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The next outstanding Greek mathematician mentioned in the Eudemian Srmmary(these lost works was a resume of an apparently full history of Greek geometry, already lost in SProclus' time, sovering the period prior to 335 B.C., written by Eudemus, a pupil of Aristotle) is Pythagoras, whom his followers enveloped in wuch a mythical haze that very little is known about him with any degree of certainty. It seems that he was born about 572 B.C. on the Aegean island of Samos. Being about fifty years younger than Thales |
and living so near Thales' home city of Miletus, it may be that Phthagoras studied under the older man. He then appears to have sojourned in Egypt and may even have indulged in more extensive travel. Returning home, he found Samos under the tyranny of Polycrates and ionia under the dominion of the Persians; accordingly, he migrated to the Greek seaport of Crotoma, located in southern Italy. There he founded the famous Pythagorean school, which, in addition to beong an academy for the study of philosophy, mathematics, and natural science, developed onto a closely knit brotherhood with secret rites and observances. In time, the influence and aristocratic tendencies of the brotherhood became so great that the democratic forces of southern Italy destroyed the buildings of the school and caused the society to disperse. According to one report, Pythagoras fled to Metapontum where he died, maybe murdered, at an advanced age of seventy-five to eighty. The brotherhood, although scattered, continued to exist for at least two centuries more.
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