[752]. As Mr. Bywater says (J. Phil. i. p. 29), the history of this work “reads like the history, not so much of a book, as of a literary ignis fatuus floating before the minds of imaginative writers.”
[753]. Diels, “Ein gefälschtes Pythagorasbuch” (Arch. iii. pp. 451 sqq.).
[754]. Diog. viii. 85 (R. P. 63 b). Diels reads πρῶτον ἐκδοῦναι τῶν Πυθαγορικῶν <βιβλία καὶ ἐπιγράψαι Περὶ> Φύσεως.
[755]. Diog. viii. 7.
[756]. Proclus, in Eucl. p. 22, 15 (Friedlein). Cf. Boeckh, Philolaos, pp. 36 sqq. Boeckh refers to a sculptured group of three Bakchai, whom he supposes to be Ino, Agaue, and Autonoe.
[757]. The passage is given in R. P. 68. For a full discussion of this and the other fragments, see Bywater, “On the Fragments attributed to Philolaus the Pythagorean” (J. Phil. i. pp. 21 sqq.).
[758]. Boeckh, Philolaos, p. 38. Diels (Vors. p. 246) distinguishes the Bakchai from the three books Περὶ φύσιος (ib. p. 239). As, however, he identifies the latter with the “three books” bought from Philolaos, and regards it as genuine, this does not seriously affect the argument.
[759]. See Diels in Arch. iii. pp. 460 sqq.
[760]. On the Achaian dialect, see O. Hoffmann in Collitz and Bechtel, Dialekt-Inschriften, vol. ii. p. 151. How slowly Doric penetrated into the Chalkidian states may be seen from the mixed dialect of the inscription of Mikythos of Rhegion (Dial.-Inschr. iii. 2, p. 498), which is later than 468-67 B.C. There is no reason to suppose that the Achaian dialect of Kroton was less tenacious of life.
[761]. The scanty fragments contain one Doric form, ἔχοντι (fr. 1), but Alkmaion calls himself Κροτωνιήτης, which is very significant; for Κροτωνιάτας is the Achaian as well as the Doric form. He did not, therefore, write a mixed dialect like that referred to in the last note. It seems safest to assume with Wachtler, De Alcmaeone Crotoniata, pp. 21 sqq., that he used Ionic.