Aristocles
(Ἀριστοκλῆς).
1. Of Rhodes, a Greek grammarian and rhetorician, who was a contemporary of Strabo. (xiv. p. 655.) He is probably the writer of whom Ammonius (de Diff. Voc. under ἐπικήδιος) mentions a work περὶ ποιητικῆς. There are several other works : viz. περὶ διαλέκτου (Etymol. M. s. v. κῦμα; comp. Cramer's Anecdot. i. p. 231, iii. p. 298), Λακώνων πολιτεία (Athen. 4.140), and a work on the history of Italy, of which Plutarch (Paral. Minor. 25, 41) mentions the third book,--which are ascribed to Aristocles; but whether all or only some of them belong to Aristocles the Rhodian, is uncertain. (Compare Clem. Al. Strom. vi. p. 267; Varr. de Ling. Lat. 10.10, 75, ed. Muller; Dionys. Dinarch. 8.)
2. Of Pergamus, a sophist and rhetorician, who lived in the time of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. He spent the early part of his life upon the study of the Peripatetic philosophy, and during this period he completely neglected his outward appearance. But afterwards he was seized by the desire of becoming a rhetorician, and went to Rome, where he enrolled himself among the pupils of Herodes Atticus. After his return to Pergamus, he made a complete change in his mode of life, and appears to have enjoyed a great reputation as a teacher of rhetoric. His declamations are praised for their perspicuity and for the purity of the Attic Greek; but they were wanting in passion and animation, and resembled philosophical discussions. Suidas ascribes to him a work on rhetoric (τέχνη ῥητορική), letters, declamations, &c. (Philostr. Vit. Soph. 2.3; Suidas, s. v. Ἀριστοκλῆς; Eudoc. p. 66.)
3. Of Messene, a Peripatetic philosopher, whose age is uncertain, some placing him three centuries before and others two centuries after Christ. But if the statement is correct, that he was the teacher of Alexander Aphrodisias (Cyrill. c. Jul. ii. p. 61), he must have lived about the beginning of the third century after Christ. Works
According to Suidas (s. v.) and Eudocia (p. 71), he wrote several works :-- 1. Πότερον σπουδαιότερος Ὀμηρος ἢ Πλάτων. 2. Τέχναι ῥητορικαί. 3. A work on the god Serapis. 4. A work on Ethics, in ten books. 5. A work on Philosophy, likewise in ten books. The last of these works appears to have been a history of philosophy, in which he treated of the philosophers, their schools, and doctrines. Several fragments of it are preserved in Eusebius. Further Information
Praep. Evang. 14.17-21, 15.2, 14; Comp. Theodoret. Therap. Serm. 8, and Suidas, who also mentions some other works of his.
4. A Stoic philosopher, who wrote a commentary in four books on a work of Chrysippus. (Suid. s.v. Ἀιστοκλῆς.)
5. A musician, to whom Athenaeus (iv. p. 174) attributes a work περὶ χόρων.
6. The author of an epigram in the Greek Anthology. (Append. Epigr. n. 7, ed. Tauchnitz.)
7. The author of a work called Παράδοξα, which consisted of several books. Jacobs (ad Anthol. Gr. xiii. p. 862) is of opinion, that he is the same as the Messenian. Some fragments of his are preserved in Stobaeus (Florileg. 64, 37) and the Scholiast on Pindar. (Olymp. 7.66.) [L.S]
(Ἀριστοκλῆς), a physician, whose medicines are several times quoted by Andromachus. (Ap. Gal. De Compos. Medicam. sec. Locos, 6.6, vol. xii. p. 936; ibid. 8.7, vol. xiii. d, p. 205; De Compos. Medicam. sec. Gen. 7.7, vol. xiii. p. 977.) He is also mentioned in the first volume of Cramer's Anecdota Graeca Parisiensia, p. 395. Nothing is known of the events of his life, but he must have lived some time in or before the first century after Christ. [W.A.G]
(Ἀριστοκλῆς), sculptors. From different passages in Pausanias we learn the following particulars :--
(1.) Aristocles of Cydonia was one of the most ancient sculptors; and though his age could not be clearly fixed, it was certain that he flourished before Zancle was called Messene (Paus. 5.25.6), that is, before 494 B. C.
(2.) The starting-pillar of the Hippodrome at Olympia was made by Cleoetas, the same sculptor by whom there was a statue at Athens bearing this inscription :
(Ὃς τὴν ἱππάφεσιν Ὀλυμπίᾳ εὕρατο πρῶτος Τεῦξέ με Κλεοίτας υἱός Ἀριστοκλέους.
(6.20.7.)
(3.) There was an Aristocles, the pupil and son of Cleoetas. (5.24.1.)
(4.) Aristocles of Sicyon was the brother of Canachus, and not much inferior to him in reputation. This Aristocles had a pupil, Synnoön, who was the father and teacher of Ptolichus of Aegina. (6.9.1.) We are also told, in an epigram by Antipater Sidonius (Greek Anthol. ii. p. 15, no. 35, Jacobs), that Aristocles made one of three statues of the Muses, the other two of which were made by Ageladas and Canachus. [Ageladas.]
(5.) Pantias of Chios, the disciple and son of Sostratus, was the seventh disciple reckoned in order from Aristocles of Sicyon (Paus. 6.3.4), that is, according to a mode of reckoning which was common with the Greeks, counting both the first and the last of the series.
From these passages we infer, that there were two sculptors of this name: Aristocles the elder, who is called both a Cydonian and a Sicyonian, probably because he was born at Cydonia and practised and taught his art in Sicyon; and Aristocles the younger, of Sicyon, who was the grandson of the former, son of Cleoetas, and brother of Canachus : and that these artists founded a school of sculpture at Sicyon, which secured an hereditary reputation, and of which we have the heads for seven generations, namely, Aristocles, Cleoetas, Aristocles and Canachus, Synnoön, Ptolichus, Sostratus, and Pantias.
There is some difficulty in determining the age of these artists; but, supposing the date of Canachus to be fixed at about 540-508 B. C. [Canachus], we have the date of his brother, the younger Aristocles, and allowing 30 years to a generation, the elder Aristocles must have lived about 600-568 B. C. Böckh (Corp. Inscrip. i. p. 39) places him immediately before the period when Zancle was first called Messene, but there is nothing in the words of Pausanias to require such a restriction. By extending the calculation to the other artists mentioned above, we get the following table of dates: 1. Aristocles flourished 600 to 568 B. C. 2. Cleoetas " 570-538 " 3. { Aristocles } " 540-508 " Canachus " 540-508 " 4. Synnön " 510-478 " 5. Ptolichus " 480-448 " 6. Sostratus " 450-418 " 7. Pantias " 420-388 "
These dates are found to agree very well with all that we know of the artists. (See the respective articles.) Sillig (Catal. Art. s. v.) gives a table which does not materially differ from the above. He calculates the dates at 564, 536, 508, 480, 452, 424, and 396 B. C. respectively. In this computation it has been assumed that the elder Canachus was the brother of the younger Aristocles, and that Pantias was the seventh in order from the elder Aristocles. Any other supposition would throw the whole matter into confusion.
Pausanias mentions, as a work of the elder Aristocles, a group in bronze representing Hercules struggling for a girdle with an Amazon on horseback, which was dedicated at Olympia by Evagoras of Zancle (5.25.6); and, as a work of the younger, a group in bronze of Zeus and Ganymede, dedicated at Olympia by Gnothis, a Thessalian. (5.24.1.) The Muse by the latter, mentioned above (4), was in bronze, held a lyre (χέλυς), and was intended to represent the Muse of the diatonic genus of music. [P.S]
(Ἀριστοκλῆς). (1) A Greek artist, and, like his brother Canachus, a sculptor in bronze at Sicyon. He flourished about B.C. 480, and founded a school at Sicyon that lasted for a long time.
(2) An Athenian sculptor of the same name and of the same period, author of a relief known as “The Athenian Hoplite,” one of the oldest remaining monuments of Attic art. See cut, p. 649.
- Paus. 10.9.10
- Paus. 5.25.11
- Paus. 6.20.14
- pupil and son of Cleoetas: Paus. 5.24.5
- Paus. 6.3.11
- brother of Canachus: Paus. 6.9.1