them. But while I am on this subject, and considering the study of
philosophy, I meet with many reasons to imagine that those studies were
brought to us from abroad, and not merely imported, but preserved and
improved; for they had Pythagoras, a man of consummate wisdom and
nobleness of character, in a manner, before their eyes, who was in
Italy at the time that Lucius Brutus, the illustrious founder of your
nobility, delivered his country from tyranny. As the doctrine of
Pythagoras spread itself on all sides, it seems probable to me that it
reached this city; and this is not only probable of itself, but it does
really appear to have been the case from many remains of it. For who
can imagine that, when it flourished so much in that part of Italy
which was called Magna Græcia, and in some of the largest and most
powerful cities, in which, first the name of Pythagoras, and then that
of those men who were afterward his followers, was in so high esteem;
who can imagine, I say, that our people could shut their ears to what
was said by such learned men? Besides, it is even my opinion that it
was the great esteem in which the Pythagoreans were held, that gave
rise to that opinion among those who came after him, that King Numa was
a Pythagorean. For, being acquainted with the doctrine and principles
of Pythagoras, and having heard from their ancestors that this king was
a very wise and just man, and not being able to distinguish accurately
between times and periods that were so remote, they inferred, from his
being so eminent for his wisdom, that he had been a pupil of
Pythagoras.

II. So far we proceed on conjecture. As to the vestiges of the
Pythagoreans, though I might collect many, I shall use but a few;
because they have no connection with our present purpose. For, as it is
reported to have been a custom with them to deliver certain precepts in
a more abstruse manner in verse, and to bring their minds from severe