Crotone in the context of "Milo of Croton"

Pythagoras of Samos (Ancient Greek: Πυθαγόρας; c. 570 – c. 495 BC) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher, polymath, and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia and influenced the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and, through them, Western philosophy. Modern scholars disagree regarding Pythagoras's education and influences, but most agree that he travelled to Croton in southern Italy around 530 BC, where he founded a school in which initiates were allegedly sworn to secrecy and lived a communal, ascetic lifestyle.

In antiquity, Pythagoras was credited with mathematical and scientific discoveries, such as the Pythagorean theorem, Pythagorean tuning, the five regular solids, the theory of proportions, the sphericity of the Earth, the identity of the morning and evening stars as the planet Venus, and the division of the globe into five climatic zones. He was reputedly the first man to call himself a philosopher ("lover of wisdom"). Historians debate whether Pythagoras made these discoveries and pronouncements, as some of the accomplishments credited to him likely originated earlier or were made by his colleagues or successors, such as Hippasus and Philolaus.

Pythagoreanism originated in the 6th century BC, based on and around the teachings and beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans. Pythagoras established the first Pythagorean community in the ancient Greek colony of Kroton, in modern Calabria (Italy) circa 530 BC. Early Pythagorean communities spread throughout Magna Graecia.

Already during Pythagoras's life it is likely that the distinction between the akousmatikoi ("those who listen"), who is conventionally regarded as more concerned with religious, and ritual elements, and associated with the oral tradition, and the mathematikoi ("those who learn") existed. The ancient biographers of Pythagoras, Iamblichus (c. 245 – c. AD 325) and his master Porphyry (c. 234 – c. AD 305) seem to make the distinction of the two as that of 'beginner' and 'advanced'. As the Pythagorean cenobites practiced an esoteric path, like the mystery schools of antiquity, the adherents, akousmatikoi, following initiation became mathematikoi. It is wrong to say that the Pythagoreans were superseded by the Cynics in the 4th century BC, but it seems to be a distinction mark of the Cynics to disregard the hierarchy and protocol, ways of initiatory proceedings significant for the Pythagorean community; subsequently did the Greek philosophical traditions become more diverse. The Platonic Academy was arguably a Pythagorean cenobitic institution, outside the city walls of Athens in the 4th century BC. As a sacred grove dedicated to Athena, and Hecademos (Academos). The academy, the sacred grove of Academos, may have existed, as the contemporaries seem to have believed, since the Bronze Age, even pre-existing the Trojan War. Yet according to Plutarch it was the Athenian strategos (general) Kimon Milkiadou (c. 510 – c. 450 BC) who converted this, "waterless and arid spot into a well watered grove, which he provided with clear running-tracks and shady walks". Plato lived almost a hundred years later, circa 427 to 348 BC. On the other hand, it seems likely that this was a part of the re-building of Athens led by Kimon Milkiadou and Themistocles, following the Achaemenid destruction of Athens in 480–479 BC during the war with Persia. Kimon is at least associated with the building of the southern Wall of Themistocles, the city walls of ancient Athens. It seems likely that the Athenians saw this as a rejuvenation of the sacred grove of Academos.

The Achaeans (/əˈkiːənz/; Greek: Ἀχαιοί, romanized: Akhaioí) were one of the four major tribes into which Herodotus divided the Greeks, along with the Aeolians, Ionians and Dorians. They inhabited the region of Achaea in the northern Peloponnese, and played an active role in the colonization of Italy, founding important cities such as Sybaris, Kroton and Metapontum. Unlike the other major tribes, the Achaeans did not have a separate dialect in the Classical period, instead using a form of Doric.

Capo Colonna (sometimes Capo Colonne or Capo della Colonne) is a cape in Calabria located near Crotone. In ancient Roman times the promontory was called Promunturium Lacinium (Ancient Greek: Λακίνιον ἄκρον). The modern name derives from the remaining column of the Temple of Hera Lacinia.

The peninsula was the site of a great sanctuary of Hera from the 7th c. BC, the most famous in Magna Graecia.

Lysis of Taras (/ˈlaɪsɪs/; Greek: Λῦσις; fl. c. 5th-century BC) was a Greek philosopher. His life is obscure. He was said to have been a friend and disciple of Pythagoras. After the persecution of the Pythagoreans at Croton and Metapontum in Magna Graecia he escaped and went to Thebes, where he became the teacher of Epaminondas, by whom he was held in the highest esteem. There are, however, serious chronological difficulties with his being both a disciple of Pythagoras and the teacher of Epaminondas. Some of the commentators and doxographers have failed to distinguish between the two different anti-pythagorean revolutions: the first one around ~500, when Pythagoras himself died, and the second one fifty years later. This could clarify the source of the chronological incoherence.

Lysis was credited as the actual author of a work which was attributed to Pythagoras himself. Diogenes Laërtius quotes from an undoubtedly spurious letter from Lysis to Hippasus as an authority for some statements concerning Damo.

Sybaris (Ancient Greek: Σύβαρις; Italian: Sibari) was an important ancient Greek city situated on the coast of the Gulf of Taranto in modern Calabria, Italy.

The city was founded around 720 BC by Achaean and Troezenian settlers. Ten years later, Achaeans founded the nearby great city of Kroton. Sybaris amassed great wealth thanks to its fertile land and busy port so that it was known as the wealthiest colony of the Greek Archaic world. Its inhabitants became famous among the Greeks for their hedonism, feasts, and excesses, to the extent that "sybarite" and "sybaritic" have become bywords for opulence, luxury, and outrageous pleasure-seeking. Sybaris ruled smaller colonies throughout the area, and had an acropolis at Timpone della Motta near Francavilla Marittima about 10 km distant.

Alcmaeon of Croton (/ælkˈmiːɒn/; Greek: Ἀλκμαίων ὁ Κροτωνιάτης, Alkmaiōn, gen.: Ἀλκμαίωνος; fl. 5th century BC) was an early Greek medical writer and philosopher-scientist. He has been described as one of the most eminent natural philosophers and medical theorists of antiquity and he has also been referred to as "a thinker of considerable originality and one of the greatest philosophers, naturalists, and neuroscientists of all time." His work in biology has been described as remarkable, and his originality likely made him a pioneer. Because of difficulties dating Alcmaeon's birth, his importance has been neglected.