name of Pythagoras occurs only twice in the genuine works that have come down, to us. In one place we are told that Alkmaion was a young man in the old age of Pythagoras,[1] and the other is a quotation from Alkidamas to the effect that "the men of Italy honoured Pythagoras."[2] Aristotle is not so shy of the word "Pythagorean" as Plato, but he uses it in a curious way. He says such things as "the men of Italy who are called Pythagoreans,"[3] and he usually refers to particular doctrines as those of "some of the Pythagoreans." It looks as if there was some doubt in the fourth century as to who the genuine Pythagoreans were. We shall see why as we go on.
Aristotle also wrote a special treatise on the Pythagoreans which has not come down to us, but from which quotations are found in later writers. These are of great value, as they have to do with the religious side of Pythagoreanism.
The only other ancient authorities on Pythagoras were Aristoxenos of Taras, Dikaiarchos of Messene, and Timaios of Tauromenion, who all had special opportunities of knowing something about him. The account of the Pythagorean Order in the Life of Pythagoras by Iamblichos is based mainly on Timaios,[4] who was no doubt an uncritical historian, but who had access to information about Italy and Sicily which makes his testimony very valuable when it can be recovered. Aristoxenos had been personally acquainted with the last generation of the Pythagorean society at Phleious. It is evident, however, that he wished to represent Pythagoras simply as a man of science, and was anxious to refute the idea that he was a religious teacher. In the same way, Dikaiarchos tried to make out that Pythagoras was simply a statesman and reformer.[5]
- ↑ Arist. Met. A, 5. 986 a 29.
- ↑ Arist. Rhet. B, 23. 1398 b 14.
- ↑ Cf. e.g. Met. A, 5. 985 b 23; De caelo, B, 13. 293 a 20.
- ↑ See Rostagni, "Pitagora e i Pitagorici in Timeo" (Atti della R. Academia delle Scienze di Torino, vol. 49 (1913-14), pp. 373 sqq.
- ↑ See E. Rohde's papers, "Die Quellen des Iamblichos in seiner Biographie des Pythagoras," in Rh. Mus. xxvi. and xxvii.
