ABSTRACT
As a young man, Democritus traveled to Egypt, Persia, and Babylonia. Some ancient sources hold that he went as far south as Ethiopia and as far east as India, but modern scholars consider this doubtful. It is reported that Democritus boasted that he had visited more foreign lands and carried out more extensive inquiries and investigations than anyone else of his time. He traveled both for the “broadening” experience that falls to any inquisitive traveler and in order to receive instruction from those who were considered wise in many lands. When he returned to Greek soil, he himself earned a reputation for wisdom. He carried with him an aura of the exotic, having delved into cultures that the Greeks thought of as exotic and foreign: the cultures of Egypt, Persia, and Babylonia.
