Aristotle and the Foreign Policy of Macedonia

In: The review of politics, Volume 34, Issue 3, p. 367-394

Abstract

Aristotle's ancient biographers adduce several reasons to explain why in the year 367 B.C. the young Stagirite, who at the time was 16 years old (or in his seventeenth year), went to Athens, or was brought there by his "guardian" Proxenus. According to one tradition, he moved there because of the advice given by the Delphic oracle. Ibn Abi Usaibia relates that, in keeping with some ancient reports, "this happened because Proxenus and Plato were close personal friends." We do not know, however, whether Usaibia's explanation is based on historical fact, nor are we able to ascertain the ultimate source of this story. Naturally, it might always be maintained that young Aristotle went to Athens in 367 B.C. for the purpose of securing the best education available in the Hellenic world, particularly, since by that year the fame of Isocrates and that of his school of rhetoric (and, judging from Pseudo-Plato, Fifth Epistle, perhaps that of the Platonic Academy) must have reached Macedonia.