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Historical person
385 BCE–323 BCE
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath whose work shaped logic, ethics, politics, natural philosophy and literary theory for centuries. A student of Plato and tutor to Alexander the Great, he stands at the centre of the intellectual world of classical Greece and the early Hellenistic period.
For Historical Bookshelf, this entry is best treated as a historical or literary figure rather than a fictional character. It can support pages where novels refer to writers, playwrights, philosophers or scholars as part of a period’s intellectual background.
In Mary Renault’s Fire from Heaven, his taming of Bucephalus, friendship with Hephaestion and education under Aristotle help shape the confidence with which he imagines a larger destiny. In Valerio Massimo Manfredi’s Child of a Dream, Tutored by Aristotle and bound closely to companions including Hephaestion and Ptolemy, Alexander learns to command cavalry, judge men and conceal his own ambitions. Other novels featuring Aristotle include David Gemmel’s Dark Prince.
In non-fiction, Aristotle is discussed in Diodorus Siculus’s The Library, Books 16-20. Diodorus Siculus’s The Library, Books 16-20 approaches the subject through military command and battlefield decision-making, court politics and dynastic power, and empire, conquest and resistance.
Historical context
Series
The Alexander the Great duology is a mythic heroic-fantasy sequence centred on Parmenion, a brilliant outsider whose military gifts draw him into the rise of Macedon. Gemmell uses recognisable names and settings as the framework for a supernatural struggle involving prophecy, reincarnation and forces that seek to shape…
All books in this series
The Alexander Trilogy follows Alexander of Macedon from his childhood at Philip II's court to the creation of an empire stretching from Greece and Egypt to Central Asia and India. The first volume traces the family, education and political violence that form the young prince; the later books…
All books in this series
The Alexander trilogy follows Alexander from childhood at the Macedonian court through the conquest of the Achaemenid Empire and into the violent struggle that followed his death. Fire from Heaven concentrates on his formation under Philip II, Olympias and Aristotle; The Persian Boy narrates the later campaigns through…
All books in this series
Standalone books
Non Fiction
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.
