ABSTRACT
Having looked at the methodological techniques employed by Aristoxenus in the groundbreaking theoretical works which formed the basis of his reputation as ὁ μουσικός in antiquity, it is time to examine the remaining fragments of his writings on music. 1 Aristoxenus' development of revolutionary methods for analysing musical structures leads us to ask whether there is evidence for comparable innovation by him in other areas of musical scholarship. The simple answer is no, as the self-conscious sense of creating a new musical science which we find in the Harmonics is lacking in what remains of his more general works. On the other hand, while the Harmonics presents the thought of a learned but pedantic, technically focused, and topically restricted scholar whose importance outside the narrow field of ancient Greek musical theory is limited, the fragments on music demonstrate without a doubt his flexibility as an author and his ability to apply an encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject with a broad philosophical perspective.
