Note 4 — THE ESSENES.
Reading edition
Comp. Diog. Laert. de Vitis Philosophorum, lib. viii. Vit. Pythagor. xii. It is true that Cicero represents Cotta as giving no credit to this story, because, as he apprehends, Pythagoras never offered animal sacrifices (De Natura Deorum, lib. iii. cap. xxxvi.), but it is also related by Athenaeus (Deipnosoph. lib. x.), Plutarch and others. ↑