Which Greek philosopher started a school for candidates who lived a communal, ascetic lifestyle?

Of the Greek legends listed, it was Pythagoras (c. 570 - c. 495 BCE) who lived on the island of Samos, but left the island about the age of 40 and then started a school in Croton in southern Italy. In Croton it was required that initiates lived a secret life in a communal, ascetic lifestyle. This type of lifestyle included a number of dietary prohibitions, traditionally said to have included vegetarianism, although modern scholars doubt that Pythagoras ever advocated complete vegetarianism.

He was an ancient Ionian (one of four major Greek tribes ) Greek philosopher whose political and religious teachings were well known in Ancient Greece. Additionally, he was a major influence on the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle plus, through both of them, our Western philosophy of today.

Pythagoras believed in the “transmigration of souls”, which held that every soul is immortal and upon death, enters into a new body.

There are multiple mathematical and scientific discoveries that are attributed to him including his theorem and the identity of the morning and evening stars as the planet Venus. Another attribution is that he was the first person to identify himself as a philosopher or “lover of wisdom”.

What we know of his life is mostly based on writings from other contemporaries of his day. An example is that while a resident on the island of Samos, he lived in a secret cave where he studied in private and occasionally held discourses with a few of his close friends.