The Book of DieselThe Light Before the Gospel“Bel-iddin, the old Babylonian scribe, watched the Greek read numbers without permission. ‘Your chains are iron,’ he said. ‘Your pride is self-forged.’ Pythagoras answered that a captive was entitled to pride. Bel-iddin replied, ‘A captive is entitled to dignity. Pride is the guard who follows you after the door opens.’”
The Book of Diesel · Gospel Threshold Edition v4.5
Later biographical traditionAncient or late-antique tradition supplies the premise; the private scenes are reconstructed.
Later biographies say Pythagoras was taken from Egypt to Babylon after Cambyses’s conquest and studied with Magi and Babylonian scholars. These detailed traditions were written centuries later and cannot be treated as secure biography.
The captivity, teacher Mehrasp, and all private scenes are historical fiction built from later traditions.