S21 



ARISTOBULUS. 



ARISTOMENES. 



E22 



richest and greatest of the Athenians, whereas he had to provide for 

 himself. 



There can be no doubt that Aristippus was the founder of a philo- 

 sophical school ; but it is doubtful whether he inculcated his opinions 

 in writing, or whether, like Socrates, he only imparted them orally to 

 his disciples. A list of his works, chiefly dialogues, is given by 

 Diogenes Laertius (ii. 85), on the authority of Panaetius and Sotion; 

 but Sosicrates of Rhodes, who lived somewhat later than Sotion, and 

 wrote on the same subject, stated that Aristippus left nothing in 

 writing. (Diog. Laert. ii. 84 ; Clinton, ' Fast. Hellen.' part iii.) The 

 doctrines of Aristippus were perpetuated after his death by his 

 daughter Arete, and by another disciple named Antipater of Gyrene. 

 Arete instructed her son Aiistippus, who, to distinguish him from his 

 grandfather, was called ' znetrodidactos ' (taught by his mother). 



As no precise or detailed account of the doctrines of Aristippus has 

 been preserved, it is difficult to avoid confounding his opinions with 

 those of his successors in the Cyrenaic school. The latter Cyrenaics 

 appear to have approached nearly to the doctrines of Epicurus : 

 Aristippus however though agreeing in substance with the moral 

 system of Epicurus, yet differed from it in many important particulars. 

 Aristippus is stated to have considered ethics as the only subject 

 which deserved the attention of a philosopher ; and to have especially 

 despised mathematical and physical science, as not being concerned 

 about the happiness of mankind. (Aristot., 'Hetaph.' ii. 2; Diog. 

 Laert. it 92.) The ancient Cyrenaics, however, though they confined 

 themselves to ethical philosophy, yet adhered to it only in name ; for 

 they divided ethics into five parts, namely, 1, on those things which 

 ought to be pursued or avoided ; 2, on the affections of the mind ; 3, 

 on moral actions ; 4, on causes ; and 5, on proofs ; of which heads 

 the first three alone belong to moral philosophy, while the fourth 

 refers to physical, and the last to logical inquiries. Aristippus held 

 tbat the happiness of man consists in pleasure, and his misery in 

 pain : happiness being merely an aggregate of pleasures, and misery an 

 aggregate of pains. He held, that all pleasures, whether sensual or 

 intellectual, are equally good : one account even states that he con- 

 sidered the pleasures of the body as superior to those of the mind. 

 Hence he taught, that however immoral an action might be, still the 

 pleasure which it causes is a good, and desirable for its own sake. 

 He did not however recommend an unrestrained pursuit of pleasure : 

 true wisdom (he thought) consisted, not in abstaining from pleasure, 

 luit in seeking it without being carried away by the love of it. He 

 condemned aU care for the past or the future, all regret and all fore- 

 thought, as equally useless ; and said that a person ought to think 

 only of the passing day, and, if possible, only of the passing minute. 

 He recommended calmness of mind and moderation of desire? ; and 

 lie particularly cautioned his daughter Arete against covetousness 

 and love of money. He also thought that the wise man should be 

 free from the passions of envy and love, from superstition, and from 

 the fear of death. The doctrines of Aristippus do not appear to have 

 attracted very much attention in his owu time. 



(Diogenes Laertius, Lift of Aristippw, ii. 65-104, with Menage's 

 notes; Suidas; Ritter, Qetchichte der Philosophic, vol. ii. pp. 87-103.) 



ARISTOBU'LUS accompanied Alexander the Great in his campaigns, 

 of which he wrote an account after the king's death. This work, now 

 lost, is one of the chief authorities for Arrian's history of Alexander. 

 (Arrian, Preface to hit Anabasis.) 



ARISTOQI'TON, an Athenian closely connected with an important 

 event in Athenian history. Having conceived a mortal hatred against 

 Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus and brother of Hippias, who held the 

 tyranny of Athens (Thucyd. i. 20), he plotted, in conjunction with 

 another Athenian named Hannodius, the death of the brothers, and 

 succeeded in effecting the murder of Hipparchus at the Panathenaic 

 festival, B.C. 514. Harmodius was slain on the spot; Aristogiton 

 fled, but was subsequently taken and put to death by Hippias. After 

 the expulsion of Hippias, when the constitution of Athens was brought 

 nearer to a democracy, the memory of Harmodius and Aristogitou 

 was honoured as that of martyrs in the cause of liberty. Bronze 

 statues were erected to them in different part of Athens ; among 

 others, by the celebrated Praxiteles. (Plin. xxxiv. 8.) In the time 

 of Arrian the statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton stood in the 

 Ceramicus at Athens. (Arrian, iii. 16.) Various previleges and immu- 

 nities were conferred on their descendants; and their exploit was 

 regularly celebrated in song at the Panathenaic festival (Philostratus, 

 'De Vit. Apollonii' viL 2 ; ap. Meursius, Pisist. c. xiv.), and became a 

 very favourite subject for the songs, called ' scolia,' with which the 

 Athenians enlivened their festive parties. One of these, composed by 

 Callistratus, is commonly printed among the fragments of various 

 authors at the end of the editions of Anacreon (see also Athenaeus, xv. 

 C'Ji) ; and will be found translated in Bland and Merivalo's 'Antho- 

 logy,' beginning 



" I'll wreath my sword in myrtle lough." 



The first stanza of this is ascribed by Meursius, ' Pisist.' c. xiv., to 

 Carcinus. We have however the testimony of Thucydides, that the 

 act of Harmodius and Aristogiton arose entirely out of a private 

 quarrel; and that, far from effecting the immediate delivery of Athens, 

 it made the sway of Hippias jealous and severe, instead of mild and 

 beneficent ; and Herodotus speaks to the same effect (vi. 123). This 

 moo. Dir. VOL. i. 



mistake, as to the motives and merit of thoir action, was perhaps as 

 Mitford supposes, fostered by the party of the Alctnseonidie, the true 

 expellers of Hippias, with a view to the firmer establishment of their 

 own power. (Thucyd. vi. 54, 9 ; Mitford, ch. v. 5, ch. vii. 5.) 



ARISTO'MENES, the hero of the second Messenian war, was of the 

 royal house of ^Epytus. The first war between the Lacedaemonians 

 and Messenians was commenced by the Lacedaemonians attacking by 

 night, without having made any declaration of war, Ampheia, a Messe- 

 nian town on the borders of Laconia. The Lacedaemonian commander 

 was Alcamenes, the sou of Teleclus, who had been killed by the Messe- 

 nians. The war, thus commenced, was carried on for twenty years. 

 It was terminated by the capture of Ithome, in Messeuia, in the first 

 year of the 14th Olympiad, or B.C. 723. The Messenians endured a 

 galling servitude for thirty-nine years. The new generation were eager 

 to rescue their country from slavery, and having obtained the assist - 

 ance of Argos and of the Arcadians, they revolted in the fourth year 

 of the 23rd Olympiad, or B.C. 685. The first battle was fought at 

 Derse, a place in Laconia, when Aristomenes performed surprising 

 feats of valour. His countrymen wished to make him king, but he 

 declined this dignity, and was chosen general with full powers. To 

 strike terror into the Lacedaemonians, he entered the city of Sparta 

 alone by night, and suspended a shield on the temple of Athene 

 G'halcioecus (Athene of the Brazen House), with an inscription pur- 

 porting that it was an offering to the goddess from the spoils of the 

 Spartans. In the following year another great battle was fought at 

 the Boar's Tomb, in the district of Stenyclerus iu Messenia. The 

 Messeuians gained a complete victory, which was chieBy due to Aristo- 

 menes and his chosen band of eighty Messenians, who led the way to 

 success by putting to flight king Anaxander and his bravest Spartans. 

 On returning to Messenia after this victory, Aristomenes was received 

 with great enthusiasm, particularly at the town of Andauia, where he 

 had been brought up. 



In the third year of tho war, B.C. 683, the Messenians under Aristo- 

 menes sustained a total defeat at the Great Ditch, owing to the treachery 

 of their ally Aristocrates, whom Pausanias calls king of the Arcadians. 

 Aristomenes collected the Messenians who survived the battle, and 

 led them to the mountain fortress of Eira. The Lacedaemonians com- 

 menced the siege of Eira, which occupied them to the close of the 

 second Messenian war. In a predatory incursion Aristomenes and his 

 chosen band surprised and plundered Amyclse. Iu another expedition 

 he was taken prisoner by the Lacedaemonians, and thrown with fifty 

 of his companions into a deep hole called Cicadas, which was the 

 punishment inflicted by the Spartans on great malefactors. The rest 

 of the prisoners were killed by the fall ; and Aristomenes, who escaped 

 unhurt, lay at the bottom of the chasm, awaiting his death by famine. 

 On the third day he saw through the dim light a fox preying on the 

 dead bodies. He caught the fox, and following in its track, discovered 

 a small hole through which it had entered. With his hands he made 

 the hole large enough for himself, and escaping from the place, he joined 

 his friends at Eira. The Lacedaemonians heard the rumour of his 

 escape, but they did not credit it, till they were informed of the sur- 

 prise and slaughter of a body of Corinthians who were coming to aid 

 them in the blockade of Eira. To commemorate this exploit, Aristo- 

 menes offered to Jupiter of Ithome for the second time the Hecatom- 

 phonia, a sacrifice which he alone was entitled to make who had slain 

 a hundred enemies. 



One stormy night, in the eleventh year of the siege, a Spartan herds- 

 man, who had gone over to the Messeuians, learned that the Messenian 

 guards were obliged to leave their posts by the fury of the tempest. 

 He communicated this fact to the Lacedaemonians, who made an 

 attempt on the walls, and got into the place. The Messenians however 

 made a desperate struggle, in which they were aided by their own 

 women. On the third day, being exhausted by hunger and fatigue, 

 they resolved to leave the place. Aristomenes collected a part of the 

 Messenians, and, placing the women and children in the centre, put 

 himself at their head, and by his attitude signified to the enemy that 

 he wished for a free passage, and was ready to go. The Lacedaemo- 

 nians, fearing to resist a desperate body of men, allowed them to depart. 

 Eira was taken, and the second Messeuian war terminated in the first 

 year of the 28th Olympiad, or B.C. 668. 



When the Arcadians heard of the fall of Eira they urged Aristocrates 

 to lead them to the aid of the Messenians, but he bad already sold 

 himself to the Lacedaemonians, and he refused. The Messenians were 

 hospitably received by their Arcadian friends. Aristomenec, who did 

 not yet despair, selected five hundred of his countrymen, and asked 

 them, in the hearing of Aristocrates and the Arcadians, if they would 

 join him in an attempt on Sparta, which was left unguarded. Three 

 hundred Arcadians volunteered to go with him ; but the scheme was 

 frustrated by the treachery of Aristocrates, who gave the Lacedaemo- 

 nians notice of it. His treachery was detected by means of an inter- 

 cepted letter, and he was stoned to death by the Arcadians. 



The Messenians" assembled at Cylleuo to deliberate on their future 

 plans, and there they spent the winter in the hospitable territory of 

 the Eleians. Receiving an invitation from Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegium, 

 to come to Italy, they agreed to do so ; and Anaxilas, together with 

 the Messenians, took the town of /uncle, which was thenceforward 

 inhabited jointly by the Messenians and Zanclaeans, but received the 

 new name of Messeno (Messina), which it retains to the present day. 



Y 



