IX. PYTHAGORAS AND THE PYTHAGOREANS.

Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchos, a native of Samos, left his fatherland to escape the tyranny of Polykrates (533/2 or 529/8 B.C.). He made his home for many years in Kroton in southern Italy, where his political views gained control in the city. At length he and his followers were banished by an opposing party, and he died at Metapontum. Many stories are told of his travels into Egypt and more widely, but there is no evidence on which the stories can be accepted. He was a mystic thinker and religious reformer quite as much as a philosopher, but there is no reason for denying that the doctrines of the school originated with him. Of his disciples, Archytas, in southern Italy, and Philolaos and Lysis, at Thebes, are the best known. It is the doctrine of the school, not the teaching of Pythagoras himself, which is known to us through the writings of Aristotle.

Literature:—On Pythagoras: Krische, De societatis a Pythagora conditae scopo politico, 1830; E. Rohde, Rhein. Mus. xxvi. 565 sqq.; xxvii. 23 sqq.; Diels, Rhein. Mus. xxxi. 25 sq.; Zeller, Sitz. d. kgl. preus. Akad. 1889, 45, p. 985 sqq.; Chaignet, Pythagore, 1873, and the excellent account in Burnett. Philolaos: Boeckh, Philolaos Lehren, nebst den Bruchstücken seines Werkes, 1819; V. Rose, Comment. de Arist. libr. ord. et auct. Berlin 1854; Schaarschmidt, Die angebliche Schriftstellerei des Phil. Bonn 1864; Zeller, Gesch. d. griech. Phil. 4 Auf. 261, 341, 386; Hermes x. 178; Bywater, Journal of Philol. i. 21 sqq. [133] Archytas: Hartenstein, de Archyt. Tar. fragm. Lips. 1833; Gruppe, Die Fragm. d. Archyt. Berlin 1840; Petersen, Zeitschr. f. Altertumsk. 1836; Chaignet, Pythagore, 1873, pp. 191, 255.