a most celebrated philosopher of Samos, was born about 590 years before Christ, and flourished in the time of Tarquin the last king of Rome. He travelled for knowledge to Egypt, Babylon, and various parts of Greece; but settled at Croton in Italy, where he opened a school that was frequented from all parts. After the manner of the Egyptians, he inculcated his doctrines by symbols. He forbade the eating of flesh, taught the transmigration of souls, made considerable discoveries in arts and sciences, and delivered a great variety of precepts for civil and political conduct. His maxims of morality were admirable; for he was for having the study of philosophy solely tend to elevate man to a resemblance of the Deity. He believed that God is a soul diffused through all nature, and that from him human souls are derived; that they are immortal, and that men need only take pains to purge themselves of their vices, in order to be united to the Deity. He made unity the principle of all things; and believed, that between God and man there are various orders of spiritual beings, who are the ministers of the Supreme Being. He condemned all images of the Deity, and would have him worshipped with as few ceremonies as possible. His disciples brought all their goods into a common stock, contemned the pleasures of sense, abstained from swearing, eat nothing that had life, and believed in the doctrine of a metempsychosis. See the article Metempsychosis.

Pythagoras made his scholars undergo a severe novitiate of silence for at least two years; and it is said, that, where he discovered too great an itch for talking, he extended it to five: his disciples were therefore divided into two classes, of which the first were simple hearers, and the last such as were allowed to propose their difficulties, and learn the reasons of all that was taught there. The Pythagoreans, it is said, on their rising from bed, rooted the mind with the sound of the lyre, in order to make them more fit for the actions of the day; and at night resumed the lyre, in order to prepare themselves for sleep, by calming all their tumultuous thoughts. The figurative manner in which he gave his instructions, was borrowed from the Hebrews, Egyptians, and other orientals. Some think he derived his philosophy from the books of Moses, and that he conversed with Ezekiel and Daniel at Babylon; but this is mere conjecture.

The circumstances of his death are variously related. Some say that he was burnt at Milo's house at Crotona, together with his disciples. Others say that he escaped from the flames; and, being pursued out of the city, stopped in a field of beans, and chose rather to be killed than open his mouth. Dioclesarchus says, that he fled to the temple of the Muses at Metapontum, where he died of hunger. Others assert that he was killed, with all his disciples, by the Agrigentines. Arnobius affirms, that he was burnt alive in a temple, &c. But Justin seems to intimate, that after his having lived 20 years at Crotona, he died in peace in a very advanced age at Metapontum, to which city he had retired. His memory was held in such veneration, that his house was converted into a temple, and he was honoured as a god.

Some authors say, that he left nothing in writing; but Laertius and others attribute several treatises to him. His golden verses, attributed by some to one of his disciples, are allowed to be an exact copy of the sentiments of that divine philosopher, from whose school proceeded the greatest philosophers and legislators.