254 



AUISTIDES AKISTOGITON. 



his banishment, turned to him, without knowing who 

 he was, and asked him to write the name of Aristides 

 upon the shell with which he was going to vote. 

 " Has Aristides injured thee ?" inquired he. " No," 

 answered the voter ; " but 1 am tired of hearing him 

 called the Jutt." A. wrote his name, and returned 

 the shell in silence to the voter, lie let'i the city, 

 with prayers for its welfare. Three years after, 

 when Xerxes invaded Greece with a large army, the 

 Athenians hastened to recall a citizen to whom they 

 looked for aid in this emergency. Forgetting every 

 tiling but the good of his country, upon receiving 

 intelligence that the Greek fleet was surrounded, at 

 Sainmis, by the Persians, he hastened thither with 

 all speed, to warn Themistocles of the danger whicli 

 threatened him. Touched by his generosity, Themis- 

 tocles admitted him at once to his confidence, telling 

 him that the report had been purposely spread by 

 himself, to prevent the separation of the Grecian 

 fleet. He also invited him to assist in the council of 

 war, and, having determined on battle, posted him on 

 the little island of Psyttalia, where those, whose ships 

 were sunk during the engagement, found refuge. 

 In the battle of Platea, A. commanded the Athenians, 

 and had a great share in the merit of the victory. 

 It is thought that he was again archon the year fol- 

 lowing, and that, during this time, he procured the 

 passage of the law by wnich the common people were 

 admitted to all public offices, even that of archon. 

 On one occasion, when Themistocles announced that 

 he had formed a project of great importance to the 

 state, but which he could not make known in a pub- 

 lic assembly, the people appointed A. to confer with 

 him on the subject The project was to set fire to 

 the combined fleet of the Greeks, which was then 

 lying in a neighbouring port, and thereby to secure 

 to the Athenians the sovereignty of the sea. A. re- 

 turned to the people, and told them that nothing 

 could be more advantageous, but, at the same time, 

 nothing more unjust, than the plan of Themistocles. 

 The plan was at once rejected. To defray the ex- 

 penses of the Persian war, he persuaded the Greeks 

 to impose a tax, which should be paid into the hands 

 of an officer appointed by the states collectively, and 

 deposited at Delos. The implicit confidence which 

 was felt in his integrity appeared in their entrusting 

 him with the office of apportioning the contribution, 

 an office which he executed with universal satisfac- 

 tion. He died at a very advanced age, and, what 

 most strikingly evinces his integrity and disinterest- 

 edness, so poor that he was buried at the public ex- 

 pense. He left two daughters, who received dowries 

 from the state, and a son, who was presented with 100 

 silver minae, and a tract of wood-land. Aristides 

 *EHns, a famous rhetorician, born A. D. 129, in 

 Bithynia, after travelling for some time, settled in 

 Smyrna. When the city was destroyed by an earth- 

 quake, A. D. 178, A., by his influence with the em- 

 peror Antoninus, had it rebuilt. The inhabitants 

 showed their gratitude for this service by erecting a 

 statue to him. The merit of his orations, of which 

 forty-five are yet extant, consists only in the splen- 

 dour of the language, by which the emptiness of the 

 matter is tolerably well concealed. Another Aris- 

 tides, a Theban painter, contemporary with Apelles, 

 flourished B. C. 240. A famous picture of his is 

 spoken of by Pliny, representing a mother, in a cap- 

 tured town, mortally wounded, with an infant suck- 

 ing at her breast, who, she is apprehensive will suck 

 blood instead of milk ; it became the property of 

 Alexander the Great. Several other very famous 

 pictures of his are also mentioned, for one of which 

 Attalus, king of Pergamus, is said to have given 100 

 talrnts. Expression seems to have been the great 

 excellence of this ancient artist. --Arisiides was also 



the name of a Cliristian philosopher in the 2d cen- 

 tury. 



Anisrii'1'i's ; the founder of a celebrated philosophi- 

 cal school among the Greeks, which was called 

 ('i/rt-naic, from his native city, Cyrene, in Africa. 

 He flourished ;{S<) H. ('. Being sent by his wealthy 

 father to Olympia, probably to take part there in the 

 chariot-races, he heard Socrates spoken of, and was 

 so desirous to receive instruction from him, that he 

 immediately hastened to Athens, and mingled with 

 his disciples. He did not, however, adopt all the 

 principles of this philosopher. Like him, he thought 

 that we should refrain from speaking of things whicli 

 ire beyond human comprehension, imd likewise paid 

 but little attention to the physical and mathematical 

 sciences ; but his moral philosophy differed widely 

 from that of Socrates, and was a. science of refined 

 oluptuousness. His fundamental principles were, 

 that all human sensations may be reduced to two 

 pleasure and pain. Pleasure is a gentle, and pain a 

 violent emotion. All living beings seek the former, 

 and avoid the latter. Happiness is nothing but a 

 continued pleasure, composed of separate gratifica- 

 tions ; and as it is the object of all human exertions, 

 we should abstain from no kind of pleasure. Still 

 we should always be governed by taste and reason in 

 our enjoyments. As Socrates disapproved of these 

 doctrines, they were the cause of many disputes be- 

 tween him and his disciple ; and it was, probably, to 

 avoid his censures, that Aristippus spent a part of his 

 time at .55gina, where he was when his master died. 

 He made many journeys to Sicily, where he met with 

 a very friendly reception from Dionysius the tyrant. 

 The charms of the celebrated Lais allured him to 

 Corinth, and he became very intimate with her. 

 When he was reproached with squandering so much 

 money upon a woman who gratuitously surrender! d 

 herself to Diogenes, he answered, " I pay her that she 

 may grant her favours to me, not tliat she may refuse 

 them to another." He said, another time, " I possess 

 her, not she me." (See Lais.) Diogenes Laertius 

 is not to be credited, when he says uiat Aristippus 

 opened a school after he returned to Athens, as we 

 know of no disciple instructed by him. His doctrines 

 were taught only by his daughter, Arete, and by his 

 grandson, Aristippus the younger. Other Cyrenians 

 compounded them into a particular doctrine of plea- 

 sure, and are hence called Hedonid. The time of his 

 death is unknown. His writings are lost. Wieland's 

 historico-philosophical romance (Aristippus and some 

 of his Contemporaries) gives us a lively and highly 

 interesting delineation of the life and doctrines of this 

 amiable sensual philosopher. We have many sayings 

 of his preserved. To one who asked him what his 

 son would be the better for being a scholar, " If for 

 nothing else," said he, " yet for this alone, that when 

 he comes into the theatre, one stone will not sit 

 upon another." Being asked why philosophers fre- 

 quented the houses of the great, while the great dis- 

 regarded those of the philosophers, he replied, 

 "because the former know what they want, and the 

 latter do not." When a certain person recommended 

 his son to him, he demanded 600 drachmas ; and 

 upon the father's replying to him that he could buy 

 a slave for that sum, " do so,'' said he, " and then 

 you will be master of a couple." Being reproached, 

 because having a suit at law depending, he feed a 

 lawyer to plead for him, just so," said he, "when 

 I have a great supper to make, I always hire a cook." 

 Being asked what was the difference between a wise 

 man and a fool, he replied, " send both of them to- 

 gether naked to those who are acquainted with 

 neither of them, and then you will know." 



ARISTOCRACY. See Government. 



AIUSTOGITON ; a citizen of Athens, whose name is 



