ZBORNIK - Matica srpska

Søawomir Sprawski
UDC 2-162.6(38)
255.2-055.2
1 Aristoteles
ARISTOTLE ON THE HISTORY OF EUBOEA?
REMARKS ON THE AUTHOR OF
PERI EUBOIAS (FGrH 423)
In his Lexeis on the Ten Orators, Harpocration, when explaining
the toponym 'Argoura' which appeared in Demosthenes's speech
Against Medias, refers to the book entitled On Euboea (Peri Euboias),
supposedly authored by 'Aristoteles Chalkideus'. Although this is
practically the only mention directly pointing to the existence of
such an author and his book, his name appears in the works of modern
scholars, in numerous analyses of the authorship of several
quotations, usually considered to be fragments of lost works of the
great philosopher Aristotle.
In his monumental work, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker,
Felix Jacoby included the author of Peri Euboias as '424 Aristoteles
von Chalkis', concluding that he could have been the same
person as the 'Aristoteles who treated systematically on Euboea'
mentioned in Scholia on Apollonius's Rhodius Argonautika (1.558 =
FGrH 423 F 2). The Scholiast cites this author mentioning an alternative
tradition on Thetis and Achilles. According to Jacoby, the
two mentioned fragments are the only ones that survived from Peri
Euboias, and he rejects, without providing a reason, the suggestions
that several other quotations could be included on this list. Despite
this scepticism, following in the footsteps of E. Schwartz, Jacoby
(FGrH 423 T 1) was ready to accept the possibility of emending the
manuscripts of Stromateis by Clement of Alexandria in the spot
where he lists the authors copying from Melesagoras's work. By
substituting the name Aristokles that appeared in the text with the
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