A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Φιλόλας), a distinguished Pythagorean philosopher. According to Diogenes Laertius (8.84) he was born at Crotona; according to other authorities (Iamblich. Vit. Pyth. 36) at Tarentum. It is more probable that these are varying statements with regard to the same person, than that two different persons of the same name are referred to. The most secure datum for ascertaining the age of Philolaus is the statement of Plato (Phaed. p. 61d.) that he was the instructor of Simmias and Cebes at Thebes. This would make him a contemporary of Socrates, and agrees with the statement that Philolaus and Democritus were contemporaries (Apollod. apud Diog. Laert. 9.38). The statement that after the death of Socrates Plato heard Philolaus in Italy, which rests only on the authority of Diogenes Laertius (3.6), may safely be rejected. Philolaus is not mentioned among the Pythagorean teachers of Plato by Cicero, Appuleius, or Hieronymus (Interpr. ad Diog. Laert. 3.6). Philolaus lived for some time at Heracleia, where he was the pupil of Aresas, or (as Plutarch calls him) Arcesus (Iamblich. Vit. Pyth. 100.36, comp. Plut. de Gen. Socr. 13, though the account given by Plutarch in the passage referred to involves great inaccuracies, see Böckh, Philolaos, p. 8). The absurd statement of Imblichus (100.23) that Philolaus was a pupil of Pythagoras, is contradicted by himself elsewhere (100.31), where he says that several generations intervened between them. The date when Philolaus removed to Thebes is not known. Böckh (ibid. p. 10) conjectures that family connections induced Philolaus and Lysis to take up their abode in Thebes; and we do, in point of fact, hear of a Philolaus of the house of the Bacchiadae, who gave some laws to the Thebans. (See the preceding article.) That Philolaus was driven out of Italy at the time when the Pythagorean brotherhood was broken up (i. e. shortly after the overthrow of Sybaris), is inconsistent with the chronology, though it is possible enough that there may have been, at a later period, more than one expulsion of Pythlagoreans who attempted to revive in

different cities of Italy something like their old organization. The statements that Philolaus was the instructor of Gorgias, and a disciple of Lysis, for the purpose of paying sepulchral honours to whom he came to Thebes (Olympiodorus ad Plat. Phaed. ap. Wyttenbach ad Phaed. p. 130, who mentions him instead of Theanor), are of no authority. According to Diogenes Laertius (8.46), Phanton of Phlius, Xenophilus, Echecrates, Diocles, and Polymnestus of Phlius were disciples of Philolaus. Böckh (l.c. p. 15) places no reliance whatever on the story that Philolaus was put to death at Crotona on account of being suspected of aiming at the tyranny; a story which Diogenes Laertius has even taken the trouble to put into verse (D. L. 8.84; Suid. s. v. ὑπονοία, Φιλόλαος).

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