Universally, however, it deserves to be known, that Pythagoras
discovered many paths of erudition, and that he delivered an appropriate
portion of wisdom conformable to the proper nature and power of each; of
which the following is the greatest argument. When Abaris, the Scythian,
came from the Hyperboreans, unskilled and uninitiated in the Grecian
learning, and was then of an advanced age, Pythagoras did not introduce
him to erudition through various theorems, but instead of silence,
auscultation for so long a time, and other trials, he immediately
considered him adapted to be an auditor of his dogmas, and instructed
him in the shortest way in his treatise On Nature, and in another
treatise On the Gods. For Abaris came from the Hyperboreans, being a
priest of the Apollo who is there worshipped, an elderly man, and most
wise in sacred concerns; but at that time he was returning from Greece
to his own country, in order that he might consecrate to the God in his
temple among the Hyperboreans, the gold which he had collected. Passing
therefore through Italy, and seeing Pythagoras, he especially
assimilated him to the God of whom he was the priest. And believing that
he was no other than the God himself, and that no man resembled him, but
that he was truly Apollo, both from the venerable indications which he
saw about him, and from those which the priest had known before, he gave
Pythagoras a dart which he took with him when he left the temple, as a
thing that would be useful to him in the difficulties that would befal
him in so long a journey. For he was carried by it, in passing through
inaccessible places, such as rivers, lakes, marshes, mountains, and the
like, and performed through it, as it is said, lustrations, and expelled
pestilence and winds from the cities that requested him to liberate them
from these evils. We are informed, therefore, that Lacedæmon, after
having been purified by him, was no longer infested with pestilence,
though prior to this it had frequently fallen into this evil, through
the baneful nature of the place in which it was built, the mountains of
Taygetus producing a suffocating heat, by being situated above the city,
in the same manner as Cnossus in Crete. And many other similar
particulars are related of the power of Abaris. Pythagoras, however,
receiving the dart, and neither being astonished at the novelty of the
thing, nor asking the reason why it was given to him, but as if he was
in reality a God himself, taking Abaris aside, he showed him his golden
thigh, as an indication that he was not [wholly] deceived [in the
opinion he had formed of him;] and having enumerated to him the several
particulars that were deposited in the temple, he gave him sufficient
reason to believe that he had not badly conjectured [in assimilating him
to Apollo]. Pythagoras also added, that he came [into the regions of
mortality] for the purpose of remedying and benefiting the condition of
mankind, and that on this account he had assumed a human form, lest men
being disturbed by the novelty of his transcendency, should avoid the
discipline which he possessed. He likewise exhorted Abaris to remain in
that place, and to unite with him in correcting [the lives and manners]
of those with whom they might meet; but to share the gold which he had
collected, in common with his associates, who were led by reason to
confirm by their deeds the dogma, _that the possessions of friends are
common_. Thus, therefore, Pythagoras unfolded to Abaris, who remained
with him, as we have just now said, physiology and theology in a
compendious way; and instead of divination by the entrails of beasts, he
delivered to him the art of prognosticating through numbers, conceiving
that this was purer, more divine, and more adapted to the celestial
numbers of the Gods. He delivered also to Abaris other studies which
were adapted to him. That we may return, however, to that for the sake
of which the present treatise was written, Pythagoras endeavoured to
correct and amend different persons, according to the nature and power
of each. All such particulars therefore as these, have neither been
transmitted to the knowledge of men, nor is it easy to narrate all that
has been transmitted to us concerning him.