This is the first volume devoted to the sections of the Aristotelian Mirabilia on natural science, filling a significant gap in the history of the Aristotelian study of nature and especially of animals. The chapters in this volume explore the Mirabilia, or De mirabilibus auscultationibus (On Marvelous Things Heard), and its engagement with the natural sciences. The first two chapters deliver an introduction to this work: one a discussion of the history of the text; the other a discussion of Aristotelian epistemology and methodology, and the role of the Mirabilia in that context. This is followed by eight chapters that, together, are effectively a commentary on those sections of the Mirabilia with close connections to Aristotle’s Historia animalium and to a number of Theophrastus’ scientific treatises. Finally, the volume ends with two chapters on thematic topics connected to natural science running throughout the work, namely color and disease. The Aristotelian Mirabilia and Early Peripatetic Natural Science should prove invaluable to scholars and students interested in the ancient Greek study of nature, ancient philosophy, and Aristotelian science in particular.

This is the first volume devoted to the sections of the Aristotelian Mirabilia on natural science, filling a significant gap in the history of the Aristotelian study of nature and especially of animals. The chapters in this volume explore the Mirabilia, or De mirabilibus auscultationibus (On Marvelous Things Heard), and its engagement with the natural sciences. The first two chapters deliver an introduction to this work: one a discussion of the history of the text and the other a discussion of Aristotelian epistemology and methodology, and the role of the Mirabilia in that context. This is followed by eight chapters that, together, are effectively a commentary on those sections of the Mirabilia with close connections to Aristotle’s Historia animalium and to a number of Theophrastus’ scientific treatises. Finally, the volume ends with two chapters on thematic topics connected to natural science running throughout the work, namely color and disease. The Aristotelian Mirabilia and Early Peripatetic Natural Science should prove invaluable to scholars and students interested in the ancient Greek study of nature, ancient philosophy, and Aristotelian science in particular.

This is the first full-length volume in English that focuses on the historiographical section of the Mirabilia or De mirabilibus auscultationibus (On Marvelous Things Heard), attributed to Aristotle but not in fact by him. The central section of the Mirabilia, namely §§ 78–151, for the most part deals with historiographical material, with many of its entries having some relationship to ancient Greek historians of the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. The chapters in this volume discuss various aspects of this portion of the text, including textual issues involving toponyms; possible structural principles behind the organization of this section; the passages on Theopompus and Timaeus; mythography; the philosopher Heracleides of Pontos; Homeric exegesis; and the interrelationship between pseudo-Plutarch’s On Rivers, a section of the historian Stobaeus’ Geography, and the Mirabilia. Historiography and Mythography in the Aristotelian Mirabilia is an invaluable resource for scholars and students of this text, and of Greek philosophy, historiography, and literature more broadly.

Excerpt from Aristotle's Researches in Natural Science Aristotle's researches in Natural Science are set forth in a series of his works, some of which have already received a great deal of attention, while the rest have been much neglected. Translations, with or without explanatory notes, of all these works have been produced in English, French, German, or Latin, and separate treatises or papers discussing Aristotle's researches in one or more branches of Natural Science have been published from time to time. Among such treatises and papers may be mentioned J. Muller's Uber den glatten Hai des Aristoteles, &c., Berlin, 1842, a folio volume with six plates, relating, in part, to the placental cartilaginous fishes of Aristotle; J. B. Meyer's Aristoteles Thierkunde, Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Zoologie, Physiologic, und alten Philosophic, Berlin, 1855; H. Aubert's Die Cephalopoden des Aristoteles, &c., Lepzig, 1862, 39 pp.; C. J. Sundevall's Die Thierarten des Aristoteles von den Klassen der Saugethiere, Vogel, Reptilien und Insekten, Stockholm, 1863; G. H. Lewes' Aristotle: A Chapter from the History of Science, London, 1864; and Dr. J. Young's paper "On the Malacostraca of Aristotle," published in The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 1865. There are also several works and papers which incidentally give valuable assistance in the study of Aristotle's researches in Natural Science, e.g. Cuvier and Valenciennes' Histoire Naturelle des Poissons, Paris, 1828-49; J. L. Ideler's Meteorologia veterum Gr corum et Romanorum, Berlin, 1832; Spratt and Forbes' Travels in Lycia, &c., London, 1847; Hoffman and Jordan's "Catalogue of the Fishes of Greece, with Notes on the Names now in Use, and those Employed by Classical Authors," published in the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia, for 1892; D'A. W. Thompson's Glossary of Greek Birds, Oxford, 1895; and T. Gill's "Parental Care among Freshwater Fishes," published in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1906. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

Apart from the extant works of Cornelius Nepos, Plutarch and Suetonius, not a single ancient Greek or Roman biography has come down to us in its entirety, despite the great number of biographers from the early Hellenistic through the Imperial periods. Therefore, the study of the remaining testimonia and "fragments" - actually citations and excerpts passed on by later authors, and incomplete texts preserved on papyri - is indispensable for our knowledge and understanding of biographical writing in Antiquity. An important representative of the genre from the Hellenistic period is Hermippos of Smyrna, a member of the intellectual circle working in the Alexandrian Museion during the 2nd half of the 3rd century B.C. No less than 85 fragments have been preserved, dealing with the great names of Greek culture and civilization (the Seven Sages, legislators, philosophers, rhetoricians and other literary figures). These texts reveal Hermippos as a typical exponent of his working environment, with a strong penchant for sensational and remarkable stories as well as a firm basis in bookish erudition.After a short introductory chapter on the author's life and works in general, the present study offers a detailed presentation of the extant biographical material and concentrates further on Hermippos' choice of subjects, the organization of his oeuvre and his method as a biographer. The book concludes with four appendices, one of which provides the English translations of the surviving testimonia and fragments.