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ARISTEUS.
The age and country of Aristeides are unknown, "hut the title of his work is thought to favour the conjecture that he was a native of Miletus. Vos- sius (de Hist. Graec. p. 401, ed. Westermann) supposes, that he was the same person as the Aris teides of M;letus, whose works on Sicilian, Italian, and Persian history (^t/ceAi/ca, 'IraAiKci, HspviKa) are several times quoted by Plutarch (Pat-all.), and that the author of the historical work irepl KviSov was also the same person. (Schol. Pind. Pyili. iii, 14.) [P. S.j
ARISTEIDES QUINTILIANUS ('Apitrref-stjs Koi>TiAicw>s), the author of a treatise in three books on music (Hepl Movtnjojs). 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 Marti-anus Capella, who has made use of this treatise in his work De Nuptiis PJiilologiae 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. (Aristox-enus reckoned'13, his followers 15, but Ptolemy only 7. See Aristeid. pp. 22, 23 ; Ptol.//«rra.ii. 9.)
The work of Aristeides is perhaps the most valuable of all the ancient musical treatises. It embraces, besides the theory of music (apfj.oviKr)} in the modern sense, the whole range of subjects comprehended under /jlovo-lk'/i, 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 (jue-AoTHma). 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. Aristeides refers (p. 87) to an-v other work of his own, flepl TIoL^rLic/js, which is lost. He makes no direct allusion to any of the ancient writers on music, except Aristoxenus.
The only edition of Aristeides is that of Mei- bomius. It is printed, along with the latter part of the 9th book of Martianus Capella, in his col lection 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. Bill. Graec. vol. ii. p. 259.) [W. F. D.]
ARISTEIDES, of samos, a writer mentioned by Varro in his work entitled " Hebdomades," as an authority for the opinion, that the moon com pleted her circuit in twenty-eight days exactly. (Aul. Gell. N. A. iii. 10.) - [P. S.]
ARISTENUS ALEXIUS. [alexius aris-
TENUS.]
f ARISTEUS ('Apicrrerfs), or ARISTEAS ('Apter-reas, Herod.). 1. A Corinthian, son of Adeimantus, commanded the troops sent by Corinth to maintain Potidaea in its revolt, b. c. 432. With Potidaea he was connected, and of the troops the greater number were volunteers, serving chiefly from attachment to him. Appointed on his arrival com-mander-in-chief of-the allied infantry, he encountered the Athenian Callias, but was outmanoeuvred and defeated. With his own division he was successful, and with it on returning from the pursuit he found himself cut off, but by a bold course made
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his way with slight loss into the town. This was now blockaded, and Aristeus, seeing no hope, bid them leave himself with a garrison of 500, and the rest make their way to sea. This escape was effected, and he himself induced to join in it: after which he was occupied in petty warfare in Chalci- dice, and negotiations for aid from Peloponnesus. Finally, not long before the surrender of Potidaea, in the second year of the war, b. c. 430, he set out with other ambassadors from Peloponnesus for the court of Persia; but visiting Sitalces the Odrysian in their way, they were given to Athenian ambas sadors there by Sadocus, his son, and sent to Athens; and at Athens, partly from fear of the energy and ability of Aristeus, partly in retaliation for the cruelties practised by Sparta, he was imme diately put to death. (Thuc. i. 60—65, ii. 67 j Herod, vii. 137; Thirl wall's Greece, iii. pp. 102 —4, 162, 3.) [A. H. C.]
2. A Corinthian, son of Pellichus, one of the commanders of the Corinthian fleet sent against Epidamnus, b. c. 436. (Thuc. i. 29.)
3. A Spartan commander, b. c. 423. (Thuc. iv. 132.)
4. An Argive, the son Cheimon, conquered in the Dolichos at the Olympic games. (Paus. vi.
9. § 1.)
ARISTIAS ('Aptcm'as), a dramatic poet, the son of Pratinas, whose tomb Pausanias (ii. 13. § 5) saw at Phlius, and whose Satyric dramas, with those of his father, were surpassed only by those of Aeschylus. (Paus. I. c.) Aristias is mentioned in the life of Sophocles as one of the poets with whom the latter contended. Besides two dramas, which were undoubtedly Satyric, viz. the Krjpzs and Cyclops, Aristias wrote three others, viz. Antaeus, Orpheus, and Atalante, which may have been tragedies. (Comp. Athen. xv. p. 686, a; Pollux, vii. 31 ; Welcker, Die Griech. Tragodien, p. 966.)
ARISTION ('Apio-TiW), a philosopher either of the Epicurean or Peripatetic school, who made himself tyrant of Athens, and was besieged there by Sulla, B. c. 87, in the first Mithridatic war. His early history is preserved by Athenaeus (v. p. 211, &c.), on the authority of Posidonius of Apameia, the instructor of Cicero. By him he is called Athenion, whereas Pausanias, Appian, and Plutarch agree in giving him the name of Aristion. Casaubon on Athenaeus (/. c.} conjectures that his true name was Athenion, but that on enrolling himself as a citizen of Athens, he changed it to Aristion, a supposition confirmed by the case of one Sosias mentioned by Theophrastus, whose name was altered to Sosistratus under the same circumstances. Athenion or Aristion was the illegitimate son of a Peripatetic, also named Athenion, to whose property he succeeded, and so became an Athenian citizen. He married early, and began at the same time to teach philosophy, which he did with great success at Messene and Larissa. On returning to Athens with a considerable fortune, he was named ambassador to Mithridates, king of Pontus, then at war with Rome, and became one of the most intimate friends and counsellors of that monarch. His letters to Athens represented the power of his patron in such glowing colours, that his countrymen began-to conceive hopes of throwing off the Roman yoke. Mithridates then sent him to Athens, where he soon contrived, through the king's patronage, to assume the tyranny. His government seems to have been of the most cruel cha*