READING HALLTHE DOORS OF WISDOM |
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BIOGRAPHYCAL UNIVERSAL LIBRARY |
LIFE OF ARISTOTLE
384 – 322 BC
By GEORGE GROTE
In my preceding work, "Plato and the Other Companions of
Socrates" I described a band of philosophers differing much from each
other, but all emanating from Socrates as common intellectual progenitor; all
manifesting themselves wholly or principally in the composition of dialogues;
and all living in an atmosphere of Hellenic freedom, as yet untroubled by any
overruling imperial ascendancy from without. From that band, among whom Plato
is facilè princeps. I
now proceed to another, among whom the like pre-eminence belongs to Aristotle.
This second band knew the Socratic stimulus only as an historical tradition;
they gradually passed, first from the Socratic or Platonic dialogue — dramatic,
colloquial, cross-examining — to the Aristotelian dialogue, semi-dramatic,
rhetorical, counter-expository; and next to formal theorizing, ingenious
solution and divination of special problems, historical criticism and abundant
collections of detailed facts : moreover, they were witnesses of the extinction
of freedom in Hellas, and of the rise of the Macedonian kingdom out of
comparative nullity to the highest pinnacle of supremacy and mastership. Under
the successors of Alexander, this extraneous supremacy, intermeddling and
dictatorial, not only overruled the political movements of the Greeks, but also
influenced powerfully the position and working of their philosophers; and would
have become at once equally intermeddling even earlier, under Alexander himself,
had not his whole time and personal energy been absorbed by insatiable thirst
for eastern conquest, ending with an untimely death.
Aristotle was born at Stageira (Stagira), an
unimportant Hellenic colony in Thrace, which has obtained a lasting name in
history from the fact of being his birthplace. It was situated in the Strymonic Gulf, a little north of the isthmus which
terminates in the mountainous promontory of Athos; its founders were Greeks
from the island of Andros, reinforced afterwards by additional immigrants from Chalcis
in Euboea. It was, like other Grecian cities, autonomous — a distinct,
self-governing community; but it afterwards became incorporated in the
confederacy of free cities under the presidency of Olynthus. The most material
feature in its condition, at the period of Aristotle's birth, was, that it lay
near the frontier of Macedonia, and not far even from Pella, the residence of
the Macedonian king Amyntas (father of Philip). Aristotle was born not earlier
than 392 B.C., nor earlier than 385-384 B.C. His father, Nikomachus,
was a citizen of Stageira, distinguished as a
physician, author of some medical works, and boasting of being descended from the
heroic gens of the Asclepiads; his mother Phaesta was
also of good civic family, descended from one of the first Chalcidian
colonists. Moreover Nikomachus was not merely learned
in his art, but was accepted as confidential physician and friend of Amyntas,
with whom he passed much of his time — a circumstance of great moment to the
future career of his son. We are told that among the Asclepiads the habit of
physical observation, and even manual training in dissection, were imparted
traditionally from father to son, from the earliest years, thus serving as
preparation for medical practice when there were no written treatises to study.
The mind of Aristotle may thus have acquired that appetite for physiological
study which so many of his treatises indicate.
Respecting the character of his youth, there existed, even in antiquity,
different accounts. We learn that he lost his father and mother while yet a
youth, and that he came under the guardianship of Proxenus,
a native of Atarneus who had settled at Stageira.
According to one account, adopted apparently by the earliest witnesses
preserved to us, he was at first an extravagant youth, spent much of his
paternal property, and then engaged himself to military service; of which he
soon became weary, and went back to Stageira, turning
to account the surgical building, apparatus, and medicines left by his father
as a medical practitioner. After some time, we know not how long, he retired
from this profession, shut up the building, and devoted himself to rhetoric and
philosophy. He then went to Athens, and there entered himself in the school of
Plato, at the age of thirty. The philosophical life was thus (if this account
be believed) a second choice, adopted comparatively late in life. The other
account, depending also upon good witnesses, represents him as having come to
Athens and enlisted as pupil of Plato, at the early age of seventeen or
eighteen : it omits all mention of an antecedent period, occupied by military
service and a tentative of medical profession. In both the two narratives,
Aristotle appears as resident at Athens, and devoting himself to rhetoric and
philosophy, from some period before 360 B.C. down to the death of Plato in 347
B.C.; though, according to the first of the two narratives, he begins his
philosophical career at a later age, while his whole life occupied seventy
years instead of sixty-two years.
During the interval, 367-360 B.C., Plato was much absent from Athens,
having paid two separate visits to Dionysus the younger at Syracuse. The time
which he spent there at each visit is not explicitly given ; but as far as we
can conjecture from indirect allusions, it cannot have been less than a year at
each, and may possibly have been longer. If, therefore, Aristotle reached
Athens in 367 B.C. (as Hermippus represents) he
cannot have enjoyed continuous instructions from Plato, for the three or four
years next ensuing.
However the facts may stand as to Aristotle's early life, there is no
doubt that in or before the year 362 B.C. he became resident at Athens, and
that he remained there, profiting by the society and lectures of Plato, until the
death of the latter in 347 B.C. Shortly after the loss of his master, he
quitted Athens, along with his fellow-pupil Xenokrates,
and went to Atarneus, which was at that time ruled by the despot Hermeias. That
despot was a remarkable man, who being an eunuch through bodily hurt when a
child, and having become slave of a prior despot named Eubulus,
had contrived to succeed him in the supreme power, and governed the towns of
Atarneus and Assos with firmness and energy. Hermeias
had been at Athens, had heard Plato’s lectures, and had contracted friendship
with Aristotle; which friendship became farther cemented by the marriage of
Aristotle, during his residence at Atarneus, with Pythias the niece of Hermeias. For three years Aristotle and Xenocrates remained at Assos or Atarneus, whence they were then
forced to escape by reason of the despot's death; for Mentor the Rhodian, general of the Persians in those regions, decoyed
Hermeias out of the town under presence of a diplomatic negotiation, then
perfidiously seized him, and sent him up as prisoner to the Persian king, by
whose order he was hanged. Mentor at the same time seized the two towns and
other possessions of Hermeias, while Aristotle with his wife retired to
Mitylene. His deep grief for the fate of Hermeias was testified in a noble hymn
or paean which he composed, and which still remains, as well as by an epigram
inscribed on the statue of Hermeias at Delphi. We do not hear of his going
elsewhere, until, two or three years afterwards (the exact date is differently
reported), he was invited by Philip into Macedonia, to become preceptor to the
young prince Alexander, then thirteen or fourteen years old. The reputation,
which Aristotle himself had by this time established, doubtless coincided with
the recollection of his father Nikomachus as
physician and friend of Amyntas, in determining Philip to such a choice. Aristotle
performed the duties required from him, enjoying the confidence and favor both
of Philip and Alexander, until the assassination of the former and the
accession of the latter in 336 B.C. His principal residence during this period
was in Macedonia, but he paid occasional visits to Athens, and allusion is made
to certain diplomatic services which he rendered to the Athenians at the court
of Philip; moreover, he must have spent some time at his native city Stageira, which had been among the many Greek cities
captured and ruined by Philip during the Olynthian war of 349-347 B.C. Having obtained the consent and authority of Philip,
Aristotle repaired to Stageira for the purpose of
directing the re-establishment of the city. Recalling such of its dispersed
inhabitants as could be collected, either out of the neighboring villages or
from more distant parts, he is said to have drawn up laws, or framed
regulations for the returned citizens and new comers. He had reason to complain
of various rivals who intrigued against him, gave him much trouble, and
obstructed the complete renovation of the city; but, notwithstanding, his
services were such that an annual festival was instituted to commemorate them.
It is farther stated, that at some time during this period he had a school
(analogous to the Academy at Athens) in the Nymphaeum of the place called Mieza; where stone seats and
shady walks, ennobled by the name of Aristotle, were still shown even in the
days of Plutarch.
In 336 B.C. Alexander became king of Macedonia, and his vast projects
for conquest, first of Persia, next of other peoples known and unknown, left
him no leisure for anything but military and imperial occupations. It was in
the ensuing year (335 B.C.) when the preparations for the Persian expedition
were being completed, ready for its execution in the following spring, that
Aristotle transferred his residence to Athens. The Platonic philosophical
school in which he had studied was now conducted by Xenokrates as Scholarch, having passed at the death of Plato, in
347 B.C., to his nephew Speusippus, and from the
latter to Xenokrates in 339 B.C. Aristotle
established for himself a new and rival school on the eastern side of Athens,
in the gymnasium attached to the temple of Apollo Lykeius,
and deriving from thence the name by which it was commonly known — the Lyceum.
In that school, and in the garden adjoining, he continued to lecture or teach,
during the succeeding twelve years, comprising the life and the brilliant
conquests of Alexander. Much of his instruction is said to have beat given
while walking in the garden, from whence the students and the sect derived the
title of Peripatetics. In the business of his school
and the composition of his works all his time was occupied; and his scholars
soon became so numerous that he found it convenient to desire them to elect
from themselves every ten days a rector to maintain order, as Xenokrates had already done at the Academy. Aristotle
farther maintained correspondence, not merely with Alexander and Antipater but
also with Themison, one of the princes of Cyprus, as Isocrates
had corresponded with Nikokles, and Plato with
Dionysus of Syracuse.
In June, 323 B.C. occurred the premature and unexpected decease of the
great Macedonian conqueror, aged 32 years and 8 months, by a violent fever at
Babylon. So vast was his power, and so unmeasured his ambition, that the sudden
removal of such a man operated as a shock to the hopes and fears of almost
every one, both in Greece and Asia. It produced an entire change in the
position of Aristotle at Athens. To understand what that position really was,
we must look at it in connection with his Macedonian sympathies, and with the
contemporaneous political sentiment at Athens. It was in the middle of the year
336 B.C., that Alexander put down by force the revolt of the Thebans, took
their city by assault, demolished it altogether (leaving nothing but the
citadel called Cadmeia, occupied by a Macedonian
garrison), and divided its territory between two other Boeotian towns.
Immediately after that terror-striking act, he demanded from the Athenians (who
had sympathized warmly with Thebes, though without overt acts of assistance)
the surrender of their principal anti-Macedonian politicians. That demand
having been refused, he at first prepared to extort compliance at the point of
the sword, but was persuaded, not without difficulty, to renounce such
intention, and to be content with the voluntary exile of Ephialtes and Charidemus from Athens. Though the unanimous vote of the
Grecian Synod at Corinth constituted him Imperator, there can be no doubt that
the prevalent sentiment in Greece towards him was that of fear and dislike;
especially among the Athenians, whose dignity was most deeply mortified, and to
whom the restriction of free speech was the most painful.
Now it was just at this moment (in 335 B.C.) that Aristotle came to
Athens and opened his school. We cannot doubt that he was already known and
esteemed as the author of various published writings. But the prominent mark by
which everyone now distinguished him, was, that he had been for several years
confidential preceptor of Alexander, and was still more or less consulted by
that prince, as well as sustained by the friendship of Antipater, viceroy of
Macedonia during the king's absence. Aristotle was regarded as philo-Macedonian, and to a certain extent, anti-Hellenic —
the sentiment expressed towards him in the unfriendly epigram of the
contemporary Chian poet Theokritus.
His new school, originally opened under the protection and patronage of
Alexander and Antipater, continued to be associated with their names, by that
large proportion of Athenian citizens who held anti-Macedonian sentiments.
Alexander caused the statue of Aristotle to be erected in Athens, and sent to
him continual presents of money, usefully employed by the philosopher in the
prosecution of his physical and zoological researches, as well as in the purchase
of books. Moreover Aristotle remained in constant and friendly correspondence
with Antipater, the resident viceroy at Pella, during the absence of Alexander
in Asia. Letters of recommendation from Aristotle to the Macedonian rulers were
often given and found useful : several of them were preserved and published
afterwards. There is even reason to believe that the son of Antipater — Kassander, afterwards viceroy or king of Macedonia, was
among his pupils.
I have recounted, elsewhere how the character of Alexander became
gradually corrupted by unexampled success and Asiatic influences; how he thus
came to feel less affection and esteem for Aristotle, to whom he well knew that
his newly acquired imperial and semi-divine pretensions were not likely to be
acceptable; how, on occasion of the cruel sentence passed on Callisthenes, he
threatened even to punish Aristotle himself, as having recommended Callisthenes,
and as sympathizing with the same free spirit; lastly, how Alexander became
more or less alienated, not only from the society of Hellenic citizens, but
even from his faithful viceroy, the Macedonian Antipater. But these changed
relations between Aristotle and Alexander did not come before the notice of the
Athenians, nor alter the point of view in which they regarded the philosopher;
the rather, since the relations of Aristotle with Antipater continued as
intimate as ever.
It will thus appear, that though all the preserved writings of Aristotle
are imbued with a thoroughly independent spirit of theorizing contemplation and
lettered industry, uncorrupted by any servility or political bias — yet his
position during the twelve years between 335-323 B.C. inevitably presented him
to the Athenians as the macedonizing philosopher,
parallel with Phokion as the macedonizing politician, and in pointed antithesis to Xenokrates at the Academy, who was attached to the democratical constitution and refused
kingly presents. Besides that enmity which he was sure to incur, as an acute
and self-thinking philosopher, from theology and the other anti-philosophical
veins in the minds of ordinary men, Aristotle thus became the object of
unfriendly sentiment from many Athenian patriots, who considered the school of
Plato generally as hostile to popular liberty, and who had before their eyes
examples of individual Platonists, ruling their respective cities with a scepter
forcibly usurped.
Such sentiment was probably aggravated by the unparalleled and offensive
Macedonian demonstration at the Olympic festival of 324 B.C. It was on that
occasion that Alexander, about one year prior to his decease, sent down a
formal rescript, which was read publicly to the assembled crowd by a herald
with loud voice; ordering every Grecian city to recall all exiles who had been
banished by judicial sentence, and intimating, that if the rescript were not
obeyed spontaneously, Antipater would be instructed to compel the execution of
it by force. A large number of the exiles whose restitution was thus ordered,
were present on the plain of Olympia, and heard the order proclaimed, doubtless
with undisguised triumph and exultation. So much the keener must have been the
disgust and humiliation among the other Grecian hearers, who saw the autonomy
of each separate city violently trampled down, without even the pretense of
enquiry, by this high-handed sentence of the Macedonian conqueror. Among the
Athenians especially, the resentment felt was profound; and a vote was passed
appointing deputies to visit Alexander in person, for the purpose of
remonstrating against it. The orator Demosthenes, who happened to be named Archi-Theorus of Athens (chief of the solemn legation sent
to represent Athens) at this Olympic festival, incurred severe reproach from
his accuser Deinarchus, for having even been seen in
personal conversation with the Macedonian officer who had arrived from Asia as bearer
of this odious rescript.
Now it happened that this officer, the hearer of the rescript, was
Nikanor of Stageira; son of Proxenus who had been Aristotle's early guardian, and himself the cherished friend or
ward, ultimately the son-in-law, of the philosopher. We may be certain that
Aristotle would gladly embrace the opportunity of seeing again this attached
friend, returning after a long absence on service in Asia; that he would be
present with him at the Olympic festival, perhaps receive a visit from him at
Athens also. And the unpopularity of Aristotle at Athens, as identified with
Macedonian imperial authority, would thus be aggravated by his notorious
personal alliance with his fellow-citizen Nikanor, the bearer of that rescript
in which such authority had been most odiously manifested.
During the twelve or thirteen years of Aristotle's teaching and
Alexander's reign, Athens was administered by macedonizing citizens, with Phokion and Demades at their head. Under such circumstances, the enmity of those who hated the
imperial philosopher could not pass into act; nor was it within the
contemplation of any one, that only one year after that rescript which insulted
the great Pan-Hellenic festival, the illustrious conqueror who issued it would
die of fever, in the vigor of his age and at the height of his power (June, 323
B.C.). But as soon as the news of his decease, coming by surprise both on
friends and enemies, became confirmed, the suppressed anti-Macedonian sentiment
burst forth in powerful tide, not merely at Athens, but also throughout other
parts of Greece. There resulted that struggle against Antipater, known as the Lamian war : a gallant struggle, at first promising well,
but too soon put down by superior force, and ending in the occupation of Athens
by Antipater with a Macedonian garrison in September, 322 B.C., as well as in
the extinction of free speech and free citizenship by the suicide of
Demosthenes and the execution of Hypereides.
During the year immediately succeeding the death of Alexander, the
anti-Macedonian sentiment continued so vehemently preponderant at Athens, that
several of the leading citizens, friends of Phokion,
left the city to join Antipater, though Phokion himself remained, opposing ineffectually the movement. It was during this
period that the enemies of Aristotle found a favorable opportunity for
assailing him. An indictment on the score of impiety was preferred against him
by Eurymedon the Hierophant (chief priest of the
Eleusinian Demeter), aided by Demophilus, son of the
historian Ephorus. The Hymn or Paean (still
existing), which Aristotle had composed in commemoration of the death, and in
praise of the character, of the eunuch Hermeias, was arraigned as a mark of
impiety; besides which, Aristotle had erected at Delphi a statue of Hermeias
with an honorific inscription, and was even alleged to have offered sacrifices
to him as to a god. In the published writings of Aristotle, too, the accusers
found various heretical doctrines, suitable for sustaining their indictment;
as, for example, the declaration that prayer and sacrifices to the gods were of
no avail But there can be little doubt that the Hymn, Ode, or Paean, in honor
of Hermeias, would be more offensive to the feelings of an ordinary Athenian
than any philosophical dogma extracted from the cautious prose compositions of
Aristotle. It is a hymn, of noble thought and dignified measure, addressed to
Virtue (masculine or military Virtue), in which are extolled the semi-divine or
heroic persons who had fought, endured, and perished in her service. The name
and exploits of Hermeias are here introduce as the closing parallel and example
in a list beginning with Herakles, the Dioskuri, Achilles, and Ajax. Now the poet Kallistratus, in his memorable Skolion,
offers a like compliment to Harmodius and Aristogeiton; and Pindar, to several free Greeks of noble
family, who paid highly for his epinician Odes now
remaining. But all the persons thus complimented were such as had gained prizes
at the sacred festivals, or had distinguished themselves in other ways which the
public were predisposed to honor; whereas Hermeias was a eunuch, who began by
being a slave, and ended by becoming despot over a free Grecian community,
without any exploit conspicuous to the eye. To many of the Athenian public it
would seem insult, and even impiety, to couple Hermeias with the greatest
personages of Hellenic mythology, as a successful competitor for heroic honors.
We need only read the invective of Claudian against Eutropius, to appreciate the incredible bitterness of
indignation and contempt, which was suggested by the spectacle of a eunuch and
a slave exercising high public functions. And the character of a despot was, to
the anti-macedonizing Athenians, hardly less odious
than either of the two others combined with it in Hermeias.
Taking these particulars into account, we shall see that a charge thus
sustained, when preferred by a venerable priest, during the prevalence of
strong anti-Macedonian feeling, against a notorious friend of Antipater and
Nikanor, was quite sufficient to alarm the prudence of the accused. Aristotle
bowed to the storm (if indeed he had not already left Athens, along with other philo-Macedonians) and retired to Chalcis, (in Euboea),
then under garrison by Antipater. An accused person at Athens had always the option
of leaving the city, at any time before the day of trial; Socrates might have
retired, and obtained personal security in the same manner, if he had chosen to
do so. Aristotle must have been served, of course, with due notice : and
according to Athenian custom, the indictment would be brought into court in his
absence, as if he had been present; various accusers, among them Demochares, the nephew of Demosthenes, would probably speak
in support of it; and Aristotle must have been found guilty in his absence. But
there is no ground for believing that he intended to abandon Athens, and live
at Chalcis permanently; the rather, inasmuch as he seems to have left not only
his school, but his library, at Athens under the charge of Theophrastus.
Aristotle knew that the Macedonian chiefs would not forego supremacy over
Greece without a struggle; and, being in personal correspondence with Antipater
himself, he would receive direct assurance of this resolution, if assurance
were needed. In a question of military force, Aristotle probably felt satisfied
that Macedonian arms must prevail; after which the affairs of Athens would be
again administered, at least in the same spirit, as they had been before
Alexander’s death, if not with more complete servility. He would then have
returned thither to resume his school; in competition with that of Plato under Xenokrates at the Academy; for he must have been well aware
that the reputation of Athens, as central hearth of Hellenic letters and
philosophy, could not be transferred to Chalcis or to any other city.
This is what would probably have occurred, when the Lamian war was finished and the Macedonian garrison installed at Athens, in Sept 322
B.C. — had Aristotle’s life lasted longer. But in or about that very period, a
little before the death of Demosthenes, he died at Chalcis of illness; having
for some time been troubled with indigestion and weakness of stomach. The
assertion of Eumelus and others that he took poison,
appears a mere fiction suggested by the analogy of Socrates. One of his latest
compositions was a defence of himself against the charge of impiety, and
against the allegations of his accusers (as reported to him, or published) in
support of it. A sentence of this defence remains, wherein he points out the
inconsistency of his accusers in affirming that he intended to honor Hermeias
as an immortal, while he had notoriously erected a tomb, and had celebrated
funeral ceremonies to him as a mortal. And in a letter to Antipater, he said
(among other things) that Athens was a desirable residence, but that the
prevalence of sycophancy or false accusation was a sad drawback to its value;
moreover that he had retired to Chalcis, in order that the Athenians might not
have the opportunity of sinning a second time against philosophy, as they had
already done once, in the person of Socrates. In the same or another letter to
Antipater, he adverted to an honorific tribute which had been voted to him at
Delphi before the death of Alexander, but the vote for which had been since
rescinded. He intimated that this disappointment was not indifferent to him,
yet at the same time no serious annoyance.
In regard to the person and habits of Aristotle, we are informed that he
had thin legs and small eyes; that in speech he was somewhat lisping; that his
attire was elegant and even showy; that his table was well-served — according
to his enemies, luxurious above the measure of philosophy. His pleasing and
persuasive manners are especially attested by Antipater, in a letter,
apparently of marked sympathy and esteem, written shortly after the philosopher’s
death. He was deeply attached to his wife Pythias, by
whom he had a daughter who bore the same name. His wife having died after some
years, he then remarried with a woman of Stageira,
named Herpyllis, who bore him a son called Nikomachus. Herpyllis lived with
him until his death; and the constant as well as reciprocal attachment between
them is attested by his last will. At the time of his death, his daughter Pythias had not yet attained marriageable age; Nikomachus was probably a child.
The will or testament of the philosopher is preserved. Its first words
constitute Antipater his general executor in the most comprehensive terms,
words well calculated to ensure that his directions should be really carried
into effect; since not only was Antipater now the supreme potentate, but
Nikanor, the chief beneficiary under the will, was in his service and dependent
on his orders. Aristotle then proceeds to declare that Nikanor shall become his
son-in-law, by marriage with his daughter Pythias as
soon as she shall attain suitable age; also, his general heir, subject to
certain particular bequests and directions, and the guardian of his infant son Nikomachus. Nikanor being at that time on service, and
perhaps in Asia, Aristotle directs that four friends (named Aristomenes, Timarchus, Hipparchus, Dioteles)
shall take provisional care of Herpyllis, his two
children, and his effects, until Nikanor can appear and act : Theophrastus is
to be conjoined with these four if he chooses, and if circumstances permit him.
The daughter Pythias, when she attains suitable age,
is to become the wife of Nikanor, who will take the best care both of her and
of Nikomachus, being in the joint relation of father
and brother to them. If Pythias shall die, either
before the marriage or after it, but without leaving offspring, Nikanor shall
have full discretion to make such arrangements as may be honorable both for
himself and for the testator respecting Nikomachus and the estate generally. In case of the death of Nikanor himself, either
before the marriage or without offspring, any directions given by him shall be
observed; but Theophrastus shall be entitled, if he chooses, to become the husband
of Pythias, and if Theophrastus does not choose, then
the executors along with Antipater shall determine what they think best both
for her and for Nikomachus. The will then proceeds as
follows : — “The executors (here Antipater is not called in to co-operate),
with Nikanor, in faithful memory of me and of the steady affection of Herpyllis towards me, shall take good care of her in every
way, but especially if she desires to be married, in giving her away to one not
unworthy of me. They shall assign to her, besides what she has already
received, a talent of silver, and three female slaves chosen by herself, out of
the property, together with the young girl and the Pyrrhaean slave now attached to her person. If she prefers to reside at Chalcis, she may
occupy the lodging near the garden; if at Stageira,
she may live at my paternal house. Whichever of the two she may prefer, the executors
shall provide it with all such articles of furniture as they deem sufficient
for her comfort and dignity”.
Aristotle proceeds to direct that Nikanor shall make comfortable
provision for several persons mentioned by name, male and female, most of them
slaves, but one (Myrmex), seemingly, a free boarder
or pupil, whose property he had undertaken to manage. Two or three of these
slaves are ordered to be liberated, and to receive presents, as soon as his
daughter Pythias shall be married. He strictly
enjoins that not one of the youthful slaves who attended him shall be sold.
They are to be brought up and kept in employment; when of mature age, they are
to be liberated according as they show themselves worthy.
Aristotle had in his lifetime ordered, from a sculptor named Gryllion, busts of Nikanor and of the mother of Nikanor; he
intended farther to order from the same sculptor a bust of Proxenus, Nikanor’s father. Nikanor is instructed by the will
to complete these orders, and to dedicate the busts properly when brought in. A
bust of the mother of Aristotle is to be dedicated to Demeter at Nemea, or in
any other place which Nikanor may prefer; another bust of Arimnestos (brother of Aristotle) is to be dedicated as a memento of the same, since he has died
childless.
During some past danger of Nikanor (we do not know what) Aristotle had
made a vow of four marble animal figures, in case the danger were averted, to
Zeus the Preserver and Athene the Preserver. Nikanor
is directed, to fulfill this vow and to dedicate the figures in Stageira.
Lastly, wherever Aristotle is
buried, the bones of his deceased wife Pythias are to
be collected and brought to the same spot, as she had commanded during her
lifetime.
This testament is interesting, as
it illustrates the personal circumstances and sentiments of the philosopher,
evincing an affectionate forethought and solicitude for those who were in
domestic relations with him. As far as we can judge, the establishment and
property which he left must have been an ample one. How the provisions of the
will were executed, or what became of most persons named in it, we do not know,
except that Pythias the daughter of Aristotle was
married three times: first, to Nikanor (according to the will); secondly to Proklus, descendant of Demaratus (the king of Sparta formerly banished to Asia) by whom she had two sons, Prokles and Demaratus, afterwards
pupils in the school of Theophrastus; thirdly, to a physician named Metrodorus, by whom she had a son named Aristotle.
There existed in antiquity
several works, partly by contemporaries like the Megaric Eubulides, partly by subsequent Platonists, in which
Aristotle was reproached with ingratitude to Plato, servility to the Macedonian
power, love of costly display and indulgences, &c. What proportion of truth
may lie at the bottom of these charges we do not know enough to determine
confidently; but we know that he had many enemies, philosophical as well as
political; and controversy on those grounds (then as now) was rarely kept free
from personal slander and invective.
The accusation of ingratitude or unbecoming behavior to Plato is no way
proved by any evidence now remaining. It seems to have been suggested to the
Platonists mainly, if not wholly, by the rivalry of Aristotle in setting up a
second philosophical school at Athens, alongside of the Academy; by his
independent, self-working, philosophical speculation; and by the often-repeated
opposition which he made to some capital doctrines of Plato, especially to the
so-called Platonic Ideas. Such opposition was indeed expressed, as far as we
can judge, in terms of respectful courtesy, and sometimes even of affectionate
regret; examples of which we shall have to notice in going through the
Aristotelian writings. Yet some Platonists seem to have thought that direct
attack on the master’s doctrines was undutiful and ungrateful in the pupil,
however unexceptionable the language might be. They also thought, probably,
that the critic misrepresented what he sought to refute. Whether Aristotle
really believed that he had superior claims to be made Scholarch of the Platonic school at the death of Plato in 347 B.C., or at the death of Speusippus in 339 B.C., is a point which we can neither
affirm nor deny. But we can easily understand that the act of setting up a new
philosophical school at Athens, though perfectly fair and admissible on his
part, was an hostile competition sure both to damage and offend the
pre-established school, and likely enough to be resented with unbecoming asperity.
Ingratitude towards the great common master Plato, with arrogant claims of
superiority over fellow pupils, were the allegations which this resentment
would suggest, and which many Platonists in the Academy would not scruple to
advance against their macedonizing rival at the Lyceum.
Such allegations moreover would find easy credence from other men of
letters, whose enmity Aristotle had incurred, and to a certain extent even
provoked — Isocrates and his numerous disciples.
This celebrated rhetor was an elderly man at
the zenith of his glory and influence, during those earlier years which
Aristotle passed at Athens before the decease of Plato. The Isocratean school
was then the first in Greece, frequented by the most promising pupils from
cities near and far, perhaps even by Aristotle himself. The political views and
handling, as well as the rhetorical style of which the master set the example,
found many imitators. Illustrious statesmen, speakers, and writers traced their
improvement to this teaching. So many of the pupils, indeed, acquired celebrity
— among them Theodektes, Theopompus, Ephorus, Naukrates, Philiskus, Kephisodorus, and
others— that Hermippus thought it worth his while to
draw up a catalogue of them : many must have been persons of opulent family,
highly valuing the benefit received from Isocrates, since each of them was
required to pay to him a fee of 1000 drachmae. During the first sojourn of
Aristotle in Athens (362-347 B.C.), while he was still attached to and
receiving instruction from Plato, he appears to have devoted himself more to
rhetoric than to philosophy, and even to have given public lessons or lectures
on rhetoric. He thus entered into rivalry with Isocrates, for whom, as a teacher
and author, he contracted dislike or contempt.
The composition of Isocrates was extremely elegant : his structure of
sentences was elaborate even to excess, his arrangement of words rhythmical,
his phrases nicely balanced in antithetical equipoise, like those of his master Gorgias; the recital of his discourses proved highly
captivating to the ear. Moreover, he had composed a book of rhetorical precepts
known and esteemed by Cicero and Quintilian. Besides such technical excellence,
Isocrates strove to attain, and to a certain extent actually attained, a higher
order of merit. He familiarized his pupils with thoughts and arguments of lofty
bearing and comprehensive interest; not assisting them to gain victory either
in any real issue tried before the Dikasts, or in any
express motion about to be voted on by the public assembly, but predisposing
their minds to prize above all things the great Pan-hellenic aggregate — its independence in regard to external force, and internal harmony
among its constituent cities, with a reasonable recognition of presidential
authority, equitably divided between Athens and Sparta, and exercised with
moderation by both. He inculcated sober habits and deference to legal authority
on the part of the democrats of Athens; he impressed upon princes, like Philip
and Nikokles, the importance of just and mild bearing
towards subjects. Such is, the general strain of the discourses which we now
possess from Isocrates; though he appears to have adopted it only in middle
life, having begun at first in the more usual track of the logographer —
composing speeches to be delivered before the Dikastery by actual plaintiffs or
defendants, and acquiring thus both reputation and profit. His reputation as a
teacher was not only maintained but even increased when he altered his style;
and he made himself peculiarly attractive to foreign pupils who desired to
acquire a command of graceful expressions, without special reference to the
Athenian Assembly and Dikastery. But his new style being mid-way between
Demosthenes and Plato — between the practical advocate and politician on one
side, and the generalizing or speculative philosopher on the other — he
incurred as a semi-philosopher, professing to have discovered the juste milieu, more or less of disparagement
from both extremes; and Aristotle, while yet a young man in the Platonic
school, raised an ardent controversy against his works, on the ground both of
composition and teaching. Though the whole controversy is now lost, there is
good ground for believing that Aristotle must have displayed no small acrimony.
He appears to have impugned the Isocratean discourses, partly as containing
improper dogmas, partly as specimens of mere unimpressive elegance, intended
for show, pomp, and immediate admiration from the hearer — ad implendas aures —but destitute both of comprehensive theory and of applicability to any useful
purpose. Kephisodorus, an intimate friend and pupil
of Isocrates, defended him in an express reply, attacking both Aristotle the
scholar and Plato the master. This reply was in four books, and Dionysius
characterizes it by an epithet of the highest praise.
These polemics of Aristotle were begun during his first residence at
Athens, prior to 347 B.C., the year of Plato’s decease, and at the time when he
was still accounted a member of the Platonic school. They exemplify the rivalry
between that school and the Isocratean, which were then the two competing
places of education at Athens : and we learn that Aristotle, at that time only
a half-fledged Platonist, opened on his own account not a new philosophical
school in competition with Plato, as some state, but a new rhetorical school in
opposition to Isocrates. But the case was different at the latter epoch, 335
B.C., when Aristotle came to reside at Athens for the second time. Isocrates
was then dead, leaving no successor, so that his rhetorical school expired with
him. Aristotle preferred philosophy to rhetoric : he was no longer trammeled by
the living presence and authority of Plato. The Platonic school at the Academy
stood at that time alone, under Xenokrates, who,
though an earnest and dignified philosopher, was deficient in grace and in
persuasiveness, and had been criticized for this defect even by Plato himself.
Aristotle possessed those gifts in large measure, as we know from the testimony
of Antipater. By these circumstances, coupled with his own established
reputation and well-grounded self-esteem, he was encouraged to commence a new
philosophical school; a school, in which philosophy formed the express subject
of the morning lecture, while rhetoric was included as one among the subjects
of more varied and popular instruction given in the afternoon. During the twelve
ensuing years, Aristotle’s rivalry was mainly against the Platonists or Xenocrateans at the Academy; embittered on both sides by
acrimonious feelings, which these expressed by complaining of his ingratitude
and unfairness towards the common master, Plato.
There were thus, at Athens, three distinct parties inspired with unfriendly
sentiment towards Aristotle : first, the Isocrateans;
afterwards, the Platonists; along with both, the anti-Macedonian politicians.
Hence we can account for what Themistius entitles the
“army of assailants” that fastened upon him, for the unfavorable coloring with
which his domestic circumstances are presented, and for the necessity under
which he lay of Macedonian protection; so that when such protection was nullified,
giving place to a reactionary fervor, his residence at Athens became both
disagreeable and insecure.
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