Diogenous Laertiou Peri biōn, dogmatōn kai apophthegmatōn tōn en philosophia eudokimēsantōn biblia 10

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DIOGENES LAERTIUS
on the life and opinions of those who distinguished themselves in philosophy,
Book I.

The Proem.

Decorative drop cap 'T' Some say that the work of philosophy began with the barbarians. They claim that there were Magi among the Persians, Chaldeans among the Babylonians or Assyrians, and Gymnosophists among the Indians. Among the Celts and Gauls, there were those called Druids and Semnothei, as Aristotle says in his book Magicus On Magic, and Sotion in the thirteenth book of his Succession History of Philosophy. They also count Ochus the Phoenician, Zamolxis the Thracian, and Atlas the Libyan. Furthermore, the Egyptians...

Decorative drop cap 'P' ...believe that Hephaestus, the son of the Nile, was the first to open the principles of philosophy, and that its leaders were called priests and prophets. From him until Alexander the Macedonian, forty-eight thousand eight hundred and sixty-three years passed. In that time, three hundred and seventy-three eclipses of the sun occurred, and eight hundred and thirty-two of the moon.