1011 



THEOPHRASTUS. 



THEOPHRASTUS. 



1012 



was first published by Guidot, in Greek, with a Latin translation by 

 himself, at the end of the edition ' De Uriuis ' mentioned above : the 

 Greek text alone is inserted by Ideler in his ' Physici et Medici Gr89ci 

 Minores.' 



The last of the works of Theophilus that remains is a treatise, 

 ' Tltpl 'Stpvyfiuat',' ' De Pulsibus,' which first appeared in a Latin trans- 

 lation, under the name of ' Philaretus,' in several of the old editions 

 of the ' Articella.' It was first published in a separate form at Basel, 

 8vo, 1533; translated by Albanus Torinus, together with the treatise 

 ' De Urinis ' mentioned above. It was reprinted at Strasburg, 8vo, 

 1535, and inserted by H.Stephens in his 'Medicse Artis Principes.' 

 The Greek text was first published by F. Z. Ermerins in his 'Anecdota 

 Medica Grsoca,' Lugd. Bat., 8vo, 1840, together with a new Latin 

 translation. The text is taken from one manuscript at Leyden and 

 four at Paris, and differs very considerably from the older Latin 

 translation going under the name of Philaretus. 



(Guidot's Notes to Theoph. De Urinis ; Fabricius, Biblioth. Orceca ; 

 Freind, Hist, of Physic; Haller, Biblioth. Anat. and Biblioth. Medic. 

 Pract.; Sprengel, Hist, de la Med.; Dietz's Preface to the second 

 volume of his Scholia in Nippocr. et Gal.; Ermerin's Preface to his 

 Anted. Med. Or. ; Choulant, ffandbuch der Bucherkunde fur die 

 Aeltere Medicin ; Greenhill's Notes to Theoph. De Corp. Hum. Fabr.) 



THEOPHRASTUS was born at Eresus, in the island of Lesbos, but 

 the year of his birth is uncertain : some writers state it to be B.C. 371 ; 

 others place it much earlier. According to Hieronymus (' Epist.,' 2, 

 ad Nepotianum) he died in the year B.C. 285, and, as some say, at the 

 age of eighty-five (Diogenes Laert., v. 40), or, according to others, at 

 the age of 106 years. These different accounts of hia age leave the 

 date of his birth uncertain. When a youth his father Melantas sent 

 him to Athens for the purpose of studying. Here he was first a pupil 

 of Plato, and became an intimate friend of Aristotle, who, charmed 

 with his talents and his beautiful pronunciation, is said to have given 

 him the name of Theophrastus (one who speaks divinely) : his real 

 name was Tyrtamus. (Quinctilian, x. 1, 83; Cicero, ' Orator.,' 19.) 

 After the death of Plato, when Speusippus had placed himself at the 

 head of the Academy, Theophrastus, with a number of the former 

 disciples of Plato, left the Academy. Plutarch has preserved a bare 

 account of an event in the life of Theophrastus, which must perhaps 

 be assigned to the time which he spent away from Athens after his 

 withdrawal from the Academy. Plutarch says that he and Phidias 

 delivered their country twice from the oppression of tyrants. After 

 the battle of Chseronea, Theophrastus returned to Athens, from which 

 he had been absent for many years ; and as Aristotle had then just 

 opened his school (the Lyceum), Theophrastus ranged himself among 

 the hearers of his friend, and cultivated most zealously all the depart- 

 ments of philosophy and science of which Aristotle was then the 

 great master. When Aristotle himself withdrew, Theophrastus 

 became his successor in the Lyceum, and acquired great reputation in 

 his new sphere, not because he created any new system of philosophy, 

 but because he combined the knowledge and profundity of Aristotle 

 with the fascinating eloquence of Plato. The number of his pupils 

 on one occasion is said to have amounted to two thousand (Diogenes 

 Laert., v. 37), who nocked around him from all parts of Greece, This 

 popularity, and the influence which it gave him in the public affairs of 

 Greece through the practical character of his philosophy, roused the 

 indignation and envy of those who saw in him an obstacle to their 

 designs. The consequence was that Agonides, who probably acted on 

 behalf of many others, brought against him a charge of impiety. 

 Theophrastus pleaded his own cause before the Areopagus with his 

 usual eloquence, and convinced that court of his innocence. His 

 accuser would have fallen a victim to his own calumny, if Theo- 

 phrastus had not generously interfered and saved him. After this 

 event he enjoyed undisturbed peace for several years, and he saw his 

 school, which was visited by the most eminent men of the age, daily 

 increase. The tranquillity which he enjoyed was however chiefly 

 owing to the influence of Demetrius Phalereus, who had himself been 

 a pupil of Theophrastus. After the fall of Demetrius the persecutions 

 began afresh ; and, in 305 B.C., Sophocles, son of Amphiclides, carried 

 a law which forbade all philosophers, under pain of death, to give any 

 public instruction without permission of the state. (Diogenes Laert., 

 v. 38 ; Athenaeus, xiii., p. 610 ; J. Pollux, ix. 5.) Theophrastus left 

 Athens ; but in the following year, the law being abolished, and the 

 mover condemned to pay a fine of five talents, Theophrastus and 

 several other philosophers returned to Athens, where he continued 

 his labours without interruption until his death. The whole popula- 

 tion of Athens is said to have followed his body to the grave. His 

 will, in which he disposed of his literary and other property, is pre- 

 served in Diogenes Laertius. His library was very valuable, as it 

 contained the works of Aristotle, which this philosopher had be- 

 queathed to Theophrastus. Theophrastus bequeathed them, together 

 with his other literary property, to Neleus of Scepsis. 



Theophrastus, aa already observed, did not develope a new system 

 of philosophy, but he confined himself to explaining that of his 

 master Aristotle. With this view he wrote numerous works on 

 various branches of philosophy and on natural history. His philoso- 

 phical works may be divided into works on philosophy, in the narrower 

 sense of the word, works on historical subjects, and works on certain 

 arts, such as oratory, poetry, and the like. It is to be lamented that 



most of his writings on these departments are now lost, and more 

 especially those on politics (rioAmKti), on legislators (irtpl vo^oOtrSiv), 

 on laws, a work of which Cicero made great use, and his works on 

 oratory, of which Theophrastus himself was so distinguished a master. 

 A list of the lost books of Theophrastus is given in Fabricius 

 ('Biblioth. Grseca,' iiL, p. 445, &c.). Andronicus of Rhodes, a Peri- 

 patetic philosopher of the time of Lucullus, made a list of all the works 

 of Theophrastus, and arranged them in systematic order. The follow- 

 ing philosophical works of Theophrastus are still extant : 



1. ' Characteres,' or jjQiKol x a P aK ' I ' : np fS > consisting of thirty, or, ac- 

 cording to Schneider's arrangement, of thirty-one chapters. In this 

 work the author gives thirty characteristic descriptions of vices, or 

 rather, of the manner in which they show themselves hi man. The 

 descriptions however are mere sketches, and form a gallery of bad or 

 ridiculous characters. Many modern critics have maintained that the 

 work in its present form is not to be regarded as a production of Theo- 

 phrastus, but that it is either an abridgment of a greater work of the 

 philosopher, or a collection of descriptions of vicious characters, com- 

 piled either from the writings of Theophrastus, or from those of 

 others. Neither of these opinions is incompatible with the statement 

 of Diogenes Laertius, Suidas, and other late writers who mention 

 i]QiKol xopaKTTJpey among the works of Theophrastus; for the 'Cha- 

 racteres ' which we now possess may have been compiled and published 

 under the name of Theophrastus long before their time. Either of 

 these hypotheses would also account for the fact that nearly all the 

 definitions of the vices that occur in the book contain some error, 

 which it must be presumed, would not have been the case if the work 

 had been written by Theophrastus. Other critics, on the contrary, 

 have vindicated the ' Characteres ' as a genuine work of Theophrastus, 

 and have attributed all its defects and inaccuracies to the bad manu- 

 scripts upon which the text is based. This opinion has received con- 

 siderable support from the discovery of a Munich codex, part of 

 which was published by Fr. Thiersch in 1832, in the ' Acta Philologo- 

 rum Monascensium ' (vol. iiL, fasc. 3). This manuscript contains the 

 titles of all the thirty chapters, but the text of only twenty-one. The 

 first five chapters and the introduction, which were edited by Thiersch, 

 are considerably shorter than the common text, the language is per- 

 fectly pure, and there is very little doubt that this is the genuine text 

 of the work of Theophrastus, and that the common one is only a 

 paraphrase, made perhaps by Maximus Planudes, who is known to 

 have written a commentary on the 'Characteres' of Theophrastus. 

 The editio princeps of the ' Characteres ' is by Wilibald Pyrckheimer, 

 8vo, Niirnberg, 1527. This edition, which contains only fifteen 

 chapters, was reprinted with a Latin translation by A. Politianu*, 

 8vo, Basel, 1531, and fol, 1541. Chapters 16 to 23 were first added by 

 Camotius, who published the works of Theophrastus in the sixth 

 volume of his edition of Aristotle (Venice, 1551-52). These twenty- 

 three chapters were increased by five new ones from a Heidelberg 

 manuscript in the excellent edition of Casaubon, of 1599 (reprinted 

 in 8vo, 1612 and 1617). The last two chapters were added in the 

 edition which appeared at Parma, 4to, 1786. A still more perfect, and 

 in fact the first complete edition is that of J. P. Siebenkees, which 

 was edited by Goetz, 8vo, Niirnberg, 1798. In 1799 there appeared 

 two new editions, the one by Coraes (8vo, Paris), and the other by 

 Schneider (8vo, Jena). The last edition, which is very useful, is that 

 of Fr. Ast, 8vo, Leipzig, 1816. The 'Characteres' have been trans- 

 lated into French by Jean de la Bruyere (12mo, Paris, 1696, often re- 

 printed, and lastly edited by Schweighaiiser, Paris, 1802), and by 

 Levesque (12mo, Paris, 1782). The best German translations are 

 those of C. Rommel (12mo, Prenzlau, 1827), and of J. J. Hottinger 

 (8vo, Munchen, 1821). There are English translations by F. Howell, 

 8vo, London, 1824; by Eustace Budgell, 8vo, London, 1713; and by 

 Taylor. There is also a translation into modern Greek by Larbaris, 

 8vo, Vienna, 1815. 



2. A fragment of a work on Metaphysics, which consists of one 

 book entire (Tcav /tera ra. (pvffinb. dirooTra<r/u.c{Tiov i) /3i/3\iois d). This book 

 was not mentioned by Andronicus of Rhodes in his catalogue of the 

 works of Theophrastus, but it is ascribed to him by Nicolaus Damas- 

 cenus. It is printed in all the early editions of the works of Theo- 

 phrastus in connection with those of Aristotle, as in those of Venice 

 (1497), Basel (1541), Venice (1552), and in that of Sylburg (Frankfurt, 

 1587). The best edition is that of Ch. A. Brandis, who annexed it to 

 his edition of Aristotle's ' Metaphysics,' 8vo, Berlin, 1823. 



8. A Dissertation irep\ alff6i\ffe(as, that is, on the Senses and the 

 Imagination. There is a paraphrastic commentary on this work by 

 Priscian, the Lydian, who lived in the 6th century of our era. It 

 was first edited by Trincavelli (fol., Venice, 1536), with Priscian's 

 paraphrase, and ' Qusestiones ' by Alexander Aphrodisiensis. It is 

 also printed in the above-mentioned collections of the works of Theo- 

 phrastus, and in that published by Schneider, Leipzig, 1818-21. 



The fragments of other philosophical works are too brief and 

 numerous to be noticed here. 



The ' History of Plants,' by Theophrastus, trtpl fyvruv iV-rop/ay, is 

 one of the earliest works on botany that was written with anything 

 like scientific precision. The work is divided into ten books, of the 

 last of which only a fragment is preserved. The matter is arranged 

 upon a system by which plants are classed according to their modes of 

 generation, their localities, their size as trees or shrubs and herbs, and 



