Chapter 8

(D. F. T.)

ARIADNE(in Greek mythology), was the daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and Pasiphae, the daughter of Helios the Sun-god. When Theseus landed on the island to slay the Minotaur (q.v.), Ariadne fell in love with him, and gave him a clue of thread to guide him through the mazes of the labyrinth. After he had slain the monster, Theseus carried her off, but, according to Homer (Odyssey, xi. 322) she was slain by Artemis at the request of Dionysus in the island of Dia near Cnossus, before she could reach Athens with Theseus. In the later legend, she was abandoned, while asleep on the island of Naxos, by Theseus, who had fallen a victim to the charms of Aegle (Plutarch,Theseus, 20; Diodorus, iv. 60, 61). Her abandonment and awakening are celebrated in the beautifulEpithalamiumof Catullus. On Naxos she is discovered by Dionysus on his return from India, who is enchanted with her beauty, and marries her when she awakes. She receives a crown as a bridal gift, which is placed amongst the stars, while she herself is honoured as a goddess (Ovid,Metam.viii. 152,Fasti, iii. 459).

The name probably means “very holy” =ἀρι-αγνη; another (Cretan) formΆριδήλα(=φανερά)indicates the return to a “bright” season of nature. Ariadne is the personification of spring. In keeping with this, her festivals at Naxos present a double character; the one, full of mourning and sadness, represents her death or abandonment by Theseus, the other, full of joy and revelry, celebrates her awakening from sleep and marriage with Dionysus. Thus nature sleeps and dies during winter, to awake in springtime to a life of renewed luxuriance. With this may be compared the festivals of Adonis and Osiris and the myth of Persephone. Theseus himself was said to have founded a festival at Athens in honour of Ariadne and Dionysus after his return from Crete. The story of Dionysus and Ariadne was a favourite subject for reliefs and wall-paintings. Most commonly Ariadne is represented asleep on the shore at Naxos, while Dionysus, attended by satyrs and bacchanals, gazes admiringly upon her; sometimes they are seated side by side under a spreading vine. The scene where she is holding the clue to Theseus occurs on a very early vase in the British Museum. There is a statue of the sleeping Ariadne in the Vatican Museum.

Kanter,De Ariadne(1879); Pallat,De Fabula Ariadnea(1891).

ARIANO DI PUGLIA, a town and episcopal see, which, despite its name, now belongs to Campania, Italy, in the province of Avellino, 1509 ft. above sea-level, on the railway between Benevento and Foggia, 24 m. E. of the former by rail. Pop. (1901) town, 8384; commune, 17,653. It lies in the centre of a fertile district, but has no buildings of importance, as it has often been devastated by earthquakes. A considerable part of the population still dwells in caves. It has been supposed to occupy the site of Aequum Tuticum, an ancient Samnite town, which became a post-station on the Via Traiana1in Roman times; but this should probably be sought at S. Eleuterio 5½ m. north. It was a military position of some importance in the middle ages. Thirteen miles south-south-east is the Sorgente Mefita, identical with the pools of Ampsanctus (q.v.).

(T. As.)

1This has generally been supposed to be the place referred to by Horace (Sat. i. 5. 87), as one which the metre would not allow him to mention by name; but H.-Nissen (Halische Landeskunde, Berlin, 1902, ii. 845) proposes Ausculum instead.

ARIAS MONTANO, BENITO(1527-1598), Spanish Orientalist and editor of the Antwerp Polyglot, was born at Fregenal de la Sierra, in Estremadura, in 1527. After studying at the universities of Seville and Alcala, he took orders about the year 1559 and in 1562 he was appointed consulting theologian to the council of Trent. He retired to Peña de Aracena in 1564, wrote his commentary on the minor prophets (1571), and was sent to Antwerp by Philip II. to edit the polyglot Bible projected by Christopher Plantin. The work appeared in 8 volumes folio, between 1568 and 1573. León de Castro, a professor at Salamanca, thereon brought charges of heresy against Arias Montano, who was finally acquitted after a visit to Rome in 1575-1576. He was appointed royal chaplain, but withdrew to Peña de Aracena from 1579 to 1583; he resigned the chaplaincy in 1584, and went into complete seclusion at Santiago de la Espada in Seville, where he died in 1598.

He is the subject of anElogio históricoby Tomás Gonzalez Carvajal in theMemorias de la Real Academia de la Historia(Madrid, 1832), vol. vii.

ARICA(San Marcos de Arica), a town and port of the Chilean-governed province of Tacna, situated in 18° 28′ 08″ S. lat. and 70° 20′ 46″ W. long. It is the port for Tacna, the capital of the province, 38 m. distant, with which it is connected by rail, and is the outlet for a large and productive mining district. Arica at one time had a population of 30,000 and enjoyed much prosperity, but through civil war, earthquakes and conquest, its population had dwindled to 2853 in 1895 and 2824 in 1902. The great earthquake of 1868, followed by a tidal wave, nearly destroyed the town and shipping. Arica was captured, looted and burned by the Chileans in 1880, and in accordance with the terms of the treaty of Ancon (1883) should have been returned to Peru in 1894, but this was not done. Late in 1906 the town again suffered severely from an earthquake.

ARICIA(mod.Ariccia), an ancient city of Latium, on the Via Appia, 16 m. S.E. of Rome. The old town, or at any rate its acropolis, now occupied by the modern town, lay high (1350 ft. above sea-level) above the circular Valle Aricciana, which is probably an extinct volcanic crater; some remains of its fortifications, consisting of a mound of earth supported on each side by a wall of rectangular blocks of peperino stone, have been discovered (D. Marchetti, inNotizie degli scavi, 1892, 52). The lower town was situated on the north edge of the valley, close to the Via Appia, which descended into the valley from the modern Albano, and re-ascended partly upon very fine substructions ofopus quadratum, some 200 yds. in length, to the modern Genzano. Remains of the walls of the lower town, of thecellaof a temple built of blocks of peperino, and also of later buildings in brickwork andopus reticulatum, connected with the post-station (Aricia being the first important station out of Rome, cf. Horace,Sat.i. 5. 1,Egressum magna me excepit Aricia Roma hospitio modico) on the highroad, may still be seen (cf. T. Ashby inMélanges de l’école française de Rome, 1903, 399). Aricia was one of the oldest cities of Latium, and appears as a serious opponent of Rome at the end of the period of the kings and beginning of the republic. In 338B.C.it was conquered by C. Maenius and became acivitas sine suffragio, but was soon given full rights. Even in the imperial period its chief magistrate was styleddictator, and its councilsenatus, and it preserved its own calendar of festivals. Its vegetables and wine were famous, and the district is still fertile.

(T. As.)

ARICINI, the ancient inhabitants of Aricia (q.v.), the form of the name ranking them with the Sidicini, Marrucini (q.v.), &c., as one of the communities belonging probably to the earlier or Volscian stratum of population on the west side of Italy, who were absorbed by the Sabine or Latin immigrants. Special interest attaches to this trace of their earlier origin, because of the famous cult of Diana Nemorensis, whose temple in the forest close by Aricia, beside thelacus Nemorensis, was served by “the priest who slew the slayer, and shall himself be slain”; that is to say, the priest, who was calledrex Nemorensis, held office only so long as he could defend himself from any stronger rival. This cult, which is unique in Italy, is picturesquely described in the opening chapter of J.G. Frazer’sGolden Bough(2nd ed., 1900) where full references will be found. Of these references the most important are, perhaps, Strabo v. 3. 12; Ovid,Fasti, iii. 263-272; and Suetonius,Calig. 35, whose wording indicates that the old-world custom was dying out in the 1st centuryA.D.It is a reasonable conjecture that this extraordinary relic of barbarism was characteristic of the earlier stratum of the population who presumably called themselvesArici.

On the anthropological aspect of the cult, see also A.B. Cook,Class. Rev. xvi., 1902, p. 365, where the whole evidence is very fully collected; and Frazer’sStudies in the Early History of Kingship(1907), where he accepts Cook’s criticism of his own earlier theory.

(R. S. C.)

ARIÈGE, an inland department of southern France, bounded S. by Spain, W. and N. by the department of Haute-Garonne, N.E. and E. by Aude, and S.E. by Pyrénées-Orientales. Itembraces the old countship of Foix, and a portion of Languedoc and Gascony. Area, 1893 sq. m. Pop. (1906) 205,684. Ariège is for the most part mountainous. Its southern border is occupied by the snow-clad peaks of the eastern Pyrenees, the highest of which within the department is the Pic de Montcalm (10,512 ft.). Communication with Spain is afforded by a large number ofportsorcols, which are, however, for the most part difficult paths, and only practicable for a few months in the year. Farther to the north two lesser ranges running parallel to the main chain traverse the centre of the department from south-east to north-west. The more southerly, the Montagne de Tabe, contains, at its south-eastern end, several heights between 7200 and 9200 ft., while the Montagues de Plantaurel to the north of Foix are of lesser altitude. These latter divide the fertile alluvial plains of the north from the mountains of the centre and south. The department is intersected by torrents belonging to the Garonne basin—the Salat, the Arize, which, near Mas d’Azil, flows through a subterranean gallery, the Ariège and the Hers. The climate is mild in the south, but naturally very severe among the mountains. Generally speaking, the arable land, which is chiefly occupied by small holdings, is confined to the lowlands. Wheat, maize and potatoes are the chief crops. Good vineyards and market gardens are found in the neighbourhood of Pamiers in the north. Flax and hemp are also cultivated. The mountains afford excellent pasture, and a considerable number of cattle, sheep and swine are reared. Poultry- and bee-farming flourish. Forests cover more than one-third of the department and harbour wild boars and even bears. Game, birds of prey and fish are plentiful. There is abundance of minerals, including lead, copper, manganese and especially iron. Grindstones, building-stone, talc, gypsum, marble and phosphates are also produced. Warm mineral springs of note are found at Ax, Aulus and Ussat. Pamiers and St Girons are the most important industrial towns. Iron founding and forging, which have their chief centre at Pamiers are principal industries. Flour-milling, paper-making and cloth-weaving may also be mentioned. Ariège is served by the Southern railway. It forms the diocese of Pamiers and belongs to the ecclesiastical province of Toulouse. It is within the circumscriptions of the académie (educational division) and of the court of appeal of Toulouse and of the XVII. army corps. Its capital is Foix; it comprises the arrondissements of Foix, St Girons and Pamiers, with 20 cantons and 338 communes. Foix, Pamiers, St Girons and St Lizier-de-Cousérans are the more noteworthy towns. Mention may also be made of Mirepoix, once the seat of a bishopric, and possessing a cathedral (15th and 16th centuries) with a remarkable Gothic spire.

ARIES(“The Ram”), in astronomy, the first sign of the zodiac (q.v.), denoted by the sign ♈, in imitation of a ram’s head. The name is probably to be associated with the fact that when the sun is in this part of the heavens (in spring) sheep bring forth their young; this finds a parallel inAquarius, when there is much rain. It is also a constellation, mentioned by Eudoxus (4th centuryB.C.) and Aratus (3rd centuryB.C.); Ptolemy catalogued eighteen stars, Tycho Brahe twenty-one, and Hevelius twenty-seven. According to a Greek myth, Nephele, mother of Phrixus and Helle, gave her son a ram with a golden fleece. To avoid the evil designs of Hera, their stepmother, Phrixus and Helle fled on the back of the ram, and reaching the sea, attempted to cross. Helle fell from the ram and was drowned (hence theHellespont); Phrixus, having arrived in Colchis and been kindly received by the king, Aeetes, sacrificed the ram to Zeus, to whom he also dedicated the fleece, which was afterwards carried away by Jason. Zeus placed the ram in the heavens as the constellation.

ARIKARA,orAricara(fromariki, horn), a tribe of North American Indians of Caddoan stock. They are now settled with the Hidatsas and the Mandans on the Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota. They originally lived in the Platte Valley, Nebraska, with the Pawnees, to whom they are related. They number about 400.

SeeHandbook of American Indians, ed. F.W. Hodge (Washington 1907)

ARIMASPI,an ancient people in the extreme N.E. of Scythia (q.v.), probably the eastern Altai. All accounts of them go back to a poem by Aristeas of Proconnesus, from whom Herodotus (iii. 116, iv. 27) drew his information. They were supposed to be one-eyed (hence their Scythian name), and to steal gold from the griffins that guarded it. In art they are usually represented as richly dressed Asiatics, picturesquely grouped with their griffin foes; the subject is often described by poets from Aeschylus to Milton. They are so nearly mythical that it is impossible to insist on the usual identification with the ancestors of the Huns. Their gold was probably real, as gold still comes from the Altai.

ARIMINUM(mod.Rimini), a city of Aemilia, on the N.E. coast of Italy, 69 m. S.E. of Bononia. It was founded by the Umbrians, but in 268B.C.became a Roman colony with Latin rights. It was reached from Rome by the Via Flaminia, constructed in 220B.C., and from that time onwards was the bulwark of the Roman power in Cisalpine Gaul, to which province it even gave its name. Its harbour was of some importance, but is now silted up, the sea having receded. The remains of its moles were destroyed in 1807-1809. Ariminum became a place of considerable traffic owing to the construction of the Via Aemilia (187B.C.) and the Via Popilia (132B.C.), and is frequently mentioned by ancient authors. In 90B.C.it acquired Roman citizenship, but in 82B.C.having been held by the partisans of Marius, it was plundered by those of Sulla (who probably made the Rubicon the frontier of Italy instead of the Aesis), and a military colony settled there. Caesar occupied it in 49B.C.after his crossing of the Rubicon. It was one of the eighteen richest cities of Italy which the triumviri selected as a reward for their troops. In 27B.C.Augustus planted new colonists there, and divided the city into sevenviciafter the model of Rome, from which the names of theviciwere borrowed. He also restored the Via Flaminia (Mon. Ancyr.c. 20) from Rome to Ariminum. At the entrance to the latter the senate erected, in his honour, a triumphal arch which is still extant—a fine simple monument with a single opening. At the other end of thedecumanus maximusor main street (3000 Roman ft. in length) is a fine bridge over the Ariminus (mod. Marecchia) begun by Augustus and completed by Tiberius inA.D.20. It has five wide arches, the central one having a span of 35 ft., and is well preserved. Both it and the arch are built of Istrian stone. The present Piazza Giulio Cesare marks the site of the ancient forum. The remains of the amphitheatre are scanty; many of its stones have gone to build the city wall, which must, therefore, at the earliest belong to the end of the classical period. InA.D.1 Augustus’s grandson Gaius Caesar had all the streets of Ariminum paved. InA.D.69 the town was attacked by the partisans of Vespasian, and was frequently besieged in the Gothic wars. It was one of the five seaports which remained Byzantine until the time of Pippin. (SeeRimini.)

See A. Tonini,Storia della Città di Rimini(Rimini, 1848-1862).

(T. As.)

ARIOBARZANES,the name of three ancient kings or satraps of Pontus, and of three kings of Cappadocia and a Persian satrap.

Of the Pontic rulers two are most famous, (1) The son of Mithradates I., who revolted against Artaxerxes in 362B.C.and may be regarded as the founder of the kingdom of Pontus (q.v.). According to Demosthenes he and his three sons received from the Athenians the honour of citizenship. (2) The son of Mithradates III., who reigned c. 266-240B.C., and was one of those who enlisted the help of the invading Gauls (seeGalatia).

Of the Cappadocian rulers the best-known one (“Philo-Romaeus” on the coins) reigned nominally from 93 to 63B.C., but was three times expelled by Mithradates the Great and as often reinstated by Roman generals. Soon after the third occasion he formally abdicated in favour of his son Ariobarzanes “Philopator,” of whom we gather only that he was murdered some time before 51. His son Ariobarzanes, called “Eusebes” and “Philo-Romaeus,” earned the gratitude of Cicero during his proconsulate in Cilicia, and fought for Pompey in the civilwars, but was afterwards received with honour by Julius Caesar, who subsequently reinstated him when expelled by Pharnaces of Pontus. In 42B.C.Brutus and Cassius declared him a traitor, invaded his territory and put him to death.

The Persian satrap of this name unsuccessfully opposed Alexander the Great on his way to Persepolis (331B.C.).

ARION,of Methymna, in Lesbos, a semi-legendary poet and musician, friend of Periander, tyrant of Corinth. He flourished about 625B.C.Several of the ancients ascribe to him the invention of the dithyramb and of dithyrambic poetry; it is probable, however, that his real service was confined to the organization of that verse, and the conversion of it from a mere drunken song, used in the Dionysiac revels, to a measured antistrophic hymn, sung by a trained body of performers. The name Cycleus given to his father indicates the connexion of the son with the “cyclic” or circular chorus which was the origin of tragedy. According to Suidas he composed a number of songs and proems; none of these is extant; the fragment of a hymn to Poseidon attributed to him (Aelian,Hist. An.xii. 45) is spurious and was probably written in Attica in the time of Euripides. Nothing is known of the life of Arion, with the exception of the beautiful story first told by Herodotus (i. 23) and elaborated and embellished by subsequent writers. According to Herodotus, Arion being desirous of exhibiting his skill in foreign countries left Corinth, and travelled through Sicily and parts of Italy, where he gained great fame and amassed a large sum of money. At Taras (Tarentum) he embarked for his homeward voyage in a Corinthian vessel. The sight of his treasure roused the cupidity of the sailors, who resolved to possess themselves of it by putting him to death. In answer to his entreaties that they would spare his life, they insisted that he should either die by his own hand on shipboard or cast himself into the sea. Arion chose the latter, and as a last favour begged permission to sing a parting song. The sailors, desirous of hearing so famous a musician, consented, and the poet, standing on the deck of the ship, in full minstrel’s attire, sang a dirge accompanied by his lyre. He then threw himself overboard; but instead of perishing, he was miraculously borne up in safety by a dolphin, supposed to have been charmed by the music. Thus he was conveyed to Taenarum, whence he proceeded to Corinth, arriving before the ship from Tarentum. Immediately on his arrival Arion related his story to Periander, who was at first incredulous, but eventually learned the truth by a stratagem. Summoning the sailors, he demanded what had become of the poet. They affirmed that he had remained behind at Tarentum; upon which they were suddenly confronted by Arion himself, arrayed in the same garments in which he had leapt overboard. The sailors confessed their guilt and were punished. Arion’s lyre and the dolphin were translated to the stars. Herodotus and Pausanias (iii. 25. 7) both refer to a brass figure at Taenarum which was supposed to represent Arion seated on the dolphin’s back. But this story is only one of several in which the dolphin appears as saving the lives of favoured heroes. For instance, it is curious that Taras, the mythical founder of Tarentum, is said to have been conveyed in this manner from Taenarum to Tarentum. On Tarentine coins a man and dolphin appear, and hence it may be thought that the monument at Taenarum represented Taras and not Arion. At the same time the connexion of Apollo with the dolphin must not be forgotten. Under this form the god appeared when he founded the celebrated oracle at Delphi, the name of which commemorates the circumstance. He was also the god of music, the special preserver of poets, and to him the lyre was sacred.

Among the numerous modern versions of the story, particular mention may be made of the pretty ballad by A.W. Schlegel; see also Lehrs,Populare Aufsatze aus dem Alterthum(1844-1846); Clement,Arion(1898).

ARIOSTO, LODOVICO(1474-1533) Italian poet, was born at Reggio, in Lombardy, on the 8th of September 1474. His father was Niccolo Ariosto, commander of the citadel of Reggio. He showed a strong inclination to poetry from his earliest years, but was obliged by his father to study the law—a pursuit in which he lost five of the best years of his life. Allowed at last to follow his inclination, he applied himself to the study of the classics under Gregorio da Spoleto. But after a short time, during which he read the best Latin authors, he was deprived of his teacher by Gregorio’s removal to France as tutor of Francesco Sforza. Ariosto thus lost the opportunity of learning Greek, as he intended. His father dying soon after, he was compelled to forego his literary occupations to undertake the management of the family, whose affairs were embarrassed, and to provide for his nine brothers and sisters, one of whom was a cripple. He wrote, however, about this time some comedies in prose and a few lyrical pieces. Some of these attracted the notice of the cardinal Ippolito d’Este, who took the young poet under his patronage and appointed him one of the gentlemen of his household. This prince usurped the character of a patron of literature, whilst the only reward which the poet received for having dedicated to him theOrlando Furioso, was the question, “Where did you find so many stories, Master Ludovic?” The poet himself tells us that the cardinal was ungrateful; deplores the time which he spent under his yoke; and adds, that if he received some niggardly pension, it was not to reward him for his poetry, which the prelate despised, but to make some just compensation for the poet’s running like a messenger, with the risk of his life, at his eminence’s pleasure. Nor was even this miserable pittance regularly paid during the period that the poet enjoyed it. The cardinal went to Hungary in 1518, and wished Ariosto to accompany him. The poet excused himself, pleading ill health, his love of study, the care of his private affairs and the age of his mother, whom it would have been disgraceful to leave. His excuses were not received, and even an interview was denied him. Ariosto then boldly said, that if his eminence thought to have bought a slave by assigning him the scanty pension of 75 crowns a year, he was mistaken and might withdraw his boon—which it seems the cardinal did.

The cardinal’s brother, Alphonso, duke of Ferrara, now took the poet under his patronage. This was but an act of simple justice, Ariosto having already distinguished himself as a diplomatist, chiefly on the occasion of two visits to Rome as ambassador to Pope Julius II. The fatigue of one of these hurried journeys brought on a complaint from which he never recovered; and on his second mission he was nearly killed by order of the violent pope, who happened at the time to be much incensed against the duke of Ferrara. On account of the war, his salary of only 84 crowns a year was suspended, and it was withdrawn altogether after the peace; in consequence of which Ariosto asked the duke either to provide for him, or to allow him to seek employment elsewhere. A province, situated on the wildest heights of the Apennines, being then without a governor, Ariosto received the appointment, which he held for three years. The office was no sinecure. The province was distracted by factions and banditti, the governor had not the requisite means to enforce his authority and the duke did little to support his minister. Yet it is said that Ariosto’s government satisfied both the sovereign and the people confided to his care; and a story is added of his having, when walking out alone, fallen in with a party of banditti, whose chief, on discovering that his captive was the author ofOrlando Furioso, humbly apologized for not having immediately shown him the respect which was due to his rank. Although he had little reason to be satisfied with his office, he refused an embassy to Pope Clement VII. offered to him by the secretary of the duke, and spent the remainder of his life at Ferrara, writing comedies, superintending their performance as well as the construction of a theatre, and correcting hisOrlando Furioso, of which the complete edition was published only a year before his death. He died of consumption on the 6th of June 1533.

That Ariosto was honoured and respected by the first men of his age is a fact; that most of the princes of Italy showed him great partiality is equally true; but it is not less so that their patronage was limited to kind words. It is not known that he ever received any substantial mark of their love for literature; he lived and died poor. He proudly wrote on the entrance of a house built by himself,

“Parva, sed apta mihi, sed nulli obnoxia, sed nonSordida, parta meo sed tamen aere domus;”

“Parva, sed apta mihi, sed nulli obnoxia, sed non

Sordida, parta meo sed tamen aere domus;”

which serves to show the incorrectness of the assertion of flatterers, followed by Tiraboschi, that the duke of Ferrara built that house for him. The only one who seems to have given anything to Ariosto as a reward for his poetical talent was the marquess del Vasto, who assigned him an annuity of 100 crowns on the revenues of Casteleone in Lombardy; but it was only paid, if ever, from the end of 1531. That he was crowned as poet by Charles V. seems untrue, although a diploma may have been issued to that effect by the emperor.

The character of Ariosto seems to have been fully and justly delineated by Gabriele, his brother:—

“Ornabat pietas et grata modestia Vatem,Sancta fides, dictique memor, munitaque rectoJustitia, et nullo patientia victa labore,Et constans virtus animi, et clementia mitis,Ambitione procul pulsa, fastusque tumore.”

“Ornabat pietas et grata modestia Vatem,

Sancta fides, dictique memor, munitaque recto

Justitia, et nullo patientia victa labore,

Et constans virtus animi, et clementia mitis,

Ambitione procul pulsa, fastusque tumore.”

His satires, in which we see him before us such as he was, show that there was no flattery in this portrait. In these compositions we are struck with the noble independence of the poet. He loved liberty with a most jealous fondness. His disposition was changeable withal, as he himself very frankly confesses in his Latin verses, as well as in the satires.

“Hoc olim ingenio vitales hausimus auras,Multa cito ut placeant, displicitura brevi.Non in amore modo mens haec, sed in omnibus imparIpsa sibi longa non retinenda mora.”

“Hoc olim ingenio vitales hausimus auras,

Multa cito ut placeant, displicitura brevi.

Non in amore modo mens haec, sed in omnibus impar

Ipsa sibi longa non retinenda mora.”

Hence he never would bind himself, either by going into orders, or by marrying, till towards the end of his life, when he espoused Alessandra, widow of Tito Strozzi. He had no issue by his wife, but he left two natural sons by different mothers.

His Latin poems do not perhaps deserve to be noticed: in the age of Flaminio, Vida, Fracastoro and Sannazaro, better things were due from a poet like Ariosto. His lyrical compositions show the poet, although they do not seem worthy of his powers. His comedies, of which he wrote four, besides one which he left unfinished, are avowedly imitated from Plautus and Terence; and although native critics may admire in them the elegance of the diction, the liveliness of the dialogue and the novelty of some scenes, few will feel interest either in the subject or in the characters, and it is hard to approve the immoral passages by which they are disfigured, however grateful these might be to the audiences and patrons of theatrical representations in Ariosto’s own day.

Of all the works of Ariosto, the most solid monument of his fame is theOrlando Furioso, the extraordinary merits of which have cast into oblivion the numberless romance poems which inundated Italy during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.

The popularity which an earlier poem on the same theme,Orlando Innamorato, by Boiardo, enjoyed in Ariosto’s time, cannot be well conceived, now that the enthusiasm of the crusades, and the interest which was attached to a war against the Moslems, have passed away. Boiardo wrote and read his poem at the court of Ferrara, but died before he was able to finish it. Many poets undertook the difficult task of its completion; but it was reserved for Ariosto both to finish and to surpass, his original. Boiardo did not, perhaps, yield to Ariosto either in vigour or in richness of imagination, but he lived in a less refined age, and died before he was able to recast or even finish the poetical romance which he had written under the impulse of his exuberant fancy. Ariosto, on the other hand, united to a powerful imagination an elegant and cultivated taste. He began to write his great poem about 1503, and after having consulted the first men of the age of Leo X., he published it in 1516, in only 40 cantos (extended afterwards to 46); and up to the moment of his death never ceased to correct and improve both the subject and the style. It is in this latter quality that he excels, and for which he had assigned him the name ofDivino Lodovico. Even when he jests, he never compromises his dignity; and in pathetic description or narrative he excites the reader’s deepest feelings. In his machinery he displays a vivacity of fancy with which no other poet can vie; but he never lets his fancy carry him so far as to omit to employ, with an art peculiar to himself, those simple and natural pencil-strokes which, by imparting to the most extraordinary feats a colour of reality, satisfy the reason without disenchanting the imagination. The death of Zerbino, the complaints of Isabella, the effects of discord among the Saracens, the flight of Astolfo to the moon, the passion which causes Orlando’s madness, teem with beauties of every variety. The supposition that the poem is not connected throughout is wholly unfounded; there is a connexion which, with a little attention, will become evident. The love of Ruggero and Bradamante forms the main subject of theFurioso; every part of it, except some episodes, depend upon this subject; and the poem ends with their marriage.

The first complete edition of theOrlando Furiosowas published at Ferrara in 1532, as noted above. The edition of Morali (Milan, 1818) follows the text of the 1532 edition with great correctness. Of editions published in England, those of Baskerville (Birmingham, 1773) and Panizzi (London, 1834) are the most important. The indifferent translations into English of Sir John Harrington (1591) and John Hoole (1783) have been superseded by the spirited rendering of W. Stewart Rose (1823). See also E. Gardner,Ariosto: the Prince of Court Poets(1906).

ARISTAENETUS,Greek epistolographer, flourished in the 5th or 6th centuryA.D.He was formerly identified with Aristaenetus of Nicaea (the friend of Symmachus), who perished in an earthquake at Nicomedia,A.D.358, but internal evidence points to a much later date. Under his name two books of love stories, in the form of letters, are extant; the subjects are borrowed from the erotic elegies of such Alexandrian writers as Callimachus, and the language is a patchwork of phrases from Plato, Lucian, Alciphron and others. The stories are feeble and insipid, and full of strange and improbable incidents.

Text: Boissonade (1822); Hercher,Epistolographi Graeci(1873). English translations: Boyer (1701); Thomas Brown (1715); R.B. Sheridan and Halked (1771 and later).

ARISTAEUS,a divinity whose worship was widely spread throughout ancient Greece, but concerning whom the myths are somewhat obscure. The account most generally received connects him specially with Thessaly. Apollo carried off from Mount Pelion the nymph Cyrene, daughter or granddaughter of the river-god Peneus, and conveyed her to Libya, where she gave birth to Aristaeus. From this circumstance the town of Cyrene took its name. The child was at first handed over to the care of the Hours, or the nymph Melissa and the centaur Cheiron. He afterwards left Libya and went to Thebes, where he received instruction from the Muses in the arts of healing and prophecy, and married Autonoe, daughter of Cadmus, by whom he had several children, among others, the unfortunate Actaeon. He is said to have visited Ceos, where, by erecting a temple to Zeus Icmaeus (the giver of moisture), he freed the inhabitants from a terrible drought. The islanders worshipped him, and occasionally identified him with Zeus, calling him Zeus Aristaeus. After travelling through many of the Aegean islands, through Sicily, Sardinia and Magna Graecia, everywhere conferring benefits and receiving divine honours, Aristaeus reached Thrace, where he was initiated into the mysteries of Dionysus, and finally disappeared near Mount Haemus. While in Thrace he is said to have caused the death of Eurydice, who was bitten by a snake while fleeing from him. Aristaeus was essentially a benevolent deity; he was worshipped as the first who introduced the cultivation of bees (Virgil,Georg.iv. 315-558), and of the vine and olive; he was the protector of herdsmen and hunters; he warded off the evil effects of the dog-star; he possessed the arts of healing and prophecy. He was often identified with Zeus, Apollo and Dionysus. In ancient sculptures and coins he is represented as a young man, habited like a shepherd, and sometimes carrying a sheep on his shoulders. Coins of Ceos exhibit the head of Aristaeus and Sirius in the form of a dog crowned with rays.

Pindar,Pythia, ix. 5-65; Apollonius Rhodius, schol. on ii. 498, 500; Diodorus, iv. 81.

ARISTAGORAS(d. 497B.C.), brother-in-law and cousin of Histiaeus, tyrant of Miletus. While Histiaeus was practically a prisoner at the court of Darius, he acted as regent in Miletus.In 500B.C.he persuaded the Persians to join him in an attack upon Naxos, but he quarrelled with Megabates, the Persian commander, who warned the inhabitants of the island, and the expedition failed. Finding himself the object of Persian suspicion, Aristagoras, instigated by a message from Histiaeus, raised the standard of revolt in Miletus, though it seems likely that this step had been under consideration for some time (seeIonia). After the complete failure of the Ionian revolt he emigrated to Myrcinus in Thrace. Here he fell in battle (497), while attacking Ennea Hodoi (afterwards Amphipolis) on the Strymon, which belonged to the Edonians, a Thracian tribe. The aid given to him by Athens and Eretria, and the burning of Sardis, were the immediate cause of the invasion of Greece by Darius.

See Herodotus v. 30-51, 97-126; Thucydides iv. 102; Diodorus xii. 68; for a more favourable view see G.B. Grundy,Great Persian War(London, 1901).

ARISTANDER,of Telmessus in Lycia, was the favourite soothsayer of Alexander the Great, who consulted him on all occasions. After the death of the monarch, when his body had lain unburied for thirty days, Aristander procured its burial by foretelling that the country in which it was interred would be the most prosperous in the world. He is frequently mentioned by the historians who wrote about Alexander, and was probably the author of a work on prodigies, which is referred to by Pliny (Nat. Hist. xvii. 38) and Lucian.

Philopatris, 21; Arrian,Anabasis, ii. 26, iii. 2, iv. 4; Plutarch,Alexander; Curtius iv. 2, 6, 15, vii. 7.

ARISTARCHUS,of Samos, Greek astronomer, flourished about 250B.C.He is famous as having been the first to maintain that the earth moves round the sun. On this account he was accused of impiety by the Stoic Cleanthes, just as Galileo, in later years, was attacked by the theologians. His only extant work is a short treatise (with a commentary by Pappus)On the Magnitudes and Distances of the Sun and Moon. His method of estimating the relative lunar and solar distances is geometrically correct, though the instrumental means at his command rendered his data erroneous. Although the heliocentric system is not mentioned in the treatise, a quotation in theArenariusof Archimedes from a work of Aristarchus proves that he anticipated the great discovery of Copernicus. Further, Copernicus could not have known of Aristarchus’s doctrine, since Archimedes’s work was not published till after Copernicus’s death. Aristarchus is also said to have invented two sun-dials, one hemispherical, the so-calledscaphion, the other plane.

Editio princeps by Wallis (1688); Fortia d’Urban (1810); Nizze (1856). See Bergk-Hinrichs,Aristarchus van Samos(1883); Tannery,Aristarque de Samos; alsoAstronomy.

ARISTARCHUS,of Samothrace (c.220-143B.C.), Greek grammarian and critic, flourished about 155. He settled early in Alexandria, where he studied under Aristophanes of Byzantium, whom he succeeded as librarian of the museum. On the accession of the tyrant Ptolemy Physcon (his former pupil), he found his life in danger and withdrew to Cyprus, where he died from dropsy, hastened, it is said, by voluntary starvation, at the age of 72. Aristarchus founded a school of philologists, called after him “Aristarcheans,” which long flourished in Alexandria and afterwards at Rome. He is said to have written 800 commentaries alone, without reckoning special treatises. He edited Hesiod, Pindar, Aeschylus, Sophocles and other authors; but his chief fame rests on his critical and exegetical edition of Homer, practically the foundation of our present recension. In the time of Augustus, two Aristarcheans, Didymus and Aristonicus, undertook the revision of his work, and the extracts from these two writers in the Venetian scholia to theIliadgive an idea of Aristarchus’s Homeric labours. To obtain a thoroughly correct text, he marked with an obelus the lines he considered spurious; other signs were used by him to indicate notes, varieties of reading, repetitions and interpolations. He arranged theIliadand theOdysseyin twenty-four books as we now have them. As a commentator his principle was that the author should explain himself, without recourse to allegorical interpretation; in grammar, he laid chief stress on analogy and uniformity of usage and construction. His views were opposed by Crates of Mallus, who wrote a treatiseΆνωμαλίας, especially directed against them.

See Lehrs,De Aristarchi Stud. Homericis(3rd ed., 1882); Ludwich,Aristarchs homerische Textcritik(1884); especially Sandys,Hist. of Class. Schol.(ed. 1906), vol. i. with authorities; alsoHomer.

ARISTEAS,a somewhat mythical personage in ancient Greece, said to have lived in the time of Cyrus and Croesus, or, according to some, ca. 690B.C.We are chiefly indebted to Herodotus (iv. 13-15) for our knowledge of him and his poemArimaspeia. He belonged to a noble family of Proconnesus, an island colony from Miletus in the Propontis, and was supposed to be inspired by Apollo. He travelled through the countries north and east of the Euxine, and visited the Hyperboreans, Issedonians and Arimaspians, who fought against the gold-guarding griffins. An important historical fact which seems to be indicated in his poem is the rush of barbarian hordes towards Europe under pressure from their neighbours. Twelve lines of the poem are preserved in Tzetzes and Longinus. Wonderful stories are told of Aristeas. At Proconnesus, he fell dead in a shop; simultaneously a traveller declared he had spoken with him near Cyzicus; his body vanished; six years afterwards, he returned. Again disappearing, 240 years later he was at Metapontum, and commanded the inhabitants to raise a statue to himself and an altar to Apollo, whom he had accompanied in the form of a raven, at the founding of the city. According to Suidas, Aristeas also wrote a prose theogony. The genuineness of his works is disputed by Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

See Tournier,De Aristea Proconneso(1863); Macan,Hdt.iv. 14 note.

ARISTEAS,the pseudonymous author of a famousLetterin which is described, in legendary form, the origin of the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint (q.v.). Aristeas represents himself as a Gentile Greek, but was really an Alexandrian Jew who lived under one of the later Ptolemies. Though theLetteris unauthentic, it is now recognized as a useful source of information concerning both Egyptian and Palestinian affairs in the 2nd and possibly in the 3rd centuryB.C.

An English translation, based on a critical Greek text, was published by H. St J. Thackeray in theJewish Quarterly Review, vol. xv. There are two modern editions of the Greek, one by the last named (in Swete’sIntroduction to the Old Testament in Greek, Cambridge, 1900), the other by P. Wendland (Leipzig, 1900).

ARISTIDES[Άριστείδης] (c.530-468B.C.), Athenian statesman, called “the Just,” was the son of Lysimachus, and a member of a family of moderate fortune. Of his early life we are told merely that he became a follower of the statesman Cleisthenes and sided with the aristocratic party in Athenian politics. He first comes into notice as strategus in command of his native tribe Antiochis at Marathon, and it was no doubt in consequence of the distinction which he then achieved that he was elected chief archon for the ensuing year (489-488). In pursuance of his conservative policy which aimed at maintaining Athens as a land power, he was one of the chief opponents of the naval policy of Themistocles (q.v.). The conflict between the two leaders ended in the ostracism of Aristides, at a date variously given between 485 and 482. It is said that, on this occasion, a voter, who did not know him, came up to him, and giving him his sherd, desired him to write upon it the name of Aristides. The latter asked if Aristides had wronged him. “No,” was the reply, “and I do not even know him, but it irritates me to hear him everywhere calledthe just.”

Early in 480 Aristides profited by the decree recalling the post-Marathonian exiles to help in the defence of Athens against the Persian invaders, and was elected strategus for the year 480-479. In the campaign of Salamis he rendered loyal support to Themistocles, and crowned the victory by landing Athenian infantry on the island of Psyttaleia and annihilating the Persian garrison stationed there (seeSalamis). In 479 he was re-elected strategus, and invested with special powers as commander of the Athenian contingent at Plataea; he is also said to have judiciously suppressed a conspiracy among some oligarchic malcontents in the army, and to have played a prominent partin arranging for the celebration of the victory. In 478 or 477 Aristides was in command of the Athenian squadron off Byzantium, and so far won the confidence of the Ionian allies that, after revolting from the Spartan admiral Pausanias, they offered him the chief command and left him with absolute discretion in fixing the contributions of the newly formed confederacy (seeDelian League). His assessment was universally accepted as equitable, and continued as the basis of taxation for the greater part of the league’s duration; it was probably from this that he won the title of “the Just.” Aristides soon left the command of the fleet to his friend Cimon (q.v.), but continued to hold a predominant position in Athens. At first he seems to have remained on good terms with Themistocles, whom he is said to have helped in outwitting the Spartans over the rebuilding of the walls of Athens. But in spite of statements in which ancient authors have represented Aristides as a democratic reformer, it is certain that the period following the Persian wars during which he shaped Athenian policy was one of conservative reaction. (For the theory based on Plutarch,Aristid.22, that Aristides after Plataea threw open the archonship to all the citizens, seeArchon.)

He is said by some authorities to have died at Athens, by others on a journey to the Euxine sea. The date of his death is given by Nepos as 468; at any rate he lived to witness the ostracism of Themistocles, towards whom he always displayed a generous conduct, but had died before the rise of Pericles. His estate seems to have suffered severely from the Persian invasions, for apparently he did not leave enough money to defray the expenses of his burial, and it is known that his descendants even in the 4th century received state pensions. (SeeAthens;Themistocles.)

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