EXEGETICAL CULTURES 1 | 131Since Cicero (d. 43 BCE), who pretended to considerable knowledge
of Peripateticism, does not mention Andronicus, his edition is to be lo-
cated in the thirties or even later, close to the beginning of the First Mil-
lennium. After Andronicus, there was no lack of learned men interested in
Aristotle, though it was perhaps not before the second century that it be-
came at all usual to declare oneself unreservedly a Peripatetic.^13 This ten-
dency culminated in Alexander of Aphrodisias, who flourished c. 200 CE,
held a chair of philosophy at Athens (according to a recently disinterred
inscription), and was the first to produce commentaries on Aristotle of
sufficient weight to be not just preserved, but argued with, by posterity.^14
From our point of view and for most practical purposes, Alexander’s com-
mentaries on a very wide range of the master’s works mark the beginning
of Aristotelianism’s exegetical phase. Indeed, Alexander came to be re-
garded as “the most authentic interpreter of Aristotle.”^15 But at the same
time he was the last significant thinker to owe exclusive allegiance to Aris-
totle, and to believe that his philosophy is not only a single, cohesive whole
but also capable, from its own resources, of resolving any problem that may
arise. After Alexander, Aristotelianism became part of a philosophical
blend dominated by Platonism, rather than a freestanding school. Later
thinkers went on dedicating whole commentaries to works of Aristotle,
but in a more critical and contextualizing spirit, and with Plato looking
over their shoulder.
The worthy exegete of Aristotle’s writings... should [not] obstinately
persist in trying to demonstrate that [Aristotle] is always and every-
where infallible, as if he had enrolled himself in the Philosopher’s
school,opined his last comprehensive commentator, Simplicius (d. 560).^16
The great third- century Platonist Plotinus, for example, used Alexander’s
commentaries in his teaching and engaged—combatively but respectfully—
with problems in Aristotle’s philosophy. Porphyry says Plotinus’s writings
“are full of concealed Stoic and Peripatetic doctrines. Aristotle’s Metaphysics,
13 A. Falcon, “Commentators on Aristotle,” SEP, http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013
/entries/aristotle-commentators/, §§2–3, but also (on a more cautious note) Barnes, in Barnes and Griffin
(eds), Philosophia togata 2 [5:9] 45, and S. Fazzo, “Nicolas, l’auteur du Sommaire de la philosophie
d’Aristote,” Revue des études grecques 121 (2008) 99–126.
14 R. Goulet and M. Aouad, “Alexandros d’Aphrodisias,” D PA 1.125–39; S. Fazzo, “Alexandros
d’Aphrodisias,” D PA Suppl. 61–70; id., in Adamson and others (eds), Philosophy, science and exegesis
[1:35] 1.6–11; H. Baltussen, “From polemic to exegesis: The ancient philosophical commentary,” Poetics
today 28 (2007) 268–73; D. Frede, “Alexander of Aphrodisias,” SEP, http://plato.stanford.edu/archives
/sum2013/entries/alexander-aphrodisias/.
15 Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics [ed. H. Diels (Berlin 1882–95)] 80.15–16.
16 Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Categories [ed. K. Kalbfleisch (Berlin 1907); tr. (pp.
1–75) M. Chase (London 2003)] 7.23–29.