Neopythagoreanism (orneo-Pythagoreanism) was a school ofHellenistic andAncient Roman philosophy which revivedPythagorean doctrines. Neopythagoreanism was influenced bymiddle Platonism and in turn influencedNeoplatonism. It originated in the 1st century BC and flourished during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. TheEncyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition describes Neopythagoreanism as "a link in the chain between the old and the new" within Hellenistic philosophy. Central to Neopythagorean thought was the concept of asoul and its inherent desire for aunio mystica with the divine.[1] The wordNeopythagoreanism is a modern (19th century) term,[2] coined as a parallel of "Neoplatonism".
In the 1st century BCCicero's friendNigidius Figulus made an attempt to revive Pythagorean doctrines, but the most important members of the school wereApollonius of Tyana andModeratus of Gades in the 1st century AD. Other important Neopythagoreans include mathematicianNicomachus, who wrote about the mystical properties of numbers. In the 2nd century,Numenius of Apamea sought to fuse additional elements ofPlatonism into Neopythagoreanism, prefiguring the rise ofNeoplatonism. (Iamblichus in particular was influenced by Neopythagoreanism.)
Neopythagoreanism was an attempt to re-introduce amystical religious element intoHellenistic philosophy in place of what had come to be regarded as an arid formalism. The founders of the school sought to invest their doctrines with the halo of tradition by ascribing them toPythagoras andPlato. They went back to the later period of Plato's thought, the period when Plato endeavoured to combine histheory of forms with Pythagoreannumber theory, and identified thegood with themonad (which would give rise to the Neoplatonic concept of "the One"), the source of the duality of the infinite and the measured with the resultant scale of realities from the one down to the objects of the material world.
They emphasized the fundamental distinction between thesoul and the body.God must be worshipped spiritually byprayer and thewill to be good, not in outwardaction. Thesoul must be freed from its material surrounding, the "muddy vesture of decay," by anascetic habit of life. Bodily pleasures and all sensuous impulses must be abandoned as detrimental to the spiritual purity of the soul. God is the principle of good andmatter the groundwork ofevil. In this system can be distinguished not only the asceticism of Pythagoras and the later mysticism of Plato, but also the influence ofOrphism and ofOriental philosophy. The Platonic forms are no longer self-subsistent entities but are the elements which constitute the content of spiritual activity. The non-material universe is regarded as the sphere ofmind orspirit.
ThePorta Maggiore Basilica, where Neopythagoreans held their meetings in the 1st century BC, is believed to have been constructed by theStatilia gens.[3] It was discovered in 1915 nearPorta Maggiore onVia Praenestina inRome.[4][5][6]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Neopythagoreanism".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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