"Simplicius attributes to him a work on Opposites, to which he says that Aristotle was indebted for what he says on this subject in his Categories. His Harmonicon is quoted by Nicomachus in his Arithmetic. ...Fragments of the works attributed to him "On the Good and Happy Man," and "On Wisdom," are... extant. ...A letter of Archytas to Plato and Platos reply are preserved by Laertius."
Archytas was an Ancient Greek mathematician, music theorist, statesman, and strategist from the ancient city of Taras (Tarentum) in modern Apulia, Southern Italy. He was a scientist and philosopher affiliated with the Pythagorean school and famous for being the reputed founder of mathematical mechanics and a friend of Plato.
"Among the mathematical problems Archytas solved or attempted to solve the duplication of the cube, for which purpose he attempted to find two mean proportionals between the two right lines formed by the section of a cylinder, as Laertius expresses it. ...Among his mechanical inventions is mentioned a wooden pigeon that could fly, of which Gellius speaks particularly. The invention of a rattle, perhaps a childs toy, is also attributed to him."
"Of his writings none remain except a metaphysical work, "On the Nature of the Universe," in which he has explained the predicaments; and sundry fragments "On Wisdom," and "On the Good and Happy Man," preserved by Stobaeus and edited from him by Gale."
"Such was the celebrity of this philosopher, that many illustrious names appear in the train of his disciples, particularly Philolaus, Eudoxus, and Plato. ...He excelled, not only in speculative philosophy, but in geometry and mechanics, He is said to have invented a kind of winged automaton, and several curious hydraulic machines. He was in such high reputation for moral and political wisdom, that, contrary to the usual custom, he was appointed seven different times to the supreme magistracy in Tarentum."
"The sum of his moral doctrine is; that virtue is to be pursued for its own sake in every condition of life; that all excess is inconsistent with virtue; that the mind is more injured by prosperity than by adversity; and that there is no pestilence so destructive to human happiness as pleasure."
"His death, which is said to have been occasioned by a shipwreck, is made a subject of poetical description by Horace, who celebrates him as an eminent geographer and astronomer."
"It is probable that Aristotle was indebted to Archytas for many of his moral ideas; particularly for the notion which runs through his ethical pieces, that virtue consists in avoiding extremes."