1891.] Dr. C. Waldstcin on Discovery of the " Tomb of Aristotle:' 423 



EXTRA EVENING MEETING, 



Tuesday, Jime 2, 1891. 



David Edward Hughes, Esq. F R.S. Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Charles Waldstein, Esc^. Ph.D. Litt.D. L.H.D. 



The Discovery of the " Tomb of Aristotle:' 



Dr. Charles Waldstein said that during the excavations carried on 

 at Eretria, in Eubcea, by the American Archasological School of Athens 

 under his direction, the discovery of a tomb stands foremost. This 

 tomb is of great magnitude and splendour, and, by a process of inference, 

 from data which, taken singly, might appear minute or insignificant 

 but assume a new aspect when they are found to be interdependent 

 and to converge to a common centre, he is led to believe to be that of 

 the great philosopher Aristotle. 



IJr. Waldstein contributed a short account of his discoveries to 

 the ' Nineteenth Century ' for May, which may be said to be only of 

 a preliminary character, and in which he confined himself mainly to 

 a narrative of the excavations and to the negative aspects of the 

 question and the objections which might fairly be urged against the 

 hypothesis that on this spot were interred the philosopher's remains. 

 In the meantime Dr. Waldstein has been engaged in literary and 

 epigraphical researches to enable him to arrive at a final conclusion 

 on the subject. These investigations are not yet completed, and he 

 hopes to ransack all the principal libraries in Europe in search of 

 literary or other indicia which may go to support or destroy the 

 theory. 



It should be premised that Dr. Waldstein went to Eretria with no 

 thought of such a discovery. He knew that it was a place of great 

 historical importance and antiquity, and he knew also that there 

 were dispersed among the clandestine dealers in antiquities at AtLens 

 many objects which could be traced to that ancient city, so familiar 

 to students of Herodotus and Thucydides. Even if it be found that 

 the explorer is mistaken, there can be no doubt of the great value and 

 interest of the ancient remains which have been disinterred, and of the 

 light which they reflect on an interesting period of Hellenic history 

 and culture. 



It would be remembered, he said, that Eretria and Chalcis were 

 the two great commercial cities of Eubcea, and every reader of 

 Thucydides was familar with the rivalry which so long subsisted 

 between Eretria and Athens. Its position was on the Euripus, with 

 a beautiful hilly landscape behind, and the mountains of Attica opposite 

 on the other side of the channel. 



Especial attention was drawn to Eretria by the discovery at 

 Chalcisj in 1869, of a long inscription referring to the former city, 



2 F 2 



