CHAPTER V 



ARISTOTLE 



A RisTOTLE was bom in 384 b.c. at Stagira, a small Greek colony on the 

 / \ Macedonian coast. His father, Nicomachus, belonged to an old fam- 

 ^ 3L ily of the Asclepiads and was, like several of his ancestors, body- 

 physician to the Macedonian royal family. His predecessors among the Greek 

 philosophers had lived amongst the mobile and restless communities of the 

 city republics, while Aristotle spent his childhood at a royal court, and a 

 semi-barbarous one at that. This fact undoubtedly put its stamp on his per- 

 sonality and way of thought; he became in every respect an upholder of 

 authority and conservatism. At an early age he lost his father, and his 

 mother, Phasstias, retired to her native city and brought up her children there. 

 Aristotle received his earliest education, in accordance with the ancient As- 

 clepiad tradition, from his father's colleagues, who initiated him into the 

 biological and medical learning of their profession. It was necessary, how- 

 ever, for a properly educated physician to receive also philosophical instruc- 

 tion, and for this purpose Aristotle was sent at the age of eighteen to Plato's 

 Academy at Athens. There he remained for twenty years, was initiated into 

 the teachings of his master, wrote his first treatise, and already at that 

 period began to oppose his master's authority, which the latter is said to 

 have observed with no little displeasure. After Plato's death he was passed 

 over at the election of a successor as head of the Academy, in spite of his 

 already established reputation, and retired to Asia Minor, where he settled 

 down at the court of the Persian vassal-prince Hermeias of Atarneus, who 

 gave him his niece in marriage. Some years later, however, Hermeias was 

 deposed under a revolution, and Aristotle had to flee to the country of his 

 birth, Macedonia. There he was charged with the task of educating the heir 

 to the throne, Alexander, the future conqueror of the world, and he held this 

 post for three years (338-335). What influence the master exercised on the 

 pupil it is of course difficult to decide; the relations between them, however, 

 were on the whole good, though Alexander's increasingly despotic character 

 and barbaric outbursts of passion must have off'ended the cultured, self- 

 controlled Aristotle. His profession as teacher at any rate brought Aristotle 

 illustrious honours and made him a wealthy man, able to choose his place 

 of abode and his sphere of activity. He then moved back to Athens and lived 

 there under the protection of Alexander, highly esteemed by a constantly 



34 



