Note 180 — Chapter VI
William Johnston translation
See Phoc. in Vit. Apoll. Tian. cod. cclii.—L. Vives Comment. in lib. xiv.—S. Aug. de Civitate Dei, p. 1734. edit. Paris.—Euseb. in Chron. p. 72. edit. Scalig.—and Philostrat. in Vita Apoll. lib. iii. cap. 6. and lib. iv. cap. 6. A.
The appellation Gymnosophists signifies, as is well known, naked philosophers. It does not, however, thence follow, that the people so called by the Greeks must have come from India. The warmth of the climate would make clothing superfluous to such men, even on the banks of the Nile. They led a contemplative life, and from that circumstance also were called gymnosophists; but they did not bring the mode of writing by characters from India to Ethiopia. F.