Lyceum

Lyceum
The Lyceum, named after a sanctuary to Apollo Lyceus, was an aria outside of the Athenian
city wall (now close to the Syntagma Square). In the 5th century BC it hosted a public
gymnasium and became a place where sophists and philosophers debated and taught. When in
335 BC Aristotle returned from Macedonia to Athens, instead of rejoining the Academy
headed by Xenocrates (339-314) he founded his own school at the Lyceum. Being a metic,
Aristotle could not own land in Athens, the school was held on rented premises, where a
library and rooms for lessons and research were situated. Aristotle organized permanent
teaching courses; most of his school-treatises originated from his lectures, whereas his
published works were addressed to a wider audience. The school was only legally organized
after Aristotle’ death by his successor Theophrastus. He acquired property in the Lyceum with
the support of his student Demetrius of Phaleron, who ruled Athens in 318-307. From the time
of Theophrastus the school was called Peripatos (probably from the covered walkway at the
Lyceum), and its members the Peripatetics. The scholarch was the legal owner of the school
and all of its property, he designated his successor or defined how he would be selected. The
first three scholarchs were Theophrastus (322-287), Strato of Lampsacus (287-269), and Lyco
of Troas (269-225).
However important the institutionalization of the Lyceum under Theophrastus was, the
school acquired its unique profile in its formative years through the efforts of Aristotle and the
first generation of Peripatetics. During Plato’s lifetime, the Academy did not require
adherence to a definite set of doctrines, but Xenocrates’ codification of Plato’s philosophy
was an important step toward dogmatism. Aristotle understood philosophy and knowledge in
general in a different way. In his school he placed an emphasis on mastering new fields and
methods in knowledge rather than on discussing certain core issues of ‘pure’ philosophy. The
Lyceum became an institution of higher education that carried out organized philosophical,
scientific and scholarly research on unprecedented scale, and was, as a result, the precursor of
the modern university. According to Aristotle, any theoretical conclusion has to rest on
systematically collected and organized empirical facts. Early Peripatetics applied this
methodology to the fields of their interests, laying the foundations for botany (Theophrastus,
Phanias), geography (Dicaerchus), metallurgy and mineralogy (Theophrastus), the history of
the exact sciences, philosophy, and medicine (Eudemus, Theophrastus, and Meno). Important
contributions were made to literary history and criticism, political theory and comparative
law, harmonics, and later to mechanics; Aristoxenus and Dicaerchus wrote the first
biographies. Demetrius, who became an adviser to Ptolemy I, and Strato, a teacher of Ptolemy
II, transferred the Peripatetic model to Alexandria. They were instrumental in founding and
developing the Museion and its library as a centre of scientific and scholarly research.
Theophrastus and Eudemus developed Aristotle’s logic and systematized his physics,
Theophrastus modified his ethics, but the encyclopaedic research of the early Lyceum
Lyceum
precluded the formation of a closed Aristotelian system. Aristotle’s school-treatises remained

for the most part unpublished. The Lyceum prospered under Theophrastus; it attracted a large
number of students, partly due to the evening courses, and was in competition with the other
philosophical schools. When Strato was elected as the new scholarch, Neleus of Scepsis, to
whom Theophrastus left the whole library of the Lyceum, brought Aristotle’s unpublished
treatises to Scepsis, where they remained unused for a long time. Though Aristotle’s works on
logic and natural history were available in Alexandria and Eudemus brought copies of
Metaphysics and Physics to Rhodes, from the mid 3rd till the 1st century BC there is no
reliable evidence of direct use of Metaphysics, Physics, Politics, Poetics, Rhetoric and other
key treatises. If they were available they did not arouse any serious interest even at the
Lyceum. Strato himself wrote on traditional Peripatetic subjects, logic, physics, ethics,
psychology, physiology, but he was the last to maintain this tradition. Interested in
metaphysics to an even lesser extent than Theophrastus, Strato revealed his originality mostly
in physics, where his stance was more empiricist and critical with regard to Aristotle than his
predecessor.
The decline of philosophical theorising, scientific research and literary production at the
Lyceum was already visible during Strato’s time and he had experienced serious difficulties in
finding a suitable successor. Under Lyco, who headed the school for 44 years, it experienced
real decay. Lyco was known as a popular teacher and gifted orator with a lavish lifestyle,
rather than as a philosopher or scientist; no title of his works is recorded. His colleague and
rival Hieronymus of Rhodes only wrote on literary history and ethics. There is no reliable
evidence that Lyco was succeeded by Ariston of Ceos, the author of popular philosophical
works. Though institutionally the school existed at least until 86 BC, when the Roman general
Sulla sacked Athens, no further scholarch is known. The strengths of the Lyceum were
developed further in Alexandria, but this did not include Peripatetic philosophy. The only
Peripatetic philosopher of the 2nd century worth mentioning was Critolaus of Phaselis.
Several biographers and historians of the 3rd-2nd centuries resident in Alexandria are labelled
in our sources as Peripatetics: Satyrus of Callatis, Hermippus of Smyrna, Sotion of
Alexandria, Agatharchides of Cnidus, which may imply a rather loose philosophical
affiliation or even work in fields associated by that time with the Lyceum.
The institutional decline of the Lyceum coincided with an Aristotelian revival in the 1st
century. It was a part of the great ‘back to the classics’ movement that also included the birth
of Neopythagoreanism and the turn of the Academy under Antiochus of Ascalon from
scepticism ‘back to Plato’. For the first time in the Peripatetic tradition emphasis was placed
not on developing Aristotle’s thought but on reading and commenting his school-treatises as a
canonical text, for which a reliable edition was needed. Though the fate of Aristotle’s school-
treatises is a much debated issue, it is widely held that their first edition was prepared by
Lyceum
Andronicus of Rhodes in the late 1st century BC. He arranged them in their present form and
order, compiled a catalogue and wrote commentaries to some of them; he also edited
Theophrastus’ writings. Thus Andronicus started the exegetical activity on Aristotelian corpus
that soon became the main form of Peripatetic philosophy and later of philosophy as such. It
was aimed at creating what had previously been lacking at the Lyceum: a universal system of
Aristotelian philosophy freed from contradictions and inconsistencies and defended against
rival systems. Nicolaus of Damascus (age of Augustus) wrote a compendium of Aristotle’s
philosophy and Andronicus’ student Boethus of Sidon and Alexander of Aegae, the teacher of
Nero, commented on his logical works. Peripatetic exegetic activity culminated in the 2nd
century AD with Aspasius, Adrastus, Sosigenes and, in particular, with Alexander of
Aphrodisias. Highly praised in late Antiquity as the best exegete of Aristotle, Alexander wrote
commentaries on most of Aristotle’s school-treatises; five of them and several smaller works
have survived. Alexander was the holder of the chair in Aristotelian philosophy in Athens and
called himself a teacher, but his direct students are unknown just as no subsequent Peripatetic
philosophers are known of. Later commentaries on Aristotle were written by the
Neoplatonists.
See also: Aristotle, his Commentators, Theophrastus, Demetrius of Phalerum,

Philosophical Schools.
Primary works
F. Wehrli, ed. Die Schule des Aristoteles: Texte und Kommentare. 2nd ed. 10 vols. Basel
1967-1974 (fragments of Dicaearchus, Aristoxenus, Clearchus, Demetrius, Strato, Lyco,
Aristo, Heraclides Ponticus, Eudemus, Phaenias, Chamaeleon, Praxipahes, Hieronymus, Cri-
tolaus). For new editions, translations, and discussions of the Peripatetics, see Rutgers
University Studies in Classical Humanities, published by Transaction (New Brunswick,
London):
Demetrius of Phalerum. Ed. by W.W. Fortenbaugh, E. Schütrumpf. 1999 (RUSCH 9).
Dicaearchus of Messana. Ed. by W.W. Fortenbaugh, E. Schütrumpf. 2001 (RUSCH 10).
Eudemus of Rhodes. Ed. by I. Bodnár, W.W. Fortenbaugh. 2002 (RUSCH 11).
Lyco of Troas and Hieronymus of Rhodes. Ed. by W.W. Fortenbaugh, S.A. White. 2004
(RUSCH 12).
Aristo of Ceos. Ed. by W.W. Fortenbaugh, S.A. White. 2006 (RUSCH 13).
Strato of Lampsacus. Ed. by R.W. Sharples (forthcoming in RUSCH 16).
Bibliography
J. P. Lynch. Aristotle’s School: A study of a Greek Educational Institution. Berkeley 1972.
Lyceum
P. Moraux. Der Aristotelismus bei den Griechen. Von Andronikos bis Alexander von
Aphrodisia. 3 vols. Berlin 1973-2001.
F. Wehrli, G. Wöhrle, L. Zhmud. Der Peripatos bis zum Beginn der römischen Kaiserzeit,
in Die Philosophie der Antike. Bd 3: Ältere Akademie. Aristoteles. Peripatos. 2nd ed. by H.
Flashar. Basel 2004, 495-666.
Greek and Roman Philosophy 100 BC – 200 AD. Ed. by R. Sorabji, R.W. Sharples. Vol. 2.
London 2007.

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precluded the formation of a closed Aristotelian system. Aristotle’s school-treatises remained

See also: Aristotle, his Commentators, Theophrastus, Demetrius of Phalerum,

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