Theophrastus
Greek philosopher and educator
371 BCE to 287 BCE
Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BCE), a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, is the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school.
He came to Athens at a young age, and initially studied in Plato's school.
After Plato's death he attaches himself to Aristotle.
Aristotle bequeaths to Theophrastus his writings, and designates him as his successor at the Lyceum.
Theophrastus presides over the Peripatetic school for thirty-six years, during which time the school flourishes greatly.
After his death, the Athenians honor him with a public funeral.
His successor as head of the school is Strato of Lampsacus.
The interests of Theophrastus were wide-ranging, extending from biology and physics to ethics and metaphysics.
His two surviving botanical works, Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants, were an important influence on medieval science.
There are also surviving works On Moral Characters, On Sensation, On Stones, and fragments on Physics and Metaphysics all written in Greek.
In philosophy, he studied grammar and language, and continued Aristotle's work on logic.
He also regarded space as the mere arrangement and position of bodies, time as an accident of motion, and motion as a necessary consequence of all activity.
In ethics, he regarded happiness as depending on external influences as well as on virtue, and famously said that "life is ruled by fortune, not wisdom."
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Callisthenes, held shortly afterward to be privy to a conspiracy against Alexander among the royal pages, is thrown into prison, where he dies in 327; resentment of this action alienates sympathy from Alexander within the Peripatetic school of philosophers, with which Callisthenes, as the nephew of Aristotle, has close connections.
His death is commemorated by his friend Theophrastus in Callisthenes, or a Treatise on Grief.
Alexander leaves Bactria in early summer with a reinforced army under a reorganized command.
If Plutarch's figure of one hundred and twenty thousand men has any reality, however, it must include all kinds of auxiliary services, together with muleteers, camel drivers, medical corps, peddlers, entertainers, women, and children; the fighting strength perhaps stands at about thirty-five thousand.
Demosthenes’ long service to the Athenian state ends in abandonment by its fickle citizenry.
While fleeing Antipater's soldiers, he kills himself by taking poison, his death a symbol of the decline of Athenian democracy.
Theophrastus, Aristotle’s successor as head of the Lyceum, dies about 286 BCE, leaving behind an influential body of scientific works, particularly those in botany, as well as his contributions to logic, his Doctrines of the Natural Philosophers, and Characters, his satirical study of ethical types.
The interests of Strabo, who succeeds Throphrastus, lie primarily in physical theory, causing the school to lose touch with Aristotle's major works (either through indifference or unavailability).