Around 530 BC, Pythagoras travelled to Croton in southern Italy, where he would go on to found a school whose members were reportedly sworn to secrecy and required to follow a communal, ascetic way of life.

Born on Samos sometime in the sixth century BC — the exact date is uncertain, with ancient sources placing his birth anywhere between roughly 579 and 550 BC — Pythagoras worked across several fields, including philosophy, mathematics, music theory, and politics. He wrote in Ancient Greek and is associated with the broader tradition of Western philosophy, as well as with the movement that bears his name: Pythagoreanism. His notable works include the Pythagorean theorem, Pythagorean triples, and the Platonic solid.

At Croton, the school Pythagoras founded gave institutional form to his range of roles — not only as a thinker and writer but also as a politician and musicologist. The strict initiation practices and shared communal living gave the community a distinctive character, though the details of what was actually taught or practiced there remain difficult to verify, given the secrecy the members reportedly maintained. He was a citizen of Samos, and he used Ancient Greek in his work across these various disciplines.

Pythagoras died in Metapontum at some point in the late sixth or early fifth century BC — ancient sources disagree, suggesting dates ranging from around 499 to 489 BC. The school he founded at Croton, with its requirements of secrecy and communal, ascetic living, stands as the most concrete institutional fact attached to his biography, and the notable works associated with his name — among them the Pythagorean theorem and Pythagorean triples — continued to be referenced in connection with his legacy in ancient thought.