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[p. 433] or “exoteric,” the other ἀκροατικά, or “acroatic.” 1 Those were called “exoteric” which gave training in rhetorical exercises, logical subtlety, and acquaintance with politics; those were called “acroatic” in which a more profound and recondite philosophy was discussed, which related to the contemplation of nature or dialectic discussions. To the practice of the “acroatic” training which I have mentioned he devoted the morning hours in the Lyceum, 2 and he did not ordinarily admit any pupil to it until he had tested his ability, his elementary knowledge, and his zeal and devotion to study. The exoteric lectures and exercises in speaking lie held at the same place in the evening and opened them generally to young men without distinction. This he called δειλινὸς περίπατος, or “the evening walk,” the other which I have mentioned above, ἑωθινός, or “the morning walk”; 3 for on both occasions he walked as he spoke. He also divided his books on all these subjects into two divisions, calling one set “exoteric,” the other “acroatic.” When King Alexander knew that he had published those books of the “acroatic” set, although at that time the king was keeping almost all of Asia in a state of panic by his deeds of arms, and was pressing King Darius himself hard by attacks and victories, yet in the midst of such urgent affairs he sent a letter to Aristotle, saying that the philosopher had not done right in publishing the books and so revealing to the
1 i.e. esoteric, or inner, for the initiated only. The term was originally applied to Aristotle's acrobatic (or acroamatic) writings, which were not made public, as were his exoteric Dialogues, but were read to hearers only (cf. ἀκούω) and were of a strictly scientific character. Except for the fragments of his Dialogues, all the works of Aristotle which have come down to us are of the latter class.
2 See note on vii. 16. 1 (ii, p. 135).
3 Hence the term “peripatetics,” from περιπατέω, “walk up and down.”
The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius. With An English Translation. John C. Rolfe. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1927.
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