Leonid Zhmud The Origin of the History of Science in Classical Antiquity

On Music (fr. 78–81, 83). Aristotle’s dialogue On the
Poets is a work exploring the history of poetry. Here much attention is given to
83
Arist.
Poet. 1451b 3f.; cf. îstoría perì Êkaston, contrasted to the study of the
causes (
HA 491a 7–14).
84
A politician and a lawmaker should know both the past and the laws of other peoples;
that is why the works in geography and history are useful (
Rhet. 1360a 31f.).
85
See e.g. Zoepffel, R. Historia und Geschichte bei Aristoteles,
AHAW no.2 (1975) 37.
Cf. Fritz, K. von,
Gnomon 52 (1977) 345f.; Huxley, G., CR28 (1978) 89f.; Kinzl, K.,
Gymnasium 85 (1978) 99f.
86
Rhet. 1360a 37; 1409a 28; Poet. 1451b 3, 6, 1459a 17f.
87
Fr. 136–141 Rose = fr. 123–134 Gigon. See Leo,
op. cit., 49, 99f.; Blum, op. cit., 46.
Cf.
SE 183b 15f., where this history is presented in compressed form: at first the
anonymous
pro¯toi heuretai of rhetoric, followed by Tisias, Thrasimachus, Theodo-
rus, and others.

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Chapter 4: The historiographical project of the Lyceum
138
the founders of various genres and their relative chronology.
88
Note that these
outlines are devoted to the disciplines that Aristotle studied in his systematic
treatises,
Rhetoric and Poetics and Aristoxenus in his Elements of Harmonics;
historical evidence collected in the Tecnõn sunagwg2 was later used in the
Rhetoric.
89
At the same time, not every historical or antiquarian work of Aristotle and
his students has to be directly related to their systematic treatises or conceived
as a preliminary for subsequent theoretical analysis. Some of these works do
not presuppose any specific theoretical goal, others are only indirectly related
to the systematic writings, still others were written when the corresponding
systematic treatise (or treatises) had been already finished. Following the first
attempts made by Hippias and Hellanicus, Aristotle compiled lists of Olympic
victors, the victors in sport and musical agones in Delphi, and the victors in dra-
matic agones at the Dionysia and Lenaea.
90
He also compiled (probably with
the help of his students) the so-called Didaskalíai, an extensive list of all the
tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays performed at these artistic festivals, dating
them by the names of the Athenian archons.
91
Whereas the lists of Olympic and
Pythian victors were compiled irrespective of any further theoretical task, the
Didaskalíai was used in the study of the Attic tragedy in Aristotle’s Poetics,
though significance of this collection cannot be reduced to that of preparatory
work, subordinate to predetermined theoretical task.
Another, more extensive and time-consuming Peripatetic project, preparing
the 158 historical outlines of the constitutions of the various Greek cities, dem-
onstrates a rather complicated relationship between historical and systematical
studies. Books IV–VI of Aristotle’s
Politics rely on this collected and arranged
material, yet the other books are mostly theoretical in character and were
written before the project started. The surviving Aristotelian
Athenian Consti-
tution consists of two parts: the first gives an outline of the development of the
Athenian constitutional system (chapters 1–41), the second describes the main
principles of its functioning (chapters 42–69). It should be stressed that
Athe-
nian Constitution is a historical work of independent value addressed to a broad
audience, and not just a dossier.
92
Certainly, historical subject matter and nar-
rative form do not exclude subsequent systematization, but rather, in the case of
the constitutions, presuppose it (Arist.
EN 1181b 12ff.). It is revealing, how-
ever, that
Athenian Constitution has been written after the Politics, ca. 329–322,
and that quite often it gives more accurate and precise treatment of the histori-
cal events mentioned in the
Politics. The preserved fragments of other consti-
tutions show an obvious predominance of separate
Geschichten, i.e., interesting
88
Fr. 70–77 Rose = fr. 14–22 Gigon; see
pro¯tos heurete¯s in fr. 14, 15, 17 Gigon.
89
Blum,
op. cit., 46; Gigon. Aristotelis fragmenta, 390.
90
D. L. V, 26 No. 130–131, fr. 615–617 Rose = fr. 408–414 Gigon; D.L. V, 26 No.134–
135. Weil.
Aristote, 131f.; Blum, op. cit., 23ff.
91
D. L. V, 26 No. 137 = fr. 415–462 Gigon. Weil.
Aristote, 137f.; Blum, op. cit., 24ff.
92
Dovatour, A. I.
Aristotle’s Politics and Polities, Moscow 1965, 296 (in Russian).

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3. History in the Lyceum
139
stories.
93
Even if this correlation is accidental, there is no doubt that Aristotle
recognized an independent value and interest in these stories and hardly re-
garded them only as material for further generalizations. On the other hand, as
the title of the whole collection suggests, the constitutions were classified in ac-
cordance with Aristotle’s view of various forms of government,
94
which points
out a conceptual framework of the project.
Aristotle’s students demonstrate an even keener interest in historical studies.
Callisthenes, Aristotle’s grand-nephew and student who helped him to compile
the list of Pythian victors, was a historian, as were two other Peripatetics, Clytus
of Miletus and Leon of Byzantium.
95
Theophrastus’ fellow student and friend
Phanias of Eresus wrote historical works
Pritanes of Eresus (fr. 17–19) and On
the Sicilian Tyrants (fr. 11–13). The student of Theophrastus, Praxiphanes, dealt
with Thucydides in his Perì îstoría~ (fr. 18). The content of Theophrastus’
own Perì îstoría~ (D. L. V, 47) is unknown, but it is more likely that this book
was on ‘history’ than on ‘research’.
96
Aristoxenus’ biographies are to some ex-
tend connected to the theoretical views of the Lyceum,
97
but more often than not
they reveal his personal rather than philosophical preferences.
History as a purely narrative or descriptive genre, restricted to the particular
and detached from considering general regularities, was not the only option for
the Lyceum. Along with Eudemus, Dicaearchus is an especially interesting
case, inasmuch as in his important works he developed Aristotle’s views on the
historical progress.
98
His
Life of Hellas (fr. 47–66) was the first general cultural
history, modeled after contemporary universal history and dealt, apart from