ARISTIDES, AELIUS

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ARISTIDES, AELIUS , surnamed

THEODORUS

THEODORUS, FLAVIUS MALLIUS

, Greek rhetorician and sophist, son of Eudaemon, a priest of Zeus, was born at Hadriani in Mysia, A.D. 117 (or 129). He studied under Herodes Atticus of Athens, Polemon of Smyrna, and Alexander of Cotyaeum, in whose honour he composed a funeral oration still extant. In the practice of his calling he travelled through

Greece

GREECE

, Italy,

Egypt

EGYPT

and

Asia

ASIA

, and in many places the in-habitants erected statues to him in recognition of his talents. In 156 he was attacked by an illness which lasted thirteen years, the nature of which has caused considerable speculation. How-ever, it in no way interfered with his studies; in fact, they were prescribed as part of his cure. Aristides' favourite place of residence was Smyrna. In 178, when it was destroyed by an

earthquake

EARTHQUAKE

, he wrote an account of the disaster to Aurelius, which deeply affected the emperor and induced him to rebuild the city. The grateful inhabitants set up a statue in honour of
Aristides, and styled him the " builder " of Smyrna. He refused all honours from them except that of priest of Asclepius, which office he held till his death, about 189. The extant works of Aristides consist of two small rhetorical treatises and fifty-five declamations, some not really speeches at all. The treatises are on political and simple speech, in which he takes

Demosthenes

DEMOSTHENES

and Xenophon as models for

illustration

ILLUSTRATION

; some critics attribute these to a later compiler (Spengel, Rhetores Graeci). The six Sacred Discourses have attracted some attention. They give a full account of his protracted illness, including a mass of superstitious details of visions, dreams and wonderful cures, which the god Asclepius ordered him to

record

RECORD (Lat. recordari, to recall to mind, from cor, heart or mind)

. These cures, from his account, offer similarities to the effects produced by hypnotism. The speeches proper are epideictic or show speecheson certain gods, panegyrics of the emperor and individual cities (Smyrna, Rome) ; justificatorythe attack on Plato's Gorgias in defence of rhetoric and the four statesmen, Thucydides, Miltiades, Pericles, Cimon; symbouleutic or political, the subjects being taken from the past history of free Greecethe Sicilian expedition, peace negotiations with Sparta, the political situation after the battle of

Leuctra

LEUCTRA

. The Panathenaicus and Encomium of Rome were actually delivered, the former imitated from Isocrates. The Leptineathe genuineness of which is disputedcontrast unfavourably with the speech of

Demosthenes

DEMOSTHENES

. Aristides' works were highly esteemed by his contemporaries; they were much used for school instruction, and distinguished rhetoricians wrote commentaries upon them. His style, formed on the best models, is generally clear and correct, though sometimes obscured by rhetorical ornamentation; his subjects being mainly fictitious, the cause possessed no living

interest

INTEREST

, and his attention was concentrated on form and diction.
Editio princeps (52 declamations only) (1517) ; Dindorf (1829) ; Kell (1899); Sandys, Hist. of Class. Schol. i. 312 (ed. 1906).

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