Note 739 — Chapter VII · THE PYTHAGOREANS

This appears to follow at once from the remark of Simmias in Phd. 64 b. The whole passage would be pointless if the words φιλόσοφος, φιλοσοφεῖν, φιλοσοφία had not in some way become familiar to the ordinary Theban of the fifth century. Now Herakleides Pontikos made Pythagoras invent the word, and expound it in a conversation with Leon, tyrant of Sikyon or Phleious. Cf. Diog. i. 12 (R. P. 3), viii. 8; Cic. Tusc. v. 3. 8; Döring in Arch. v. pp. 505 sqq. It seems to me that the way in which the term is introduced in the Phaedo is fatal to the view that this is a Sokratic idea transferred by Herakleides to the Pythagoreans. Cf. also the remark of Alkidamas quoted by Arist. Rhet. Β, 23. 1398 b 18, Θήβησιν ἅμα οἱ προστάται φιλόσοφοι ἐγένοντο καὶ εὐδαιμόνησεν ἡ πόλις.