Theophrastus c.372-c.286BC
Greek philosopher

Born in Eresus, Lesbos, he studied at Athens under Plato and became the close friend of Aristotle. He became head of the Peripatetic School (Lyceum) after Aristotle's death (322BC) and is responsible for preserving many of Aristotle's works. Most of his own prolific output is lost, but surviving work includes important treatises on plants (representative of his interest in natural science), reconstructed fragments of his history of the Presocratic philosophers, and the more literary volume of Characters, containing 30 deft sketches of different moral types, which has been widely translated and imitated.

Bibliography: William W Fortenbaugh (ed), Theophrastus of Eresus: Sources for his Life, Writings, Thought and Influence (1992)