ARISTOTLE. 125 



ments of his pupil, his gratification would be yet more enhanced by 

 the nature of the reward which his services received. We have men- 

 tioned above the unhappy fate of Stagirus, Aristotle's birthplace. 

 Although his own fortunes were little affected by this calamity, his 

 patriotism, if we may believe the account in Plutarch, induced him to 

 demand as the price of his instructions, the restoration of his native 

 town. It was accordingly rebuilt, such of the inhabitants as were 

 living in exile were restored to the home of their infancy, such as had 

 been sold for slaves were redeemed, and in the days of Plutarch 

 strangers were shown the shady groves in which the philosopher 

 had walked, and the stone benches whereon he used to repose. 1 The 

 constitution under which the new citizens lived was said to be drawn 

 up by him, 2 and long afterwards his memory was celebrated by the 

 Stagirites in a solemn festival, and, it is said, one month of the year 

 (perhaps the one in which he was born) called by his name. 3 There 

 is every reason to believe that during the latter part of his connexion 

 with Alexander, when the more direct instruction had ceased, the 

 newly-built town furnished him with a quiet retreat, and that he then 

 and there composed the treatises we have mentioned above, for the 

 use of his absent pupil. While their personal communication lasted, 

 Pella, the capital of Macedonia, was probably his residence, 4 as it is 

 scarcely probable that Philip would have liked to trust the person of 

 the heir-apparent out of his dominions. 



We shall conclude the account of this portion of Aristotle's life by Fellow- 

 the mention of three other remarkable persons who probably all shared pupiisof 



i i i i 11 n i* i IT 11. Alexander. 



with Alexander in the beneht of his instructions, although this is only 

 positively stated of the last of them. 5 The first of these was Callis- 



1 Plutarch, Vit. Alex. sec. 7. In this matter the accounts are confused. ^Elian 

 (Var. Hist. iii. 17 ; xii. 54), Diogenes (v. 4), and Pliny (vii. 29), attribute the 

 restoration to Alexander. If it took place at the commencement of the regency, 

 these may be reconciled with Plutarch. But the testimony of Valerius Maximus 

 (v. 6) would refer both the destruction and rebuilding of Stagirus to Alexander, 

 and that too at a time when Aristotle was very old and residing in Athens. The 

 gentlest mode of reconciling this inaccurate epitomizer with possibilities, is to sup- 

 pose that he has confounded Stagirus with Eressus, the birthplace of Theophrastus, 

 of whom Diogenes and Pseudo-Ammonius relate a somewhat similar story. 



2 Plutarch, adv. Colot. extr. 



3 Pseudo-Ammon. and Vit. Lat. The name " Stagirites " shows the very late 

 rise of this feature of the story. It may be built, however, on a true foundation. 



4 This has been by Stahr (Aristotelia, i. p. 104) inferred from the expression 

 fioofiogou iv yrgox.oa'ts in Theocritus's Epigram, quoted above, p. 114, note. The 

 Macedonians, he says, called the river, on whose banks Pella stood, by the name 

 Bdg&ogos. We cannot find any authority except Plutarch for this assertion; and 

 should be inclined to recognize in the expression in question a moral rather than a 

 physical allusion. 



* Suidas, v. Marsyas. That Callisthenes and Theophrastus were together pupils 

 of Aristotle appears from Diogenes (Vit. Theoph. sec. 39) ; and the Macedonian 

 connexions of both would incline us to believe that it was in that country that 

 this relation existed. Theophrastus was personally known to Philip, and treated 

 with distinction by him. (./Elian, Var. Hist. iv. 19.) And if Callisthenes had 

 been Aristotle's pupil at Athens, his character would surely have been sufficiently 



