Where and when did Pythagoras live?

The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras lived from 570 to 490 BCE, spending his early years in Samos, Greece, per the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. At age 40, he moved to Croton, Italy, where most of his philosophical activity took place.

Samos is located off the coast of modern-day Turkey. Pythagoras never wrote anything, and there are no detailed written accounts of his thoughts by his contemporaries, such as Plato and Aristotle. While in modern times Pythagoras is known as a scientist and master mathematician, up to 150 years after his death he was not known for these things. He was known as an expert on what happened to the soul after death and religious rituals.