The “relics” of the past. Aristotle - the historian of philosophy

According to a later report (Synesius, Calvit. Enc. 22.85c, Aristotle, On philosophy, fr. 8), Aristotle thought that wise sayings are the “relics” ( enkataleimmata ) of the past tekhne, preserved thanks to their conciseness and cleverness when ancient civilization perished in a world cataclysm. In this respect they are valuable clues for a retrospective reconstruction of the intellectual history of Greece, and Aristotle was the first to develop in his works a sense of historical consciousness, prerequisite for such a reconstruction, although some contemporary authors would contest this view. In the paper I translate and comment selected fragments of and testimonies about Aristotle’s lost works (mostly On philosophy, On poets, and On the Pythagoreans ) and observe how he used this historical observations in his philosophical treaties, having thus paved the way to a systematic historical research, conducted by the Peripatetics in a pre-established institutional framework.