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

Assyrian / Babylonian wisdom: Sibyl of Babylon on the superiority of the Judean people (second century BCE)

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)

Babylonian wisdom: Lucian’s Menippos visits Mithrobarzanes the Chaldean / Magian wise man (late second century CE)

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

Britons: Diodoros on a simple way of life (mid-first century BCE)

Celts: Pliny the Elder on medicine, rites and Magian skill among Druids (first century CE)

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

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

Egyptian wisdom: Cicero, Diodoros and Valerius Maximus on Pythagoras’ and Plato’s supposed journeys to Egypt (first centuries BCE and CE)

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: Plato’s Socrates on the discoveries of the Egyptian god Thoth (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)

Egyptian, Phoenician, and Phrygian wisdom: Ephoros on inventors (mid-fourth century BCE)

Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Phoenicians: Julius Africanus on competitive chronologies (ca. 222 CE)

Egyptians: Attic vase paintings, Isocrates and others on king Bousiris and human sacrifice (fifth century BCE on)

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

Indian wisdom: Alexander Polyhistor and Clement of Alexandria (VII) on the Brahmans and naked sages (first century BCE / late 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)

Indian wisdom: Plutarch on Alexander, the naked philosophers, and Kalanos (early second century CE)

Indians: Palladios and George on naked philosophers or Brahmans (fourth / ninth centuries CE)

Judean wisdom: Anonymous on Abraham’s contributions (before the mid-first century BCE)

Judean wisdom: Aristoboulos on Moses and the Judean god as source for Plato and Pythagoras (mid-second century BCE)

Judean wisdom: Artapanos on contributions by Abraham, Joseph, and Moses (second century BCE)

Judean wisdom: Eupolemos on contributions by Abraham and Moses (before the mid-first century BCE)

Judean wisdom: Josephos on Abraham’s dissemination of astrological knowledge (late-first century CE)

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

Judean wisdom: Josephos on Solomon as the ultimate wise man, controller of lower spirits, and healer (late-first century CE)

Judean wisdom: Josephos’ self-presentation as the optimum wise Judean (late-first century CE)

Judean wisdom: Philo on the superiority of Moses and Judean ancestral customs (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: Pseudo-Clementines on Abraham the astrologer and legends of migration (second-fourth centuries CE)

Judean wisdom: Tatian the Assyrian on the priority of Moses’ “barbarian wisdom” (second century CE)

Judean wisdom: Testament of Solomon on Solomon’s superiority in controlling lower spirits and in healing (first-third century CE)

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)

Mediterranean peoples: Pliny the Elder on inventors around the world (first century CE)

Panchaians: Euhemeros and Diodoros on a noble people worshipping Zeus on a utopian island (fourth / first century BCE)

Persian and Babylonian wisdom: Pseudo-Demokritos and others on Demokritos’ training by Magians and Chaldeans (first century BCE on)

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, Babylonian, and Scythian wisdom: Diogenes of Laertes refutes Magian and Chaldean origins for Greek philosophy (early third century CE)

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 a competition between Toxaris and Mnesippos about ethnic superiority (mid-second century CE)

Scythians: Lucian on Anacharsis and Solon’s dialogue about the superiority of Greek customs (mid-second century CE)

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

Sogdians: Curtius Rufus on Alexander’s assessment of their noble and courageous character (first century CE)