Samos, however, proved an uncongenial abode. Whether his philosophical vocation was too much in- terrupted by the embassies and public duties imposed on him by his countrymen, or the Samians displayed too little aptitude for philosophy; whether he was of- fended by the tyranny of his friend Polycrates. or im- perilled by that of Syloson, the brother and successor of Polycrates, it is vain to inquire. It is sufficient to know, from the universal testimony of antiquity, that Pythagoras abandoned Samos, and migrated to South- ern Italy, which proved singularly hospitable to philos- ophy. But there is as much discrepance in regard to the time when this migration took place as in regard to other circumstances in the life of the Samian teach-
PYTIIAGOKAS
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PYTIIAGOKAS
er; it is placed about B.C.531 by Fynes Clinton, in 529 by I rebenreg, and other dates are given.
Crotona received the emigrant. He was soon sur- tonndedby numerous admirers, belonging to the wealth- ier and more influential pari of the population. He is said to bai e ui I thest . to the number of three hun- dred or more, in asecrel organization. Among the ear- - of his residence in Crotona is men- tioned il. reformation of the manners and
morals of the people, produced by bis persuasive ad- dress, by the authority of his divine pretensions, by his imposing demeanor, and by his judicious counsels. Bis disciples were of the rich ami noble class, and, by con- verting them to a more sober and abstemious life, lie would necessarily suppress luxury and sensuality; for these are ool the vices of poor laborers and "rude me- chanicals." Moreover, as the political control was still in tin- hands of the aristocracy, though already contest- ed, political interest might conspire with religious en- thusiasm and philosophical convictions in facilitating a reform requisite to maintain a doubtful ascendency. That aristocratic rule was continue, i by the action of Pythagoras was the belief of later times: and that Cro- tona was strengthened by the reformation is shown by its subsequent victory over Sybaris, under Pythagorean leadership. How far the Pythagorean rule was inten- tionally political, how far Pythagoras directed his se- cret society to political aims, cannol be ascertained, and has been diversely determined. It has been well ob- served lhat a select body of influential men. interested in the maintenance of a specific policy; bound togeth- er by the closest ties of opinion, sentiment, and affec- tionate regard; united, moreover, by secret obligations, would necessarily employ concerted action in public af- fairs. It should also be observed that the Greek schools, until the close, or nearly the close, of Plato's career, had always a decided political inclination.
It may well be supposed that l'yt hagoras, who had already tested, at Samos, the efficacy of supernatural claims, would avail himself of like arts to establish his predominance in a new land. He bad previously pre- sented himself as a sou of Phoebus, and he is said to have been worshipped in Italy, after his death, as the offspring of the Hyperborean Apollo; bis golden thigh had been shown to Abaris at the Olympic Games as evidence of his divi lescent, The claim was conso- nant with the whole tenor of Greek genealogy, and is d by many striking parallels in Greece and in other lands. He offered, in continuation of his doctrine of the transmigration of souls, his recognition, in the temple of Juno at Argos, of the shield of Euphorbus, slain in the Trojan War, whose body he had then in- habited. "Ipse ego (jam memini) Trojani tempore belli,
Pantholdes Euphorbus cram" (Ovid, Met. xv, 160,161).
To the earlier years of his residence at Crotona may be assigned bis death, burial, and resurrection, and his report of the wonders of I he netherworld; to the same time may l>e referred (though there is really no chro- nology in these matters I bis familiar intercourse with animals, hia handling snakes with impunity, his predic- tion of earthquakes, his control over tempests, his iv- moval of pestilences, etc. To the closing years of his life must be referred his remarkable apparition to his friends at Metapontum and Tarentum simultaneously, ami hia public conversation with them. It is scarcely surprising thai the Neo-Platonists, by whom his biog- raphy was composed (or consarcinated), should have pic- mi. I him a the counterpart and rival of Christ It is natural thai the-e miraculous endowments should rded as the hold inventions of late pagans; but this solution i- nol satisfactory, as some of them are ev- idently of much earlier origin, and all of them appear, in modified forms, in other myths in widely separated re- gions. There are many points in the story of Pythag- oras which appear to be only late survivals of primitive
superstitions and delu
The high and various endowments of Pythagoras, real and fictitious, rendered him singularly successful in the institution of his school at Crotona. The most important, the most credulous, or the most zealous of hi- pupils were constituted a- a Becrel Bociety, were subjected t" the most stringent discipline, and to the most absolute obedience to their inspired teach r. Ac* cording to some traditions, the pp. petty of all was sur- rendered for the common use. This is scared} proba- ble, as the age of communism bad not yet arrived. '1 he Statement may simply indicate that tho means o| the members wore freely employed for common objects, and that the wealthier brethren generously ministered to the requirements of the | ri r.