Page:A History of Ancient Greek Literature.djvu/398

 374 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE bound to prefer Truth." A more fervid or less original disciple, Speusippus, for instance, would not have treated the two as antithetic. On Plato's death in 347, Speu- sippus was chosen head of the Academy ; and Aristotle found it tactful to leave Athens, accompanied by Xeno- crates, who afterwards succeeded Speusippus. He spent three years at Assos, in Mysia, and married Pythias, the niece of the dynast there, under romantic circumstances, having somehow rescued her during a revolt. It was in 343 that he was invited to Pella by Philip, and became tutor to the young Alexander, then aged seventeen. Nothing is known of those lessons. One fears there was little in common between the would-be rival of Achilles and the great expounder of the ' contemplative life,' except the mere possession of transcendent abili- ties. Aristotle's real friend seems to have been Philip. He had perhaps caught something of that desire for a converted prince which played such tricks with Plato and Isocrates. He had made attempts on two small potentates before Philip — Themison of Cyprus, and his wife's uncle, Hermeias. A year after Philip's death, Aristotle returned to Athens, and Alexander marched against the Persian Empire. Aristotle had always dis- approved of the plan of conquering the East. It was not 'contemplative.' And even his secondary piece of advice, that the conqueror should be a ' leader ' to the Greeks and a ' master ' to the barbarians, was rejected by Alexander, who ostentatiously refused to make any difference between them. There was a private difficulty, too, of a worse kind : one Callisthenes, whom Aristotle left as spiritual adviser in his stead, was afterwards im- plicated in a supposed conspiracy and put to death. But there was no open quarrel. It was probably at this