Of Damascus; acquaintance of Herod the king of the Jews and of Augustus Caesar; Peripatetic or Platonic philosopher. He wrote a Universal History in 80 books,[1] and the early stages of the life of Caesar. And Caesar was so delighted with him that he called the flat cakes, or rather honey-cakes, which were sent by this man to Caesar, by the name of Nikolaoi. And this [custom] has remained to this day. He also wrote about his own life and upbringing.[2]
This citizen of Damascus, having been raised in the other discipline[3] because of his father's great eagerness concerning it, since he acquired great wealth and fame from it, still more cultivated this science[4] with immense love, having among other things an energetic nature, so that before reaching manhood he was noted in his fatherland and stood out among his peers; for he studied grammar better than anyone and on this account all of the art of poetry, and he himself wrote famous tragedies and comedies; and he pursued these fields all the more as he grew up, so that at the same time he broadened his skill in rhetoric and the musical arts and the theory of mathematics and all of philosophy. For he became an admirer of Aristotle and was attracted to the variety of his learning and said that he was eternally grateful to the sciences, as they had much of what was fitting for free men, as well as much of what was useful for life, and most of all what was accessible to both youth and old age, and said that in addition the Muses were recounted to be many in number by the theologians for this reason, because learning has a great deal of variety and particular usefulness for one's entire life;[5] and he thought that neither the possession of learning nor lack of them were similar to the possession or lack of the manual arts, but that on the contrary, to those who had some means of living the ignorance of the former and the understanding of the latter was worthy of censure. So he did not use any branch of learning for the acquisition of money, nor did he trade in them. Nikolaos said that all of education was similar to travel, for just as in travel it happens to those who are away from their home and are undertaking a long journey to lodge and find overnight housing only in some places, and only to stop for food in some places, but in some places to stay for several days, and to take a look at some places on the way, but then to return to their own home to settle there, so, he said, those who are going through the entire course of education must spend more time in some branches, but less time in others, and learn some things in their entirety, but other things in part, and pick up some things at the elementary stage, and having gained possession of what is useful in them, return to their true ancestral home and exercise philosophy.