The followers of Aristotle were called the "peripatetics", and often his general "school" of philosophy is called "peripatetic" or "peripateticism." This name comes from the one of two sources. On the one hand, his school in Athens had colonnades in which the instruction perhaps occurred. The Greek for "colonnade" is peripatoi. On the other hand, however, it is also said that Aristotle walked while lecturing. The word for "a walker" in Greek is peripatetikos. Hence, he would walk back and forth with his students, lecturing. From this one little habit (or, perhaps, the aforementioned colonnades), there arose a title that was affixed to philosophers for over two millennia!

Plato wrote many dialogues on a great number of philosophical topics. His philosophical genius was matched only by his great stylistic ability to craft dialogues among various interlocutors. The Republic is his great work on political philosophy, one that is read by many people and would be a foundation text (whether accepted or rejected) for much of European political thought through the ages. This lengthy text deals with problems of justice, the way that various classes in a city should interact, how the city reflects the inner life of the human soul, and many other topics. Like much of Plato, the work is very airy and lacks the pragmatism that one finds in his student Aristotle's work The Politics. Nevertheless, the Republic remains an important work of political thought, working through numerous topics pertinent to the civic order—always with the deft expression that one expects from the able pen of Plato.

The Consolation of Philosophy was written by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius during his period of imprisonment at the hand of his former "employer", Theodoric the Great. In the text, Boethius is visited by Lady Philosophy, with whom he discusses a variety of Philosophical topics. The work is interspersed with related poetry as well. Throughout their discussions, Boethius is consoled that true felicity is not found in the passing and capricious happenings of this world (and the opinions of those in it).

While all the Roman Emperors read philosophy and a few others wrote literary works, only Marcus Aurelius, emperor from 161-180 CE, actually wrote a philosophical tract, known as The Meditations. Marcus Aurelius' Meditations were a development on Stoic philosophy, and the work is really a collection of thoughts and quotations compiled while Marcus Aurelius was Emperor and leading the Roman Army on campaigns.

Suetonius is most famous for his history of the Roman Empire, De Vita Caesarum, widely known in English as The Twelve Caesars. Marcus Aurelius was an Emperor himself, also known for his philosophical work, The Meditations. Juvenal and Plautus were Roman comedy authors, while Aeschylus was a Greek playwright.

The term "metaphysics" literally means "after physics." It is attributed to a work of Aristotle which, properly speaking, does not have that name given to it by its author. It deals with the problem of "being as such." For this question, we do not need to understand the details of this difficult treatise. Instead, it is enough for us to know something about the history (or at least theories concerning the history). The Metaphysics received its name really for two reasons.

On the one hand, it is the text that is to be studied after Aristotle's Physics. The Physics studies changeable being (or "mobile being", as later medieval writers interpreted Aristotle). The Metaphysics goes beyond this—it studies "being as such" or "being insofar as it is being \[i.e. not merely mobile\].

On the other hand, the name Metaphysics may well be derived from the fact that one of Aristotle's later followers, Andronicus of Rhodes, happened to organize Aristotle's works such that the text called the Metaphysics came after the Physics.

Really, both explanations can go together. Only one option has been provided that explains this phenomenon. (Be careful not to pick the option that says that the Metaphysics was named for its place within the various physical sciences!)

De Oratore was considered a model of how to conduct rhetoric and oratory, not only in the ancient world, but throughout European history into the Renaissance. Its author, Cicero, became widely beloved in the Middle Ages and beyond for his philosophical focus on the engaged moral and noble man.

In Greek, the word Organon means "instrument." The followers of Aristotle came to call his logical writings the Organon because logic is an instrument for all of the other sciences. This canon of logical writings would become a standard canon for teaching logic in the Middle Ages after Aristotle's works were rediscovered. (Only parts of his works survived into the early Middle Ages.) There were other forms of logic that developed after Aristotle, especially that of the Stoics. Likewise, in the Middle Ages, there was the development of numerous logical topics not directly covered by Aristotle. In addition, contemporary logic tends to ignore much of Aristotle, though even it is not without reliance on the old Greek philosopher.

Interestingly, Aristotle himself thought that he was a pioneer in logic and that he was breaking new ground. Indeed, he says as much in a charming way in his Sophistical Refutations—a treatise dealing with sophistries (i.e. arguments that appear to be valid when they are not).

Sextus Empiricus actually presents us with a quite developed account of what was known as Pyrrhonian Skepticism. The word "skeptic" has a kind of negative connotation, as though the skeptical person really doesn't care about the truth. This is not really what it meant in Greek thought, however. The skeptic doubted that we could come to know anything absolutely. Sextus held that one could always settle for either side of an argument. He defended this position by presenting various "modes" of arguing that show this fact.

The skeptic was really someone who "kept looking." The Greek roots for the word indeed reflect this outlook, for it means "to think" or "to consider." The Skeptic is someone who does not stop thinking or considering a given matter.

The three great Greek philosophers are uniquely tied together, through a series of teacher-student relationships. Socrates, the great founder of Greek philosophy, directly taught Plato, who recorded most of Socrates' thought. Plato then taught Aristotle himself, which makes the entire chain of Greek philosophy tied to all three.