=2. Neo-Pythagoreanism.= The history of Pythagoreanism is extremely varied. Its body of doctrine from epoch to epoch was continually changing. The only characteristic common to its entire history was its practical tendency toward asceticism and its affiliation with the Mysteries. Let us review the history of Pythagoreanism down to the time of neo-Pythagoreanism. In 510 B. C., at the battle of Crotona, the early band of Pythagoreans was dispersed, and about 504 B. C. Pythagoras died. His scattered followers formed a school centring at Thebes around the philosophy of numbers, and this school lasted until 350 B. C. In 350 B. C. Pythagoreanism no longer existed as a school, for its members had either joined the Academy or formed one of the Mysteries. In 100 B. C. Pythagoreanism again emerged under the name of neo-Pythagoreanism, and this is the body which we meet in the introductory stage of the Religious Period. Alexandria was its centre, but it drew its disciples from every part of the earth. Among them Apollonius alone rises as a distinct figure. He was widely known, for he traveled everywhere as a religious teacher and wonder-worker. Other neo-Pythagoreans were P. Nigidius Figulus, a friend of Cicero, Sotion, a friend of the Sextians, Moderatus of Gades, and in later times Nicomachus of Gerasa and Numenius of Apamea. Another, and rather numerous group, allied to the neo-Pythagoreans, should be mentioned here. These were the so-called Eclectic Platonists, the representatives of whom were Plutarch (50–125 A. D.), and Celsus (about 200 A. D.), the opponent of Christianity. The only important difference between the neo-Pythagoreans and the Eclectic Platonists was that the former referred to Pythagoras as their religious model, and the latter to Plato. Both were mystical, ascetic, and eclectic. Neo-Pythagoreanism first became noticeable in the first century B. C., on account of the great number of writings appearing under the names of Pythagoras and Philolaus. About these there arose a large neo-Pythagorean literature,――about ninety treatises by fifty authors. The writings under the name of Pythagoras were, for many centuries, the cause of the misconception of the true teaching of the original Pythagoras. The advent of the neo-Pythagorean literature marks the return at Alexandria to the older systems of thought, and is coincident with the learned literary investigations in the University of Alexandria. The particular revival of Pythagoreanism in the form of neo-Pythagoreanism came at the same time with the renewal of the Homeric form of poetry.