On what *month & day* was the Greek philosopher "Aristotle" born? circa 384 BC

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Request for Question Clarification by mvguy-ga on 08 Jun 2002 22:51 PDT

I have found two pages that indicate something about the time of his
birth.

This says he was born in the summer:
http://www.top-biography.com/0054-Aristotle/index1.htm

This says he was born on April 16:
http://www.skepticnews.com/archives/1999/week16.shtml

This date has no support that I've been able to find, so I'm extremely
skeptical and won't offer it as an answer.  But if you'd accept this
as an answer anyway, please say so.

As an alternative, would you accept as an answer an explanation of why
the date isn't known?

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Clarification of Question by bobk-ga on 09 Jun 2002 07:40 PDT

Thanks one and all for your responces! After reading your comments I
would have to agree,that finding an exact date is probably impossible
or not reliable,for the reasons given. However a rough
approximation/reference may be plausible;such as the middle of
summer,or the dead of winter.He did leave a very detailed will which
might yield a clue. Shakespeare for example reportedly died on the
same day as his birth! Also I believe the remains of his school the
"Lyceum" have been recently discovered in Athens! (records possible
discovered?)

I am uncertain this information exists. The calendars have been
changed extensively since Aristotle's time, and I would find it
remarkable if anyone could translate the date exactly, even if it were
known in some other calendar system (which I do not believe it is).

I must agree with jasonm1-ga
It is highly unlikely that the birthday of Aristotle is known to
anyone alive nowadays. There might be sources giving some reference to
the date he was born on or an event that took place at about the same
time, but those sources are never very reliable since they use
different calanders and because there wasn't a date system like we
have nowadays.
So, even if there is some answer given by some source it will be as
good as anything other.

This is a difficult question to answer because even if there were some
record of Aristotle’s birth (which I have been unable to find) you
should understand that the Gregorian calendar that we use today, with
the days and months of the year, was not adopted until 1752.  Things
didn’t start to sort out until well after Aristotle’s time:

“In the eighth century B.C.E., civilizations all over the world either
discarded or modified their old 360 day calendars.  The 360 day
calendars had been in use for the greater part of a millennium. In
many places, month lengths immediately after that change were not
fixed, but were based instead upon observation of the sky.”

“During this period in Greece, for example, months that consisted of
30 days were considered to be "full;" those that lasted only 29 days
were said to be "hollow." Months containing 30 days were also called
"full" in Babylon, but those containing 29 were deemed to be
"defective."
For more on that, check out this site: 
http://webexhibits.org/calendars/year-definitions.html#SECTION00323000000000000000

 [If that link doesn’t wrap properly and work, try this one instead:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?E24B26501  ]

Prior to that, the Greeks, the Romans, the Chinese, the
Aztecs---everyone had a different way to measure the year and break it
into units. There was no such thing, for example, as “December 7, 384
BC.”   Any birth date established for Aristotle would have to be
derived.

For an idea of what kind of confusion this entails, consider this:

“When the child who would grow up to be Sir Isaac Newton was born, his
birth date was December 25, 1642. After England adopted the Gregorian
Calendar in 1752, the birthdate of the English physicist and
mathematician was changed to January 4, 1643.”
http://www.m-w.com/wftw/00jan/010400.htm

Good Luck with your quest … I’m interested to see what our trusty
Researchers come up with.

-K~

A little tidbit:

The current article in Encyclopedia Britannica also states Summer 384
BC as his birthdate. I could not find any more precise data anywhere.
He was born in Stagira, a still-existing community of ca. 500 ppl.
http://www.it.uom.gr/project/chalkidiki/Stagira_Olympiada.htm

Here are some  thoughts and a bit of research I've done for this
question.  I'm in line to be a researcher.  So if you appreciate my
answer, let someone know.

http://www.a0kteacherstuff.com/october.htm

According to this place they pinpointed Aristotle's death to October
2nd 322 BC
His birth?   Unknown other than 384.  

Not sure who extrapolated the October 2nd date because the Julian
calendar was first adopted in 46 B.C. and in 1582 A.D. Pope Gregory
x111 introduced the Gregorian calendar which is the one we use today. 
  They both used the 7 day week cycle.  That first year  Friday the
fifth of October 1582  became Friday the 15th of October, 1582.  
Other changes were yet to be made.

Another source has Aristotle dying in March of 322 and yet another it
is August of 322
BC.

Just the year of birth and death are given at these sites:

http://www.island-of-freedom.com/ARISTOT.HTM

http://www.knuten.liu.se/~bjoch509/philosophers/intros/ari-intro.html

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/aristotle.html

http://www3.baylor.edu/~Scott_Moore/aristotle.html

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GREECE/ARIST.HTM

http://www.sophies-world.com/SophieText/aristotle.htm

http://www.radicalacademy.com/philaristotle1.htm
http://www.connect.net/ron/aristotle.html
(info derived from MSFT Encarta)

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01713a.htm
(catholic encyclopedia)

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=114501
(Britannica)

http://www.xrefer.com/entry/551319
(oxford companion)

http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/a/aristotl.htm


Here  we find out he miight have been born the summer of 384 B.C.

http://www.top-biography.com/0054-Aristotle/index1.htm

It is stated:  "In a small Greek township of Stagira, Aristotle was
born in the summer of 384 B.C., on the Chalcidie Peninsula of
Macedonia in Northern Greece.  Nichomachus, his father was a court
physician to the king of Macedonia, Amyrstas III, who happened to be
the grandfather of Alexander the  Great.

His exit is stated less exact like this….   And where any of the info
came it is not listed.

"Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C., And due to vigorous
anti-Macedonian agitation in Athens, Aristotle feared danger to
himself. Hence he left  Athens and withdrew to his mother's estates in
Charlie' on the island of Euboea.He died there in the following year
from a stomach illness at the age of 62."

AND
In an old book, Pocket Book of Philosophers, (the copyright page is
missing but this copy is from the mid-60's...) it is stated that
Aristotle was born in late Spring of 384 and died in the fall of 322.

Conclusive huh?

Many thanks "glasscocoon-ga"! I'm impressed with your thorough effort.
You get my vote for researcher. :)