heir procedure in practice amounted to the greatest
possible interference in politics. It appears that the Pythagoreans
attempted to impose their ordinances upon the ordinary citizens of
Crotona. They aimed at the supersession of the State by their own
Order and they did actually capture the government of Crotona for a
short period. This led to attacks on the Order, and the persecution of
its members. When the plain citizen of Crotona was told not to eat
beans, and that under no circumstances could he eat his own dog, this
was too much. A general persecution occurred. The meeting place of the
Pythagoreans was burnt to the ground, the Society was scattered, and
its members killed or driven away. This occurred between the years 440
and 430 B.C. Some years later the Society revived and continued its
activities, but we do not hear much of it after the fourth century
B.C.

It was largely a mystical society. The Pythagoreans developed their
own ritual, ceremonial and mysteries. This love of mystery, and their
general character as miracle-mongers, largely account for the legends
which grew up around the life of Pythagoras himself. Their scientific
activities were also considerable. They enforced moral self-control.
They cultivated the arts and crafts, gymnastics, music, medicine, and
mathematics. The development of mathematics in early Greece was
largely the work of the Pythagoreans. Pythagoras is said to have
discovered the 47th Proposition of Euclid, and to have sacrificed an
ox in honour thereof. And there is good reason to believe that
practically the whole of the substance of the First Book of Euclid is
the work of Pythagoras.

{34}

Turning now to their philosophical teaching, the first thing that we
have to understand is that we cannot speak of the philosophy of
Pythagoras, but only of the philosophy of the Pythagoreans. For it is
not known what share Pythagoras had in this philosophy or what share
was contributed by his successors. Now we recognize objects in the
universe by means of their qualities. But the majority of these
qualities are not universal in their scope; some things possess some
qualities; others possess others. A leaf, for example, is green, but
not all things are green. Some things have no colour at all. The same
is true of tastes and smells. Some things are sweet; some bitter. But
there is one quality in things which is absolutely universal in its
scope, which applies to everything in the universe