Aristo is frequently confounded with another philosopher of the same name, Ariston of Iulis, in Ceos, who, about 230 B.C., succeeded Lyco as scholarch of the Peripatetics.
This second phase of the activity of the school closes with the comprehensive labours of Alexander of Aphrodisias (Scholarch, c. 200), the exegete par excellence, called sometimes the second Aristotle.
In 347 the dying philosopher nominated his nephew to succeed him as scholarch, and the choice was ratified by the school.
But, whereas the new scholarch, confining himself to the detailed examination of natural kinds, attempted no comprehensive explanation of the universe, Aristotle held that a theory of its origin, its motions, and its order was a necessary adjunct to the classificatory sciences; and in nearly all his references to Speusippus he insists upon this fundamental difference of procedure.
He died in 314, and was succeeded as scholarch by Polemon, whom he had reclaimed from a life of profligacy.