Abderites

The townspeople were ready to judge him.

They were like, look at this Abderite loser, spent all his drachmas on travelling books.

To prove he hadn't just been partying in Babylon, Democritus gave a public reading of his masterpiece, a book called The Great Diacosmos, or The Great World System.

It was so brilliant, so mind-meltingly profound, that the town didn't just forgive him, they gave him a massive cash prize, built public statues of him, and basically treated him like a rock star for the rest of his life.