Archytas of Tarentum

Reading notes

• Cato the Elder, On Old Age §39 an old discourse of Archytas of Tarentum

  Archytas (early 4th c. BC) was a Pythagorean philosopher, mathematician, and statesman of Tarentum, friend of Plato. His speech against bodily pleasure as the enemy of reason is the philosophical core of the section.

• On the Ends of Good and Evil §2.45 as Plato wrote to Archytas

  Archytas of Tarentum was a Pythagorean philosopher, mathematician, and statesman of the early fourth century BC, a friend of Plato. Cicero ascribes to a Platonic letter addressed to him the maxim that we are born not for ourselves alone but for our country and kin.

• On the Ends of Good and Evil §5.87 go to Tarentum to Archytas

  Archytas of Tarentum was a Pythagorean philosopher, mathematician, and statesman whom Plato visited in southern Italy. He heads the list of Pythagoreans Plato is said to have sought out.

• Laelius, On Friendship §88 Archytas of Tarentum

  Archytas of Tarentum (4th century BC), Pythagorean philosopher, mathematician, and statesman. Laelius repeats his saying that even the contemplation of the heavens would lose its sweetness with no one to share it with.

• Tusculan Disputations §4.78 the praise of Archytas

  Archytas of Tarentum, the Pythagorean philosopher and statesman, famed for the self-command he showed in telling his erring bailiff what punishment he would have inflicted, had he not been angry.