Book 4, Chapter 2

So much for inference. Many traces of the Pythagoreans could be gathered, but we shall use only a few, since that is not our present subject. They are said to have been accustomed to convey certain teachings in a more veiled form through verse, and to lead their minds away from concentrated thought into tranquility through singing and the lyre. Cato, a most authoritative witness, says in his Origins that our ancestors had this custom at banquets: the guests reclining at table would take turns singing, to the flute, the praises and virtues of illustrious men. From this it is clear that melodies, with their distinct musical notes, and poems already existed then.

4 The Twelve Tables themselves, indeed, show that composing verse was already customary: they enacted a law forbidding its use to injure another person. Nor is it anything but evidence of a cultivated age that lyres provide the opening music both at the couches of the gods and at magistrates’ banquets, a practice characteristic of the school I am discussing. Even the poem of Appius Caecus, which Panaetius praises warmly in a letter to Quintus Tubero, seems Pythagorean to me. Many features of our institutions also derive from that school. I pass them over, so that we may not seem to have learned abroad what we are thought to have discovered ourselves.

5 But to return to our subject: how many poets, and how great, arose in so short a time! And what orators! It is easy to see that our countrymen could achieve anything, once they began to wish for it.

So much for what we can infer. There are plenty of traces of Pythagorean influence to collect, but since that isn’t today’s business, a few will do. We’re told they used verse to pass on certain instructions rather secretly. After concentrated thinking, they also restored their peace of mind by singing and playing strings. Now Cato, whose authority carries great weight, reports in his Origins an ancestral dinner custom: each reclining guest in turn sang in praise of distinguished men and their virtues, to a pipe’s accompaniment. This makes it clear that verse existed then, as did songs arranged according to musical pitch.

4 Evidence that people were already composing verse also comes from the Twelve Tables. They made it illegal to compose it to harm another person. Consider another indication of the age’s learning: stringed instruments lead the music both at the gods’ banqueting couches and at magistrates’ feasts. That practice particularly belonged to the school under discussion. To my mind, even Appius the Blind’s poem has a Pythagorean character; Panaetius praises it warmly in one of his letters addressed to Quintus Tubero. Their influence runs through many more of our institutions. I won’t enumerate them: that might suggest we borrowed discoveries for which we ourselves get the credit.

5 But to get back to the point: think how many poets, and how great, emerged in so short a time—and what speakers too! It readily shows that our people could master anything as soon as they decided to try.