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Ab occidente litora Esseni fugiunt usque qua nocent : gens sola in toto orbe praeter ceteras mira, sine ulla femina, omni venere abdicata, sine pecunia, socia palmarum.
– Pline l’Ancien, Histoire naturelle, V, 73
Ἰουδαίοις φιλοσοφίαι τρεῖς ἦσαν ἐκ τοῦ πάνυ ἀρχαίου τῶν πατρίων, ἥ τε τῶν Ἐσσηνῶν καὶ ἡ τῶν Σαδδουκαίων, τρίτην δὲ ἐφιλοσόφουν οἱ Φαρισαῖοι λεγόμενοι.
– Flavius Josèphe, Antiquités judaïques, 18.11 ; cf. Porphyre, De abstinentia ab esu animalium, IV, 11 ; etc