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THE GOSPEL OF PHILOSOPHIC HEATHENISM 2 I 7Damis, who offered to accompany him, and mentionedas a recommendation that he knew the Armenian,Persian, Median, and Cadousian languages. ' Myfriend,' said Apollonius, ' I know them all, though Ihave learnt none ;' and when Damis stood in amaze,he continued : ' Do not wonder if I know all the languagesof men, for I know also their secrethoughts.' iUpon this Damis adored him, considering him a deity,and henceforth followed him, remembering and storingup his wisdom." It does not, however, appear that inhis travels Apollonius used this assumed gift of foreigntongues, for he is nearly always described as conversingeither with foreigners who understood Greek, or bymeans of an interpreter.We have in the course of this journey a descriptionof Babylon, as if it subsisted still in the grandeurwhich Herodotus saw ; and of its king, who appearsas a great monarch, and honours the philosopher.But of the Magi we only hear that Apollonius sawand conversed with them, upon which he gives thisjudgment: " They are wise, though not in all things."After staying eight months with the King of Babylon,Bardanes, he is sent forward with great honour to theIndian king, Phraotes, and passing the Indus arrivesat Taxila. He finds this sovereign a philosopher,living with the utmost simplicity, and prizing hisfriends more than his treasures. Like Apollonius, heate only vegetables. He had also the advantage ofspeaking Greek perfectly, and loving Grecian literature.After an interval of three days spent in philosophicconversations, Phraotes sends him forward withcostly gifts of precious stones, and a letter to the1 Compare John ii. 25-"He needed not that any should bearwitness about man, for He knew what was in man."