ARISTOTLE (Gk. 'Apulroriitlic, AristotePs) (c.c. 384-322). A Greek philosopher, born at Stagira. a Greek town of the Ghalcidice, ou the Strymonic Gulf, the present Stavro. He came of a family in which the practice of medi cine was hereditary, and his father, Nicomachus, was physician - in - ordinary to the Macedonian king, Amyntas H. From his father Aristotle undoubtedly inherited his love for natural science, and through him came into relation with the royal house of Macedonia. Nicomachus died while Aristotle was still young; the son was brought up in Stagira by a family friend, Proxenus, of Atarneus in Mysia, whose memory he held so dear that in after life he erected a statue to him at Delphi, and after his death educated and adopted his son Niennor. Aris totle doubtless received the usual education en joyed by the son of a well-to-do family, and probably was trained also for his ancestral pro fession. When seventeen years old, be went to Athens and associated himself with the Acad emy. But its head, Plato, was then absent on hia second journey to Syracuse, where he acted as adviser to the two despots in succession, Dionysius the elder and Dionysius the younger. For nearly twenty years Aristotle enjoyed the teaching and association of Plato, and in spite of the different natures of master and pupil, it needs no argument to show that the relation between the two was close. Plato is said to have called the reader and intellect of his school, and, because of his zeal, to have likened him to a colt that needs the bit more than the spur. During this period of discipleship, Aristotle seems to have begun to lecture to small circles of listeners, chiefly on the subject of rhetoric; at the same time he trained himself to a high degree of perfection in the practice of oratory. His superior genius was so well recognized by his contemporaries that his elders, like Hera elides l'onticus, who was Plato's representative in n.c. 361, were ready to yield to him, and younger men like Theophrastus were glad to be his followers. At Plato's death in n.e. 348-347, Speusippus became head of the Academy, and Aristotle had no longer any bonds to hind him to the school. lie was now in his thirty-eighth year, had enjoyed long intimacy with the best thinkers in Greece, and Mad undoubtedly already developed to a considerable degree an independ ent philosophical position. With Xenocraies of
Chalcedon, who likewise withdrew from his old associates, Aristotle went to \lysia, and pres ently accepted an invitation from a former fellow-pupil in the Academy, Hermeas, head man of Atarneus, to take up his residence with him. Here he remained three years, until Her meas was, through treachery, captured by the Persians, and put to death by Artaxerxes HI. Aristotle sought refuge in Mytilene, taking with him the niece and sister of Hermeas; he after wards married the latter, who died something more than ten years later in Macedonia. On the basis of certain allusions in the opening of lsoerates's Panathenaicus it has been conjectured that the following two years Aristotle spent again in Athens, teaching in company with others in the Lyceum; this conjecture, however, has a very uncertain basis.
During the ninny years spent at Athens and in Asia Minor, Aristotle's hereditary relation with the Macedonian court seems to have been un broken; for in B.C. 343-42 in response to a call from Philip to educate his son Alexander. then fourteen years old, lie removed with his family and Theophrastus to Pella, the Macedonian capi tal. He acted as tutor to the Prince for three years. The plan of the education attempted by him is unknown to us; but it is most probable that the philosopher added to the ordinary edu cation of the day in rhetoric and philosophy some instruction in at least history, geography, and politics suited to a future ruler. How far his pupil absorbed teaching is also uncertain, although we know that his later plans for con quest were in opposition to Aristotle's views. Yet Aristotle was held in high esteem by both Philip and Alexander; during his residence at court he was able to obtain the restoration, at the public expense, of his native city, which had suffered severely in a.c. 348 when Philip con quered the district about the Stryinon; later he was able to secure from Alexander protection for Eresus. in Lesbos, the home of his friend Theophrastus. The greatest favors he received, however, were in the way of support and ma terial for his scientific investigations; and his years of residence at the Macedonian court, where he could observe at close range the rule of an aggressive monarch, must have been of the greatest importance in developing his politi cal ideas.