Egypt, to learn about geometry and to study with “those who interpreted the will of Gods”; to Phoenicia, to meet with Persians and learn about the teachings of Zoroaster; and finally to Mount Etna on Sicily, in “order to view the craters.”
In the Seventh Letter, the author fails to mention any journeys to Cyrene, to Egypt, or to Phoenicia—but he does recount in detail the time he spent in “Magna Graecia,” visiting some of the colonies established by the Greeks along the coastline of southern Italy. The colony of Croton in these years was home to one of the oldest and most mysterious of the ancient Greek wisdom sects, a closed community founded by Pythagoras. Active in the second half of the sixth century B.C., Pythagoras and his followers asserted that what really exists is numbers, and that all natural phenomena are amenable to mathematical explanations. Members were bound together not just by adherence to the primacy of numbers and a handful of other key doctrines—the immortality of the soul, the reincarnation of souls in all kinds of animals, the eternal recurrence of the same—but also by elaborate religious rituals and a shared dietary regimen (some say they were strict vegetarians). Despite forming an exclusive community, the Pythagoreans had by 510 gained control of Croton’s government. Contemporary observers commonly credited the city’s military success in the years that followed to the austere code of conduct enforced by the sect.
Some aspects of the Pythagorean ethos reinforced lessons that Plato had already learned from Socrates, for example, the advice recorded in “The Golden Verses of Pythagoras”: “Let reason, the gift divine, be your highest guide.” In the same text, the Pythagoreans admonish the initiate to examine himself at the end of each day by asking, “Wherein have I erred? What have I done? What duty have I neglected”—a spiritual exercise consistent with the Socratic quest for self-knowledge. (In his dialogue Phaedrus, Plato shows Socrates similarly preoccupied with interrogating himself about the nature of his soul, asking, for example, “Do I participate in the divine? Or am I a more savage sort of beast?”)
Other aspects of the Pythagorean way of life would likely have been unfamiliar to Plato. The fellowship was well known for its practice of ritual sacrifices in sanctuaries, and also its strict burial rites. Before becoming a full-fledged member, an initiate had to put his property in common and spend several years listening in silence to the sayings of a master, who was veiled by a curtain, at communal “hearings.” After five years, if he passed a test, the initiate could become an “esoteric”—a member of the inner circle, who could finally meet the master.
Though the content of the Pythagorean teaching was supposed to be secret, classical sources have preserved some characteristic sayings, one of them especially prized by Plato: “Friends have all things in common.” But other extant Pythagorean sayings and maxims are more gnomic: Do not eat beans. Go not beyond the balance. Do not pick up crumbs that fall from the table. The most just thing is to sacrifice, the wisest is number. Do not eat white roosters. The thunder is to frighten those in Tartarus. Do not eat sacred fish. The sea is the tears of Cronus. Do not break the bread, for bread brings friends together. The most beautiful figures are the circle and the sphere. Place not the candle against the wall. Threaten not the stars.
The group’s cultic way of life naturally aroused the suspicion of outsiders, particularly when the Pythagoreans in political power pursued aristocratic policies in a number of southern Italian cities. During the fifth century, the sect’s meeting places were attacked and burned down, leading some adepts to flee for safety to Greece itself. Despite the pogroms, the Pythagoreans remained politically prominent in several cities in southern Italy, including Tarentum, which Plato visited sometime around 388 B.C.
There he may have met Philolaus (c. 460–380 B.C.), the first Pythagorean to write a book. And he certainly met Archytas (fl. c. 400–350 B.C.), a key figure in the history of Pythagoreanism who also played an active role in the politics of Magna Graecia in these years.
Archytas, according to Diogenes Laertius, “was the first to bring mechanics to a system by applying mathematical principles.” Besides being an outstanding scientist, Archytas rose to political power in Tarentum. Elected general of the city seven times, he for many years played a leading role in the affairs of southern Italy and Sicily.
The image of Archytas differs sharply