There were, however, certain persons who were hostile to these men, and
rose against them. That stratagems therefore were employed to destroy
them, during the absence of Pythagoras, is universally acknowledged; but
those that have written on this subject, differ in their account of the
journey which he then undertook. For some say that he went to Pherecydes
the Syrian, but others to Metapontum. Many causes, however, of the
stratagems are enumerated. And one of them, which is said to have
originated from the men called Cylonians, was as follows: Cylon the
Crotonian held the first place among the citizens for birth, renown, and
wealth; but otherwise, he was a severe, violent, and turbulent man, and
of tyrannical manners. He had, however, the greatest desire of being
made a partaker of the Pythagoric life, and having applied himself to
Pythagoras, who was now an elderly man,[51] for this purpose, was
rejected by him on account of the above-mentioned causes. In consequence
of this, therefore, he and his friends exercised violent hostilities
against Pythagoras and his disciples. So vehement likewise and
immoderate[52] was the ambition of Cylon, and of those who arranged
themselves on his side, that it extended itself to the very last of the
Pythagoreans. Pythagoras, therefore, for this cause went to Metapontum,
and there is said to have terminated his life. But those who were called
the Cylonians continued to form stratagems against the Pythagoreans, and
to exhibit indications of all possible malevolence. Nevertheless, for a
certain time the probity of the Pythagoreans subdued [this enmity,] and
also the decision of the cities themselves, so that they were willing
that their political concerns should be managed by the Pythagoreans
[alone]. At length, however, the Cylonians became so hostile to the
men,[53] that setting fire to the house of Milo in which the
Pythagoreans were seated, and were consulting about warlike concerns;
they burnt all the men except two, Archippus and Lysis. For these being
in perfect vigour, and most robust, escaped out of the house. But this
taking place, and no mention being made by the multitude of the calamity
which had happened, the Pythagoreans ceased to pay any further attention
to the affairs of government. This however happened through two causes,
through the negligence of the cities (for they were not at all affected
by so great a calamity taking place) and through the loss of those men
who were most qualified to govern. But of the two Pythagoreans that were
saved, and both of whom were Tarentines, Archippus indeed returned to
Tarentum; but Lysis hating the negligence [of the cities] went into
Greece, and dwelt in the Achaia of Peloponnesus. Afterwards, he migrated
to Thebes, being stimulated by a certain ardent desire [of retreating
thither]; and _there he had for his auditor Epaminondas who called Lysis
his father_. There also Lysis terminated his life. But the rest of the
Pythagoreans, except Archytas of Tarentum, departed from Italy, and
being collected together in Rhegium, there dwelt with each other. The
most celebrated of them, however, were Phanto, Echecrates, Polymnastus,
and Diocles, who were Phlyasians; and Xenophilus Chalcidensis of Thrace.
But in the course of time, when the administration of public affairs
proceeded into a worse condition, these Pythagoreans nevertheless
preserved their pristine manners and disciplines, though the sect began
to fail, till it generously perished. These things, therefore, are
narrated by Aristoxenus.
Nicomachus, however, in other respects accords with Aristoxenus, but as
to the journey of Pythagoras, he says that this stratagem took place,
while Pythagoras was at Delos. For he went there, in order to give
assistance to his preceptor Pherecydes the Syrian who was then afflicted
with the morbus pedicularis, and when he died, performed the necessary
funeral rites. Then, therefore, those who had been rejected by the
Pythagoreans, and to whom monuments had been raised, as if they were
dead, attacked them, and committed all of them to the flames.
Afterwards, they were overwhelmed by the Italians with stones, and
thrown out of the house unburied. At that time, therefore, it happened
that science failed together with those who possessed scientific
knowledge, because till that period, it was preserved by them in their
breasts as something arcane and ineffable. But such things only as were
difficult to be understood, and which were not unfolded, were preserved
in the memory of those who did not belong to the Pythagorean sect; a few
things excepted, which certain Pythagoreans, who happened at that time
to be in foreign lands, preserved as certain sparks of science very
obscure and of difficult investigation. These also, being left by
themselves, and not moderately dejected by the calamity, were scattered
in different places, and no longer endured to have any communion with
the rest of mankind. But they lived alone in solitary places, wherever
they happened to meet with them; and each greatly preferred an
association with himself to that with any other person.
Fearing, however, lest the name of philosophy should be entirely
exterminated from mankind, and that they should on this account incur
the indignation of the Gods, by suffering so great a gift of theirs to
perish, they made an arrangement of certain commentaries and symbols,
and likewise, collected together the writings of the more ancient
Pythagoreans, and of such things as they remembered. These, each left at
his death to his son, or daughter, or wife, with a strict injunction not
to give them to any one out of the family. This mandate therefore, was
for a long time observed, and was transmitted in succession to their
posterity,
Since, however, Apollonius dissents in a certain place respecting these
particulars, and adds many things which we have not mentioned, we shall
also insert his narration of the stratagem employed against the
Pythagoreans. He says, therefore, that the envy of others attended
Pythagoras from his childhood. For as long as he conversed with all that
came to him, he was pleasing to them; but when he associated with his
disciples alone, the favourable opinion which the multitude entertained
of him was diminished. And they permitted him indeed, to pay more
attention to strangers than to themselves; but they were indignant at
his preferring some of their fellow-citizens before others, and they
apprehended that his disciples assembled together with intentions
hostile to them. In the next place, as the young men that were indignant
with him were of high rank, and surpassed others in wealth, and when
they arrived at a proper age, not only held the first honors in their
own families, but also managed the affairs of the city in common, they
formed a large body of men (for they were more than three hundred in
number) and in consequence of this there was but a small part of the
city, which was not conversant with the same manners and the same
pursuits as they were.
Moreover, as long as the Crotonians continued in their own country, and
Pythagoras dwelt with them, that form of government remained which had
been established when the city was founded, but which was not pleasing
to the people, and therefore induced them to seek an occasion of
producing a change. When therefore Sybaris was captured, and the land
taken in the war was not divided by lot, according to the desire of the
multitude, their silent hatred of the Pythagoreans burst forth, and the
populace separated themselves from them. But the leaders of this
dissension were those that were most near to the Pythagoreans, both by
alliance and familiarity. The cause however of the discord was this,
that many of the actions of the Pythagoreans offended these leaders, as
well as casual persons, because these actions had something peculiar in
them when compared with those of others. But in the greatest of these
actions they conceived that disgrace befel themselves alone.
Farther still, no one of the Pythagoreans called Pythagoras by his name,
but while he was alive, when they wished to denote him, they called him
_divine_; and after his death they denominated him _that man_; just as
Homer represents Eumæus when he makes mention of Ulysses, saying,
Him, tho’ he’s absent, yet I fear, O guest,
To name; such is the greatness of my love and care.
Conformably likewise to the precepts of their master, the Pythagoreans
always rose from bed before the rising of the sun; and never wore a ring
in which the image of God was engraved. They also carefully observed to
adore the rising sun, and avoided wearing a ring of the above mentioned
description, lest they should have it about them at funerals, or in some
impure place. In a similar manner, they were attentive to the mandate of
Pythagoras, not to do any thing without previous deliberation and
disquisition; but to form a plan in the morning of what ought to be done
[in the course of the day,] and at night to call to mind the actions of
the day, by this means at one and the same time exploring their conduct,
and exercising their memory. Thus too, they observed the precept, that
if any one of their associates appointed to meet them at a certain
place, they should stay there till he came through the day and the
night; in this again, the Pythagoreans being accustomed to remember what
was said, and not to speak casually. In short Pythagoras ordered them to
be attentive to order and method as long as they lived, and not to
blaspheme at the time of death, but to die with propitious words, such
as are used by those who are sailing out of port into the Adriatic
sea.[54]
The kindred of the Pythagoreans however, were indignant that the
Pythagoreans gave their right hand to those of their own sect alone,
their parents excepted; and that they shared their possessions with each
other in common, but excluded their relations from this fellowship, as
if they were strangers. These, therefore, becoming the sources of the
dissension, the rest readily fell into hostility against the
Pythagoreans. Hippasus, also, Diodorus and Theages said at the same
time, that every citizen ought to be a partaker of the magistracy and
the assembly, and that the rulers should give an account of their
conduct, to those who were elected by lot for this purpose from the
multitude. But the Pythagoreans, Alcimachus, Dimachus, Meton and
Democedes opposed this, and persevered in prohibiting the dissolution of
the polity derived from their ancestors. Those however, who patronized
the multitude, subdued the other party. The multitude therefore, being
assembled together, Cylon and Ninon who were rhetoricians accused the
Pythagoreans. And of these, one belonged to the class of the rich, but
the other was a plebeian. They also divided their harangues between
themselves. But of these harangues, the longer being delivered by Cylon,
Ninon concluded, pretending that he had explored the arcana of the
Pythagoreans, and that he had connected and committed to writing such
particulars as were especially calculated to criminate the Pythagoreans,
and giving a book to ascribe, he ordered him to read it. But the book
was inscribed _the Sacred Discourse_. And the following is a specimen of
what it contained: Friends are to be venerated in the same manner as the
Gods; but others are to be treated as brutes. This very sentence also is
ascribed to Pythagoras by his disciples, and is by them expressed in
verse as follows:
He like the blessed Gods his friends rever’d,
But reckon’d others men of no account.
Homer, too, especially deserves to be praised for calling a king _the
shepherd of the people_. For being a friend to that government in which
the rulers are few, he evinced by this epithet that the rest of men are
cattle. To beans it is requisite to be hostile, as being the leaders of
decision by lot; for by these men were allotted the administration of
affairs. Again, empire should be the object of desire: for they proclaim
that it is better to be one day a bull, than to be an ox for ever. That
the legal institutes of others are laudable; but that they should be
exhorted to use those which are known to themselves. In one word, Ninon
showed that their philosophy was a conspiracy against the multitude, and
therefore exhorted them not to hear the counsellors, but to consider
that they would never have been admitted into the assembly, if the
council of the Pythagoreans had been approved by the session of a
thousand men; so that it was not fit to suffer those to speak, who
prevented to the utmost of their power others from being heard. He
observed, therefore, that they should consider the right hand which was
rejected by the Pythagoreans, as hostile to them, when they gave their
suffrages by an extension of the hands, or calculated the number of the
votes. That they should also consider it to be a disgraceful
circumstance, that they who conquered thirty myriads of men at the river
Tracis, should be vanquished by a thousandth part of the same number
through sedition in the city itself. In short Ninon so exasperated his
hearers by his calumnies, that in a few days after, a great multitude
assembled together intending to attack the Pythagoreans as they were
sacrificing to the Muses in a house near to the temple of Apollo. The
Pythagoreans, however, foreseeing that this would take place, fled to an
inn; but Democedes, with those that had arrived at puberty, withdrew to
Platea. And those that had dissolved the laws made a decree in which
they accused Democedes of compelling the younger part of the community
to the possession of empire, and proclaimed by a cryer that thirty
talents should be given to any one who destroyed him. An engagement also
taking place, and Theages having vanquished Democedes in that contest,
they distributed to him the thirty talents which the city had promised.
But as the city, and the whole region were involved in many evils, the
exiles were brought to judgment, and the power of decision being given
to three cities, viz. to the Tarentines, Metapontines, and the
Caulonians, those that were sent by them to determine the cause were
corrupted by money, as we learn from the chronicles of the Crotonians.
Hence the Crotonians condemned by their own decision those that were
accused, to exile. In consequence, too, of this decision, and the
authority which it conferred on them, they expelled all those from the
city, who were dissatisfied with the existing state of affairs, and at
the same time banished all their families, asserting that it was not fit
to be impious, and that children ought not to be divulsed from their
parents. They likewise abolished loans, and made the land to be
undivided.[55]
Many years after this, when Dinarchus and his associates were slain in
another battle, and Litagus also was dead, who had been the greatest
leader of the seditious, a certain pity and repentance induced the
citizens to recall those Pythagoreans that were left, from exile. For
this purpose, they sent ambassadors from Achaia, and through them became
amicable with the exiles, and consecrated their oaths at Delphi. But the
Pythagoreans who returned from exile were about sixty in number, except
those who were of a more advanced age, among which were some who applied
themselves to medicine, and restored health to those that were sick by a
certain diet; of which method of cure they were themselves the authors.
It happened however, that those Pythagoreans who were saved, and who
were particularly celebrated by the multitude, at that time in which it
was said to the lawless, _This is not the condition of things which was
under Ninon_;—these same Pythagoreans having left the city in order to
procure assistance against the Thurians who invaded the country,
perished in battle, mutually defending each other. But the city was so
changed into a contrary opinion [of the Pythagoreans,] that besides the
praise which it bestowed on them, it apprehended that it would gratify
the Muses in a still greater degree, if it performed a public sacrifice
in the temple of the Muses, which at the request of the Pythagoreans,
they had before constructed in honor of those Goddesses, And thus much
concerning the attack which was made on the Pythagoreans.