The note on the Indian Semnoi attributed to Clement of Alexandria in his Stromata has often been thought to be the reworking of a passage by Alexander Polyhistor (1st century B.C.) in his book on India. As for the Semnoi and Semnai, they have been identified either as Buddhists or Jains. This paper shows that the information obtained by the Christian Theologian dates in fact from the 2nd century A.D., at a time when trade between Egypt and the island of  Taprobana made it possible to gain a better understanding the island’s Buddhist community, a community that venerated the remains of the Buddha conserved in large monumental stūpa.