no ARISTOTLE THE FIRST SCALE-READER 



of " The Philosopher of the many Rings " better earned than 

 by his foppish affection for jewellery. 



In general opinion, the person most closely approaching 

 the required Proteus or Nereus was his pupil and sometime 

 friend, Alexander the Great. By placing at his disposal 

 several thousand men to collect all kinds of animals and fishes 

 from all parts of the then known world, he enabled him with 

 the aid of the materials thus provided to produce his famous 

 Natural History. 



For this identification we have riot a scrap of internal 

 evidence, but merely the assertions of much later writers, 

 such as PHny, Athenseus (who adds that Philip gave him 800 

 talents to finish the History), and iEHan.i 



Apart from want of intrinsic evidence, the fact that the 

 geographical references and the fish mentioned in his Natural 

 History nearly all cluster round Lesbos effectually precludes the 

 idea of Alexander " Hagenbecking " for Aristotle. 2 



Internal evidence and reasons advanced by Professor 

 D'Arcy Thompson ^ indicate that nearly all the animals and 

 fishes with which Aristotle was practically acquainted belonged 

 to Greece, Western Asia, and Sappho's Lesbos (especially of 

 the lagoon of Pyrrha), where he lived some four years just 

 previous to his Macedonian trip, 343 B.C. 



The fishes in his Natural History, mostly given without any 

 attempt at classification or really adequate description, number 

 at least one hundred and ten. He discusses in some instances 

 the anatomical characteristics, food, breeding habits, migrations, 



1 Plin., Nat. Hist., VIII. 17 ; Athen., Deipn., IX. 58 ; ^1., Var. Hist., IV. ig. 



2 On the other hand, Abu-Shaker, an Arab writer of the thirteeth century, 

 makes Aristotle the material benefactor of Alexander by his present of a box 

 in which a number of wax figures were nailed down. These were intended to 

 represent the various kinds of armed forces that Alexander was likely to 

 encounter. Some held leaden swords curved backwards, some spears pointed 

 head downwards, and some bows with cut strings. All the figures were laid 

 face downwards in the box. Aristotle bade his pupil never to let the key out 

 of his possession, and taught him to recite certain formulae whenever he opened 

 the box. This is only another use of magic, for the wax, the words of power, 

 and the position of the figures all indicate that his foes would become pros- 

 trate and unable to withstand Alexander. See Budge, Life of Alexander the 

 Great (one vol. ed.), p. xvi. 



3 See D'Arcy Thompson, Aristotle as a Biologist, Herbert Spencer Lecture, 

 Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1913, p. 13. 



