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Istvaacute;nBodnár and William W. Fortenbaugh, eds.,Eudemus of Rhodes. Rutgers University Studies in Classical Humanities, Volume XI. New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers, 2002. Pp. ix + 383. ISBN 0-7658-0134-5. $69.95.
The series Rutgers University Studies in Classical Humanities has mainly focused, so far, on Aristotle's school, and, within it, on Theophrastus of Eresus, the first leader of the Peripatos after Aristotle. To Theophrastus four of the first eight volumes of the series (vols. II, III, V and VIII) have been devoted. With volume IX the attention shifted to Theophrastus' pupils (Demetrius of Phalerum, vol. IX) and colleagues (Dicearchus of Messana, vol. X). Another student of Aristotle and fellow-student of Theophrastus within the Peripatos in the second half of the fourth century BC, Eudemus of Rhodes, is the object of volume XI, under review here. Very little is known about Eudemus' life, and only a few fragments of his writings are extant, whose authenticity is, in some cases, still debated. The fragments ascribed to Eudemus are edited by Fritz Wehrli, Die Schule des Aristoteles: Texte und Kommentar, vol. 8: Eudemus von Rhodos, Schwabe, Basel 1969(2), 1955(1). Eudemus certainly played a significant role among the immediate successors of Aristotle-as witnessed by the connection of his name with one of Aristotle's ethical writings, the Eudemian Ethics-even though he was less influential than Theophrastus in subsequent times. He contributed to logic, physics and zoology (if the fragments on zoology attributed to him are authentic), mathematics and theology. The sixteen articles (all but one in English) of different scholars collected in the volume under review (many of which were originally presented at a conference on Eudemus held in Budapest in 1997) provide a better understanding of the various areas of Eudemus' thought, and help to appreciate his importance within the Aristotelian tradition in particular, and the history of philosophy...