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

THE LIFE OF ARISTOTLE 35
may not have played a political rdle
;
l
but, in any case,
his relation as tutor to Alexander and his friendship
with Antipater were so well known, his own name was
so famous, and his personal enemies, no doubt, so many,
that he could not escape attack. The charge brought
against him of offences
against the established religion
—in itself baseless enough—must have been simply
a pretext for wreaking political and personal vengeance.
2 But Aristotle found it best to retire before
the rising storm. 3 He escaped to Chalcis in Eu-
1
According to Aristocl. op.
Ens. Pr. Ev. xv. 2, 3, Demochares
(doubtless Demosthenes' nephew,
de quo of. ClC. Brut. 83, 286: De
Orat. ii. 23, 95 ; Seneca, De Ira,
iii. 23, 2; Plut. Demosth. 30;
Tit. X Orat. viii. 53, p. 847, and
Suidas) had alleged that letters
of Aristotle's had been found
which were hostile to Athens;
that he had betrayed Stagira to
the Macedonians, and that after
the destruction of Olynthus he
had betrayed to Philip the richest
citizens of that city. As the last
two are impossible, the first is
probably untrue, as Aristocles
himself recognised.
2
The charge was brought by
Demophilus on the instigation
of the Hierophant Eurymedon,
related to the deification of
Hermias, and alleged as proofs
the poem noticed (p. 20, n. 3),
and the alleged sacrifice (p. 20,
n. 1) : cf. Athen. xv. 696 a, 697 a;
Diog.5 ; Anon. Menag., Suidas,
and Hestch. Origen (c. dels.
i. 65) suggests, out of his own
fancy, rtvh Sdyftara rrjs tpiXotroipias
avrov & 4j/6fiiirav elvai aaeftri oi
'AOjjvawH. The weakness of the
charge proves that it was only
a blind, although perhaps the
Hierophant may have hated
the philosopher's liberalism. An
honest charge of atheism in the
Athens of that day was hardly
possible, although the mass of
the people could still be moved
by it. Grote (18 sq.) shows how
in this connection the Athenians
would be impressed by the story
that Aristotle had given heroic
honours to an eunuch who was
first a slave and then a tyrant.
Grote also notices (p. 14) how
mortifying the mission of Aristotle's
adopted sonwasforHellenic
pride (». p. 5, n. 7).
The further
suggestion of Grote (p. 37. cf.
Gbant, p. 24) that the enmity of
the school of Isocrates had to do
with the prosecution of Aristotle
may be true, but the fact that
Demophilus was a son of Ephorus,
and that the latter, and perhaps
both, belonged to that school is
not sufficient proof. We have
still less ground to accuse the
Academic school of having any
share in it.
8
His remarks that 'he would
not give the Athenians a second
chance of sinning against philosophy,'
and that ' Athens was the
D 2
;
3ft
sycophants, are quoted by Diog. 9
ARISTOTLE
boea, 1 where he had a country house, to which he had
sometimes retired before, 2 and his enemies could only
inflict on him unimportant insults. 3 To Theophrastus 4
he gave over his teaching work at the Lyceum, as a
substitute during his absence. But it was not given
place spoken of by Homer where
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