Pythagoreans, but believed by the poet Pindar, Olymp. ii, 68, and Fragment, Thren. x, as well as by the philosopher Pherekydês, Porphyrius de Antro Nympharum, c. 31).
Καί ποτέ μιν στυφελιζομένου σκύλακος παριόντα