ZBORNIK - Matica srpska

To sum up, Aristoteles of Chalcis remains a rather mysterious
author who left very few traces behind. We may guess that he
wrote before 200 BC, perhaps towards the end of the 4 th century.
He authored a book entitled On Euboea (Peri Euboias), in which
we may suppose he wrote about the cities on the island, their
history going back to mythical times, the period of great colonisation
and the conflicts between Chalcis and Eretria, also known as
the Lelantine War. It seems that he attempted to explain the genesis
of names and customs, as well as cite alternative versions of popular
myths. His work may have been used by Archemachus known
as Euboieus, who wrote Euboika in the first half of the 3 rd century.
Archemachus, as far as we can tell on the basis of the few surviving
fragments, shows interest in similar issues as the author of Peri Euboias.
28 The work of Aristoteles of Chalcis most probably ended up
in Theophrastus's library, perhaps along with other books received
from Aristotle. The sameness of their names may have led to the
posterity regarding Peri Euboia as one of Aristotle's writings and to
the book ending up in Rome together with other manuscripts, where
Strabo may have used it. One of the copies may have also reached
Alexandria, where it was used by Lysimachus of Alexandria in the
2 nd century, and perhaps even Harpocration at the turn if 2 nd and 3 rd
centuries, before it was lost forever.
28 Cf. S. Sprawski, Writing Local History: Archemachus and his Euboika, in
J. Pigoç (ed.), The Children of Herodotus: Greek and Roman Historiography and
Related Genres, Cambridge 2008, 102—118.
116