(Θεόφραστος), the Greek philosopher, was a native of Eresus in Lesbos. (Strabo xiii. p.618; D. L. 5.36, &c.) Before he left his native city the bent of his mind was directed towards philosophy by Leucippus or Alcippus, a man of whom we know nothing further. Leaving Eresus, he betook himself to Athens, where he attached himself at first to Plato, but afterwards to Aristotle. (Diog. Laert. l.c.) The story that the latter changed the name of this, his favourite pupil, from Tyrtamus to Theophrastus (for the purpose, as is stated, of avoiding the cacophony, and of indicating the fluent and graceful address of the young man; Strabo, l.c. ; D. L. 5.38, ib. Menag.), is scarcely credible. Nor can we place more reliance on the accounts that this change of name took place at a later period. (He is already called Theophrastus in Aristotle's will; see D. L. 5.12, &c.) The authorities who would lead us to suppose this express themselves very indistinctly. (Cic. Orat. 19; Siquidem et Theophrastus divintate loquendi nomen invenit ; Quintil. Inst. Orat. 11.1, in Theophrasto tam est eloquendi nitor ille divinus ut ex eo nomen quoque traxisse dieatur.) It is much more likely that the
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proper name itself, which occurs elsewhere (Steph. Thesaur. Ling. Graec. ed. nov. Paris), suggested attempts to connect it with the eloquence which so eminently distinguished the Eresian. To prove the love of Aristotle for Theophrastus we do not need to betake ourselves to the above story, or to the doubtful expression of the former with respect to the latter, that " he needed the rein, not the spur," an expression which Plato is also said to have made use of with respect to Aristotle (D. L. 5.39, ib. Menag.); it is proved in a much more indubitable manner by the will of the Stagirite, and by the confidence which led him. when removing to Chalcis, to designate Theophrastus as his successor in the presidency of the Lyceum D. L. 5.36; comp. A. Gell. Noct. Att. 13.5). It is not unlikely, moreover, that Theophrastus had been the disciple of Aristotle during the residence of the latter in Stageira, while engaged in the education of Alexander : at all events Theophrastus, in his will, mentions an estate that he possessed at Stageira (D. L. 5.52), and was on terms of the most intimate friendship with Callisthenes, the fellow-pupil of Alexander (D. L. 5.44, ib. Menag.). Two thousand disciples are said to have gathered round Theophrastus, and among them such men as the comic poet Menander. (D. L. 5.37, 36.) Highly esteemed by the kings Philippus, Cassander, and Ptolemaeus, he was not the less the object of the regard of the Athenian people, as was decisively shown when Agonis ventured to bring an impeachment against him, on the ground of impiety (l.100.37 ; comp. Aelian, Ael. VH 4.19). Nevertheless, when, according to the law of Sophocles (Ol. 118. 3), the philosophers were banished from Athens, Theophrastus also left the city, until Philo, a disciple of Aristotle, in the very next year. brought Sophocles to punishment, and procured the repeal of the law. (D. L. 5.38, ib. Menag.; comp. C. G. Zumpt, Ueber den Besland der philosophischen Schulen in Athen, &c., Berlin, 1843, p. 17.) Whether Theophrastus succeeded Aristotle without opposition, and also came into possession of the house and garden where the former taught in the Lyceum (not far from the present royal palace in Athens), is uncertain. In the will of Aristotle no express directions were left on this point. Still there is nothing at variance therewith in the statement that Theophrastus, after the death of Aristotle, with the assistance of Demetrius Phalereus, obtained a garden of his own. (The words of Diogenes Laertius, 5.39, are very obscure; the καὶ in the words λέγεται δʼ αὐτὸν καὶ κῆπον σχεῖν μετὰ τὴν Ἀριστοτέλους τελευτήν, Δηυητριου τοῦ Φαληρέως .... τοῦτο συμπράξαντος, appears rather to refer to a previous possession than to exclude it.) That the executor of the will of Aristotle instituted a sale of the estate, respecting which no directions had been left in the will, and that Demetrius interposed, in order to secure a permanent possession for the head of the school, we cannot, with Zumpt (l.c. p. 8), conclude from the above words. The garden, provided with houses, colonnades, walks, &c., whether it was exclusively the private property of Theophrastus, or was, at least, inherited in part by him from Aristotle, is made over by the former in his will to Strato and his other friends, provided they had a mind to philosophize together, as a common and inalienable possession (D. L. 5.51, &c.). A similar testamentary disposition of the property was made by Strato and Lycon, the succeeding heads of the school. (D. L. 5.61, &c., 70.)
Theophrastus reached an advanced age; whether that of eighty-five years (D. L. 5.40) or more (Hieronymus, Epist. ad Nepotian. even speaks of 107 years), we leave undecided. But the statement contained in the letter to Polycles, prefixed to his Characteres, according to which this book was composed in the ninety-ninth year of the author, although Tzetzes (Chil. 9.941) already read it so, may very well rest on a clerical error (comp. Casaubon. ad Theophr. Charact. Proleg. p. 85); and if Theophrastus was the head of the school for thirty-five years (D. L. 5.36, 58), he would, even had he only reached his hundredth year, have been older than Aristotle. If he reached the age of eighty-seven, he was ten years younger, and was born Ol. 101. 3. Theophrastus is said to have closed his life. which was devoted to restless activity (D. L. 5.36; comp. Suid.), with the complaint respecting the short duration of human existence, that it ended just when the insight into its problems was beginning. (This complaint, expressed in different forms, we read in Cicero, Tusc. 3.28; Hieron. l.c. ; D. L. 5.41.) The whole people took part in his funeral obsequies. (Diog. Laert. l.c.) His faithful affection for Aristotle, which he had transferred to Nicomachus, the son of the latter and his own disciple, expresses itself in the directions contained in his will respecting the preparation and preservation of the states or busts of the Stagirite and his son (D. L. 5.51, 52); and still more in the way in which he exerted himself to carry out the philosophical endeavours of his teacher. to throw light upon the difficulties contained in his books, to fill up the gaps in them. and, with respect to individual dogmas, to amend them.
[CH. A. B.]