Aristeides

Ἀριστείδης).

1. Son of Lysimachus, the Athenian statesman and general, makes his first certain appearance in history as archon eponymus of the year 489 B. C. (Mar. Par. 50.) From Herodotus we hear of him as the best and justest of his countrymen; as ostracised and at enmity with Themistocles; of his generosity and bravery at Salamis, in some detail (8.79, 82, and 95) ; and the fact, that he commanded the Athenians in the campaign of Plataea. (9.28.) Thucydides names him once as co-ambassador to Sparta with Themistocles, once in the words τὸν ἐπ̓ Ἀριστείδου φόρον. (1.91, 5.18.) In the Gorgias of Plato, he is the example of the virtue, so rare among statesmen, of justice, and is said " to have become singularly famous for it, not only at home, but through the whole of Greece." (p. 526a. b.) In Demosthenes he is styled the assessor of the φόρος (c. Aristocr. pp. 689, 690), and in Aeschines he has the title of "the Just." (c. Tim. p. 4. 1. 23, c. Ctes. pp. 79. 1. 38, 90. ll. 18,20, ed. Steph.) Added to this, and by it tobe corrected, wehave, comprehending the sketch by Cornelius Nepos, Plutarch's detailed biography, derived from various sources, * Plutarch in his Aristeides refers to the authority of Herodotus, Aeschines the Socratic, Callisthenes, Idomeneus, Demetrius Phalereus, who wrote an Ἀριστέιδης (D. L. 5.80, 81), Ariston Chius, Panaetius, and Craterus : he had also before him here, probably, as in his Themistocles (see 100.27), the standard historian, Ephorus, Charon Lampsacenus, a contemporary writer (504 to 464, B. C.), and Stesimbrotus Thasius, Deinon, Heracleides Ponticus, and Neanthes; perhaps also the Atthides of Hellanicus and Philochorus, and the Chia of Ion. good and bad.

His family, we are told, was ancient and noble (Callias the torch-bearer was his cousin); he was the political disciple of Cleisthenes (Plut. 2, An. Seni, p. 790), and partly on that account, partly from personal character, opposed from the first to Themistocles. They fought together, Aristeides as the commander of his tribe, in the Athenian centre at Marathon; and when Miltiades hurried from the field to protect the city, he was left in charge of the spoil. Next year, 489, perhaps in consequence, he was archon. In 483 or 482 (according to Nepos, three years earlier) he suffered ostracism, whether from the enmities, merely, which he had incurred by his scrupulous honesty and rigid opposition to corruption, or in connexion, further, with the triumph of the maritime and democratic policy of his rival. He wrote, it is said, his own name on the sherd, at the request of an ignorant countryman, who knew him not, but took it ill that any citizen should be called just beyond his neighbours. The sentence seems to have still been in force in 480 (Hdt. 8.79 ; Dem. c. Aristog. ii. p. 802. 1. 16), when he made his way from Aegina with news of the Persian movements for Themistocles at Salamis, and called on him to be reconciled. In the battle itself he did good service by dislodging the enemy, with a band raised and armed by himself, from the islet of Psyttaleia. In 479 he was strategus, the chief, it would seem, but not the sole (Plut. Arist. 11, but comp. 16 and 20, and Herod. ix.), and to him no doubt belongs much of the glory due to the conduct of the Athenians, in war and policy, during this, the most perilous year of the contest. Their replies to the proffers of Persia and the fears of Sparta Plutarch ascribes to him expressly, and seems to speak of an extant ψήφισμα Ἀριστείδου embracing them. (100.16.) So, too, their treatment of the claims of Tegea, and the arrangements of Pausanias with regard to their post in battle. He gives him further the suppression of a Persian plot among the aristocratical Athenians, and the settlement of a quarrel for the ἀριστεῖα by conceding them to Plataea (comp. however on this second point Hdt. 9.71); finally, with better reason, the consecration of Plataea and establishment of the Eleutheria, or Feast of Freedom. On the return to Athens, Aristeides seems to have acted in cheerful concert with Themistocles, as directing the restoration of the city (Heracl. Pont. 1); as his colleague in the embassy to Sparta, that secured for it its walls; as proposing, in accordance with his policy, perhaps also in consequence of changes in property produced by the war, the measure which threw open the archonship and areiopagus to all citizens alike. In 477, as joint-commander of the Athenian contingent under Pausanias, by his own conduct and that of his colleague and disciple, Cimon, he had the glory of obtaining for Athens the command of the maritime confederacy: and to him was by general consent entrusted the task of drawing up its laws and fixing its assessments. This first φόρος of 460 talents, paid into a common treasury at Delos, bore his name, and was regarded by the allies in after times, as marking their Saturnian age. It is, unless the change in the constitution followed it, his last recorded act. He lived, Theophrastus related, to see the treasury removed to Athens, and declared it (for the bearing of the words see Thirlwall's Greece, iii. p. 47) a measure unjust and expedient. During most of this period he was, we may suppose, as Cimon's coadjutor at home, the chief political leader of Athens. He died, according to some, in Pontus, more probably, however, at home, certainly after 471, the year of the ostracism of Themistocles, and very likely, as Nepos states, in 468. (See Clinton, F. H. in the years 469, 468.)

A tomb was shewn in Plutarch's time at Phalerum, as erected to him at the public expense. That he did not leave enough behind him to pay for his funeral, is perhaps a piece of rhetoric. We may believe, however, that his daughters were portioned by the state, as it appears certain (Plut. 27; comp. Dem. c. Lept. 491. 25), that his son Lysimachus received lands and money by a decree of Alcibiades; and that assistance was given to his grand-daughter, and even to remote descendants, in the time of Demetrius Phalereus. He must, so far as we know, have been in 489, as archon eponymus, among the pentacosiomedimni : the wars may have destroyed his property; we can hardly question the story from Aeschines, the disciple of Socrates, that when his poverty was made a reproach in a court of justice to Callias, his cousin, he bore witness that he had received and declined offers of his assistance; that he died poor is certain. This of itself would prove him possessed of an honesty rare in those times; and in the higher points of integrity, though Theophrastus said, and it may be true, that he at times sacrificed it to his country's interest, no case whatever can be adduced in proof, and he certainly displays a sense, very unusual, of the duties of nation to nation.

2. Son of Lysimachus, grandson of the preceding, is in Plato's Laches represented as brought by his father to Socrates as a future pupil. In the Theaetetus Socrates speaks of him as one of those who made rapid progress while in his society, but, after leaving him prematurely, lost all he had gained; an account which is unskilfully expanded and put in the mouth of the young man himself by the author of the Theages. That of the Theaetetus in the main we may take to be true. (Plat. Laches, p. 179a, &c. Theaet.p. 151a; Theag. p. 131a.) [A.H.C]

3. Son of Archippus, an Athenian commander of the ships sent to collect money from the Greek states in B. C. 425 and 424. (Thuc. 4.50, 75.)

4. An Elean, conquered in the armed race at the Olympic, in the Diaulos at the Pythian, and in the boys' horse-race at the Nemean games. (Paus. 6.16.3.)

(Ἀριστείδης), surnamed THEODORUS, one of the most celebrated Greek rhetoricians of the second century after Christ, was the son of Eudaemon, a priest of Zeus, and born at Adriani in Mysia, according to some in A. D. 129, and according to others in A. D. 117. He shewed extraordinary talents even in his early youth, and devoted himself with an almost unparalleled zeal to the study of rhetoric, which appeared to him the worthiest occupation of a man, and along with it he cultivated poetry as an amusement. Besides the rhetorician Herodes Atticus, whom he heard at Athens, he also received instructions from Aristocles at Pergamus, from Polemon at Smyrna, and from the grammarian Alexander of Cottyaeum. (Philostr. Vit. Sopsh. 2.9; Suidas, s. v. Ἀριστείδης Aristeid. Orat. fun. in Alex. p. 80, ed. Jebb.) After being sufficiently prepared for his profession, he travelled for some time, and visited various places in Asia, Africa, especially Egypt, Greece, and Italy. The fame of his talents and acquirements, which preceded him everywhere, was so great, that monuments were erected to his honour in several towns which he had honoured with his presence. (Aristeid. Orat. Aegypt. ii. p. 331, &c.; Philostr. Vit. Soph. 2.9.1.) Shortly before his return, and while yet in Italy, he was attacked by an illness which lasted for thirteen years. He had from his childhood been of a very weakly constitution, but neither this nor his protracted illness prevented his prosecuting his studies, for he was well at intervals; and in his "Sermones Sacri" (ἱεροὶ λόγοι, a sort of diary of his illness and his recovery), he relates that he was frequently encouraged by visions in his dreams to cultivate rhetoric to the exclusion of all other studies. During this period and afterwards, he resided at Smyrna, whither he had gone on account of its baths, but he made occasional excursions into the country, to Pergamus, Phocaea, and other towns. (Serm. Sacr. ii. p. 304, iv. p. 324, &c.) He had great influence with the emperor M. Aurelius, whose acquaintance he had formed in Ionia, and when in A. D. 178, Smyrna was to a great extent destroyed by an earthquake, Aristeides represented the deplorable condition of the city and its inhabitants in such vivid colours to the emperor that he was moved to tears, and generously assisted the Smyrnaeans in rebuilding their town. The Smyrnaeans shewed their gratitude to Aristeides by erecting to him a brazen statue in their agora, and by calling him the founder of their town. (Philostr. Vit. Solp. 2.9.2; Aristeid. Epist. ad M. Aurel. et Commod. i. p. 512.) Various other honours and distinctions were offered to him at Smyrna, but he refused them, and accepted only the office of priest of Asclepius, which he held until his death, about A. D. 180, according to some, at the age of 60, and according to others of 70. The circumstance of his living for so many years at Smyrna, and enjoying such great honours there, is probably the reason that in an epigram still extant (Anthol. Planud. p. 376) he is regarded as a native of Smyrna. The memory of Aristeides was honoured in several ancient towns by statues. (Liban. Epist. 1551.) One of these representing the rhetorician in a sitting attitude, was discovered in the 16th century, and is at present in the Vatican museum. The museum of Verona contains an inscription to his honour. (Visconti, Iconograph. Grecq. i. plate xxxi. p. 373, &c.; Bartoli, Dissert. Sul. Museo Veronese, Verona, 1745, 4to.) Works

The works of Aristeides extant are, fifty-five orations and declamations (including those which were discovered by Morelli and Mai), and two treatises on rhetorical subjects of little value, viz. περί πολιτικοῦ λόγου καὶ περὶ ἀφελοῦς λόγου. Some of his orations are eulogies on the power of certain divinities, others are panegyrics on towns, such as Smyrna, Cizycus, Rome; one among them is a Panathenaicus, and an imitation of that of Isocrates. Others again treat on subjects connected with rhetoric and eloquence. The six orations called ἱεροὶ λόγοι, which were mentioned above, have attracted considerable attention in modern times, on account of the various stories they contain respecting the cures of the sick in temples, and on account of the apparent resemblance between these cures and those said to be effected by Mesmerism. (Thorlacius, Opuscul. ii. p. 129, &c.) A list of the orations extant as well as of the lost works of Aristeides, is given in Fabricius (Bibl. Gr. vi. p. 15, &c.), and more completely by Westermann. (Gesch. der Griech. Beredtsasmk. p. 321, &c.) Assessment

Aristeides as an orator is much superior to the majority of rhetoricians in his time, whose great and only ambition was to shine and make a momentary impression by extempore speeches, and a brilliant and dazzling style. Aristeides, with whom thought was of far greater importance than the form in which it appeared, expressed the difference between himself and the other rhetoricians, at his first interview with the emperor, M. Aurelius, by saying, οὐκ ἐσμὲν τῶν ἐμούντων, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἀκριβούντων. (Philostr. Vit. Soph. 2.9.2; Sopat. Proleg. in Aristid. p. 738, ed. Dind.) He despised the silly puns, the shallow witticisms and insignificant ornaments of his contemporaries, and sought nourishment for his mind in the study of the ancients. In his panegyric orations, however, he often endeavours to display as much brilliancy of style as he can. On the whole his style is brief and concise, but too frequently deficient in ease and clearness. His sentiments are often trivial and spun out to an intolerable length, which leaves the reader nothing to think upon for himself. His orations remind us of a man who is fond of hearing himself talk.

Notwithstanding these defects, however, Aristeides is still unsurpassed by any of his contemporaries. His admirers compared him to Demosthenes, and even Aristeides did not think himself much inferior. This vanity and self-sufficiency made him enemies and opponents, among whom are mentioned Palladius (Liban. Epist. 546), Sergius, and Porphyrius. (Suid. s. vv.) Ancient Commentators

But the number of his admirers was far greater, and several learned grammarians wrote commentaries on his orations. Besides Athanasius, Menander, and others, whose works are lost, we must mention especially Sopater of Apamea, who is probably the author of the Greek Prolegomena to the orations of Aristeides, and also of some among the Scholia on Aristeides,which have been published by Trommel (Scholia in Aristidis Orationes, Frankf. 1826, 8vo.), and by Dindorf (vol. iii. of his edition of Aristeides), and which contain a great many things of importance for mythology, history, and antiquities. They also contain numerous fragments of works now lost. The greater part of these Scholia are probably compilations from the commentaries of Arethas, Metrophanes, and other grammarians. Respecting the life of Aristeides, compare J. Masson, Collectanea Historica Aristidis aevumn et vitam spectantia, ordine chronologico digesta, in the edition of Jebb, and reprinted in that of Dindorf. Editions

The first edition of the orations of Aristeides (53 in number) is that of Florence, 1517, fol. In 1566 W. Canter published at Basel a Latin translation, in which many passages were skilfully corrected. This translation, together with the Greek text, was re-edited by P. Stephens, 1604, in 3 vols. 8vo. A better edition, with some of the Greek Scholia, is that of Samuel Jebb, Oxford, 1722, 2 vols. 4to. Many corrections of the text of this edition are contained in Reiske's Animadversiones in Auct. Graec. vol. iii. Morelli published in 1761 the oration πρὸς Λεπτίνην ὑπὲρ ἀτελείας, which he had discovered in a Venetian MS. It was afterwards edited again by F. A. Wolf, in his edition of Demosthenes' oration against Leptines (Halle, 1789), and by Grauert in his Declamationes Leptineae. (Bonn, 1827, 8vo.) This edition of Grauert contains also an oration πρὸς Δημοσθένη περὶ ἀτελείας, which had been discovered by A. Mai, and published in his Nova Collect. Script. Vet. vol. i. p. 3. A complete edition of all the works of Aristeides, which gives a correct text and all the Scholia, was published by W. Dindorf, Leipzig, 1829, 3 vols. 8vo. [L.S]

Artists.

1. Of Thebes, was one of the most celebrated Greek painters. His father was Aristodemus, his teachers were Euxenidas and his brother Nicomachus. (Plin. Nat. 35.36. §§ 7, 22.) He was a somewhat older contemporary of Apelles (Plin. Nat. 35.36.19), and flourished about 360-330 B. C. The point in which he most excelled is thus described by Pliny (l.c.): "Is omnium primus animum pinxit et sensus hominum expressit, quae vocant Graeci h)/qh, item perturbationes," that is, he depicted the feelings, expressions, and passions which may be observed in common life. One of his finest pictures was that of a babe approaching the breast of its mother, who was mortally wounded, and whose fear could be plainly seen lest the child should suck blood instead of milk. (Anthol. Graec. ii. p. 251, Jacobs.) Fuseli (Lect. l) has shewn how admirably in this picture the artist drew the line between pity and disgust. Alexander admired the picture so much, that he removed it to Pella. Another of his pictures was a suppliant, whose voice you seemed almost to hear. Several other pictures of his are mentioned by Pliny (l.c.), and among them an Iris (ib. 40.41), which, though unfinished, excited the greatest admiration. As examples of the high price set upon his works, Pliny (ib. 36.19) tells us, that he painted a picture for Mnason, tyrant of Elatea, representing a battle with the Persians, and containing a hundred figures, for each of which Aristeides received ten minae; and that long after his death, Attalus, king of Pergamus, gave a hundred talents for one of his pictures. (Ib. and 7.39.) In another passage (35.8) Pliny tells us, that when Mummius was selling the spoils of Greece, Attalus bought a picture of Bacchus by Aristeides for 600,000 sesterces, but that Mummius, having thus discovered the value of the picture, refused to sell it to Attalus, and took it to Rome, where it was placed in the temple of Ceres, and was the first foreign painting which was exposed to public view at Rome. The commentators are in doubt whether these two passages refer to the same picture. (See also Strab. viii. p.381.) Aristeides was celebrated for his pictures of courtezans, and hence he was called πορνογράφος. (Athen. 13.567b.) He was somewhat harsh in his colouring. (Plin. Nat. 35.36.19.) According to some authorities, the invention of encaustic painting in wax (Dict. of Ant. s.v. Painting, pp. 685, 686) was ascribed to Aristeides, and its perfection to Praxiteles; but Pliny observes, that there were extant encaustic pictures of Polygnotus, Nicanor, and Arcesilaus. (35.39.)

Aristeides left two sons, Nicerus and Ariston, to whom he taught his art. [Ariston; Niceros.]

Another Aristeides is mentioned as his disciple. (Plin. Nat. 35.36.23.) The words of Pliny, which are at first sight somewhat obscure, are rightly explained in the following table by Sillig. (Catal. Art. s. v. Antorides.)

2. A sculptor, who was celebrated for his statues of four-horsed and two-horsed chariots. Since he was the disciple of Polycletus, he must have flourished about 388 B. C. (Plin. Nat. 34.19.12.) Perhaps he was the same person as the Aristeides who made some improvements in the goals of the Olympic stadium. (Paus. 6.20.7; Böckh, Corp. Inscrip. i. p. 39.) [P.S]

of Athens, one of the earliest Christian apologetic writers, was at first a philosopher, and continued such after he became a Christian. He is described by Jerome as a most eloquent man. Works

Aristeides' apology for Christianity, which he presented to the Emperor Hadrian about 123 or 126 A. D., was imbued with the principles of the Greek philosophy. It is said that the apology of Justin, who was also a philosopher, was, to a great extent, an imitation of that of Aristeides. The work of Aristeides is entirely lost. Further Information

Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 4.3, Chron. Armen.; Hieron. de Vir. Illust. 20; Epist. ad Magn. Orat. 84, p. 327. [P.S]

the author of a work entitled Milesiaca (Μιλησιακά or Μιλησιακοὶ λόγοι), which was probably a romance, having Miletus for its scene. It was written in prose, and was of a licentious character. It extended to six books at the least. (Harpocrat. s.. v. δερμηστής.) It was translated into Latin by L. Cornelius Sisenna, a contemporary of Sulla, and it seems to have become popular with the Romans. (Plut. Crass. 32; Ovid. Trist. 2.413, 414, 443, 444; Lucian, Amor. 1.) Aristeides is reckoned as the inventor of the Greek romance, and the title of his work is supposed to have given rise to the term Milesian, as applied to works of fiction. Some writers think that his work was imitated by Appuleius in his Metamorphoses, and by Lucian in his Lucius.

The age and country of Aristeides are unknown, but the title of his work is thought to favour the conjecture that he was a native of Miletus. Vossius (de Hist. Graec. p. 401, ed. Westermann) supposes, that he was the same person as the Aristeides of Miletus, whose works on Sicilian, Italian, and Persian history (Σικελικά, Ἰταλικά, Περσικά) are several times quoted by Plutarch (Parall.), and that the author of the historical work περὶ Κνίδου was also the same person. (Schol. Pind. P. 3.14.) [P.S]

(Ἀριστείδης Κοϊντιλιανός), the author of a treatise in three books on music (Περὶ Μουσικῆς). Nothing is known of his history, nor is he mentioned by any ancient writer. But he must have lived after Cicero, whom he quotes (p. 70), and before Martianus Capella, who has made use of this treatise in his work De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, lib. 9. It seems probable also that he must be placed before Ptolemy, since he does not mention the difference between that writer and his predecessors with respect to the number of the modes. (Aristoxenus reckoned 13, his followers 15, but Ptolemy only 7. See Aristeid. pp. 22, 23; Ptol. Harm. 2.9.) Works On Music

The work of Aristeides is perhaps the most valuable of all the ancient musical treatises. It embraces, besides the theory of music (ἁρμονική) in the modern sense, the whole range of subjects comprehended under μουσική, which latter science contemplated not merely the regulation of sounds, but the harmonious disposition of everything in nature. The first book treats of Harmonics and Rhythm; the former subject being considered under the usual heads of Sounds, Intervals, Systems, Genera, Modes, Transition, and Composition (μελοποιΐα). The second, of the moral effects and educational powers of music; and the third of the numerical ratios which define musical intervals, and of their connexion with physical and moral science generally. Περὶ Ποιητικῆς

Aristeides refers (p. 87) to another work of his own, Περὶ Ποιητικῆς, which is lost. He makes no direct allusion to any of the ancient writers on music, except Aristoxenus. Editions

The only edition of Aristeides is that of Meibomius. It is printed, along with the latter part of the 9th book of Martianus Capella, in his collection entitled Antiquae Musicae Auctores Septem, Amst. 1652. A new edition of all these, and of several other ancient musical writers, is announced by Dr. J. Franzius of Berlin. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 259.) [W.F.D]

of Samos, a writer mentioned by Varro in his work entitled " Hebdomades," as an authority for the opinion, that the moon completed her circuit in twenty-eight days exactly. (Aul. Gell. N. A. 3.10.) [P.S]