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

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THE LIFE OF ARISTOTLE 29
any popular lectures addressed to large audiences, tliat
is referred to in the story that he received in the morning
a small and select circle only and in the afternoon
everyone freely. 1 At the same time we must also
think of the Aristotelian school as a society of friends
having on many sides a common life.
For friendship its
founder, bred in the intimacy of Plato, always showed
by word and act a tender and beautiful enthusiasm ; and
we hear accordingly that, following the fashion of the
Academy, he was wont to gather his scholars about
him at common meals and that he introduced a plan of
definite regulations for these meetings and for the whole
of their common life. 2
It is said that the aid and appliances which Aristotle
needed for his far-reaching labours were provided for
him by the favour of the two Macedonian rulers, and
especially by the princely generosity of Alexander. 3
Prat. 150). Cic. Orat. 14, 46 : which may refer, however, to the
In hac Ar. adolescentes, non ad work mentioned p. 99, n. l,infra;
philosnphorwm morem tenuiter and Diog. (4) preserves a hint of
disserendi, sed ad copiam rheto- his arrangement for the internal
rum in utramique partem, ut government of the school by offiornatius
et vfoerius diei posset, cers changing every ten days. Cf.
exercmt. Neither says whether Zeller, Ph. d. Gr. i. 839, n. 1.
the earlier or the later school of » According to J5lian ( V. R.
rhetoric is meant: probably both; iv. 19), Philip gave him ample
cf. Gbll. ibid, ifarepuA dice- means to pursue his investigaoantur,
quad ad rhetoricas rnedi- tions, irKomov avevSerj, especially
tationes faeultatemque argutia- in Natural History ;
Athen. (ix.
rum civiliumque rerwm notitiam 398) speaks of Alexander deconduceoa/nt
. . . illas vero exoteri- voting 800 talents to that work
cos auditimies exereitiumque di- and Plin. (H. Nat. viii. 16, 44)
eendi. says Alex, placed under his
1
Cf. p. 27, n. 3, and Gell. orders all the hunters, fishers,
Hid.
and fowlers of the kingdom, and
2
Athen. (i. 3, v. 186 b, cf. all overseers of the royal forests,
186 e) says he wrote for their ponds, and live stock, numbering
common meals v6u.oi o-v/nroriKol, many thousands. Pliny's story,
30 ARISTOTLE
However exaggerated the stories of the ancient writers
on this subject may seem to be, and however wealthy
we may fairly suppose Aristotle himself to have been by
inheritance, yit is yet clear that the vast scope of his
researches forces us to infer that he possessed advantages
not have commanded but for
which he probably could
such kingly assistance./ The deep and wide acquaintance
with the writings of his people which his own works 2
disclose to us could hardly be possible without the
possession of books ;
and on this head we are expressly
told that he was the first who accumulated a great
library. 3 Such works, again, as the Politeiai and the
collection of foreign laws could not be produced without
laborious and no doubt costly investigations.
The books
on Natural History especially and the kindred treatises
presuppose researches such as no one could have brought
to completion unless he had at his
disposal or could set
in action something more than the resources of a private
individual.
It was therefore a happy circumstance that
the man whose grasp of mind and rare powers of obhowever,
is disproved («. Bean- studies, implies that he was not
DIS, p. 117 sq., and Humboldt, hampered by poverty. As to the
Kosm. ii. 191, 427) by the fact worthlessness of the tales of
that with a few exceptions, such Epicurus and Timseus, cf . p. 9
as elephants, Aristotle shows no n. 1 and 3.
'
knowledge of things which would 2
Besides the extant works,
be discovered in Alexander's ex- we know of others concerning
pedition.
Rhetoric, Poetry, and the History
1
His will proves nothing as of Philosophy,
to his earlier years, but apart 3
Steabo, xiii. 1, 54.
p 608 •
from the calumnies of his oppo- irpuros av tay^v