ASTRONOMY.

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ment, on his return to Samos, lie passed over to Italy , in thetime of Tarquin the Proud , or Superbus; and opened aschool at Croio, or Crotona , a city in the Gulf of Tarentum,where he had a number of students, and gained much repu-tation. His pupils were obliged to listen in silence for atleast two years; if talkative, longer; sometimes for fiveyears, before they were permitted to ask him any questions :for which time they were called because they

were set to study geometry, dialling, (ywpovuta), music, andother higher sciences, (discipline altiores) called by 'theGreeks, Gell. i. 9. But the name of mathematici,

was commonly applied to those who cultivated the stellaryscience, and who predicted the fortunes of men, by observingthe stars under which they were born ; also denominatedyniduanoi, vel Chahlcei. Ibid.

This luminary of science first assumed the appellationof philosopher: before him, those whose pursuits havenow that title, were called Eoipoi, sages, or wise men ;he was the founder of the sect called the Italic. He wasso much venerated whilst living, and his memory honouredwhen dead, by the Romans, that they attributed to him thelearning of Numa, who lived much earlier. Liv. i. 18;xl. 29: about the year of the city 411, the Delphian oraclehaving directed the Romans to erect statues to the bravestand wisest of the Greeks, they conferred that honour uponAlcibiades and Pythagoras. Plin . xxxiv. 6.

He taught publicly, that the earth is the centre of theuniverse; but to his scholars he gave his real opinions;similar to those afterwards adopted by Copernicus , thatthe earth and all the planets move round the sun, as theirco-centre ; and which doctrine he is presumed to have derivedfrom either the Chaldeans or Indians: he thought that theearth is round and every where inhabited : hence, he ad-mitted that we might have antipodes, which name is saidto have been invented'by Plato . Diog. Laert. iii. 24.

Pythagoras was distinguished for his skill in music,which he first reduced to certain firm principles, and like-wise for his discoveries in geometry, lie first proved, thatin a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypothenuse,or side subtending the right angle, is equal to the two othersides ; also that of all plain figures having equal circumfe-rence, the circle is largest, and of all solids having equalsurfaces, the sphere is the largest. Pythagoras likewise taught,that all things were made of fire. Plutarch . Placit. Phil.ii. 6. That the Deity animated the universe, as the soul does thebody; which doctrine, with that of the metempsychosis, or