Category Archives: (04) Greeks on wise “barbarians” and noble “savages”

Assyrian wisdom: The Kyranides on a journey to learn from a foreign inscription (fourth century CE or earlier)

Babylonian and Persian wisdom: Kleitarchos on Chaldeans and Magians (late fourth-third centuries BCE)

Barbarian and Judean wisdom: Clement of Alexandria [V] on the sources of Plato’s thought (late second century CE)

Barbarian and Scythian wisdom: Diogenes of Laertes (early third century CE)

Barbarian wisdom: Clement of Alexandria [VI] on barbarian and Hebrew philosophy (late second century CE)

Barbarian wisdom: Cornutus on early humanity’s Stoic understanding of the cosmos (mid-first century CE)

Barbarian wisdom: Dio of Prusa on barbarians’ innate knowledge of god (late first century CE)

Barbarian wisdom: Ephoros on inventors (mid-fourth century BCE)

Barbarian wisdom: Porphyry of Tyre’s Neoplatonic perspective (third century CE)

Barbarian wisdom: Poseidonios on inventors of the golden age (first century BCE)

Barbarian wisdom: The Thunder, Perfect Mind (before the fourth century CE)

Dyrbaians: Ktesias on an extremely just people between Baktria and India (early fourth century BCE)

Egyptian wisdom: King Nektanebos the astrologer and diviner in the Alexander Romance (fourth century CE and earlier)

Egyptian wisdom: Lucian’s story about Eukrates and Pankrates (late second century CE)

Egyptian wisdom: Plato on Solon, the Egyptian priest, and Atlantis (mid-fourth century BCE)

Egyptian wisdom: Thessalos on king Nechepsos and an Egyptian priest (first or second century CE)

Egyptian wisdom: Vettius Valens and others on Petosiris and pharaoh Nechepsos as astrologers (first-fifth centuries CE)

Indian and Judean wisdom: Klearchos citing Aristotle (fourth century BCE)

Indian wisdom: Apuleius on the amazing naked philosophers and Pythagoras’ journeys (mid-second century CE)

Indian wisdom: Apuleius on the amazing naked philosophers and Pythagoras’ journeys (mid-second century CE)

Indian wisdom: Josephos integrates Indians into Eleazar’s Masada speech (late first century CE)

Indian wisdom: Naked philosophers and wise diviners in the Alexander Romance (fourth century CE and earlier)

Indian wisdom: Nearchos, Megasthenes, and Arrian on the sages Dandamis and Kalanos (fourth century BCE-second century CE)

Indian wisdom: Philostratos on Apollonios of Tyana’s journeys to barbarian lands (early third century CE)

Judean wisdom: Josephos on philosophical sects among Judeans (late-first century CE)

Judean wisdom: Philo on the Therapeutists’ lifestyle (first century CE)

Judean wisdom: Pseudo-Clement on a journey to Peter the Judean sage (third century CE and on)

Judean wisdom: Theophrastos on Judean philosophers (fourth century BCE)

Judean, Indian, Babylonian, and Egyptian wisdom: Numenius the Platonic philosopher (mid-second century CE)

Judeans and Thracians: Hermippos of Smyrna on their influence on Pythagoras (early second century BCE)

Persian wisdom: Ammianus Marcellinus on Zoroaster, Hystaspes, and the Magians (late fourth century CE)

Persian wisdom: Aristoxenos of Tarentum on Pythagoras and Zoroaster (fourth century BCE)

Persian wisdom: Eudemos of Rhodes on Magians (fourth century BCE)

Persian wisdom: Lactantius and others on the Oracles of Hystaspes the Mede (third century CE)

Persian wisdom: Plutarch’s story about Kleombrotos’ journeys (early second century CE)

Persian wisdom: Theopompos of Chios and Plutarch on Magians and Zoroaster (fourth century BCE and later)

Persian, Egyptian, Indian, and Celtic wisdom: Dio of Prusa on philosophers’ roles in leadership (late first century CE)

Persian, Indian, and Judean wisdom: Klearchos of Soloi on Magian precedence (fourth century BCE)

Persians: Dio of Prusa on a supposedly Zoroastrian myth (late first century CE)

Persians: Matthew and Luke-Acts on two contrasting approaches to Magians (late first century CE)

Persians: Suda on Zoroaster and on expertise in Magian practice, wailing incantations, and potions (tenth century CE)

Phoenician wisdom: Ampelius on Mochos of Sidon (early-third century CE)

Phoenician wisdom: Damascius on Eudemos of Rhodes and Mochos of Sidon (fourth century BCE)

Phoenician wisdom: Strabo and Poseidonios on Mochos of Sidon (first century BCE)

Phoenician, Egyptian and Babylonian wisdom: Porphyry of Tyre and Antonius Diogenes on Pythagoras (third century CE)

Phoenician, Egyptian and Persian wisdom: Iamblichos of Chalkis on Pythagoras (fourth century CE)

Scythian wisdom: Curtius Rufus on the Scythian elder’s speech about Alexander the bandit (first century CE)

Scythian wisdom: Letters of Anacharsis (mid-third century BCE)

Scythians: Lucian on Toxaris’ and Anacharsis’ differing encounters with Greeks (late second century CE)