Pyrrho, along with Anaxarchus, travelled with Alexander the Great on his conquest of the east, "so that he even went as far as the Gymnosophists in India and the Magi" in Persia. This exposure to Eastern philosophy, and in specific, Buddhist philosophy, seems to have inspired him to create his new philosophy and to adopt a life of solitude. Returning to Elis, he lived in poor circumstances, but was highly honored by the Elians, who made him a high priest, and also by the Athenians, who conferred upon him the rights of citizenship.