Historical Disputation on Abaris

as could be established from the similar writer Iamblichus and Proclus. The most famous man Ioannes Albertus Fabricius (υ) denies that any book was truly composed by Pythagoras to Abaris, yet it seems to me that he affirms that a certain short work inscribed with the name of Pythagoras to Abaris was once circulated, when he says: He (namely Abaris) was older than Pythagoras himself, and I have no doubt that a book under his (that is, Pythagoras's) name was composed to Abaris by some Pythagorean or Platonist, as were many others. And in another place (ζ) he says: Abaris, to whom a book was attributed under the name of Pythagoras. Let these things said about the names of Abaris suffice, from which we understand that in the Greek interpreter of Aristophanes, as well as in Proclus, the name Baris and Abaris were attributed to our philosopher only through the error of copyists. As for what remains, I do not think it irrelevant to mention here a certain book which is ascribed to Heraclides and bears the title Abaris original: "Ἀβάρειδος", which I judge to have been done because perhaps the author of that book recounted in it either the things themselves which are reported about Abaris, or other miracles similar to these. Plutarch (ο) mentions this book when he says: For not only when going through the Aesopic fables and the poetic themes and the Abaris of Heraclides, and the Lycon of Ariston, but also when the doctrines about the soul are mixed with pleasure, do they enter the mind.

(ζ) In Knights, Act II, Sc. II, v. 35, p. 331, ed. Aem. Porti. Geneva, 1607, fol.
(η) In annotations to Eusebius, Thesaurus temporum, no. 1454, ed. Amsterdam, 1658, fol.
(θ) Book III, p. 141, ed. Basel, 1534, fol.
(ι) In the paradoxical dialogue on the writings of Socrates, p. 83, which dialogue is annexed to the letters of Socrates and the Socratics published by Allatius in 1637 in Paris.
(κ) Exercitationes on the same subject, § II. Leipzig, 1696, 4to. In which exercise the most famous Olearius communicated to the literary world two letters, which are commonly inscribed to Plato, found long ago in the Baroccian Manuscript at Oxford by that most learned man and never edited by anyone until that day.