ARISTOTLE AND THE EARLIER PERIPATETICS vol.I by Eduard Zeller, B.F.C.Costelloe 1897

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THE LIFE OF ARISTOTLE 15
the Isocratean, in a book directed against Aristotle,
attacked the Platonic doctrine and particularly the
' Ideas,' and Theocritus of Chios accused Aristotle of
exchanging the Academy for Macedonia. 1 Again, it is
established that he stayed in Athens until Plato's death,
and immediately thereafter left the city for several
years, presumably for
no other reason than that then
for the first time the tie that bound him to the city was
dissolved, because his relation to Plato was then for the
.first time broken. Finally, we are told 2 that Xenocrates
journeyed with him to Atarneus ; and it is probable
from the language in which Aristotle speaks of that
Academic's opinions 3 that they continued to be friends
in later times. But in view of the known loyalty of
Xenocrates and his unbounded reverence for Plato, it is
not to be supposed that he would maintain his relations
with Aristotle and keep him company on the visit
Atarneus, if the latter had separated from his master in
a disrespectful way, or had, by any such rude conduct
as ^Elian ascribes to him, insulted the aged teacher not
long before his death.
It is of course altogether probable that so independent
a mind as Aristotle's would not give up its
own judgment even in face of a Plato; that as time
1
In the epigram noticed at p. he is obviously alluding to him
20, n. 3, infra : ethero vaieir avr' (cf . the cases cited, Zbllbk,
'A/caSryiefas Bop06pov ev irpoxoais, Plato, p. 364, n. ; and notes on
B. being a river near Pella. p. 585, and later pasi
2 By Steabo (xiii. 1, 67, p. whereas Speusippus is named
610), whom we have no reason to in parallel cases. This prodisbelieve,
bably indicates not ill-feeling,
3
Others have remarked that but rather a desire to avoid the
Aristotle almost never mentions appearance of personal conflict
Xenocrates, and that he avoids with one who was teaching
his name as if on purpose where beside him at Athens...
. .
to
16 ARISTOTLE
went on he began to doubt the unconditional validity of
the Platonic system and to lay the foundations, of his
own : and that he perhaps even in these days laid bare
many of the weak points of his teacher with the same
uncompromising criticism which we find him using later
on. 1
If a certain difference between the two men had
developed out of such relations, or if Plato had not been
more ready than many others since, to recognise in his
scholar the man who was destined to carry forward and
to correct his own work, it would be nothing wonderful.
Yet that any such difference actually arose cannot be
proved, and cannot even be shown to be very probable 2 :
while we have patent facts to disprove the idea that
Aristotle brought on any open breach by ingratitude or
intentional offence. The same facts make it very improbable
that Aristotle opened any philosophic school of
his own during his first residence in Athens.
If he had
done so, his friendly relations with Plato and the
Platonic circle could hardly have gone on, and it
would be unintelligible that he should leave Athens
exactly at the moment when the death of his great rival
left the field free for himself. 3
1
Even in the books
'
On a scholar as Aristotle. Besides,
Philosophy' (Arist. Fragm. 10, not to mention Heraclides and
11. p. 1475), apparently written Eudoxus, Speusippus himself
before Plato's death, he had dropped the Ideal Theory,
openly combated the Ideal s
The remark of the Pseudo-
Theory, and in the same treatise Ammonius that Chabrias and
(Fragm. 17, 18) had maintained Timotheus prevented Aristotle
the. eternity of the world. from setting up a new school
2 We have no right to ascribe against Plato is absurd. Who
to Plato and his circle of friends could hinder him, if he chose ?
the later ideas of school-ortho- Chabrias, moreover, died in 358
doxy, in any such sense as to B.C.; and Timotheus was banished
suppose that the master could not from Athens for life in the followtolerate
the independence of such ingyear,beingthenaveryoldman.