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

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THE LIFE OF ARISTOTLE 31
servation marked him as the ablest founder of empirical
science and of systematic learning, should have been so
favoured by fortune that the needful equipment for his
great calling was not denied him.
In the last years of Aristotle's life the good relations
between him and his great pupil were disturbed. 1
The
philosopher may well have taken offence at many of the
things which Alexander did in
the intoxication of success,
at
many measures which he found necessary for
the consolidation of his
conquests, but which were repugnant
to the Hellenic traditions and to the self-respect
of independent Greeks, and at the harsh and passionate
excess into which the young conqueror was betrayed
when he was surrounded by flatterers, embittered by
personal opposition and made suspicious by treachery. 2
There would be no lack
of tale-bearers to carry gossip
true and false to the king, for the learned and philosophic
members of his Court were plotting in their personal
jealousies 3 to oust each other, and even the courtiers and
generals doubtless sought to use the scientific proclivities
of the prince as points in the game of their ambitions.
As the king's relations with Antipater grew more unfriendly,
it seems he was prejudiced against Aristotle 4
also, because of the close
relations between the philosopher
and the general. 6 But the severest blow to the
Cf. p. 23, n. 1, supra. The 3
For examples v. Putt. Alex.
1
exchange of letters which is c. 62, 53, Arrian, iv 9-11.
cited as a proof of their friend-
4 Cf. Plut. ibid. 74 (though
ship is unreliable, because we do that is after the death of Callinot
know how much is genuine sthenes) ; as to Antipater, cf.
2
Plutarch (cf. p. 23, n. 2, Pltjt. Alex. 39, 49; Arrian, vii.
supra) says Aristotle was dis- 12 ;
Curt. x. 31 ; Diodor. xvii
satisfied with Alexander's whole 118.
political idea of the fusion of
5 This friendship is proved
the Greeks and Orientals, from the fact that Antipater's
I
32 ARISTOTLE
king's attachment to his tutor
came through the action
of Oallisthenes. 1 The stiff-necked opposition of that
philosopher to the new Oriental fashions of the Court
the bitter and reckless tone of his diatribes against
them ; the pointed way in which he vaunted his independence
and drew upon himself the eyes of all the
malcontents of the army ; the importance he assumed to
himself as Alexander's historian, and the arrogant airs
he gave himself accordingly, had long caused the king
to look on him with anger and mistrust.
This made it
the easier for his enemies to persuade the king of his
complicity in
the conspiracy of the nobles which had
placed Alexander's life in the gravest danger, and
Oallisthenes lost his life 2 with the conspirators, though
he was doubtless innocent of their treacherous
design.
In the heat of his anger the king's suspicions turned
against Aristotle 3 also, for he had brought up Oallison,
Cassander, was a pupil of Qu. vi. 23, 2 ; and of modern
Aristotle (Plut. A lex. 74), by the writers, Stahr, Arist. i. 121 sq.
letters of Aristotle to Antipater Droysen, Gesch. Alex. ii. 88
(Aristocl. apud Bus. Pr. Mo. xv. sq. ; Grote, Hist, of Greece, xii.
2, 9 ; Diog. 27 ; Demetr. Mac. 290 sq., etc.
225 ; JElian, V. H. xiv. 1), and 2 It is highly improbable he
especially by the fact that Anti- was. an accomplice, though we
pater is named as chief executor cannot say how far he was to
in Aristotle's will, apud Diog. 11. blame for exciting by reckless
The false story of his complicity talk his younger friends,
in Alexander's death is based 3
Alex, writes to Antipater
on this circumstance (v. in- (Plut. Alex. 55) : of fi-kv iraTSes
fra).
imb tSiv MaKcSovuiv KaTe\eAol iviPovKeiovras. Accord-
18 sq. ; Chares apud Athen. x. ing to Chares (op. Plut. ibid.),
434 d ; Theophrast. ap. ClC. he had at first intended to try
Two. iii. 10, 21 ; Seneca, Nat. Oallisthenes in Aristotle's pres-