Miscellanies 1.15.66

These are the dates of the most ancient sages and philosophers among the Greeks. That most of them were barbarians by race and educated among barbarians, what need is there to say, if Pythagoras was shown to be a Tyrrhenian or Tyrian, Antisthenes was a Phrygian, and Orpheus an Odrysian or Thracian? Most show that Homer was an Egyptian. Thales, a Phoenician by race, is said to have met the prophets of the Egyptians, as did Pythagoras with these same men, for whose sake he was even circumcised, so that he might go down into the inner sanctuaries and learn the mystic philosophy from the Egyptians; he associated with the best of the Chaldeans and Magi; and his common auditory hints at what is now called the church. Plato does not deny that he imported the finest things into philosophy from the barbarians, and admits that he went to Egypt. At any rate in the Phaedo he says that the philosopher can be benefited from every quarter, writing: “Greece is large, Cebes,” he said, “in which there are very good men, and many are the races of the barbarians.”