variations as are found in them. (3) As for those who set
themselves about writing their histories, I mean such as Cadmus
of Miletus, and Acusilaus of Argos, and any others that may be
mentioned as succeeding Acusilaus, they lived but a little while
before the Persian expedition into Greece. But then for those
that first introduced philosophy, and the consideration of things
celestial and divine among them, such as Pherceydes the Syrian,
and Pythagoras, and Thales, all with one consent agree, that they
learned what they knew of the Egyptians and Chaldeans, and wrote
but little And these are the things which are supposed to be the
oldest of all among the Greeks; and they have much ado to believe
that the writings ascribed to those men are genuine.

3. How can it then be other than an absurd thing, for the Greeks
to be so proud, and to vaunt themselves to be the only people
that are acquainted with antiquity, and that have delivered the
true accounts of those early times after an accurate manner? Nay,
who is there that cannot easily gather from the Greek writers
themselves, that they knew but little on any good foundation when
they set to write, but rather wrote their histories from their
own conjectures? Accordingly, they confute one another in their
own books to purpose, and are not ashamed. to give us the most
contradictory accounts of the same things; and I should spend my
time to little purpose, if I should pretend to teach the Greeks
that which they know better than I already, what a great
disagreement there is between Hellanicus and Acusilaus about
their genealogies; in how many eases Acusilaus corrects Hesiod:
or after what manner Ephorus demonstrates Hellanicus to have told
lies in the greatest part of his history; as does Timeus in like
manner as to Ephorus, and the succeeding writers do to Timeus,