This chapter draws on a variety of evidence about the political life of the period, and the Pythagoreans' involvement in it, some from authors concerned with the Pythagorean heritage, and some from historians interested more generally in the cities of southern Italy. For the period before his emigration from Samos, the ancient biographers mention his birth, parentage, upbringing, higher education and research travels. In Dicaearchus' imagination, Pythagoras' influence flowed from a charismatic personality. It has been suggested that age-group assemblies indicate that Croton was a traditional society organized into age-related clubs. In Iamblichus' account, Pythagoras urges women to avoid animal sacrifice, to offer frugal home-baked goods, and to take their offerings to the sanctuary in person. Most scholars think that these writers are confusing the circumstances of several periods of political opposition, which they combine into a single story of the end of Pythagorean control in the region.