ARISTARCHUS (a-ris-tär´kus), an ancient Greek grammarian, born at Samothrace 220 B.C., died at Cyprus 143 B.C. He edited Homer's poems with the greatest acuteness and ability, endeavouring to restore the text to its genuine state, and to clear it of all interpolations and corruptions; hence the phrase, Aristarchian criticism. His edition of Homer furnished the basis of all subsequent ones.
ARISTARCHUS, an ancient Greek astronomer belonging to Samos, flourished about 155 B.C., and first asserted the revolution of the earth about the sun; also regarded as the inventor of the sun-dial.
ARIS´TEAS, a personage of ancient Greek legend, represented to have lived over many centuries, disappearing and reappearing by turns.
ARISTIDES (a-ris-t[=i]´d[=e]z), a statesman of ancient Greece, for his strict integrity surnamed the _Just_. He was one of the ten generals of the Athenians when they fought with the Persians at Marathon, 490 B.C. Next year he was eponymous archon, and in this office enjoyed such popularity that he excited the jealousy of Themistocles, who succeeded in procuring his banishment by ostracism (about 483). Three years after, when Xerxes invaded Greece with a large army, the Athenians hastened to recall him, and Themistocles now admitted him to his confidence and councils. In the battle of Platæa (479) he commanded the Athenians, and had a great share in gaining the victory. To defray the expenses of the Persian war he persuaded the Greeks to impose a tax, which should be paid into the hands of an officer appointed by the States collectively, and deposited at Delos. The confidence which was felt in his integrity appeared in their entrusting him with the office of apportioning the contribution. He died at an advanced age about 468 B.C., so poor that he was buried at the public expense.
ARISTIP´PUS (c. 425-366 B.C.), a disciple of Socrates, and founder of a philosophical school among the Greeks, which was called the _Cyrenaic_, from his native city Cyr[=e]n[=e], in Africa; flourished 380 B.C. His moral philosophy differed widely from that of Socrates, and was a science of refined voluptuousness. His fundamental principles were--that all human sensations may be reduced to two, pleasure and pain. Pleasure is a gentle, and pain a violent emotion. All living beings seek the former and avoid the latter. Happiness is nothing but a continued pleasure, composed of separate gratifications; and as it is the object of all human exertions, we should abstain from no kind of pleasure. Still we should always be governed by taste and reason in our enjoyments. His doctrines were taught only by his daughter Ar[)e]t[=e], and by his grandson Aristippus the younger, by whom they were systematized. Other Cyrenaics compounded them into a particular doctrine of pleasure, and are hence called _Hedonici_. His writings are lost.