Archytas of tarentum biography templates

Biography

Archytas of Tarentum was a mathematician, statesman and philosopher who lived in Tarentum in Magna Graecia, an area of southern Italy which was under Greek control in the fifth century BC.

The Pythagoreans, who had at one stage been strong throughout Magna Graecia, were attacked and expelled until only the town of Tarentum remained a stronghold for them. Archytas led the Pythagoreans in Tarentum and tried to unite the Greek towns in the area to form an alliance against their non-Greek neighbours.

He was commander in chief of the forces in Tarentum for seven years despite there being a law that nobody could hold the post for more than a year. Plato, who became a close friend, made his acquaintance while staying in Magna Graecia.

Heath writes in [4]:-

... he is said, by means of a letter, to have saved Plato from death at the hands of Dionysius.

In fact Plato made a number of trips to Sicily and it was on the third of these trips in 361 BC that he was detained by Dionys