123

Logic 123

Foot Note

that the inaccurate Iamblichus knowing that Pythagoras had been a long time in Egypt; and that he had been taken prisoner by the Persians should have got it into his head that this happened at the great and celebrated conquest of Egypt and have quite forgotten the obsure conquert of Lydia so long before.
Now the characteristic of a true hypothesis is that it fitsin with the other facts.
The hypothesis that Pythagoras was taken prisoner 546 B.C. fits in with the statement of Iamblichus that he was away 12 years.
For after he returned we know that he went home to Samos and thence soon removed to Italy to escape the tyranny of Polycrates.
He would the have returned to Samos 534 B.C. and arrived in Itlay 532 B.C.
There ate far more important facts that are thus explained for the first time.
First it may be remarked for convenience that according to Porphyry abd others Pythagoras was thirty nine years old when he went to Italy.
He would have then been born 571 B.C.
Now Iamblichus says he