EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS IN ITALY 



sound body was the motto of the day. To excel in 

 feats of strength and dexterity was an accomplishment 

 that even a philosopher need not scorn. It will be re- 

 called that ^schylus distinguished himself at the bat- 

 tle of Marathon; that Thucydides, the greatest of 

 Greek historians, was a general in the Peloponnesian 

 War; that Xenophon, the pupil and biographer of 

 Socrates, was chiefly famed for having led the Ten 

 Thousand in the memorable campaign of Cyrus the 

 Younger; that Plato himself was credited with having 

 shown great aptitude in early life as a wrestler. If, 

 then, Pythagoras the philosopher was really the Py- 

 thagoras who won the boxing contest, we may sup- 

 pose that in looking back upon this athletic feat from 

 the heights of his priesthood for he came to be almost 

 deified he regarded it not as an indiscretion of his 

 youth, but as one of the greatest achievements of his 

 life. Not unlikely he recalled with pride that he was 

 credited with being no less an innovator in athletics 

 than in philosophy. At all events, tradition credits 

 him with the invention of " scientific" boxing. Was it 

 he, perhaps, who taught the Greeks to strike a rising 

 and swinging blow from the hip, as depicted in the 

 famous metopes of the Parthenon ? If so, the innova- 

 tion of Pythagoras was as little heeded in this regard 

 in a subsequent age as was his theory of the motion of 

 the earth ; for to strike a swinging blow from the hip, 

 rather than from the shoulder, is a trick which the 

 pugilist learned anew in our own day. 



But enough of pugilism and of what, at best, is a 

 doubtful tradition. Our concern is with another 

 " science" than that of the arena. We must follow the 

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