[Sidenote: p. 268.] 21. The heresy of Valentinus,[78] then, exists, having a Pythagorean and Platonic foundation. For Plato in the _Timæus_ modelled himself entirely on Pythagoras, as is seen also by his “Pythagorean stranger” being Timæus himself. Wherefore it seems fitting that we should begin by recalling to mind a few (points) of the theory of Pythagoras and Plato, and should then describe the (teaching) of Valentinus. For if the opinions of Pythagoras and Plato are also included in the (books) painfully written by us earlier, yet I shall not be unreasonable in recalling[79] in epitome their most leading tenets[80] in order that by their closer comparison and likeness of composition, the doctrines of Valentinus may be more intelligible. For as (the Pythagoreans and Platonists) took their opinions of old from the Egyptians and taught them anew to the Greeks, so (Valentinus) while fraudulently attempting to establish his own teaching by them, carved [Sidenote: p. 269.] their system into names and numbers, calling them [by names] and defining them by measures of his own. Whence he has constructed a heresy Greek indeed, but not referable to Christ. 22. The wisdom of the Egyptians is, then, the beginning of Plato’s theory in the _Timæus_. For from this, Solon[81] taught the Greeks the whole position regarding the birth and destruction of the cosmos by means of a certain prophetic statement, as Plato says, the Greeks being then children and knowing no older theologic learning. In order then that we may follow closely the words which Valentinus let fall, I will now set out as preface what it was that Pythagoras of Samos taught as philosophy after that silence praised by the Greeks. And then [I will point out] those things which Valentinus takes from Pythagoras and Plato and with solemn words attributes to Christ, and before Christ to the Father of the universals and to that Sige who is given as a spouse to the Father.