Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/334

Rh 316 ARISTOPHANES. selection of whom they shewed, with a few ex- ceptions, a correct taste and appreciation of what was really good. (Ruhnken, Hist. Or it. Orat. Gr. p. xcv., &c.) Aristophanes was the first who in- troduced the use of accents in the Greek language. (J. Kr^user, Gfriech. Accentlehre, p. 167, &c.) The subjects with which he chiefly occupied himself were the criticism and interpretation of the ancient Greek poets, and more especially Homer, of whose works he made a new and critical edition {Zi6pQ(a- cris). But he too, like his disciple Aristarchus, was not occupied with the criticism or the explana- tion of words and phrases only, but his attention was also directed towards the higher subjects of criticism : he discussed the aesthetical construction and the design of the Homeric poems. In the same spirit he studied and commented upon other Greek poets, such as Hesiod, Pindar, Alcaeus, Sophocles, Euripides, Anacreon, Aristophanes, and others. The philosophers Plato and Aristotle like- wise engaged his attention, and of the former, as of several among the poets, he made new and critical editions. (SchoL ad Hesiod. Theog. 68 ; Diog. Laert. iii. 61; Thorn. Mag. Vita Pindari.) All we possess of his numerous and learned works consists of fragments scattered through the Scholia on the above-mentioned poets, some argumenta to the tragic poets and some plays of Aristophanes, and a part of his Ae^eis, which is printed in Bois- sonade's edition of Herodian's '• Partitiones." (London, 1819, pp. 283—289.) His VKwTTai and 'TTTOyUj/jjjLioTa, which are mentioned among his works, referred probably to the Homeric poems. Among his other works we may mention : 1. Notes upon the IIiVaKcs of Callimachus (Athen. ix. p. 408), and upon the poems of Anacreon. (Aelian, H. A. vii. 39, 47.) 2. An abridgement of Aris- totle's work Ilepl ^vaiws Zwaji', which is perhaps the same as the Avork which is called ^ttrotxvT^yi.aTa els 'ApJO-ToWATjj'. 3. A work on the Attic courte- zans, consisting of several books. (Athen. xiii. pp. 567, 583.) 4. A number of grammatical works, Buch as 'ATTi/fttl Ae^ets, AaKwviKal TKwaaai and a work Tlepl ""AvaKoylas^ which was much used by M. Tarentius Varro. 5. Some works of an histo- rical character, as ©rj/Sai/ca (perhaps the same as the 077)3atW 'dpoi), and BoiwTiKd, which are fre- quently mentioned by ancient writers. (Suid. s. v. 'OfMoXu'ios Zeus ; Apostol. Proverb, xiv. 40 ; Pint. de Mai. Herod. 31, 33 ; Schol. ad Tlieocrii. vii. 103 ; Steph. Byz. s. v. ''Avtikov5vX(7s, &c.) Some modern writers have proposed in all these passages to substitute the name Aristodemus for Aristo- phanes, apparently for no other reason but because Aristodemus is known to have written works un- der the same titles. (Compare Villoison, Proleg. ad Horn. II. pp. xxiii. and xxix.'; F. A. Wolf, Prolegom. in Horn. p. ccxvi., &c. ; Wellauer, in Ersch. und Gruber''s Encyclop. v. p. 271, &c.) 2. Of Mallus in Cilicia, is mentioned as a writer on agriculture. (Varro, de Re Rust. i. 1.) 3. A Boeotian (Plut. de Malign. Herod, p. 874), of whom Suidas (s, vv. 'OfioKwios, Qr}§aiovs opovs ; pomp. Steph. B)'z. s. v. 'AvtikovSvXcTs) mentions the second book of a work on Thebes (©Tj&at/cd). Another work bore the name of Boiutiko,, and the second book of it is quoted by Suidas. (s. v. Xai- pci}v<cia.) 4. A Corinthian, a friend of Libanius, who addressed to him some letters and mentions him in others. (Liban. Epist. 76, 1186, 1228.) There is ARISTOPHON. also an oration of Libanius in praise of Aristo- phanes. {Opera, vol. ii. p. 210; comp. Wolf, ad Liban. Epist. 76.) [L. S.] ARPSTOPHON {'Api.(TT6(p<ov). There are three Athenians who are called orators, and have frequently been confounded with one another (as by Casaubon, ad Tlieophrast. Charact. 8, and Bur- raann, ad Quintil. v. 12. p. 452). Ruhnken {Hist. Crit. Orat. Gr. p. xlv., &c.) first established the distinction between them. 1. A native of the demos of Azenia in Attica. (Aeschin. c. Tim. p. 159, c. Ctes. pp. 532, 583, ed. Reiske.) He lived about and after the end of the Peloponnesian war. In b. c. 412, Aristophon, Laespodius and ^Melesias were sent to Sparta as ambassadors by the oligarchical government of the Four Hundred. (Thuc. viii. 86.) In the archonship of Eucleides, B. c. 404, after Athens was delivered of the thirty tyrants, Aristophon proposed a law which, though beneficial to the republic, yet caused great uneasiness and troubles in many families at Athens ; for it ordained, that no one should be regarded as a citizen of Athens whose mother was not a freeborn woman. (Caryst. ap. Atlwn. xiiL p. 577 ; Taylor, Vit. Lys. p. 149, ed. Reiske.) He also proposed various other laws, by which he acquired great popularity and the full confidence of the people (Dem. c. Eubul. p. 1308), and their great number may be inferred from his own statement (ap. Aeschin. c. Ctes. p. 583), that he was accused 75 times of having made illegal proposals, but that he had always come off victo- rious. His influence with the people is most manifest from his accusation of Iphicrates and Tiraotheus, two men to whom Athens was so much indebted, (b. c. 354.) He charged them •with having accepted bribes from the Chians and Rhodians, and the people condemned Timotheus on the mere assertion of Aristophon. (C. Nepos, Timoth. 3; Aristot. Rhet. 11, 23 ; Deinarch, c. De- mosth. p. 1 1, c. Philocl. p. 1 00.) After this event, but still in B. c. 354, the last time that we hear of him in history, he came forward in the assembly' to de- fend the law of Leptines against Demosthenes, and the latter, who often mentions him, treats the aged Aristophon with great respect, and reckons him among the most eloquent orators, (c. Lept. p. 501, &c.) He seems to have died soon after. None of his orations has come down to us. (Comp. Clinton, Fast. Hell, ad Ann. 354.) 2. A native of the demos of Colyttus, a great orator and politician, whose career is for the greater part contemporaneous with that of Demosthenes. It was this Aristophon whom Aeschines served as a clerk, and in whose service he was trained for his public career. [Aeschines.] Clinton (i^. //. ad ann. 340) has pointed out that he is not the same as the one whom Plutarch ( Vit. X. Orat. p. 844) mentions, but that there the Azenian must be understood. Uipian {ad Demosth. De Coron. p. 74, a.) confounds him with Aristophon the Azenian, as is clear from Aeschines (c. Ctesiph. p. 585). This orator is often mentioned by Demosthenes, though he gives him the distinguishing epithet of 6 Ko- AuTTeus only once {De Coron. p, 250, comp. pp. 248, 281 ; c. Mid. p. 584 ; Schol. ad Demosik. p. 201, a.), and he is always spoken of as a man of considerable influence and authority. As an orator he is ranked with Diopeithes and Chares, the most popular men of the time at Athens. There are some passages in Demosthenes (as c. Timocr. p.