He was also the inventor of mathematical mechanics. At the same time, Pythagoreanism had taken root in the East. Lysis remained at Thebes, where Simmias and Kebes had heard Philolaos, while the remnant of the Pythagorean school of Rhegion settled at Phleious. Aristoxenos was personally acquainted with the last generation of this school, and mentioned by name Xenophilos the Chalkidian from Thrace, with Phanton, Echekrates, Diokles, and Polymnastos of Phleious. They were all, he said, disciples of Philolaos and Eurytos,[1] and we learn from Plato that Simmias and Kebes of Thebes and Echekrates of Phleious were also associates of Sokrates.[2] Xenophilos was the teacher of Aristoxenos, and lived in perfect health at Athens to the age of a hundred and five.[3]
139.Philolaos. This generation of the school really belongs, however, to a later period; it is with Philolaos we have now to deal. The facts we know about his teaching from external sources are few in number. The doxographers, indeed, ascribe to him an elaborate theory of the planetary system, but Aristotle never mentions his name in connexion with that. He gives it as the theory of "the Pythagoreans" or of "some Pythagoreans."[4] It seems natural to suppose, however, that the Pythagorean elements of Plato's Phaedo and Gorgias come mainly from Philolaos. Plato makes Sokrates express surprise that Simmias and Kebes had not learnt from him why it is unlawful for a man to take his life,[5] and it seems to be implied that the Pythagoreans at Thebes used the word "philosopher" in the special sense of
- ↑ Diog. viii, 46 (R. P. 62).
- ↑ The whole mise en scène of the Phaedo presupposes this, and it is quite incredible that Plato should have misrepresented the matter. Simmias and Kebes were a little younger than Plato and he could hardly have ventured to introduce them as disciples of Sokrates if they had not in fact been so. Xenophon too (Mem. i. 2. 48) includes Simmias and Kebes in his list of genuine disciples of Sokrates, and in another place (iii. 11, 7) he tells us that they had been attracted from Thebes by Sokrates and never left his side.
- ↑ See Aristoxenos ap. Val. Max. viii. 13, ext. 3 ; and Souidas s.v.
- ↑ See below, §§ 150-152.
- ↑ Plato, Phaed. 61 d 6.
