Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/739

ARIOVISTUS ARISTIDES 703 but the lesser poem did little more than suggest the greater. The Orlando is a fantastic story, involving a thousand interwoven episodes be- sides the plot from which it takes its name a plot which follows the fortunes of Orlando made mad by love of Angelica ; but so rich was its author's fancy and so bright his nar- rative, that even now the poem stands in Italy at the head of all poems of chivalry. It has been translated into almost every language. The principal ancient editions of the Orlando furioso are those of Ferrara, 1516, 1524, and 1532, published under the superintendence of the author, and the Aldine edition of 1545. The best modern edition is that of Moral! (4to, Milan, 1818), which follows the original text of 1532. Of the English translations by Har- rington, Hoole, and Rose, the last is by far the best. ARIOVISTUS, a chief of the Marcpmanni, a German tribe, crossed the Rhine with 15,000 warriors at the call of the Sequani, who were oppressed by the ^Edui, defeated the ^Edui in 72 B. 0., but took one third of the land of his allies, invited his countrymen over the Rhine, and made a settlement there of 120,000 Ger- mans, belonging to several tribes. The JEdui and Sequani called in Julius Caesar and the Romans to their aid. Caasar ordered Ariovis- tus to make no more conquests, to call no more Germans over, and to give up the hostages he held of the Gauls. Ariovistus returned an in- solent reply. Caasar marched against him and compelled him to give battle near Vesontium (now Besancon) in 58. He was defeated, and few of his warriors escaped. He himself crossed the Rhine in a small boat, and ended his days in obscurity. ARISTA, Mariano, a Mexican general, born in the state of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, July 16, 1802, died in Spain, Aug. 9, 1855. Having dis- tinguished himself in the successive wars which established first the independence of Mexico and afterward the republican form of gov- ernment, he attained a high position in the Mexican army, and in 1836 was second in com- mand to Santa Anna, then general in chief. By the revolutions which continually agitated Mexico he was twice deprived of his command ; but his military knowledge was indispensable to every dominant party, and he was quickly restored and promoted. In the war with the United States he commanded at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma ; and after its close was ap- pointed in June, 1848, minister of war under President Herrera. In 1850 he was elected president of Mexico, but resigned Jan. 6, 1853, and retired to his farm, and was banished soon afterward. iRISimS, in Greek mythology, son of Apollo and Gyrene, and father of Actaaon. He fell in love with Enrydice, the wife of Or- pheus, whom he pursued into the fields, where she was bitten by a serpent. For this he in- curred the anger of the gods. He taught men the culture of the olive and the management of bees, and was extensively worshipped in Greece and the Grecian islands as protector of pastoral life and husbandry. ARISTARCHUS. I. An ancient grammarian and critic, born in Samothrace, flourished in the 2d century B. 0. He was educated at Alexandria in the school of Aristophanes of Byzantium, and founded a critical school, which long flour- ished at Alexandria, Rome, and elsewhere. Al- exandria and Rome alone contained at one time no fewer than 40 celebrated grammarians who had been brought up in his academy. He was the preceptor of Ptolemy Epiphanes and Ptol- emy Physcon. In his old age he went to Cy- prus, and being afflicted with dropsy, he put an end to his life by voluntary starvation, in his 72d year. Aristarchus is said to have written 800 commentaries on the text of the great Greek poets ; but he devoted his chief labor to Homer, whose present text is based upon that adopted by him. Nothing remains of all his writings save scattered fragments. II. Of Samos, a Greek astronomer, flourished about 270 B. C. He was one of the first who held that the earth revolves around the sun, for which opinion some thought him guilty of impiety. The only work of his extant is a treatise on the distance and magnitude of the sun and moon, of which the original was pub- lished by Wallis in 1688, and a French trans- lation in 1810. ARISTIDES. I. An Athenian statesman, called the Just, died probably in 468 B. 0. Of his early life little is positively known. He was one of the ten leaders of the Athenians at the time of the Persian invasion under Darius, and before the battle of Marathon persuaded the other generals to follow his example in giving up the chief command to Miltiades, instead of each claiming it for one day, as was allowed by law. This united action insured the suc- cess of the battle. The year after Marathon (489) he was appointed archon, but a few years later, by the intrigues of his rival Themistocles, he was ostracized on the pretext that he was acquiring an influence dangerous in a democ- racy. He employed the period of his exile in endeavoring to stir up the Grecian cities to re- sist the Persians, at that time preparing for a second invasion. He sought an interview with Themistocles before the battle of Salamis (480), concerted with him the plan of that engage- ment, and gave him his hearty support. The success of the Greeks at Platsea (479), where he commanded under Pausanias, was chiefly owing to his courage and watchfulness. The Persian war continuing, he, with Cimon, the son of Miltiades, was sent at the head of the Athenian forces to join the confederate army. "When the Ionian states, disgusted with the arro- gance of Pausanias, decided to form a confed- eration under the hegemony of Athens, Aris- tides was appointed to adjust the relations of the various parties to the arrangement, and to assess the expenses of the war on the several states a commission which he executed to the