Little is known for sure about the life and work of Strato of Lampsacus, third head of Aristotle's school. He lived in Alexandria as tutor to the young Ptolemy Philadelphus for some time before he took over the leadership of the Peripatos; during this time he likely came into contact with the doctors and scientists patronized by the Ptolemaic court. He was head of Aristotle's school in Athens from Theophrastus's death in 286 BCE until his death in 268 or 269 BCE. The school seems to have dwindled into obscurity after Strato's time: Explanations offered for this include a suspect story that the school lost its library after Theophrastus's death.

Strato was known in antiquity as "the natural philosopher," possibly because of his insistence on separating the study of the natural world from any dependence on the divine. He reportedly ascribed all natural events to forces of...