313 



ARIOVISTUS. 



ARISTARCHUS. 



314 



Furioso' is that of Milan, in 1813, in quarto, in which the learned 

 editor Morali has faithfully restored the original text of 1532. The 

 ' Orlando Furioso ' has been translated into most European languages, 

 though seldom successfully. Of the English translations, that by 

 Harrington is spirited and much superior to Hoole's, but the transla- 

 tion by Mr. S. Rose is considered the best, and is generally faithful. 



Ariosto is considered one of the best Italian satirists. The tone of 

 his satires resembles that of Horace rather than that of Juvenal. He 

 introduces several of the principal occurrences of his life, and exhibits 

 the manners and vices of his time and country. He speaks of popes, 

 princes, and cardinals, with great freedom, but in language generally, 

 though not always, decorous. His satires, seven in number, and 

 addressed to his brothers and other friends, were first published in 

 1534, after his death, and have often been reprinted, both separately 

 and with the rest of his works. He wrote five comedies in blank verse, 

 'La Cassaria,' 'I Suppositi,' 'La Lena,' '11 Negromante,' and 'La 

 Scolastica.' Cardinal Bibbiena, Ariosto, and Machiavelli, all three 

 contemporaries, were the first writers of regular comedy in Italy. 

 They adopted the manner of Plautus and Terence ; and they preserved 

 the unities. The language is often grossly indecent, and yet these 

 plays were performed before the court and chivalry of those times. 

 There are some other minor works of Ariosto, which are all found in 

 the Venice editions of Ariosto's works of 1741 and 1766, edited by 

 Barotti. 



Ariosto left two natural sons, Virginio, whom he had legitimated by 

 public act in 1530, and who afterwards became a canon of the cathe- 

 dral of Ferrara ; and Giovanbattista, who was made a captain in the 

 Duke's service. The number of commentators, critics, and biographers 

 of Ariosto, U very great ; some of the best have been mentioned in 

 the course of this article. Baruffaldi junior has also written a life of 

 Ariosto ; Ferrara, 1807. 



ARIOVISTUS, a German chief, whom Caesar encountered and 

 defeated in Gaul in the first year of his proconsulship, B.C. 58. It is 

 not known to which of the Germanic nations Ariovistus belonged. He 

 was invited or rather hired to enter Gaul by the Sequani (the ancient 

 inhabitants of Franche-Comte'), who, in alliance with the Arverni (the 

 ancient inhabitants of Auvergne), were struggling with the ^Edui (who 

 inhabited Burgundy) for the supremacy of GauL The first band of 

 Germans who were induced by the promises and gifts of the Sequani 

 to cross the Rhine amounted to 1 5,000, but subsequent reinforcements 

 in the course of years swelled the number to 120,000 of various 

 nations Triboces or Tribocci, Vangiones, Nemetes, Sedusii, Harudes, 

 Marcomaus, and Suevi. Three of these nations, the Tribocci, Vangiones, 

 and Nemetes, we find at a subsequent period settled on the Gallic side 

 of the Rhine. 



The aid of Ariovistus and his forces gave a decided superiority to 

 the Sequani. The /Edui were defeated in several engagements, with 

 the loss of all their nobility and cavalry, and were obliged to submit 

 to the demands of their victorious enemies. The Sequani were however 

 in no wise benefited by their victory. Ariovistus seized a third part 

 of their territory, iu which he settled with his army, and eventually 

 reduced to his sway all that part of Gaul which was near his settle- 

 ment. The chief of these events occurred probably some years before 

 Caesar's arrival in Gaul, since Ariovistus, " from long practice," was 

 accustomed to speak the Celtic language (Caesar, ' De Bell. Gall.' i. 47), 

 and had married his second wife, a Noric woman, sister of Voctio or 

 Voccio, the king of the Norici, who inhabited Upper Bavaria and the 

 Tyrol. After his settlement in Gaul, in a message to Caesar, Ario- 

 vistus boasts that his unconquered Germans had not for fourteen years 

 dwelt in a fixed abode : but this will only imply that his army had 

 been embodied for no many years, not that they had been so long in 

 Gaul. He had anxiously sought, and in Caesar's consulship had obtained 

 the alliance of the Roman senate and people, by whom he had been 

 acknowledged as king, which seems to imply an admission of his title 

 to the sovereignty of that part of Gaul of which he had taken possession. 

 Probably the Gallic princes, whose statements Caesar has recorded, 

 exaggerated both the power and the cruelty of Ariovistus. When 

 Caesar bad, in the first year of his proconsulship in Gaul, broken the 

 power of the Helvetii, he determined to pick a quarrel with Ariovistus 

 and attempt to drive him out of Gaul. Dion Cassias plainly intimates 

 that the quarrel was of Cxaar's seeking ; but Caesar himself says that 

 he was induced to attack him by an application from the Gallic 

 princes, who came to congratulate him on his victory over the Helvetii. 

 The application has however every appearance of having been got up 

 for the purpose of furnishing an excuse for the war, and was sustained 

 by evidently exaggerated representations. Caesar's first step was to 

 demand an interview with Ariovistus, that they might confer on 

 matters of importance to both. Ariovistus replied, that if Caesar 

 wished for an interview he might come to him ; but that he (Ariovistus) 

 could not come into the Roman territory. He also rejected the terms 

 on which Caesar proposed to renew the alliance of Rome with the 

 German prince. Caesar upon this determined on immediate hostilities, 

 bring urged by the xEdui to protect them from the Harudes, 24,000 

 of whom had just arrived in Gaul, for whom Ariovistus had demanded 

 another third of the Sequauian territory, and who were meanwhile 

 ravaging the country of the vKdui. He bad also received intelligence 

 that a hundred clans (' pagi ') of the Suevi had reached the bank of the 

 Rhine near tho country of the Treviri (the electorate of Troves), and 



were attempting to cross that river. By a rapid march he anticipated 

 Ariovistus in occupying Vesontio (the modem Besan9on), an important 

 military post; and, by a well-timed address, dispelled a panic which 

 had seized his men, especially some of the young officers, who had 

 seen little service. Having converted the fear of his troops into 

 warlike ardour, he continued his march ; and Ariovistus, alarmed at 

 his approach, consented to an interview, which was broken off by a 

 report that the Germans were attacking the escort of the Roman 

 general. The German matrons, who were regarded by their country- 

 men as prophetesses, had foretold that an engagement could not be 

 successful if fought before the new moon, Ariovistus consequently 

 wished to decline fighting before that time ; but Csesar, aware of the 

 superstition of his opponents, forced them to an engagement; and 

 after a severe, and for a time doubtful struggle, gave them an entire 

 defeat The pursuit was continued with great slaughter on the banks 

 of the Rhine, distant several miles. Ariovistus escaped in a little 

 boat across the river ; but his two wives and one of his daughters 

 perished in the flight, and a second daughter was taken prisoner. 

 Neither the force of the Germans nor their loss is stated by Caesar ; 

 but Plutarch and Appian give the loss at 80,000 and Orosius says that 

 the number and loss of the enemy and fierceness of the fight were 

 inconceivable. The subsequent history of Ariovistus is unknown. His 

 death was mentioned by Titurius Sabinus, about four years after, as 

 one cause of the hostility of the Germans towards Rome (Caesar, ' De 

 Bell. Gall.' v. 29.). 



Caesar does not state any facts in confirmation of the character of 

 arrogance and cruelty which he has assigned to Ariovistus. Tried by 

 the maxims of his age and country, the German prince does not appear 

 to be chargeable with any peculiar guilt, except in the seizure of 

 Caesar's envoys, C. Valerius Procillus and M. Mettius, and in the design 

 which he is charged with entertaining of putting the former of the two 

 to death. But the only account we have of this transaction is from 

 Caesar himself. 



(Abridged from the Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the 

 Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.) 



ARIST^E'NETUS, a Greek writer, a native of Nicaja, whose epoch 

 is not capable of being accurately determined. It has been conjec- 

 tured that the Aristeenetus to whom are attributed the ' Erotic ' or 

 ' Love Letters ' is the person to whom several of the letters of Libanius 

 are addressed, and who lost his life in the earthquake of Nicomedia, 

 A.D. 358 : some are inclined to place him at a later epoch. These 

 Letters, of which there are two books, are a species of rhetorical 

 exercise, and not real letters ; they often exhibit bad taste, but are of 

 some value as presenting a picture of the manners, or at least of the 

 literature, of the age. 



ARISTARCHUS of Samos, an astronomer, lived iu the 3rd century 

 B.C., and was probably, during the latter period of his life, contem- 

 poraneous with Archimedes. In his work entitled ' Arenarius,' Archi- 

 medes attributes to Aristarchus the opinion that the earth moves round 

 the sun, which is supposed to have been previously held by Pythagoras 

 and Philolaus. His words are " He (Aristarchus) says, that the fixed 

 stars and sun remain without motion, but that the earth is carried 

 round the sun in the circumference of a circle, the sun being in the 

 centre ; and that the sphere of the fixed stars, which has the same 

 centre as the sun, is so great that the circle described by the earth 

 bears no more proportion to the distance of the fixed stars, than the 

 centre of a sphere does to its surface." Archimedes then proceeds to 

 combat the singular notion contained in the last words. A passage in 

 Plutarch's treatise on the moon, states that Aristarchus supposed the 

 heavens to be fixed, and that the earth moved iu an oblique circle, at 

 the same time revolving round her own axis. We learn also from 

 Archimedes that Aristarchus supposed the apparent diameter of the 

 sun to be the 720th part of the zodiac, that is, half a degree. This 

 is about two minutes too little. 



One small work of Aristarchus has come down to us, ' On the Mag- 

 nitudes and Distances of the Sun and Moon,' which makes no mention 

 of the preceding hypothesis with regard to the earth's motion. The 

 scope of it will be shown in the following translation of the introduc- 

 tion (from Wallis's edition). The brackets contain remarks, mostly 

 from Delambre. " 1. The moon receives light from the sun. [This 

 was asserted before Aristarchus.] 2. The earth is a mere point or 

 centre when compared with the sphere of the moon. [This is wrong, 

 Biuce the moon would then appear at the same point of the heavens 

 from different parts of the earth, which is not the case.] 3. When 

 the moon appears halved, the great circle separating the light and dark 

 part of the moon passes through the eye of the spectator. [A vei-y 

 simple truth, but a great step in astronomy, as giving rise to the first 

 determination of the relative distances of the sun and moon, the 

 principle of which was correct.] 4. In the preceding case the angle 

 between the sun and moon is less than a quadrant by its thirtieth 

 part. [That is, the angle is 87 ; whereas 89" 60' is nearer the truth.] 

 5. The apparent diameter of the earth's shadow [that is, tho section 

 through which the moon passes in an eclipse] is twice that of the 

 moon. [This would give it 64' ; it is nearer to 82'.] 6. The moon 

 subtends the fifteenth part of a sign. [This would make the apparent 

 diameter 2, which is four times too great.] Hence the distance of 

 the sun from the earth is more than eighteen times the distance of the 

 moon, and less than twenty times ; that is, when the moon appears 



