the earliest record of the druids comes from two greek texts from circa 300 bce: one, a history of philosophy written by sotion of alexandria, and the other a study of magic widely attributed to aristotle. both texts are now lost, but were quoted in the 2nd century ce work "vitae" by diogenes laërtius.some say that the study of philosophy originated with the barbarians. in that among the persians there existed the magi, and among the babylonians or assyrians the chaldaei, among the indians the gymnosophistae, and among the celts and gauls men who were called druids and semnothei, as aristotle relates in his book on magic, and sotion in the twenty-third book of his succession of philosophers.