MS 475-476 (1903) - Lowell Lecture VIII

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explain the existence of such a tradition in that brotherhood? The obvious explanation is that Pythagoras really had been taken prisoner by the Persians and carried into captivity. We see that it could not have been by Cambyses. On what occasion could it have been? There is only one way in which it could have happened. Namely when Cyrus in 546 B.C. conquered Lydia. At no other time in the life of Pythoagoras did the Persians come near the Greek world. But is it reasonable to suppose that Pythagoras could have been in Lydia at that time? Why, all the witnesses say the Pythagoras was the son and heir of a wealthy merchant of Samos. The only reasonable

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explanation of that is that he really was so. Now Samos is right off the coast of Lydia in sight of the mainland. The son of a wealthy merchant of Samos would in all probability have interests in Lydia, both financial and sentimental. He would be specially likely to be there in times of trouble. It is, therefore, a particularly reasonable conjecture that it was then and there that Pythagoras was taken prisoner by the Persians, for it must have been then and there or never and nowhere. So, then, we will suppose, with great confidence, that this is what did take place; and it perfectly explains the assertion of Iamblichus who would most likely have forgotten this temporary invasion

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which occurred five centuries before he wrote. Having in his mind the fact that Pythagoras had been in Egypt, that he was captured by the Persians, and that Cambyses, the general of Cyrus conquered Egypt, it was most natural that in the loose way that is eminently characteristic of him he would have put these things together as he did.

However, we must not miss any opportunity of putting the elements of our conjecture to the test during the process of constructing it; and therefore since this supposition that Pythagoras was taken prisoner by Cyrus involves a date, we must inquire whether or not that date fits in to all our other

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information. Now Iamblichus says that Pythagoras remained away for 12 years. When he got back to Samos he found that Polycrates had seized the government of the island. Now we otherwise know that such an event did take place about that time but the exact date of it is unsettled. There is some testimony that Pythagoras had been well-acquainted with Polycrates if not a friend of his. The testimony is of the very worst character possible. Namely, it is in the form of an ancient letter supposed to have been written by Pythagoras to Polycrates. I ought to explain why such testimony is so very bad, and why, at the

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same time, such false testimony is often of extreme value. You must know, then, if you do not already know it, that after the death of Alexander, Ptolemy Philadephus founded the Alexandrian library, and some of his successors became bitten with a perfect mania for perfecting that library, and spent enormous sums upon it, just as we see that bibliomaniacs do to this day. Only they exercized the force of their soldiery to increase the library by means of downright robbery, when purchases could not be made. The natural consequence of this was that there sprang up a regular business of forging books, on the one hand, and a