Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/327

Rh ARISTOMENES. told, when Mcssenia had once more regained her place among the nations (b. c. 870), how at Leuc- tra the apparition of Aristomenes had been seen, aiding the Theban host and scattering the bands of Sparta. (Pans. iv. 32. J [E. K] ARISTO'MENES {'Apiarofiivrjs). 1. A comic poet of Athens. He belonged to the ancient Attic comedy, or more correctly to the second class of the poets constituting the old Attic comedy. For the ancients seem to distinguish the comic poets who flourished before the Peloponnesian war from those who lived during that war, and Aristomenes belonged to the latter. (Suidas, s. v. 'Apiaro- fihr)s; Eudocia, p. 65; Argum. ad Aristoph. Equit.) He was sometimes ridiculed by the sur- name SupoTTOio's, which may have been derived from the circumstance that either he himself or his father, at one time, was an artizan, perhaps a carpenter. As early as the year b. c. 425, he brought out a piece called iJA.o^('poi, on the same occasion that the Equites of Aristophanes and the Satyri of Cratinus were performed; and if it is true that another piece entitled Admetus was performed at the same time with the Plutus of Aristophanes, in B. c. 389, the dramatic career of Aristomenes was very long. {Axgwm. ad Aiistoph. Plut.) But we know of only a few comedies of Aristomenes; Meineke conjectures that the Admetus was brought out together with the first edition of Aristophanes' Plutus, an hypothesis based upon very weak grounds. Of the two plays mentioned no frag- ments are extant; besides these we know the titles and possess a few fragments of three others, viz. 1. Borjflot, which is sometimes attributed to Aristophanes, the names of Aristomenes and Aristo- phanes being often confoimded in the MSS. 2. roTjres, and 3. Ai6vvaos atr/CTjTTjs. There are also three fragments of which it is uncertain whether they belong to any of the plays here mentioned, or to others, the titles of which are unknown. (Athen. i. p. 11; Pollux, vii. 167; Harpocrat. s. V. fxeTo'iKiov. Comp. Meineke, Quaest. Seen. Spec. ii. p. 48, &c.. Hist. Crit. Com. Gr. p. 210, &c.) 2. An actor of the old Attic comedy, who lived in the reign and was a freed-man of the emperor Hadrian, who used to call him 'ArTiffOTre^Stl. He was a native of Athens, and is also mentioned as the author of a work irpos tccs hpovpyias, the third book of which is quoted by Athenaeus. (iii. p. 115.) He is perhaps the same as the one men- tioned by the Scholiast on ApoUonius Rhodius. (i. 164.) 3. A Greek writer on agriculture, who is men- tioned by Varro (de Be Bust. i. 1; Columella, i. 1 ) among those whose native place was unknown. 4. An Acarnanian, a friend and flatterer of the contemptible Agathocles, who for a time had the government of Egypt in the name of the young king Ptolemy V. (Euergetes.) During the admi- nistration of Agathocles Aristomenes was all-pow- erful, and when the insurrection against Agathocles broke out in B. c. 205, Aristomenes was the only one among his friends who ventured to go and try to pacify the rebellious Macedonians. But this attempt was useless, and Aristomenes himself nar- rowly escaped being murdered by the insurgents. After Agathocles was put to death, Tlepolemus, who had headed the insurrection, was appointed regent. But about b. c. 202, Aristomenes contrived to get the regency and distinguish- ed himself now by the energy and wisdom of ARISTON. 309 his administration no less than previously by his faithfulness to Agathocles. Scopas and Dicaear- chus, two powerful men, who ventured to oppose his government, were put to death by his com- mand. Towards the young king, Aristomenes was a frank, open, and sincere councillor; but as the king grew up to manhood, he became less and less able to bear the sincerity of Aristomenes, who was at last condemned to death, in b. c. 192. (Polyb. XV. 31, xviii. 36, &c.; Diod. Excerpt, lib. xxix., de Virt. et Vit. p. 573; Plut. de Discern, Aduiat. 32.) [L. S.] ARISTO'MENES, a painter, bom at Thasos, is mentioned by Vitruvius (iii. Prooem. § 2), but did not attain to any distinction. fC. P. M.] ARISTON (^hplarwv), king of Sparta, 14th of the Eurypontids, son of Agesicles, contemporary of Anaxandrides, ascended the Spartan throne before B. c. 560, and died somewhat before (Pans. iii. 7), or at any rate not long after, 510. He thus reigned about 50 years, and was of high reputation, of which the public prayer for a son for him, when the house of Procles had other representatives, is a testimony. Demaratus, hence named, was borne him, after two barren marriages, by a third wife, whom he obtained, it is said, by a fraud from her husband, his friend, Agetus. (Herod, i. ^5., vi. 61 — GQ; Pans. iii. 7.§ 7; Plut. Apophth. Lac.) [A.H. C] ARISTON ("Apto-Twj/), son of Pyrrhichus, a Co- rinthian, one of those apparently who made their way into Syracuse in the second year of the Sici- lian expedition, 414 B. c, is named once by Thu- cydides, in his account of the sea-fight preceding the arrival of the second armament (413 B. c), and styled the most skilful steersman on the side of the Syracusans. He suggested to them the stratagem of retiring early, giving the men their meal on the shore, and then renewing the combat unexpectedly, which in that battle gave them their first naval victory, (vii. 39; comp. Polyaen. v. 13.) Plu- tarch {Nicias, 20, 25) and Diodorus (xiii. 10) as- cribe to him further the invention or introduction at Syracuse of the important alterations in the build of their galleys' bows, mentioned by Thucydides (vii. 34), and said by him to have been previously used by the Corinthians in the action off Erineus. Plutarch adds, that he fell when the victory was just won, in the last and decisive sea-fight. [A. H. C] ARISTON ('Api'oTwj/), histox-ical. 1. Was sent out by one of the Ptolemies of Egypt to ex- plore the western coast of Arabia, which derived its name of Poseideion from an altar which Ariston had erected there to Poseidon. (Diod. iii. 41.) 2. A strategus of the Aetolians in b. c. 221, who, labouring under some bodily defect, left the com- mand of the troops to Scopas and Dorimachus, while he himself remained at home. Notwith- standing the declarations of the Achaeans to regard every one as an enemy who should trespass upon the territories of Messenia or Achaia, the Aetolian commanders invaded Peloponnesus, and Ariston was stupid enough, in the face of this fact, to assert that the Aetolians and Achaeans were at peace with each other. (Polyb. iv. 5, 9, 17.) 3. The leader of an insurrection at Cyrene in B. c. 403, who obtained possession of the town and put to death or expelled all the nobles. The latter however afterwards became reconciled to the popular party, and the powers of the government were divided between the two parties. (Diod. xiv. 34; comp. Paus. iy. 26. § 2.)