Expert: Maria - 12/13/2007

Question
Hi Maria. Do you know what social status the Pythagoreans had in their contemporary time? Do you know specifically what kind of administration there was when Pythagoras lived?

Answer
Hello,

in their contemporary time the Pythagoreans were considered to be a secret religious brotherhood and an elite circle of followers of the Mathematician/Philosopher Pythagoras, who in the 6th.century BC had founded at Croton, in Southern Italy, a “school”( from the ancient Greek “scholé”, "leisure") which was mostly a kind of way of life, consisting of religious teaching, common meals, exercise, reading, contemplation and philosophical/ mathematical  study as well as of several  rules, some dietary ( e.g. abstinence from meat and from beans), and others quite  obscure, such as the command not to pick up what has fallen or not to touch a white cock.

It is in fact from our earliest sources such as Herodotus, The histories, II.81 and Plato,The Republic X, 600a,   that we know that the Pythagoreans formed a distinct community that had specific social practices and a typical “way of life” and then a typical social status.

As for the  kind of administration there was when Pythagoras lived, i.e. in the 6th.century BC as he seems to have founded his school in ca.530 BC / 525 BC after he settled in Croton because of continual conflicts and political trouble  in the Greek island of  Samos where he was born, we know that he lived under the tyranny of Polycrates ( c. 535 – 522 BC) when he was in Samos, while he lived under a more dynamic administration when he was in Croton (today 'Crotone'), as this Greek colony which was a flourishing commercial city had an aristocratic government which was composed of the members of the nobility, but was certainly  less tyrannical than the government of Polycrates in Samos.
It is also probable that the Pythagoreans took positions in the local government, but later Pythagoras and his followers  were reportedly attacked by a rival faction.
We know in fact that Pythagoras was  banished from Croton or left voluntarily the city shortly before this attack and went to  Metapontum ( not so far from Croton) where he died in ca. 500 BC.

Hope this outline can be helpful to you.
Best,
Maria