Theophrastus

Theophrastus, a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. His given name was Tyrtamus; his nickname Θεόφραστος was given by Aristotle, his teacher.

Theophrastus, a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. His given name was Tyrtamus; his nickname Θεόφραστος was given by Aristotle, his teacher, for his 'divine style of expression'. He came to Athens at a young age and initially studied in Plato's school.

He was a scholar, botanist, biologist, and physicist. The most important of his books are two large botanical treatises, Enquiry into Plants, and On the Causes of Plants, which constitute the first systemization of the botanical world and were major sources for botanical knowledge during antiquity and the Middle Ages.