by Aristotle
F 288 R3 (Apollonius, historiae mirabiles 27):
Aristotle in Pertaining to Animals (for there are two works by him, On Animals and Pertaining to Animals) says: ‘Lice on the head do not perish during long illnesses; but when the patient is on the point of death the lice are found on the pillows, having abandoned the head’.
F 294 R3 (Athenaeus, 305D):
Aristotle in On Animals: ‘Others are toothless and smooth, like the needlefish; some are stoneheaded, like the cremys; some are very hard and rough-skinned, like the boar-fish; some have two stripes, like the seserinus; some have many stripes and red lines, like the saupe’.
F 297 R3 (Athenaeus, 286F):
Aristotle, in the work entitled Pertaining to Animals or On Fish, says: ‘Those with dorsal markings are called bogues, those with oblique markings mackerel’.
F 298 R3 (Athenaeus, 313D):
Aristotle in his Pertaining to Animals writes thus: ‘Fish with speckled tails include the blacktail and the sarg—they have many black markings’.
F 299 R3 (Athenaeus, 305C):
Aristotle in his Pertaining to Animals: ‘Some have black speckles, like the blackbird; others variegated speckles, like the thrush’.
F 308 R3 (Athenaeus, 277E):
Now when some bonito had been served, someone said: ‘Aristotle records that these have covered gills, that they are saw-toothed, belong to the gregarious and carnivorous groups, and have a gall-bladder and a spleen as long as their gut. And it is said that when they are caught they jump up and bite off the hook, thus escaping’.
F 311 R3 (Athenaeus, 298B):
Aristotle says that eels like very clean water. So eel-breeders pour clean water on them—for they are stifled in turbid water. That is why those who hunt them stir up the water in order to stifle them. For they have small gills and the ducts are immediately blocked by the mud. Thus during storms too, when the water is disturbed by the winds, they stifle. They copulate by twining together, and they then release a glue-like substance from themselves which, left in the mud, becomes a living creature. Eel-breeders say that they feed at night and lie still in the mud during the day; and they live, for the most part, for eight years.
F 346 R3 (Athenaeus, 389AB):
Aristotle says this about the creature: ‘The partridge is a land animal, with divided feet; it lives for fifteen years, though the female lives for even longer (for among birds the female are longer-lived than the males). It broods over its eggs and hatches them like a domestic hen. When it realizes that it is being hunted, it runs out in front of its nest and limps along by the hunter’s legs, giving him the hope of catching it; and it deceives him until the nestlings have flown away—whereupon it flies away itself. The creature is bad-natured and mischievous; it is also salacious. That is why it breaks the female’s eggs—so that it may tread her again. Thus the female, recognising this, runs away to lay’.
F 363 R3 (Aelian, de natura animalium XVI 33):
Aristotle says that the horns and ears of the cattle among the Neuri grow out of the same spot and are knitted together. The same author says that a certain place in Libya has goats with their udders suspended from their breasts. The following too is from the son of Nicomachus: he says that among the Boudini who live by the Cariscus white sheep are not to be found—they are all black.
F 366 R3 (Aelian, de natura animalium V 8):
Aristotle says that the land of the Astypalaeans is hostile to snakes, just as—so the same author tells us—Rhenea is to weasels.
F 368 R3 (Aelian, de natura animalium IV 57):
Aristotle says that a man who has been bitten by a water-snake immediately gives off a very heavy smell, so that no-one is able to approach him. According to the same author, anyone who has been bitten is overcome by drowsiness—and in fact a great mist comes over his eyes, and madness and very violent trembling ensue, and he dies two days later.
F 373 R3 (Galen, Commentarius in Hippocratis de natura hominis XV 25–26 K):
And if you want to investigate the opinions of the old doctors, you can read the volumes of the medical collection which are ascribed to Aristotle but are agreed to have been written by his pupil Menon—which is why some call them the Menonia. It is clear that Menon carefully sought out those books of the old doctors which were still extant in his time, and thence collected their opinions.
F 380 R3 (Vita Aristotelis Marciana 170–5 Gigon):
And in mathematics he showed that the cone of the lines of sight is acute-angled because the line of sight extends further than the magnitude which it sees. And for this reason none of the things seen is seen as a whole at one and the same time, and hence the axis is larger than the base and the cone is acute-angled.
VIII • HISTORICAL WORKS
F 381–644 R3
F 472 R3 (Athenaeus, 272D):
In the Constitution of the Aeginetans Aristotle says that they had 470,000 slaves.
F 473 R3 (Strabo, VII vii 2):
Aristotle’s Constitutions show that from of old they [sc. the Leleges] were nomads, both in association with them [sc. the Carians] and by themselves. For in the Constitution of the Acarnanians he says that while the Curetes held part of it [sc. of Acarnania], the Leleges, and then the Teleboae, held the western part. And in that of the Aetolians he calls Leleges those who are now Locrians, and he says that they also held Boeotia. Similarly in those of the Opuntians and of the Megarians. In that of the Leucadians he also names an autochthonous Lelex, his grandson Teleboa, and the latter’s twenty-two children, the Teleboae, some of whom settled in Leucas.
F 476 R3. F 510 R3 (Pollux, IV 174):
Aristotle, in the Constitution of the Acragantines, having said that they used to levy a fine of fifty litres, adds that ‘the litre is worth an Aeginetan obol.’ And in the Constitution of the Himerans he says that the Siceliots call two bronze pieces a dizas, one an ounce, three a trias, six a half-litre, an obol a litre, a Corinthian stater a decalitre (which is worth ten obols).
F 486 R3 (Scholiast to Pindar, Pythian I 89):
Aristotle says in the Constitution of the Geloans that Hieron’s brother died of dropsy, and, in the Constitution of the Syracusans, that Hieron himself suffered from cystitis.
F 491 R3 (Strabo. VIII vi 15):
Epidaurus used to be called Epicarus. For Aristotle says that the Carians held it, as they also held Hermione; but that when the Heraclidae returned, Ionians from the Attic Tetrapolis followed them to Argos and settled with the Carians.
F 492 R3 (Harpocration, s.v. ‘Eλλανoδἱκαι):
. . . Aristotle in the Constitution of the Eleans says that to begin with the Eleans appointed one Hellanodikes, but after a time two, and finally eight.
F 496 R3 (Eustathius, 1747, on Odyssey XIII 408):
The same author [sc. Pausanias] says that Aristotle relates that when a plague struck them [sc. the Boeotians] and a large flock of crows appeared, the men hunted down the crows, purified them with incantations, and let them go free; and they said to the plague: ‘Go to the crows’.
F 497 R3 (Harpocration, s.v. τετραρχία):
Aristotle in the Constitution of the Thessalians says that in the time of Aleuas the Red Thessaly was divided into four portions.
F 498 R3 (Scholiast to Euripides, Rhesus 311
Aristotle in the Constitution of the Thessalians writes as follows: ‘Dividing up the government. . .1 Aleuas ordered that each group according to lot should provide fifty cavalrymen and eighty peltasts. A peltê is a shield without a rim, not bronze-covered but made of stretched sheep- or goat-skin (not of cow-hide). And they all carried three javelins and a short spear called a schedion’.
F 501 R3 (Scholiast to Dionysius Thrax, p. 183.1–5 Hilgard):
Others, including Ephorus in his second book, say that Cadmus was the inventor of the alphabet. But some say that he conveyed to us the invention of the Phoenicians—as Herodotus says in his Histories and as Aristotle relates. For they say that while the Phoenicians invented the alphab
et, Cadmus introduced it to Greece.
F 501 R3 (Scholiast to Dionysius Thrax, p. 190.19–21 Hilgard):
Cadmus is the inventor of the alphabet, as Ephorus and Aristotle say; but others say that it was the invention of the Phoenicians and that Cadmus imported it to Greece.
F 501 R3 (Pliny, naturalis historia VII lvi 192):
Aristotle holds that 18 [sc. of the letters of the Greek alphabet] are original, and that two—psi and zeta—were added by Epicharmus rather than by Palamedes.
F 504 R3 (Etymologicon Magnum, s. v. ’Aρκεἱσιoς):
Aristotle, in the Constitution of the lthacans, says that Cephalus, while living in the Cephallenian islands which got their name from him, had been childless for a long time, and on inquiring of the god was ordered to copulate with anything female he should happen to meet. Now arriving back in his own country he fell in with a she-bear, and in obedience to the oracle copulated away: the bear, becoming pregnant, turned into a woman and gave birth to a child, Arceisios (from ἄρκτoς [‘bear’]).
F 512 R3 (Scholiast to Apollonius Rhodius, IV 982–92):
The island is Corcyra. This previously used to be called Scheria. Aristotle gives the reason in his Constitution of the Corcyreans. For he says that Demeter was afraid that the rivers flowing from the mainland would make it part of the mainland, and so she begged Poseidon to divert the courses of the rivers. Thus, since the rivers had been held back, it was called Scheria instead of Drepane.
F 515 R3 (Athenaeus, 618EF):
Aristotle at any rate says in the Constitution of the Colophonians: ‘And Theodorus himself also died later by a violent death. And he is said to have become rather soft-living, as is clear from his poetry; for even today the women sing his songs at the time of the festivals’.
F 519 R3 (Scholiast to Pindar, Pythian II 127):
Aristotle says that Achilles was the first to have used the war-dance (πνρρίχη) at the pyre (πνρά) of Patroclus (this is the dance, he says, that is called the prulis among the Cyprians); so he takes the word πνρρίχη to derive from pyre.
F 532 R3 (Scholiast to Pindar, Isthmian VII 18):
The Aegeidae are a phratry of the Thebans, from whose number some came to help the Spartans in their war against the Amycleans; their leader was Timomachus, who was the first man to instruct the Spartans in all military matters, and who received great honours from them. And his bronze breastplate is put on display at the Hyacinthia—the Thebans used to call this a ‘weapon’. Aristotle relates this in the Constitution of the Spartans.. . .Aristotle says that when the Spartans were engaged in their war with the Amycleans, having ascertained from the god that they should take the Aegeidae as allies, they set out for Athens. But while lodging in Thebes they were invited to the banquet of the Aegeidae phratry. On hearing the priest praying after dinner that the gods would give good things to the Aegeidae, they interpreted the oracle and concluded their alliance in Thebes.
F 533 R3 (Plutarch, Lycurgus 39E):
Least of all is there agreement about the date at which he [sc. Lycurgus] lived. Some say that he flourished at the same time as Iphitus and joined with him in establishing the Olympic truce—among them, Aristotle the philosopher, who cites as evidence the discus at Olympia on which is preserved an inscription of Lycurgus’ name.
F 540 R3 (Harpocration, s.v. μóρων):
Aristotle has discussed this in the Constitution of the Spartans. He says that there are six named morae and that all the Spartans are divided among the morae.
F 544 R3 (Scholiast to Euripides, Andromache 445):
In the next lines he [sc. Euripides] berates them [sc. the Spartans] in particular for their love of money. Aristotle too relates this in his Constitution of the Spartans, and he adds the verse pronounced by the god: ‘Love of money, nothing else, will ruin Sparta’.
F 547 R3 (Polybius, XII ν 4–5):
Nevertheless, I have no compunction in saying and writing that the account we have received from Aristotle about the colonisation [of Locri] is truer than that given by Timaeus. For I am aware that the Locrians agree that the tradition about the colonisation handed down to them from their fathers is the one Aristotle, not the one Timaeus, told. And they would offer the following proofs of it. . .
F 549 R3 (Athenaeus, 576AB):
Aristotle too relates that something similar happened when he writes in the Constitution of the Massaliots as follows: ‘Phocaean merchants from Ionia founded Massilia. Euxenus the Phocaean was the guest of Nanos the king (that was his name). Now this Nanos was celebrating the marriage of his daughter and he invited Euxenus, who happened to be there, to the feast. The marriage took place in the following way: the girl had to come in after dinner with a cup of mixed wine and give it to any of the suitors present she wished—the man she gave it to would be the bridegroom. Now the girl came in and, either by chance or for some other reason, gave it to Euxenus. (The girl’s name was Petta.) When this occurred, and her father asked him to take her since the gift was sanctioned by the gods, Euxenus took her for his wife and lived with her, changing her name to Aristoxene. And there is a family in Massilia that traces its origins back to her and is still called the Protiadae—for Protis was the son of Euxenus and Aristoxene’.
F 551 R3 (Athenaeus, 235E):
Aristotle in the Constitution of the Methonians says: ‘There were two parasites for each magistrate, and one for each military official; and they received fixed contributions from various sources and, in particular, fish from the fishermen’.
F 554 R3 (Photius, Lexicon s.v. τὀ Mηλιακὀν πλoῖoν):
Aristotle says that when Hippotes was setting out to found a colony he laid a curse on those who were unwilling to sail with him. For those who stayed behind excused themselves by saying that their wives were sickly or that their ships were leaky; so he laid a curse that their ships might never be watertight and that they might always be ruled by their wives.
F 558 R3 (Athenaeus, 348AC):
Aristotle in the Constitution of the Naxians writes about this proverb as follows: ‘Most of the rich men in Naxos lived in the town, while the rest were scattered among the villages. Now in one of the villages, called Leistadae, there lived Telesagoras, a very rich man with a good reputation who was honoured by the people in various ways including the daily sending of gifts. And when they came down from the town and haggled over anything being sold, the sellers used to say that they would rather give it to Telesagoras than sell it at such a price. Now some young men were buying a large fish, and when the fisherman made the usual remark they were annoyed at hearing it so often; so, being tipsy, they roistered round to his house. Telesagoras received them civilly; but the young men assaulted him and his two daughters, who were of marriagable age. The Naxians were enraged at that, took up arms, and attacked the young men. And there was then serious unrest, the Naxians being led by Lygdamis who from this generalship became tyrant of his country’.
F 562 R3 (Harpocration, s.v. ’‘Aμφισσα):
Aristotle in the Constitution of the Opuntians says this: ‘Andraimon was the founder, and he called it Amphissa because the place was surrounded by mountains’.
F 577 R3 (Plutarch, Pericles 166D):
Aristotle says that Pericles himself was earlier defeated in a sea-battle by Melissus.
F 583 R3 (Athenaeus, 520CD):
So far gone in luxury were they [sc. the Sybarites] that they actually trained their horses to dance to the pipe at their feasts. Now the Crotoniates knew this, and when they made war against them, as Aristotle says in his account of their constitution, they struck up the dance music for the horses—for they had pipers among their soldiery. And when the horses heard the pipers they not only danced but actually deserted, carrying their riders, to the Crotoniates.
F 588 R3 (Athenaeus, 435DE):
Aristotle in his Constitution of the Syracusans says that he [sc. Dionysius the younger] was sometimes drunk for ninety days on end, and that that is why his sight became s
omewhat dim.
F 593 R3 (Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Tένεδoς):
[On the proverb, ‘an axe of Tenedos.’] Or rather, as Aristotle says in the Constitution of the Tenedians, because a certain king in Tenedos laid down a law that anyone who caught an adulterous pair should kill both with an axe. Now it happened that his son was caught committing adultery, and he confirmed that the law should be observed even in the case of his own son; after his son had been killed, the matter gave rise to a proverb for cruel treatment.
F 609 R3 (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae I lxxii 3–4):
Aristotle the philosopher relates that certain of the Achaeans who were returning from Troy sailed round Cape Malea and were caught in a violent storm; for a time they were carried by the winds and wandered all over the sea, but at last they came to that part of Opice which is called Latinium and lies on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Overjoyed at the sight of land, they beached their ships there and spent the winter months preparing to sail at the beginning of spring. But their ships burned one night, and having no way to leave they were compelled willy-nilly to settle in the spot where they had landed. This happened because of certain female prisoners whom they had brought from Troy: they burned the ships because they feared that if the Achaeans sailed home they would be made into slaves.
F 614 R3 (Ammonius, de adfinium vocabulorum differentia 334):
Aristotle, in his Claims of the Cities, records the following: ‘At the same time, Alexander the Molossian, when the Tarentines summoned him to make war against the barbarians, sailed with fifty ships and numerous vessels for horse- and troop-transport’.
F 615 R3 (Plutarch, Solon 83F):
For the Amphictyons were persuaded by him [sc. Solon] to go to war, as several authors testify, including Aristotle who, in his List of Pythian Victors, ascribes the decision to Solon.