Aristotle was born in Stagira the son of a physician to the royal court. When he was seventeen he moved to Athens where he studied at Plato's Academy. He remained in Athens for the next twenty years as a student and a teacher. After Plato's death in 347 BC Aristotle left Athens but could not return home to Stagira because it had been sacked by the Macedonians. So he moved to Assos in Asia Minor where one of his close friends, Hermias, was king. He married the kings' niece and adopted a daughter Phytias, and became the king's councilor. When king Hermias was killed by the Persians in 345 BC, Aristotle moved to the Macedonian capital Pella where Phillip the II was king. He then became the tutor of the king's young son Alexander, later known as Alexander the Great. But ten years later when Alexander came to the throne Aristotle moved back to Athens. There he founded his own school Lyceum. It was also called the Peripatetic school because the teacher and students often walked around on the grounds while discussing. At Lyceum, Aristotle would give advanced lessons to a private circle in the morning, and in the afternoons he would hold more popular speeches to a larger crowd. When Alexander the Great died in 323 BC, there was such an anti-Macedonian atmosphere in Athens that Aristotle left. He retired to a family estate in Euboea and was succeeded at the Lyceum by his friend and disciple Theophrastus. One year later Aristotle died at the family estate. Aristotle is said to have written over 170 texts. He wrote philosophical dialogues, like Plato, which are only known through other ancient texts. Aristotle surveyed and systematized nearly all the extant branches of knowledge and provided the first ordered accounts of biology, psychology, physics, and literary theory. He also invented the field known as pioneered zoology. His works on natural science include Physics, which gives a vast amount of informa
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