Part VI.

b Laert.
^ Polymn,
* Lib. 4. 5.
f Eliac.
f Laert. Am- man.
g De cornpof. medkam. h Bapfns.
" Chiliad.
fc Epiji. ad Ammeum.
IVit. Arifl. if he were the Anthar,
a Lib.^^.c. y.
Q Laert, o Epifl. ad Ammeum,
P Deipn. Lib,. qLib. 17. cap. 21. r Nunnes. in vit. AriSbt, repeated by Schottus in •vit. comparat: Arifl. De- mofth.
Other by the general name of Vcrtflat clicks.^ or more particularly, Eenfateticks ofthe Lyceuni. Of the firft we have difcourlcd already ^ we tome noVif to the other, of which Ariftot/ewas the Head.
i> Arijiaile was born at Stagira.^ a City of Thrace., according to c Herodotus a Thucydides.,
' Taujanias aiASuidarfoy Others placed mMa- cedoniayo take from him the imputation of a Barbarian. It was feated upon Strymon, a Ri¬ ver which parts thofe two Countries, having a Haven called y.d7r§Q-^ and a little Illand of the lame name belonging to it. This place, to which Ariftotle owed his Birth, he afterwards requited with extraordinary Gratitude.
f His Father was named Nicomachus, defcen- ded from Nicomachusi^on oi Alachaon ( whole Skill in Medicine Is celebrated by Homer) Son of JEfculapius, fxom whom Nicomachus, Arijio- t/e's Father, deriv’d not only his Pedigree, but his Art alfo,for he w^as a Phyfician. Suidas faith, he wrote fix Books of Medicine, and one of Phyfick. E Ga/eu alledgeth a Plaifler of one Nicomachus, either this or the elder. This Ni¬ comachus ( ** whom fome affirm to have been Grandfon to Hippocrates the Phyfician) lived in the time of Amintas, King of Macedonia, ( Fa¬ ther ofFhilip) a Prince (as Jujiine witnelfeth) eminent for all Royal Vertues. To him Nico¬ machus was not only Phyfician, but Friend and Favourite. * Tzetzes forgot thele Relations of Arijiotle{ as Nunnejius oblerves) when he af¬ firmed that he was called an JEfculapian figura¬ tively, in refpeft of his Skill in Medicine, though it be true alfo that, he did profefs that Art.
His Mother, Laertius and Suidas name. Tha- ftias, ^ Dionyjius Halicarnaffkust and Ammonius, Phrejiis. * Ammonius faith; fhe alfo was de- fcended from JTfculapim, alledging in tefti- mony thereof this Epigram,
His Mother Phsefis, 5/V^ Nicomachus; Defcended both from iEfculapius.
, f
But Dionyjius Ha/icarnajfe us Taith, fhe was Daughter of a Chalcidian, one of the Colony which was fent from Chalcis to Stagird. Her Piflure, Ariftotle, in piety to her Memory, cau- fed to be made by Protogenes an eminent Painter of that time, which Pifture ™ Pliny reckons amongft the choiceft pieces of that Matter.
■ Arijiotle ( as Suidas affirms) had a Brother named Arimneftas, and Sifter Arimnefte. His Brother died before him without Iffue, as ap¬ pears by his Will.
! Ariftotle was born according to the tettimo- nies of " Apollodorus, " Dionyjius Halicarnaf- fdci/s and others, in the firft year of the p^th Olympiad, at what tithe Diotrephes was Archon at years after the Birth of Plato, as
p Athemeus accomis more yAPN th.an Ammoni¬ us and Suidas, who reckon but 42 before the Birth of Demojihenes, three years, q Agellius affirms , he was born thefeventh year after the recovery of the City of Pome from the Gauls by Camillus -, ' but becaufe ( a» Plutarch faith)
■ it is hard to find out on what year the City was taken, it will be hard alfo to find upon what year it was recovered. The recovery was feven
Months after its taking, but in the following Year, for it was taken in July, recovered in le- bruary. If therefore as Valerius Placcus, Agel¬ lius, and CaJJiics Hemine account, the taking of the City was in the 3 (55d year from the building thereof, it was recovered in 3d4th. Thus Arijiotle was born in the firft year of the ppth* Ol3rmpiad, the 370th ffom the building of Rome,
But, if as Liiy affirms, fhe taking of Rome, was in the 3 of, and its recovery in the 1^6 6xh, Ariftotle accotA- ing to that account mutt have been born in the third year of the ppth Olympiad, in the 3 7 2d year ffom the building of the City. Again, if the City were taken in the 3d4th year after the building thereof, and recovered in the 3 carnajffus account, whom Scaliger followeth,^ Ariftotle mutt have been botn in the fecond year of the ppth Olympiad, the 371 from the build¬ ing of the City, reckoning always ten Months for a Year, and not catting them off, as Pliny and others feem to do, and beginning imme* diately the next year , which Months being reckoned, the account will agree with ours j hitheno Nunnefius,
CHAP. II.
His firfl Education and Studies.
* T^r Icomachus and Phafis the Parents of Ari- • Ammon.
J-^ fiotle being both dead, he was brought up by Proxenus an Atarnean,dux\n^ which time being yet- very young, he learned the Liberal Sciences, asappeareth, faith Ammonius, from t hofe Writings of his which partly concern Poetry, partly the- Poets themfelves, as like- wife ffom his Homerical §>itef ions, and feve- ral Books concerning the Art of Rhetorick.
■ *> In gratitude for this care taken by Proxe u Ammon,
nus in his Education, Arifotle afterwards, not only bred up in like manner Nicanor, the Son of Proxenus, in all kinds of Learning, but adopt- ■ • ' ed him his Son, and with his Eftate bequeathed his Daughter to him. ® He likewife caufed the , .,
Statues of Proxenus and his Wife, to be tnadexeflam.AriJh and fet up in Honour of them, as is manifeft by his Will.
^ Athenceus ( citing an Epittle of Epicure)) and ® Elian relate, that having confumed the*^ Inheritance left by his Father in Prodigality and Luxury -, he betook himfelf to the Wars, where¬ in having ill fuccefs , he profeffed Medicine , and by chance coming into Plato's School, and hearing their dilputes, being of a Wit far be¬ yond the reftjie addiSled himfelf to Philofbphy, and became Famous therein. But this agrees not well with the circumftance of his Story, as rela¬ ted by Authors of greater Credit, and lefs. Pre¬ judice.
CH A
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