Book 22
16.21
Trained in this wisdom, Pythagoras, secretly honouring the gods, made whatever he said or believed recognised authority, and often showed his golden thigh at Olympia,Wishing to represent himself as the equal of Apollo. Iamblichus, De Vita Pyth. xxviii. 135, Nauck, τὸν μηρὸν χρύσεον ἐπέδειξεν ʼαβάριδι τῷ ʽγπερβορέῳ, εἰκάσαντι αὑτὸν Ἀπόλλωνα εἰναι τὸν ἐν ʽγπερβορέοις, οὗπερ ἦν ἱερεὺς ὁ ῎αβαρις. This was one of the many absurd fictions of the Neo-Platonic writers. and let himself be seen from time to time talking with an eagle.
16.22
From here Anaxagoras foretold a rain of stones, and by handling mud from a well predicted an earthquake. Solon, too, aided by the opinions of the Egyptian priests, passed laws in accordance with the measure of justice, and thus gave also to Roman law its greatest support.Cf. Hdt. 1, 30, who says that Solon did not come to Egypt until after he had made his laws; see also Aristotle, Const. of Athens. The Romans are said to have made use of his code in compiling the XII Tables. On this source, Plato drew and after visiting Egypt, traversed higher regions,Of thought. and rivalled Jupiter in lofty language, gloriously serving in the field of wisdom.
