Croton: The Great Philosopher Pythagoras

Pythagoras was born around 570 BCE in Samos, Greece. He was forced to flee the area in 538 BCE, to escape the rise of the tyrant Polycrates. He went to Italy, and traveled to Egypt and Babylon as well. His followers became a political group in Croton, a city in southern Italy. Croton was where Pythagoras set his school. The followers, known as Pythagoreans, established positions in the local government. They sought to lead those around them in the pure lives that they were taught. However, they were overthrown by an opposing group, and nearly destroyed. Before this attack though, Pythagoras fled the city. He died in Metapontum, in Italy, early in the 5th century. Pythagoras considered himself a philosopher, not a mathematician, for which he is widely known. His teachings taught of a belief in a cycle of rebirth. He believed that souls could be reborn into animals, but no signs have pointed to a belief that humans could be reborn into plants. To escape this cycle, one was encouraged to live to high moral standards. For as much as he claimed himself a philosopher though, he largely based the life of his followers around mathematics. Followers of his swore oaths based on the sum of ( 1+2+3+4) . He is remembered most nowadays for the Pythagorean Theorem, the idea that the square
of the hypotenuse is equal to the squares of both legs.

Significance Today, Pythagoras is known almost entirely for contributions to mathematics.
Students to this day continue to learn about the Pythagorean Theorem in Algebra and Geometry. While his followers were almost entirely decimated in Southern Italy, his teachings have lived on. Pythagoras’s followers, the Pythagoreans, were one of the first complete secret societies. The communities practiced vegetarianism, and were sworn to secrecy of their lives there. One of the odder (at that time) practices of the society was that men and women were treated as equals, an uncommon idea for the time. Pythagoras is renowned, not only for his accomplishments, but for his ideas, that continue to influence to this
day.

Location

The statue dedicated should be located in his birthplace of Samos in Greece. This is where Pythagoras lived in between his many travels as a young man.