"Plato was intimate with these men and was deeply impressed by their religious teaching, though... he did not adopt it... He was still more attracted by the scientific side of Pythagoreanism, and... this exercised a great influence on him. His own system in its final form had many points of contact with it, as he is careful to mark in the ' But... he is apt to develop Pythagoreanism on lines of his own, which may or may not have commended themselves to Archytas, but are no guide to the views of Philolaos and Eurytos. He is not careful... to claim the authorship of his own improvements in the system. He did not believe that cosmology could be an exact science, and he... therefore... credit[s] Timaios the Lokrian, or "ancient sages"... with theories which... had their birth in the Academy."