Aristotle in Macedonia.

And so, here is a further post on Aristotle – I did soooo much research on him. :o I had planned a trip to his school in Macedonia but, sadly, the pandemic put paid to that. I will, however, show you the site which lies about 2 miles from Naoussa, a famous wine-producing and fruit-growing area. In this green, well-watered area, three caves, the remains of walls and columns can be seen. There are even ancient stone benches – imagine what great conversations went on there!                                          

 

As I’ve already mentioned, Aristotle was called to the court of Philip II of Macedon, to teach his son, Alexander. Others on his school ‘register’ at the time were Ptolemy I and Cassander.

Ptolemy (367-283 BC) was one of Alexander the Great’s generals, known to be very ambitious and was also known as Soter, The Saviour. After Alexander’s death, Ptolemy  ruled Egypt, which had been part of Alexander’s empire, from 305-283. He was, in fact, the founder and first Pharaoh of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. During his reign, he turned the country into a Hellenistic kingdom, and the city of Alexandria into a significant center of Greek culture.

                                                      

Cassander (358-297 BC) was another of Alexander the Great’s generals and was, himself, King of Macedon from 305 – 297 BC. He was married to Thessaloniki, Alexander’s half-sister, the synonymous city which he founded and named in her honour in 315BC. He also founded the city of Cassandreia, near today’s Potidea, in 316 BC and consequently that prong, Kassandra, of the Halkidiki peninsula subsequently took its name from this great military man and ruler. Below the images show both sides of a coin minted during his reign which shows his likeness and the image of a lion.                                               

Now that is one impressive student roll call that Aristotle had!                     

From the writings of Plutarch we learn that the subjects Aristotle taught there were philosophy, politics, literature, mathematics and war strategies.  If that latter subject seems incongruous, bear in mind that the Athenian Lyceum, where Aristotle had previously taught, was also a place where military exercises were carried out so there was some kind of relatedness.      

 I was fascinated to learn that Alexander, aware of his teacher’s great interest in nature, would regularly send him specimens of flora and fauna which he’d found on his offensives.                                     

The above image, entitled Alexander the Great and Aristotle, was painted by Jean L G Ferris in 1754.

 

 In time, Alexander the Great was to spread the Macedonian kingdom and the Hellenic culture to Asia and Egypt. Aristotle attempted to classify and make sense of the world around him and was to shape man’s mode of thinking. Clearly these two men left their marks indelibly on the world during their lifetimes and on Western civilization for centuries to come.