Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras, or Pythagoric Life: Accompanied by Fragments of the Ethical Writings of certain Pythagoreans in the Doric dialect; and a collection of Pythagoric Sentences from Stobaeus and others, which are omitted by Gale in his Opuscula Mythologica, and have not been noticed by any editorIamblichus
Philosophy
Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras, or Pythagoric Life: Accompanied by Fragments of the Ethical Writings of certain Pythagoreans in the Doric dialect; and a collection of Pythagoric Sentences from Stobaeus and others, which are omitted by Gale in his Opuscula Mythologica, and have not been noticed by any editor
Iamblichus
Ethics, Ancient; Philosophers -- Greece -- Biography; Philosophy, Ancient; Pythagoras; Pythagoras and Pythagorean school
[32]See chap. 33.
[33]These lines are as the numbers 4, 3, 2. For 4 to 3 is sesquitertian,
3 to 2 is sesquialter, and 2 is an arithmetical medium between 4 and
3.
[34]For an explanation of this assertion of Plato in the Republic, see
my Theoretic Arithmetic.
[35]“The Pythagoreans,” (says Syrianus in Aristot. Metaphys. lib. 13.)
“received from the theology of Orpheus, the principles of
intelligible and intellectual numbers, they assigned them an
abundant progression, and extended their dominion as far as to
sensibles themselves.” Hence that proverb was peculiar to the
Pythagoreans, that _all things are assimilated to number_.
Pythagoras, therefore, in the Sacred Discourse, clearly says, that
“number is the ruler of forms and ideas, and is the cause of Gods
and dæmons.” He also supposes, that “to the most ancient and
artificially ruling deity, number is the canon, the artificial
reason, the intellect also, and the most undeviating balance of the
composition and generation of all things.” αυτος μεν Πυθαγορας, εν
τῳ ιερῳ λογῳ, διαρρηδην μορφων και ιδεων κραντορα τον αριθμον ελεγεν
ειναι, και θεων και δαιμονων αιτιον· και τῳ πρεσβυτατῳ και
κρατιστευοντι τεχνιτῃ θεῳ κανονα, και λογον τεχνικον, νουν τε και
σταθμαν ακλινεσταταν τον αριθμον υπεικε συστασιος και γενεσεως των
παντων. Syrianus adds, “But Philolaus declared that number is the
governing and self-begotten bond of the eternal permanency of
mundane natures.” Φιλολαυς δε, της των κοσμικων αιωνιας διαμονης την
κρατιστευουσαν και αυτογενη συοχην ειναι απεφῃνατο τον αριθμον. “And
Hippasus, and all those who were destined to a quinquennial silence,
called number the judicial instrument of the maker of the universe,
and the first paradigm of mundane fabrication.” οι δε περι Ιππασον
ακουσματικοι ειπον κριτικον κοσμουργου θεου οργανον, και παραδειγμα
πρωτον κοσμοποιϊας. “But how is it possible they could have spoken
thus sublimely of number, unless they had considered it as
possessing an essence separate from sensible, and a transcendency
fabricative, and at the same time paradigmatic?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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