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
And this indeed is what he said to the young men in the Gymnasium. But
when they had told their parents what they had heard, a thousand men
having called Pythagoras into the senate-house, and praised him for what
he had said to their sons, desired him, if he had any thing advantageous
to say to the Crotonians, to unfold it to those who were the leaders of
the administration. He was also the first that advised them to build a
temple to the Muses, in order that they might preserve the existing
concord. For he observed that all these divinities were called by one
common name, [the Muses,] that they subsisted in conjunction with each
other, especially rejoiced in common honors, and in short, that there
was always one and the same choir of the Muses. He likewise farther
observed, that they comprehended in themselves symphony, harmony, rythm,
and all things which procure concord. They also evince that their power
does not alone extend to the most beautiful theorems, but likewise to
the symphony and harmony of things. In the next place, he said it was
necessary they should apprehend that they received their country from
the multitude of the citizens, as a common deposit. Hence, it was
requisite they should so govern it, that they might faithfully transmit
it to their posterity, as an hereditary possession. And that this would
firmly be effected, if they were equal in all things to the citizens,
and surpassed them in nothing else than justice. For men knowing that
every place requires justice, have asserted in fables that Themis has
the same order with Jupiter, that Dice, i. e. justice, is seated by
Pluto, and that Law is established in cities; in order that he who does
not act justly in things which his rank in society requires him to
perform, may at the same time appear to be unjust towards the whole
world. He added, it was proper that the senators should not make use of
any of the Gods for the purpose of an oath, but that their language
should be such as to render them worthy of belief even without oaths.
And likewise, that they should so manage their own domestic affairs, as
to make the government of them the object of their deliberate choice.
That they should also be genuinely disposed towards their own offspring,
as being the only animals that have a sensation of this conception. And
that they should so associate with a wife the companion of life, as to
be mindful that other compacts are engraved in tables and pillars, but
those with wives are inserted in children. That they should likewise
endeavour to be beloved by their offspring, not through nature, of which
they were not the causes, but through deliberate choice: for this is
voluntary beneficence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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