1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lysis of Tarentum

LYSIS OF TARENTUM (d. c. 390 B.C.), Greek philosopher. His life is obscure, but it is generally accepted, that in the persecution of the Pythagoreans at Crotona and Metapontum he escaped and went to Thebes, where he came under the influence of Philolaus. The friend and companion of Pythagoras, he has been credited with many of the works usually attributed to Pythagoras himself. Diogenes Laertius viii. 6 gives him three, and Mullach even assigns to him the Golden Verses. But it is generally held that these verses are a collection of lines by many authors rather than the work of one man.