ABSTRACT
Those associated with the Peripatetic school do not seem to have enjoyed the same appeal as their ‘founder’. Despite a lengthy existence, the school faded from the historical record for considerable periods of time, and while it experienced a brief revival during the late Roman republic and early empire, as an active school it vanished soon after 200 ce, ousted by Platonism (and Christianity). Committed followers and occasional devotees of Aristotle can be described, respectively, as those who either were a member of the core group from which a leader was picked, or those who took a serious interest in his works. The distinction is a useful one, since the two groups display various degrees of faithfulness to the Aristotelian doctrines. It should be pointed out, however, that both groups also express disagreement with the great founder and his successors: apparently neither membership nor enthusiasm precluded anyone from expressing dissent. How this aected the school’s nature will become clear in the course of the chapters that follow.
