"Aristotle was the most faithful disciple of Plato." Diogenes Laertius, 5.1

(384/383BC) Aristotle born at Stagira in Macedonia (hence his name "the Stagirite"). His father, Nicomachus, was a friend and valued physician of King Amyntas II, of Macedonia, father of Philip, grandfather of Alexander the Great. His father died when Aristotle was about 12 yrs old.

(366/365) Aristotle, 18, is sent by his uncle Proxenus to Athens to study at the Academy, where he remained for 20 years, until Plato’s death (348). We don't know with accuracy the precise role Aristotle played within the Academy. He gave lectures in rhetoric; his contributions must have been fundamental in numerous discussions about the whole sweep of subjects discussed in the Academy. He undoubtedly acquired the Platonic principles and defended them; and also subjected them to a penetrating criticism. (Young Aristotle is thought to be a character in the Parmenides due the similarity between the criticisms there in and in his Metaphysics.) It is believed that Aristotle wrote his dialogues while a member of the Academy; no complete dialogue survives. Aristotle described Plato as a man "whom bad men have not even the right to praise, and who showed in his life and teachings how to be happy and good at the same time." (Fragments)

(348) Aristotle left the Academy at the death of Plato because he disagreed with the direction the school had taken under Speusippus, Plato's nephew and the new director of the school. Some have thought Aristotle was upset that he was not chosen as the next director of the school.

(348) Aristotle goes to Asia Minor. With Xenocrates, another Platonic disciple, he took up residence first at Assos. There he founded a school with Platonists Erastus and Coriscus under the patronage of the tyrant Hermeias (a former slave). Hermeias is thought to be a former student of the Academy who gained power under the influence of the Persians. Staying three years at Assos, Aristotle maried Hermeias' neice, Pythias, and had a daughter by her, also named Pythias. (After her death, he had a son, Nicomachus, by a common-law wife.)

(345) Because of a correspondence with Philip of Macedonia, the Persians execute Hermeias and Aristotle flees to Mytilene on Lesbos. There he met his best and most famous pupil, Theophrastus, who was from the area. He began research on the natural sciences with Theophrastus.

(343/342) Aristotle is summoned to Macedonia by Philip to tutor his son Alexander (13 yrs old). He stayed in Macedonia until 336. He taught Alexander for 3, at most 6 years. Alexander was appointed regent to his father in 340, when he studies most likely ended. We are uncertain of Aristotle’s whereabouts from 340-335.

(335/334) After the death of Philip, Aristotle returns to Athens, rents some buildings outside the city, near a small temple dedicated to Apollo Lyceus, hence the school became known as the Lyceum. The philosophers there were called peripatos because Aristotle taught while walking in a garden annexed to the buildings. He started this school under the patronage of Antipater, whose friendship he acquired while in Macedonia. We are told that in the morning Aristotle lectured on difficult matters--logic and metaphysics--and gave public lectures in the afternoon on ethical and political subjects. His pupils carried out research on various topics: Theophrastus on botany, Aristoxenus on music, Eudemus wrote a history of mathematics and astronomy, Meno of medicine, Theophrastus of physics, cosmology and psychology. Together the group produced a monumental account of the constitutions of 158 Greek city-states. Pythias, Aristotle’s wife, died in Athens. He began an relationship with Herpyllis, a native of Stagira, whom he apparently never married.

(323) Alexander dies and due to the great anti-Macedonian reaction in Athens, Aristotle was suspect by association. He is reported to have feared that Athens would sin twice against philosophy, and consequently he went to Chalcis, where he died in 322 (63 yrs old)