Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/329

ARISTON. baldness. He rejected all branches of philosophy but ethics, considering physiology as beyond man's powers, and logic as unsuited to them. Even with regard to ethics, Seneca {Ep. 8.9) complains, that he deprived them of all their practical side, a sub- ject which he said belonged to the schoolmaster rather than to the philosopher. The sole object, therefore, of ethics was to shew wherein the su- preme good consists, and this he made to be ddiacpopia, i. e. entire indiiference to everything except virtue and vice. (Cic. Acad. ii. 42.) All external things therefore were in his view perfectly indifferent ; so that he entirely rejected Zeno's dis- tinction between the good and the preferable {rd irpo7}yfieva)^ i. e. whatever excites desire in the in- dividual mind of any rational being, without being in itself desirable or good, and of which the pure Stoical doctrine permitted an account to be taken in the conduct of human life. (Cic. Fin. iv. 25.) But this notion of Trpor}yfieva was so utterly re- jected by Ariston, that he held it to be quite in- different whether we are in perfect health, or afflicted by the severest sickness (Cic. Fin. ii. 1 3) ; whereas of virtue he declared his wish that even beasts could understand words which would excite them to it. (Plut. Maxime c. Princip. Philosopho esse diss. § 1.) It is, however, obvious that those who adopt this theory of the absolute indifference of everything but virtue and vice, in fact take away all materials for virtue to act upon, and con- fine it in a state of mere abstraction. This part of Ariston's system is purely cynical, and perhaps he wished to shew his admiration for that philosophy, by opening his school at Athens in the Cynosarges, where Antisthenes had taught. [Antisthenes.] He also differed with Zeno as to the plurality of virtues, allowing of one only, which he called the health of the soul {liyeiav dvojxa^e^ Plut. Virt. Mor. 2). This appears to follow from the cynical parts of his system, for by taking away all the objects of virtue, he of course deprives it of variety ; and so he based all morality on a well-ordered mind. Connected with this is his paradox. Sapiens non opinatur — the philosopher is free from all opinions (since they would be liable to disturb his unruffled equanimity) ; and this doctrine seems to disclose a latent tendency to scepticism, which Cicero appears to have suspected, by often coupling him with Pyrrho. In conformity with this view, he des- pised Zeno's physical speculations, and doubted whether God is or is not a living Being. (Cic. Nat. Deor. i. 14.) But this apparently atheistic dogma perhaps only referred to the Stoical conception of God, as of a subtle fire dwelling in the sky and diffusing itself through the universe. [Zeno.] He may have meant merely to demonstrate his posi- tion, that physiology is above the human intellect, by shewing the impossibility of certainly attribut- ing to this pantheistic essence, form, senses, or life. ( Brucker, Hist. Crit.FhU. ii. 2, 9 ; Bitter, Geschichte der Phil. xi. 5, 1.) Ariston is the founder of a small school, opposed to that of Herillus, and of which Diogenes Laertius mentions Diphilus and Miltiades as members. We learn from Athenaeus (vii. p. 281), on the authority of Eratosthenes and ApoUophanes, two of his pu- pils, that in his old age he abandoned himself to pleasure. He is said to have died of a coup de iuieil. Diogenes (/. c.) gives a list of his works, but says, that all of them, except the Letters to Cleauthes, were attributed by I'auuotius (u.c. 143) ARISTONICUS. 311 and Sosicrates (b. c. 200-128) to another Ariston, a Peripatetic of Ceos, with whom he is often con- founded. Nevertheless, we find in Stobaeus {Serm. iv. 110, &c.) fragments of a work of his called d/xotufxara. [G. E. L. C] ARISTON {'Aplffruv), a physician, of whose life no particulars are known, but who probably lived in the fifth century b. c, as Galen mentions him (Comment, in Hippocr. "2)e Rat. Vict, in Morb. Acut." i. 17, vol. XV. p. 455) with three other phy- sicians, who all (he says) lived in old times, some as contemporaries of Hippocrates, and the others before him. Galen also says that he was by some persons supposed to be the author of the work in the Hippocratic Collection entitled Uepl AiaiTrjs 'Tyieivrjs, de SalvJyri Victus Rations. {I. c. ; De Aliment. Facult. i. 1, vol. vi. p. 473 ; Comment, in Hippocr. ^^Aphor."' vi. 1, vol. xviii. pt.i. p. 9.) A medical pre- paration by a person of the same name is quoted by Celsus (De Medic, v. 18. p. 88) and Galen. (De Com- pos. Medicam. sec. Locos, ix. 4. vol. xiii. p. 28 1 .) The Ariston of Chios, mentioned by Galen (De Hippocr. et Plat. Decret. v. 5, vii. 1, 2, vol. v. pp. 468, 589, 596), is a different person. [W. A. G.] ARISTON. 1. A celebrated silver-chaser and sculptor in bronze, bom at My tilene. His time is un- known. (Plin. xxxiii. 55, xxxiv. 19. § 25.) 2. A painter, the son and pupil of Aristei- des of Thebes [Aristeides], painted a satyr holding a goblet and crowned with a garland. An- torides and Euphranor were his disciples. (Plin. XXXV. 36. § 23.) [P. S.] ARISTON ( Apiarav) and TELESTAS (Te- Aeo-ras), brothers, were the sculptors of a colossal statue of Zeus which the Cleitorians dedicated at Olympia from the spoils of many captured cities. The statue with its pedestal was about eighteen Greek feet high. It bore an inscription, which is given by Pausanias, but in a mutilated state. (Pans. V. 23. § 6.) [P. S.] ARISTONI'CUS ('ApiffrSvLKos). 1. A tyrant of Methymnae in Lesbos. In B. c. 332, when the navarchs of Alexander the Great had already taken possession of the harbour of Chios, Aristonicus arrived during the night with some privateer ships, and entered it under the belief that it was still in the hands of the Persians. He was taken pri- soner and delivered up to the Methymnaeans, who put him to death in a cruel manner. ( AiTian, Anab. iii. 2 ; Curtius, iv. 4.) 2. A natural son of Eumenes II. of Pergamus, who was succeeded by Attains III. When the latter died in b.c. 133, and made over his kingdom to the Romans, Aristonicus claimed his father's kingdom as his lawful inheritance. The towns, for fear of the Romans, refused to recognise him, but he compelled them by force of arms; and at last there seemed no doubt of his ultimate success. In b. c. 131, the consul P. Licinius Crassus, who received Asia as his province, marched against him ; but he was more intent upon making booty than on combating his enemy, and in an ill-organ- ized battle which was fought about the end of the year, his army was defeated, and he himself made prisoner by Aristonicus. In the year following, B. c. 130, the consul M. Perpema, who succeeded Crassus, acted with more energ)', and in the very first engagement conquered Aristonicus and took him prisoner. After the death of Perpema, M.* Aquillius completed the conquest of the kingdom of Pergaiuus, B. c. 129. Aristonicus was cairied