Theophrastus

Theophrastus (c. 371 - c. 287 BC), born at Eresos on Lesbos, studied under Plato and then became the pupil, colleague and successor of Aristotle, whom he followed as head of the Lyceum at Athens.

He wrote widely on philosophy, logic and natural history, and his botanical works are the earliest surviving systematic study of plants.

His Characters, a short book of thirty sketches of human failings such as the flatterer, the miser and the braggart, founded a tradition of character writing that ran through La Bruyere to the modern novel.