Porphyrios, Pythagoras'ın Yaşamı: Ruhun Ölümsüzlüğü ve Kardeşliğin Doğuşu

He also drew listeners from the neighboring regions of the barbarians, and even kings and powerful lords themselves. However, no one can say with certainty what he taught to his followers, for a great and strict silence was maintained among them. Yet these things became well-known to everyone: first, that he affirmed the soul to be immortal; next, that it migrates into different kinds of living beings; in addition to these, that after certain cycles of time, the things that once happened occur again, and that nothing is absolutely new; and finally, that all living things ought to be considered as kindred and of the same race. Pythagoras seems to have been the first to bring these dogmata into Greece. He turned everyone toward himself to such an extent that in a single lecture, as Nicomachus reports, which he gave upon his first arrival in Italy, he captured more than two thousand people with his speech. These people did not return to their homes, but together with their children and wives, they established a very large communal auditorium and occupied that part of Italy which is commonly called Magna Graecia by founding cities there. They received laws and commands from him as if they were divine precepts, and it was considered a sin to do anything contrary to them. These people also placed their property into a common fund and numbered Pythagoras among the gods.