ARCHYTAS of Tarentum, was a Pythagorean philosopher, and also well skilled in mathematics and geography. He lived in the time of Plato, and according to report, interposed his influence with Dionysius the tyrant, in order to save the life of that renowned philosopher. According to this date, it would appear that Jamblichus is mistaken when he affirms, that he was a hearer of Pythagoras; and the testimony of a writer mentioned by Photius, would seem more worthy of credit, that he was the eighth successive preceptor of the Pythagorean school. But his fame was not confined to the circle of literature; for so eminent were his military talents, that, in opposition to an express law of his country, that no man should be chosen more than once the general of its armies, he was elevated to that important station no less than seven times. He adopted the sentiments of Pythagoras in his dissertations on speculative philosophy. He taught in morality, that there is nothing so destructive to man as pleasure; that in every condition of society, virtue is to be pursued for its own merit, and that every extreme is incompatible with virtue. Aristotle was indebted to Archytas for his general heads of arrangement, entitled his "Ten Categories," and very probably for that principal idea in his Ethics, that virtue consists in avoiding excesses. By discovering the duplication of the cube by means of the conic sections; and the method of finding two mean proportions between two given lines, he displayed his great knowledge in mathematics. He is reported to have invented several curious hydraulic machines, and to have made a kind of winged automaton; and his genius is likewise honoured with the invention of the screw and crane. In a beautiful ode, Horace records his sad fate, in being cast upon the Apulian shore, an unburied corpse; and mentions him as an excellent astronomer and geographer.
Te maris et terre numeroque carentis arenae Manforem cobibent, Archytas, Pulveres exigui prope litus parva Matinum Minera: nec quidquam tibi prodeat Aerias tentafle domos, animoque rotundum Percurriffe polum, moriuro.
Archytas, what avails thy nice survey Of ocean's countless sands, of earth, and sea? In vain thy mighty spirit once could soar To orbs celestial, and their course explore.
If here, upon the tempest-beaten strand, You lie confin'd, till some more liberal hand Shall strew the pious dust in funeral rite, And wing thee to the boundless realms of light.
Francis.
A singular modesty, and a firm command of his passions, were the leading features in his moral character. In his anger he never chastised any of his servants. He said one day to a certain dependant who had disobliged him, "What should I have done to you if I had not been angry?" He maintained a uniform decency not often observed in ancient writings.
A small treatise, entitled Περὶ τοῦ παντὸς φυσικοῦ, "On the Universe," and some other small fragments, "On Wisdom," and "On the Good and Happy Man," are the only pieces ascribed to this philosopher that are still extant.