text: A major question in the history of Aristotle's works is how the exoteric writings were all lost, and how the ones now possessed came to be found.The consensus is that Andronicus of Rhodes collected the esoteric works of Aristotle's school which existed in the form of smaller, separate works, distinguished them from those of Theophrastus and other Peripatetics, edited them, and finally compiled them into the more cohesive, larger works as they are known today.According to Strabo and Plutarch, after Aristotle's death, his library and writings went to Theophrastus (Aristotle's successor as head of the Lycaeum and the Peripatetic school).After the death of Theophrastus, the peripatetic library went to Neleus of Scepsis.Some time later, the Kingdom of Pergamon began conscripting books for a royal library, and the heirs of Neleus hid their collection in a cellar to prevent it from being seized for that purpose.The library was stored there for about a century and a half, in conditions that were not ideal for document preservation.On the death of Attalus III, which also ended the royal library ambitions, the existence of Aristotelian library was disclosed, and it was purchased by Apellicon and returned to Athens in about .Apellicon sought to recover the texts, many of which were seriously degraded at this point due to the conditions in which they were stored.He had them copied out into new manuscripts, and used his best guesswork to fill in the gaps where the originals were unreadable.When Sulla seized Athens in , he seized the library and transferred it to Rome.There, Andronicus of Rhodes organized the texts into the first complete edition of Aristotle's works (and works attributed to him).The Aristotelian texts we have to day are based on these.