Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1100

 proper name itself, which occurs elsewhere (Steph. Thesaur. Ling. Graec. ed. nov. Paris), suggested attempts to connect it with the eloquence which so eminently distinguished the Eresian. To prove the love of Aristotle for Theophrastus we do not need to betake ourselves to the above story, or to the doubtful expression of the former with respect to the latter, that "he needed the rein, not the spur," an expression which Plato is also said to have made use of with respect to Aristotle (Diog. Laërt. v. 39, ib. Menag.) ; it is proved in a much more indubitable manner by the will of the Stagirite, and by the confidence which led him, when removing to Chalcis, to designate Theophrastus as his successor in the presidency of the Lyceum (Diog. Laert. v. 36; comp. A. Gell. Noct. Att. xiii. 5). It is not unlikely, moreover, that Theophrastus had been the disciple of Aristotle during the residence of the latter in Stageira, while engaged in the education of Alexander: at all events Theophrastus, in his will, mentions an estate that he possessed at Stageira (Diog. Laërt. v. 52), and was on terms of the most intimate friendship with Callisthenes, the fellow-pupil of Alexander (Diog. Laert. v. 44, ib. Menag.). Two thousand disciples are said to have gathered round Theophrastus, and among them such men as the comic poet Menander. (Diog. Laert. v. 37, 36.) Highly esteemed by the kings Philippus, Cassander, and Ptoleniaeus, he was not the less the object of the regard of the Athenian people, as was decisively shown when Agonis ventured to bring an impeachment against him, on the ground of impiety {l. c. 37; comp. Aelian, V. H. iv. 19). Nevertheless, when, according to the law of Sophocles (01. 118. 3), the philosophers were banished from Athens, Theophrastus also left the city, until Philo, a disciple of Aristotle, in the very next year, brought Sophocles to punishment, and procured the repeal of the law. (Diog. Laert. v. 38, ib. Menag.; comp. C. G. Zumpt, Ueber den Bestand der philosophischen Schulen in Athen, &c., Berlin, 1843, p. 17.) Whether Theophrastus succeeded Aristotle without opposition, and also came into possession of the house and garden where the former taught in the Lyceum (not far fiom the present royal palace in Athens), is uncertain. In the will of Aristotle no express directions were left on this point. Still there is nothing at variance therewith in the statement that Theophrastus, after the death of Aristotle, with the assistance of Demetrius Phalereus, obtained a garden of his own. (The words of Diogenes Laertius, v. 39, are very obscure; the καί in the words λέγεται δ' αύτόν καί κήπον σχείν μετά τήν Άριστοτέλους τελευτήν, Δημητρίυ τού Φαληρέως….τούτοv συμπράξαντος, appears rather to refer to a previous possession than to exclude it.) That the executor of the will of Aristotle instituted a sale of the estate, respecting which no directions had been left in the will, and that Demetrius in- terposed, in order to secure a permanent possession for the head of the school, we cannot, with Zumpt {l. c. p. 8), conclude from the above words. The garden, provided with houses, colonnades, walks, &c., whether it was exclusively the private property of Theophrastus, or was, at least, inherited in part by him from Aristotle, is made over by the former in his will to Strato and his other friends, provided they had a mind to philosophize together, as a common and inalienable possession (Diog. Laert. v. 51, &c.), A similar testamentary disposition of the property was made by Strato and Lycon, the succeeding heads of the school. (Diog. Laert. v. 61, &c., 70.)

Theophrastus reached an advanced age ; whether that of eighty-five years (Diog. Laert. v. 40) or more (Hieronymns, Epist. ad Ncpotian. even speaks of 107 years), we leave undecided. But the state- ment contained in the letter to Polycles, prefixed to his Characteres, according to which this book was composed in the ninety-ninth year of the author, although Tzetzes {CIdl. ix. 941) already read it so, may very well rest on a clerical error (comp. Ca- saubon. ad Tkcophr. Charact. Prolog, p. 85) ; and if Theophrastus was the head of the school for thirty-five years (Diog. Laert. v. 36, 58),he would, even had he only reached his hundredth year, have been older than Aristotle. If he reached the age of eighty-seven, he was ten years younger, and was born 01. 101. 3. Theophrastus is said to have closedshis life, which was devoted to restless activity (Diog. Laert. v. 36 ; comp. Suid.), with the com- plaint respecting the short duration of human existence, that it ended just when the insight into its problems was beginning. (This complaint, ex- pressed in diflferent forms, we read in Cicero, Tusc. iii. 28 ; Hieron. I.e. ; Diog. Laert. v. 41.) The whole people took part in his funeral obsequies. (Diog. Laert. I.e.) His faithful aiFection for Ari- stotle, which he had transferred to Nicomachus, the son of the latter and his own disciple, expresses itself in the directions contained in his will respect- ing the preparation and preservation of the statues or busts of the Stagirite and his son (Diog. Laert. v. 51, 52) ; and still more in the way in which he exerted himself to carry out the philosophical en- deavours of his teacher, to throw light upon the difficulties contained in his books, to fill up the gaps in them, and, with respect to individual dogmas, to amend them. II. The preceding statement finds its confirma- tion in the list of the writings of the Eresian given us, though with his usual haste, by Diogenes Laertius, but probably borrowed from authorities like Hermippus and Andronicus (Schol. at the end of the Metaphysics of Theophrastus), and the state- ments respecting them contained in other writers, which Menage has already, at least in part, collected in his notes. Thus Theophrastus, like Aristotle, had composed a first and second Analytic (Diog. Laert. V. 42, ib. Menag.), and, at least in the case of the former, had connected his treatise with that of his great predecessor, in the manner indicated above (see below, section III.). He had also written books on Topics (Diog. Laert. v. 42, 45, 50), and on the confutation of fallacies (ib. 42, 45) ; the former again, at all events, with a careful regard to the Topica of Aristotle. The work of Theophrastus " On Affirmation and Denial " (irepi Karacpda-ecos Koi aTTocpda-eus^ Diog. Laert. v. 44) seems to have corresponded to that of Aristotle " On Judgment " (irepl epfX7]velas). To the books of Aristotle on the "Principles of Natural Philosophy " {Physica Auscultatio), on Heaven, and on Meteorological Phenomena, Theophrastus had had regard in cor- responding works. (Diog. Laert. v. 42, 50, 47.) Further, he had written on the Warm and the Cold (Diog. Laert. v. 44, ib. Menag.), on Water, Fire (Diog. Laert. v. 45), the Sea (ib.), on Coagu- lation and Melting (irepl ir-n^ews Kol Ti^|6«y), on various phenomena of organic and spiritual life (Diog. Laert. v. 45, ib. Menag., 43, 46, 49, 43, 44) ;