Theophrastus (Greek Θεόφραστος, 370 — about 285 BC), a native of Eressos in Lesbos, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. All the biographical information we have of him was provided by Diogenes Laertius' Lives of the Philosophers, written four hundred years after Theophrastus' time; nevertheless, it is a trustworthy tradition: "there is no intrinsic improbability in most of what Diogenes records".^[1] His given name was Tyrtamus, but he later became known by the nickname "Theophrastus", given to him, it is said, by Aristotle to indicate the grace of his conversation. Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC - 370s BC - 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC 330s BC 320s BC 375 BC 374 BC 373 BC 372 BC 371 BC - 370 BC - 369 BC 368 BC 367... Centuries: 4th century BC - 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC Decades: 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC - 280s BC - 270s BC 260s BC 250s BC 240s BC 230s BC 290 BC 289 BC 288 BC 287 BC 286 BC 285 BC 284 BC 283 BC 282... Eressos (Greek: Ερεσός) and its twin beach village Scala Eressou are located in the southwest part of the Greek island of Lesbos. ... The Lesbos Island shown off the coast of Turkey, northwest of Izmir Lesbos (in Greek, Λέσβος see also List of traditional Greek place names; and in Turkish, Midilli Adası) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. ... Aristotle (Greek: AristotélÄ“s) (384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ... Peripatetic means wandering. The Peripatetics were a school of philosophy in ancient Greece. ... Diogenes Laërtius, the biographer of the Greek philosophers, is supposed by some to have received his surname from the town of Laerte in Cilicia, and by others from the Roman family of the Laërtii. ...

Bust of Theophrastus

According to some sources, Theophrastus's father was named Messapus, and was married to a woman named Argiope and was the father of Cercyon -- but, this is not certain. Image File history File links Theophrastus. ... Image File history File links Theophrastus. ...

After receiving his first introduction to philosophy in Lesbos from one Leucippus or Alcippus, he proceeded to Athens, and became a member of the Platonic circle. After Plato's death he attached himself to Aristotle, and in all probability accompanied him to Stagira. The intimate friendship of Theophrastus with Callisthenes, the fellow-pupil of Alexander the Great, the mention made in his will of an estate belonging to him at Stagira, and the repeated notices of the town and its museum in the nine books of his Enquiry into plants and his six books of Causes of Plants point to this conclusion. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Athens (Greek: Αθήνα, Athína IPA: ) is the capital and largest city of Greece and the birthplace of democracy. ... For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation). ... Aristotle (Greek: Aristotélēs) (384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ... Statue of Aristoteles Stagira is a Greek village lying on a picturesque plateau on the Chalcidice peninsula, and standing at the foot of the Argirolofos hill. ... Callisthenes, or Kallisthenes, ( in Greek) of Olynthus (c. ... Alexander the Great (Greek: ,[1] Megas Alexandros; July 356 BC–June 11, 323 BC), also known as Alexander III, king of Macedon (336–323 BC), was one of, if not the most successful military commanders in history. ...

Aristotle in his will made him guardian of his children, bequeathed to him his library and the originals of his works,^[2] and designated him as his successor at the Lyceum on his own removal to Chalcis. Eudemus of Rhodes also had some claims to this position, and Aristoxenus is said to have resented Aristotle's choice. A lyceum can be an educational institution (often a school of secondary education in Europe), or a public hall used for cultural events like concerts. ... Chalcis or Chalkida, Halkida, Halkis or Chalkis (Greek, Modern: Χαλκίδα, Ancient/Katharevousa: -is), the chief town of the island of Euboea in Greece, situated on the strait of the Euripus at its narrowest point. ... Eudemus (350-290 BC) was the second major companion of Aristotle besides Theophrastus. ... Aristoxenus of Tarentum (4th century BC) was a Greek peripatetic philosopher, and writer on music and rhythm. ...

Theophrastus presided over the Peripatetic school for thirty-five years, and died at the age of eighty-five according to Diogenes.^[3] He is said to have remarked "we die just when we are beginning to live".

Under his guidance the school flourished greatly— there were at one period more than 2000 students, Diogenes affirms— and at his death, according to the terms of his will preserved by Diogenes, he bequeathed to it his garden with house and colonnades as a permanent seat of instruction. Menander was among his pupils. His popularity was shown in the regard paid to him by Philip, Cassander and Ptolemy, and by the complete failure of a charge of impiety brought against him. He was honoured with a public funeral, and "the whole population of Athens, honouring him greatly, followed him to the grave" (Diogenes Laertius). Bust of Menander Menander (342–291 BC) (Greek ), Greek dramatist, the chief representative of the New Comedy, was born in Athens. ... Philip II of Macedon: victory medal (niketerion) struck in Tarsus, 2nd c. ... Cassander (c. ... Ptolemy I Soter (367 BC–283 BC) was the ruler of Egypt (323 BC - 283 BC) and founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty. ...

From the lists of Diogenes, giving 227 titles, it appears that the activity of Theophrastus extended over the whole field of contemporary knowledge. His writing probably differed little from the Aristotelian treatment of the same themes, though supplementary in details. He served his age mainly as a great popularizer of science. The most important of his books are two large botanical treatises, Enquiry into Plants, in nine books (originally ten), and On the Causes of Plants, in six books (originally eight), which constitute the most important contribution to botanical science during antiquity and the middle ages, the first systemization of the botanical world; on the strength of these works some call him the "father of Taxonomy". The works profit from the reports on plants of Asia brought back from those who followed Alexander; "to the reports of Alexander's followers he owed his accounts of such plants as the cotton-plant, banyan, pepper, cinnamon, myrrh and frankincense." (Hort). He released the first recorded message in a bottle in order to show that the Mediterranean Sea was formed by the inflowing Atlantic Ocean. Historia Plantarum (Latin for History of Plants) is the name by which is known an atlas of botany written by Theophrastus between the third and the second century BC. This work was organised in ten books, and is an encyclopedia of the plant kingdom, in which a draft taxonomy is... Look up taxonomy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Cotton ready for harvest. ... Species Many; see text for examples Banyan (Ficus subgenus Urostigma) is a subgenus of many species of tropical figs with an unusual growth habit. ... Look up pepper in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Binomial name Cinnamomum verum J.Presl Cassia (Indonesian cinnamon) is also commonly called (and sometimes sold as) cinnamon. ... 100g of Myrrh. ... 100g of frankincense resin. ... A message in a bottle is a form of communication whereby a message is sealed in a container (archetypically a glass bottle, but could be plastic) and released into the sea or ocean. ... Composite satellite image of the Mediterranean Sea. ...

We also possess in fragments a History of Physics, a treatise On Stones, and a work On Sensation, and certain metaphysical Airoptai, which probably once formed part of a systematic treatise. He made the first known reference to the phenomenon of pyroelectricity, noting in 314 BC that the mineral tourmaline becomes charged when heated. Various smaller scientific fragments have been collected in the editions of Johann Gottlob Schneider (1818–21) and Friedrich Wimmer (1842—62) and in Hermann Usener's Analecta Theophrastea. Pyroelectricity is the electrical potential created in certain materials when they are heated. ... The tourmaline mineral group is chemically one of the most complicated groups of silicate minerals. ... Johann Gottlob Schneider (January 18, 1750 - January 12, 1822), German classical scholar and naturalist, was born at Koilmen in Saxony. ...

"The style of these works, as of the botanical books, suggests that, as in the case of Aristotle, what we possess consists of notes for lectures or notes taken of lectures," his translator Sir A. Hort remarks. "There is no literary charm; the sentences are mostly compressed and highly elliptical, to the point sometimes of obscurity."

His book The Characters, if it is indeed his, deserves a separate mention. The work consists of brief, vigorous and trenchant delineations of moral types, which contain a most valuable picture of the life of his time. They form the first recorded attempt at systematic character writing. The book has been regarded by some as an independent work; others incline to the view that the sketches were written from time to time by Theophrastus, and collected and edited after his death; others, again, regard the Characters as part of a larger systematic work, but the style of the book is against this. Theophrastus has found many imitators in this kind of writing, notably Hall (1608), Sir Thomas Overbury (1614–16), Bishop Earle (1628) and Jean de La Bruyère (1688), who also translated the Characters. A stock character is a fictional character that relies heavily on cultural types or stereotypes for its personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics. ... Joseph Hall (July 1, 1574 - September 8, 1656), English bishop and satirist, was born at Bristow park, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, on the 1st of July 1574. ... Thomas Overbury Sir Thomas Overbury (1581 - September 15, 1613), English poet and essayist, and the victim of one of the most sensational crimes in English history, was the son of Nicholas Overbury, of Bourton-on-the-Hill, and was born at Compton Scorpion, near Ilmington, in Warwickshire. ... John Earle (c. ... Jean de La Bruyère (August 16, 1645 - May 10, 1696), was a French essayist and moralist. ...

Theophrastus' Enquiry into Plants was first published in a Latin translation by Theodore Gaza, at Treviso, 1483;^[4] in its original Greek it first appeared from the press of Aldus Manutius at Venice, 1495-98, from a third-rate manuscript, which, like the majority of the manuscripts that were sent to printers' workshops in the fifteenth and sixteenth century, has disappeared.^[5] Wimmer identified two manuscripts of first quality, the Codex Urbinas in the Vatican Library, which was not made known to J.G. Schneider, who made the first modern critical edition, 1818-21, and the exerpts in the Codex Parisiensis in the Bibliothèque National. Theodorus Gaza (c. ... Aldus Manutius (1449/50 - February 6, 1515), the Latin form of Aldo Manuzio (born Teobaldo Mannucci) was the founder of the Aldine Press. ... The Vatican Library (Latin: Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana) is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. ... The new buildings of the library. ...

Notes

1. ^ Sir Arthur Hort, Introduction to Enquiry into Plants.
2. ^ "It may we be that we owe to Theophrastus the publication of some at least of his master's voluminous works." (Hort).
3. ^ "He is made indeed to say in the probably spurious Preface to the Characters that he is writing in his ninety-ninth year; while St. Jerome's Chronicle asserts that he lived to the age of 107" (Hort).
4. ^ Gaza, a refugee from Thessalonika, was working from a lost Greek manuscript that was different from any others. (Hort).
5. ^ It was carefully copied in a printing at Basel, 1541.

Theophrastus is known as the "Father of Pathology" Jerome (ca. ... The White Tower The Arch of Galerius Map showing the Thessaloníki prefecture Thessaloníki (Θεσσαλονίκη) is the second-largest city of Greece and is the principal city and the capital of the Greek region of Macedonia. ... Basel (British English traditionally: Basle and more recently Basel , German: Basel , French: Bâle , Italian: Basilea ) is Switzerlands third most populous city (166,563 inhabitants (2004); 690,000 inhabitants in the conurbation stretching across the immediate cantonal and national boundaries made Basel Switzerlands second-largest urban area as...

References

6. Theoprastus is known as the "Father of Pathology".Medalla.p.67