1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aristides (of Miletus)

ARISTIDES, of Miletus, generally regarded as the father of Greek prose romance, flourished 150–100 B.C. He wrote six books of erotic Milesian Tales (Μιλησιακὰ), which enjoyed great popularity, and were subsequently translated into Latin by Cornelius Sisenna (119–67 B.C.). They are lost, with the exception of a few fragments, but the story of the Ephesian matron in Petronius gives an idea of their nature. They have been compared with the old French fabliaux and the tales of Boccaccio.

Plutarch, Crassus, 32; Ovid, Tristia, ii. 413, 443; Müller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, iv.