The Origin of Mathematics 3: Pythagoras of Samos

Abstract

Pythagoras lived about 570-490 B.C.E. The only roughly determined date in his life is ≈ 530, when he left Samos to settle in Crotona, in southern Italy. At Crotona he founded a religious and philosophical society that soon came to exert considerable political influence in the Greek cities of southern Italy. He was forced to leave Crotona about 500 and retired to Metapontum, where he died (see Fig. 6.1).