Book 8
2.54
That he belonged to Agrigentum in Sicily he himself testifies at the beginning of his PurificationsFr. 112 D.: My friends, who dwell in the great city sloping down to yellow Acragas, hard by the citadel. So much for his family.
2.54
Timaeus in the ninth book of his Histories says he was a pupil of Pythagoras, adding that, having been convicted at that time of stealing his discourses, he was, like Plato, excluded from taking part in the discussions of the school; and further, that Empedocles himself mentions Pythagoras in the linesFr. 129 D.: And there lived among them a man of superhuman knowledge, who verily possessed the greatest wealth of wisdom. Others say that it is to Parmenides that he is here referring.
2.55
Neanthes states that down to the time of Philolaus and Empedocles all Pythagoreans were admitted to the discussions. But when Empedocles himself made them public property by his poem, they made a law that they should not be imparted to any poet. He says the same thing also happened to Plato, for he too was excommunicated. But which of the Pythagoreans it was who had Empedocles for a pupil he did not say. For the epistle commonly attributed to Telauges and the statement that Empedocles was the pupil of both Hippasus and Brontinus he held to be unworthy of credence.
2.55
Theophrastus affirms that he was an admirer of Parmenides and imitated him in his verses, for Parmenides too had published his treatise On Nature in verse.
