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language, and disposition. He looked for modesty, ability to keep silent being more important than readiness to speak. He observed whether the prospective pupil was moved by any immoderate desire or passion, how anger affected him, whether he was contentious or ambitious, inclined more to friendship or to discord. After a candidate passed those tests, Pythagoras took note of his ability to learn, memorise, and follow rapidly what was said. Of primary importance was how strongly a youth was motivated by temperance and love. Natural gentleness and ‘culture’ were essential; ferocity, impudence, shamelessness, sloth, and licentiousness were distinct negatives. Pythagoras expelled pupils ‘as strangers and barbarians’ if they failed to live up to his expectations.
    In 535 B.C., when the tyranny that had wrenched control from the Geomoroi had ruled for several decades, the most infamous of the tyrants, Polykrates, came to power in Samos. At first he ruled with two brothers, but he soon disposed of them. Samos continued to grow in power and wealth, but not in popularity among her neighbours, for Polykrates became a much hated and feared player in the politics of the eastern Mediterranean. Depending on who described it, his fleet was either one of the most superb navies of the ancient world or a supremely successful band of pirates. Polykrates travelled in person to other countries to seal new agreements and forge connections with rulers like the pharaoh Amasis, but such agreements had little meaning, for he made and shattered alliances with ruthless abandon.
    Under Polykrates, Samos reached the pinnacle of her fortunes, not only in terms of economic and rather ugly political prominence, but also in art, literature, and engineering feats. For a time it was the most powerful of all the Greek city-states. Pythagoras lived on Samos for only part of this period, but long enough to experience the excitement and intellectual stimulation that characterised Polykrates’ otherwise deplorable reign. Polykrates was the patron of the poet Anacreon and engaged the engineer Eupalinos to construct a new harbour and a water tunnel that was one of the most astounding engineering achievements of the ancient world. It brought water from alpine springs through the mountain above the city of Samos, ending any shortage of water there no matter how dry the summer. [2] The fleet grew to a hundred ships, each manned by a thousand archers. In spite of Polykrates’ widespread unpopularity and long absences, no one unseated him until finally, in 522 – after Pythagoras had left Samos – a Persian governor of Sardis trumped Polykrates’ treachery. He invited him for a state visit and, when he arrived, had him crucified.
    It is reasonable to believe, with Iamblichus, that Pythagoras did not remain on Samos without interruption during the years before he finally moved to Croton in Italy, but visited oracles, spent time at Delphi, and went to Crete and Sparta to learn their laws, which were different from Samos’. Iamblichus first mentioned Pythagoras’ taking an interest in public affairs at this time. Porphyry also believed that Pythagoras left Samos briefly to undergo an initiation ceremony on Crete: The supplicant seeking initiation to ‘the priests of Morgot, one of the Idaean Dactyls’, was purified with a meteorite (‘the meteoric thunderstone’), lying at dawn face down on the seaside and at night beside a river, crowned with a wreath of black lamb’s wool. Then, wrapped in black wool, he descended into the Idaean cave and remained for twenty-seven days. After that, he made a sacrifice to Zeus and was allowed to see the couch the priests made up every year for Zeus. Pythagoras, having gone through the initiation, inscribed an epigram on the tomb of Zeus, which began ‘Zan lies dead here, whom men call Zeus’ – implying, it would seem, that he knew or had known this god on a more