Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/665

* PYBBHUS. 581 PYTHAGORAS. licfanie Kiiijf joined a coalition with .-.everal others to drive him out. He was successful, and ill B.C. 287 the kingdom was divided between I'vrrhus and Lysiniaclius. Pyrrhus reigned but a few months, however, and was then himself exjielled in favor of Lysiniaclius. In B.C. 281 the Tarentines, a Greek colony in lower Italy, then at war with the Romans, sent an embassy to Pj'rrlius, in the name of all the Greek colonies in Italy, otl'ering him the eom- iiuind of all their troops against their enemies. Taking up their cause. Pyrrhus in B.C. 280 ar- rived at Tarentum with 2.),000 troo])s and 20 elephants. The first battle between Pyrrhus and the Romans, who were commanded by the consul, M. Valerius La>vinus, took place at the river Siris in Lucania. Only through the help of the elephants, whose strange appearance and gigantic size excited a sudden panic among the Romans, did Pyrrhus win the victory. He now advanced into Central Italy, on his way toward Rome, but, finding the city well de- fended, he withdrew to Tarentum and wintered there. In the following year (B.C. 270) he was victorious at Asculum, in Apulia, but lost so heav- ily that, nnable to follow up his vietoiy, lie withdrew to Tarentum. Having been invited by the Greeks of Sicily to assist them in their strug- gles with the Carthaginians and the Jlamer- tines Pyrrhus efl'ectcd a truce willi Rome (B.C. 278) and crossed into Sicily. His first ex- ploits in that island were liotli brilliant and suc- cessful, tlu' Carthaginians lu'iiig conliiied in T^ily- b;pum and the Mamertines in ilessana. Then the Sicilians began to murmur at the burdens put upon them and to treat will? the enemy, and in B.C. 27(i Pyrrhus left the island and returned to Tarentum. On his way he fought the Carthagin- ian lleet off Syracuse and the Mamertine ai'niy near Rhegium. In the following year (B.C. 275) he was completely defeated by Manius Curius Dentatus near Benevcntuni, and in B.C. 274 he returned to Epirus, leaving ililo with a garrison at Tareiiluin. In B.C. 273 he once more invaded Macedonia, over which Antigonus (Sonatas was King, and estal)lished himself a second time as ruler of that country. In B.C. 272, at tlie request of Cleonynuis, the rightful but excluded King of Sparta, he led a force into the Pelo]ionnesus. He attacked Sparta, but was repulsed, and then withilrew to Argos, to assist Aristeas, one of the leading citizens of the ])lace, in his rivalries with Aristii)pus, Here he met Antigonus of Jlacedon, the champion of the op])osite faction, and a fight took ])lai-e in the streets of the city. Pyrrluis was tiirown from his horse and stunned by a tile thrown from a house-top by (lip mother of the man whom he was about to kill, and was then killed by one of the soldiers of Antigonus. Con- sult the standard histories of Rome, and also Droysen, Gcschichte (let HcUenisnntu (2d ed., Gotlia, 1877-78) ; JlahallV. Alexander's Empire (New York, 1888). PY'RUS (variant spelling of Lat. pirns, pear). A genus of trees and shrubs of the natu- ral ordor Rosacea? to which belong some of the most valuable fruits and ornamental trees and shrubs of temperate climates, having a five-celled fruit called a pome with a cartilaginous endocarp and two seeds in each cell. It includes species dif- fering very much in appearance, in foliage, and in almost everything except the character of the llower and fruit. Some botanists separate the apjdcs {I'yrus Malus) as a distinct genus. See Apple; Pear; Rowan Tree; Beam Tree. PYTHAG'OKAS (Lat., from Gk. ni/Savipot). A traditionally famous Greek philosopher and geometer, born at Samos, probably in the 49th Olympiad (b.c. .584-581). He was the sou of Mnesarchus, and is said to have been the pupil of Pherecydes. He had become known in Ionia as a man of great learning when, jierliaps driven from home by disgust at the tyranny of Poly- crates about B.C. 530, he migrated to ilagna CJnrcia and settled at Crotona. Here he founded an exclusive brotherhood among the aristocracy of the ])lace. The fame of it spread abroad and attracted into its circle men and women not only from other neighboring colonies, but from all parts of South Italy. Tlio original pur- pose of this brotherhood was probably not politi- cal, and yet the .society became involved in the fierce struggles between the aristocracy and the democracy that were at this time raging in lower Italy; and when the popular party gained the upper hand, in its wild fury it turned upon the Pythagorean brothers and burned them in their meeting places. Only a few escaped. It is not certain whether Pythagoras himself perished in this outbreak, or whether he had previously died ]ieaeefnlly in Metajiontum, whither he is said to have i-etired when the storm was gathering. Neither do we know the date of this event. Every- thing else jiertaining to the biograph.v of Pythag- oras, found in the >-o-called Lives of Pythagoras composed by Iambi ichus. Porphyry, and Diogenes Laertius, is probably inythical. He is said to tuive traveled from Persia to Gaul in search of wisdom, to have become initiated in F.g^'pt into the vener- aide mysteries of that country, and there to have acquired mathematical lore and a belief in the transmigration of souls. Much of this may be true, but the accounts are conflicting and found in late and unreliable sources. He is even re- ported to have been the son of Hermes in a previous metempsychosis, and to have been per- mitted to bring with him into his earthl.v life the memory of all his past experiences. He is credit- ed with all sorts of miraculous performances, such as a|)pearing at two places at the same time, exhibiting to the as.sembled spectators at Olympia his thigh of gold, and taming wild beasts at a word of command. All this testifies to the wonder excited among his disciples by his sujierior knowledge and to the religious venera- tion in which he was held by them. The exact character of his own personal teach- ings is a matter of dispute. His name is men- tioned only three times in the whole Aristotelian corjius, and two of the three jiassages are of doubtful authenticity: in the third we are en- liglitencd bv the remark that Alcma'on nourished in the old age of Pythagoras, Both Plato and Aris- totle sjieak frequently of Pythagoreans; they evi- ilently knew nothing definite of the views actually promulgated by Pythagoras himself. The_ main reason for this ignorance is to be found in the fact that Pythagoras committed nothing to writ- ing, and every disci])le strove to gain credit for his own phase of Prthagoreanism by attributing it to the venerated master, whose ijisr dixit car- ried so nnich weight. It is quite probable that the brotherhood foinded by Pythagoras was not a philosophical coterie to which he gave learned