Theophrastus
Theophrastus: “If you are uneducated and silent, you behave wisely; if you are educated and silent, you are foolish”.
Theophrastus (also known as Pheophrastus or Tirtamos, or Tirtam)
(372–287 BC). 85 years
An ancient Greek philosopher, naturalist, music theorist, and one of the most famous botanists of antiquity, he is often referred to as the founder of botany.
Born in the city of Eresos on the island of Lesbos.
At birth, he was named Tirtam, but he later took a more sonorous name for himself – Theophrastus, which means “Possessor of divine speech.”
In his youth, he moved to Athens and initially studied at Plato’s Academy, and then at Aristotle’s Lyceum. Being Aristotle’s favorite student, after the teacher’s death, he led the philosophical school founded by Aristotle for 35 years. He established a Botanical Garden at the Lyceum, where he and his students cultivated medicinal plants, observing their growth and development. According to ancient sources, the number of his students reached 2000, and his fame spread far beyond Greece.
The life of Theophrastus was relatively calm and happy. He was an intelligent, richly gifted person, at the same time kind, humane, with a responsive soul. He was also an excellent orator, as indicated by his absolutely deserved pseudonym.
Author of 227 works. He wrote the lost “Textbook of Rhetoric” and the book “Ethical Characters” (Russian translation “On the Properties of Human Morals,” 1772, or “Characteristics,” St. Petersburg, 1888), a collection of 30 sketches of human types, depicting the flatterer, chatterbox, braggart, proud person, grumbler, distrustful person, etc., each masterfully illustrated with vivid situations in which this type manifests itself.
Theophrastus believed that the mind is a divine ability of man, and theoretical life is his main purpose. He distinguished between two types of speech: that which pertains to the subject (philosophy) and that which pertains to the listener (rhetoric or poetics).
In music, he distinguished three principles: sorrow, pleasure, and inspiration, and believed that music is the most important movement of the soul, arising in connection with liberation from evils caused by experiences.
In addition, he is the author of two books on plants: “History of Plants” (Latin “Historia plantarum”) (or better, in meaning – “Natural History of Plants”) and “Causes of Plants” (Latin “De causis plantarum“), in which the physiology and geography of about 500 species of medicinal plants are classified and described.
Reviewing them, one is involuntarily struck by the richness of content, extraordinary diversity, and importance of the issues raised. “History of Plants” and “Causes of Plants” are essentially the best collection of information about the plant kingdom in all antiquity and for many centuries after Theophrastus.
These books awakened undeniable interest among contemporaries in the plant world, and this is their undeniable significance.
The works of Theophrastus were first translated from Greek into Latin by the Greek scholar and philosopher Theodor Gaza and printed in Treviso (Italy) in 1483, shortly after the invention of printing: “Theophrasti de historia et de causis plantarum libros ut latinos legeremus,” Theodorus Gaza (folio).
Theophrastus’ aphorism: “If you are uneducated and silent, you behave wisely; if you are educated and silent, you are foolish”.