Aristo of
Ceos
Kea ( el, Κέα), also known as Tzia ( el, Τζια) and in antiquity Keos ( el, Κέως, la, Ceos), is a Greek island in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Kea is part of the Kea-Kythnos regional unit.
Geography
It is the island o ...
(; grc-gre, Ἀρίστων ὁ Κεῖος; ) was a
Peripatetic
Peripatetic may refer to:
*Peripatetic school, a school of philosophy in Ancient Greece
*Peripatetic axiom
* Peripatetic minority, a mobile population moving among settled populations offering a craft or trade.
*Peripatetic Jats
There are several ...
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
and a native of the island of
Ceos
Kea ( el, Κέα), also known as Tzia ( el, Τζια) and in antiquity Keos ( el, Κέως, la, Ceos), is a Greek island in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Kea is part of the Kea-Kythnos regional unit.
Geography
It is the island o ...
. His birthplace was the town of
Ioulis Ioulis or Ioulida ( el, Ιουλίς, Ιουλίδα; grc, Ἰουλίς), locally called Chora or Hora ( el, Χώρα) like the main towns of most Greek islands, and sometimes known by the island name of Kea or Keos (or earlier Zea), is the capi ...
. He is not to be confused with
Aristo of Chios
Aristo of Chios ( el, Ἀρίστων ὁ Χῖος ''Ariston ho Chios''; fl. c. 260 BC), also spelled Ariston, was a Greek Stoic philosopher and colleague of Zeno of Citium. He outlined a system of Stoic philosophy that was, in many ways, close ...
, a
Stoic philosopher
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century Common Era, BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asser ...
of the mid 3rd century BC.
Aristo was a pupil of
Lyco, who had succeeded
Strato as the
head of the
Peripatetic school
The Peripatetic school was a school of philosophy in Ancient Greece. Its teachings derived from its founder, Aristotle (384–322 BC), and ''peripatetic'' is an adjective ascribed to his followers.
The school dates from around 335 BC when Aristo ...
from about 269 BC. After the death of Lyco (c. 225) Aristo probably succeeded him as the head of the school. Although Aristo was, according to
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...
, a man of taste and elegance, he was deficient in gravity and energy, which prevented his writings from acquiring the popularity they otherwise deserved. This may have been one of the causes of their neglect and loss.
Judging from the scant extant fragments, his philosophical views seem to have followed his master Lyco pretty closely.
Diogenes Laërtius, after enumerating the works of
Aristo of Chios
Aristo of Chios ( el, Ἀρίστων ὁ Χῖος ''Ariston ho Chios''; fl. c. 260 BC), also spelled Ariston, was a Greek Stoic philosopher and colleague of Zeno of Citium. He outlined a system of Stoic philosophy that was, in many ways, close ...
, says that
Panaetius
Panaetius (; grc-gre, Παναίτιος, Panaítios; – ) of Rhodes was an ancient Greek Stoic philosopher. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon and Antipater of Tarsus in Athens, before moving to Rome where he did much to introduce Stoic do ...
and
Sosicrates Sosicrates of Rhodes ( el, Σωσικράτης ὁ Ῥόδιος; ''floruit'' ''c.'' 180 BC) was a Greek historical writer. He was born on the island Rhodes and is noted, chiefly, for his frequent mention by Diogenes Laërtius in his ''Lives and O ...
attributed all these works, except the letters, to Aristo of Ceos. Whether this attribution is correct we are unable to determine. At any rate, one of those works, ''Conversations on Love'', is repeatedly ascribed to Aristo of Ceos by
Athenaeus
Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of th ...
. One work of Aristo not mentioned by Diogenes Laërtius was entitled ''Lyco'' in gratitude to his master. There are also two epigrams in the ''
Greek Anthology''
[''Greek Anthology'', vi. 303, and vii. 457] which are commonly attributed to Aristo of Ceos, though there is no evidence for the validity of their authorship.
Notes
References
*
Further reading
*Fortenbaugh, W., White, S., ''Aristo of Ceos: Text, Translation, and Discussion''. Transaction Publishers. (2006).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aristo of Ceos
3rd-century BC Greek people
3rd-century BC philosophers
Hellenistic-era philosophers in Athens
Peripatetic philosophers
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown
People from Kea (island)