ARIA-ARIES.

ARIL-ARIOVISTUS.

including the first 30 degrees of the ecliptic measured from the vernal equinox, or that point where the vernal passage of the sun across the equator takes place. The vernal equinox, or, as it is also called, the first point of A., is constantly changing its position among the fixed stars, in consequence of the precession of the equinoxes, moving westward at the rate of 50"-2 annually. It is from this circumstance that the sign A. no longer corresponds with the constellation A., which was the case about 2000 years ago, when the ecliptic was divided into 12 equal parts called signs, each named after the group of stars through which it passed. The present sign A. is in the constellation Pisces, about 30° west of the original sign; and although the sun at the vernal equinox will always be at the first point of A., yet nearly 24,000 years will elapse before that point will again coincide with the beginning of the constellation A.

him with great kindness and liberality. In the early part of 1521, a second edition of his poems was published, the Orlando Furioso being still in forty cantos. Shortly after, he was commissioned by the duke to suppress an insurrection which had broken out in the wild mountain-district of Garfag nana; a task which seems more like a punishment than a mark of honour. A., however, succeeded in this arduous undertaking; and after remaining three years governor of the quarter, he returned to Ferrara, where he lived comfortably, nominally in the service of his patron, but in reality enjoying what he highly prized—an abundant leisure for prosecuting his studies. It was at this time that he composed his comedies, and gave the finishing touch to his Orlando. At length, in the latter part of 1532, that poem made its appearance in a third edition, enlarged to its present dimensions of fortysix cantos. He now became seriously ill of a painful A'RIL (arillus), a peculiar covering of the seed internal distemper, of which, after a few months of in some plants, formed by an expansion of the suffering, he died on the 6th of June 1533, in his funiculus (the cord which attaches the ovule to the fifty-ninth year, and was buried in the church of placenta), or of the placenta itself. This expansion San Benedetto, at Ferrara, where a magnificent takes place after fertilisation, and sometimes invests monument indicates the resting-place of his remains. the seed entirely, sometimes only partially. In the A. is described as a man of noble personal appearnutmeg, the A. forms what is called mace. In the ance and amiable character. His Orlando Furioso spindle-tree (Euonymus Europaeus), it forms the is a romantic, imaginative epic, marked by great remarkable orange-coloured covering of the seed. vivacity, playfulness of fancy, and ingenuity in the linking together of the several episodes. It takes ARI'NOS, a river of Brazil, which after a north-its name and its theme from a chivalrous romantic west course of 700 miles, enters the Tapajos, itself an affluent of the Amazon, in lat. 9° 30′ S., and long.

58° 20' W.

ARI'ON, a celebrated lute-player, a native of Methymna, in Lesbos, about 700 B. C., was regarded by the ancients as the inventor of the dithyrambic metre. According to a tradition first given by Herodotus, and afterwards decorated by the poets, A. was sent by Periander, ruler of Corinth, to Sicily and Italy, and at Tarentum won the prize in a poetical contest. As he returned laden with gifts in a Corinthian ship, the avaricious mariners determined to slay him and seize his wealth; of this the poetmusician was forewarned by Apollo in a dream. He asked for permission to try his skill in music; and after playing on his lute, threw himself from the deck into the sea. Here several dolphins, charmed by his music, had assembled round the vessel. On the back of one of them the musician rode safely to the promontory of Tænarus, where he landed, and journeyed on to Corinth. The sailors who, arriving afterwards, assured Periander that A. was dead, were confronted with him, when they confessed their guilt, and were crucified. The lute and dolphin were raised among the constellations; and the story became a favourite theme with artists. A. W. Schlegel, in one of his best poems, gives this story of A.

ARIO'STO, LUDOVICO, one of the greatest of Italian poets, was born at Reggio, September 8, 1474, being the eldest son of the military governor of that city. He was bred to the law, but abandoned it for poetry. However, at an early period of life, he was compelled to exert himself for the support of a large family, left as a burden on him at the death of his father. His imaginative powers were developed in early life. In 1503, after he had written two comedies, with several lyrical poems in Latin and Italian, he was introduced to the court of the Cardinal Hippolytus d'Este, who employed him in many negotiations. Here, in Ferrara, in the space of about ten years, he produced his great poem Orlando Furioso, which was published in that city, in one volume 4to, in 1516, in forty cantos. After the death of the cardinal, the duke, his brother, invited the poet to his service, and acted to

poem by Boiardo, the Orlando Innamorato.

That

poem treats of the wars between Charlemagne and the Saracens, confounded as they were by tradition with those of Charles Martel, wherein Orlando, or Roland, stood forward as the champion of Christendom. Orlando is the hero of Boiardo's piece, and falls in love with Angelica, a clever and beautiful oriental princess, sent by the Paynim to sow discord among the knights of the Christian armies. The story of this lady being left unfinished in the Orlando Innamorato is taken up by A., who makes her fall in love herself with an obscure juvenile squire, on which Orlando gets furious, and long continues in a state of insanity. Besides his great work, A. wrote comedies, satires, sonnets, and a number of Latin poems, all more or less marked with the impress of his genius. In 1845, Giamperi, a librarian of Florence, announced that he had discovered at Argenta, near Ferrara, an autograph manuscript by A., containing a second epic, Rinaldo Ardito, describing, like the Orlando, the battles of Charlemagne and his paladins against the Saracens. The manuscript had been mutilated, and contained in a complete form only the cantos 3, 4, 5, while 2 and 6 were imperfect; and it was stated that the entire poem had consisted of twelve cantos. The work was published under the title Rinaldo Ardito di L. Ariosto, Frammenti Inediti Pubblicati sul Manuscritto Originale (Florence, 1846). In genius and style, it has been found by critics by no means to accord with the Orlando. Of the Orlando there are three several translations into the English language: the first, by Sir John Harrington, appeared in the year 1634; the second, by John Hoole, in 1783; and the third by W. Stewart Rose, in 1823 and following years. In the last only is there to be found a fair representation of the feeling and spirit of the original.

ARIOVI'STUS (probably the Latinised form of the German Heer-fürst, army-prince), a German chief, leader of the Marcomanni and other German tribes, was requested by the Sequani, a Gallic people, to assist them in a contest against the Edui. Having gained a victory for the Sequani, A. was so well pleased with their fine country (now Burgundy), that

ARISPE-ARISTIDES.

he and his followers determined to abide there. Many other Germans followed him into Gaul, where he soon collected an army of 120,000 men. The Gallic people turned now for help towards the Romans, and Cæsar demanded an interview with A., who proudly replied, that he did not see what Cæsar had to do with Gaul.' After another message from Cæsar had been treated in the same scornful manner, the Roman forces under Cæsar advanced and occupied Vesontium (now Besançon), the chief city of the Sequani. A furious engagement took place (58 B. C.), in which Roman discipline prevailed over the German forces, which were utterly routed. A., with only a few followers, escaped over the Rhine into his own country. His subsequent history is

unknown.

distances of the sun and the moon. In this he
shews the method of estimating the relative dis-
tances of the sun and the moon from the earth, by the
angle formed by the two bodies at the observer's eye
at that moment when the moon is exactly half-
luminous. It will be obvious from a glance at the
annexed figure that the three bodies must then form
a right-angled triangle, of which the
moon is at the right angle. The angle
MES, then, being observed, it is easy
to find the ratio between EM and ES.
This is quite correct in theory; but the
impossibility of determining when the
moon is exactly half-illuminated, ren-
ders the method useless in practice.
Besides, in the days of A., there were

ARI'SPÉ, a town in Sonora, the extreme north-no instruments for measuring angles
west department of the Mexican Confederation. It
is situated in the Sierra Madre, the western range of
the Rocky Mountains, on the banks of the Sonora,
which is said to lose itself in an inland lake. Its
population has been estimated as high as 7600. The
surrounding district abounds in the precious metals,
as also in cotton, wine, grain, and live-stock.

ARI'STA AND ARI'STATE. See AWN.

M

E

with anything like accuracy. A. esti-
mated the angle at E at 83', and
determined EM to be of ES; the
truth being that the angle at E differs
only by a fraction of a minute from a
right angle, and that EM, the distance of the moon
from the earth, is about of ES, the distance of
the sun. According to some accounts, A. held, with
the Pythagorean school, that the earth moves round
the sun;
speaks of A. as the inventor of a kind of concave
sun-dial.

but this seems to be a mistake. Vitruvius

general term for a severely just and judicious critic. Being afflicted with an incurable dropsy, he ended his life by voluntary starvation at the age of 72. The fragments of his writings that have been preserved are to be found scattered through the Scholia on Homer, first published by Villoison (Venice, 1788).

ARISTAE'US (from a Greek word signifying the best), an ancient divinity whose worship in the earliest times was widely diffused throughout Greece, but whose myth is remarkably obscure. According to the common tradition, he was the son of ARISTA'RCHUS, OF SAMOTHRACE, a gramApollo and Cyrene, the latter the grand-daughter of marian, who lived, about 150 B. C., in Alexandria, Peneius, a river-god of Thessaly. She is said to have where he founded a school of grammar and criticism, given birth to A. on the coasts of Libya, in Africa, and educated the children of Ptolemy Philopator. whence the region is alleged to have derived its His life was chiefly devoted to the elucidation and name of Cyrenaica. Hermes placed the child under restoration of the text of the Greek poets, espethe protection of the Hora, the fosterers of cities, cially of Homer. The form in which we now have culture, and education. According to another tra- the Homeric poems preserved is in a great measure dition, A. was the son of the nymph Melissa, who owing to his judgment and industry. The strictfed the infant with nectar and ambrosia, and after-ness of his critical principles has made his name a wards intrusted his education to Chiron. The great diversities in the legend were probably caused by the fusion into one of separate local divinities, whose functions were similar, and whose histories were, in consequence, carelessly commingled. After A. left Libya, he went to Thebes, in Boeotia, where he was taught by the Muses the arts of healing and prophecy, and where he married Autonoë, the daughter of Cadmus, by whom he had several children. After the unfortunate death of his son Actæon (q. v.), he went to Ceos, where he liberated the inhabitants from the miseries of a destructive drought by erecting an altar to Zeus Icmaus-i. e., the rain-maker. He now returned to his native land; but shortly after, set out a second time on a voyage of beneficence. He visited the islands of the Egean Sea, Sicily, Sardinia, and Magna Græcia, leaving everywhere traces of his divine benignity. At last he went to Thrace, where he was initiated in the mysteries of Dionysus; and after a brief residence in the vicinity of Mount Hamus, he disappeared from the earth.

This myth is one of an extremely pleasing character, from the invariable beneficence which is attributed to A. It is less disfigured by anthropopathic errors than most of the myths of Greek divinities. A. was especially worshipped as the protector of vine and olive plantations, and of hunters and herdsmen. He also trained men to keep bee-hives, and averted the burning heats of the sun from the open fields. Later mythology often identified A. with the higher gods Zeus, Apollo, Dionysus.

ARISTA'RCHUS, OF SAMOS, a celebrated ancient astronomer, of the Alexandrian school, who flourished 281-264 B. C. All his writings have perished, excepting a short essay on the sizes and

ARI'STEAS, an entirely fabulous character, who may be styled the Wandering Jew' of popular tradition in ancient Greece. First we find A. teaching Homer; then, some ages afterwards, born at Proconnesus, an island in the Sea of Marmora. It is stated that having visited the Arimaspæ, the gold-watching griffin, and the Hyperboreans, he died on his return home; but, soon afterwards, a traveller asserted that he had been met and accosted by A. Consequently, neighbours searched the house where the body of A. was supposed to be lying, but it could not be found. Seven years afterwards, he appeared as an author, and wrote a poem entitled Arimaspeia, in three books, giving accounts of Northern and Central Asia, which were copied by Herodotus and others. After thus establishing himself as a poet, he vanished again; and after 340 years of mystery, reappeared at Metapontum, in the south of Italy, where he advised the people to erect an altar to Apollo, and an altar to the everlasting A.,' assuring them that, when Apollo founded their city, he (A.), in the form of a raven, had accompanied the god, and had assisted in the ceremony. In the early controversy of the Christian Church, heathens sometimes quoted this tale of A. as a counterpart to the miracles recorded in the New Testament.

ARISTIDES, surnamed 'THE JUST,' was the son of Lysimachus, and descended from one of the best

ARISTIPPUS-ARISTOCRACY.

families in Athens. He was one of the ten leaders of the Athenians against the Persians at the battle of Marathon (490 B. C.). It had been arranged that each leader (or strategos) should hold the supreme command for one day; but A., who saw the folly of this want of unity, induced his companions to give up their claims, and make Miltiades commander-in-chief, which proved the means of winning the battle. In the following year, A. was chief archon, and in this position, as in every other, secured the general respect of the citizens. Some years later, probably because he had opposed the plans of Themistocles, that unscrupulous leader brought about the banishment of A. It is said that when an illiterate citizen, who did not know him personally, requested him to write his own name on the voting shell, he asked the man whether A. had injured him. 'No,' said the voter; but I am weary of hearing him always styled "the Just."" A. submitted to the sentence with dignity, praying to the gods, as he left the city, that the Athenians might not have cause to repent of their decision. Only three years later, Xerxes, with an overwhelming force, had invaded Greece. A., hearing that the Greek fleet was surrounded by that of the Persians, hastened from Egina to apprise Themistocles of the danger, and offer his aid. After taking a prominent part in the battle of Salamis, A. was restored to popular favour, and soon afterwards aided greatly in achieving the victory at Platea, in which he commanded the Athenians. In 477 B. C. he introduced a change of the constitution, by which all citizens, without distinction of rank, were admitted to political offices. As shewing the confidence reposed in A., it is related that Themistocles having announced that he had a scheme very advantageous for Athens, but which he could not disclose in a public assembly, A. was deputed to consult with Themistocles on the subject. The plan was to secure the naval supremacy of Athens by burning all the vessels of the other Greek states, her allies, then lying in a neighbouring harbour. A. reported to the people that nothing could be more advantageous than the plan of Themistocles, but nothing could be more unjust; and the matter was immediately rejected by the people. After a variety of other public services, A. died in old age, and universally respected, 468 B. C., so poor that it is said his funeral had to be provided for by the public. He left a son and two daughters, for whom provision was made by state bounty.

Lais, but towards the close of his life, he is supposed to have retired to Cyrene. His daughter Arete seems to have been a person of superior abilities, inasmuch as her father imparted his leading doctrines to her, and she to her son, A. the Younger (hence called Metrodidaktos, taught by the mother'), by whom they are supposed to have been systematised. A., in all probability, published nothing during his life. He prided himself more upon spending his days in what he conceived to be a philosophical manner, than in elaborating a philosophical system for the benefit of the race.

The Cyrenaic school, all the teachers of which were probably imbued with the spirit of A., and merely carried out his doctrines to their legitimate results, professed a great contempt for speculative philosophy, and for physical and mathematical knowledge. They confined their investigations to morals, and formed an ethical system completely in harmony with the gay, self-possessed, worldly, and sceptical character of their master. The chief points of the Cyrenaic system were: 1. That all human sensations are either pleasurable or painful, and that pleasure and pain are the only criterions of good and bad. 2. That pleasure consists in a gentle, and pain in a violent motion of the soul. 3. That happiness is simply the result of a continuous series of pleasurable sensations. 4. That actions are in themselves morally indifferent, and that men are concerned only with their results. Wieland in his historico-philosophical romance, Aristipp und einige seiner Zeitgenossen (A. and Some of his Contemporaries), presents us with a charming picture of the life and opinions of the great philosophic sensualist, who stood out in strong relief against the gloom and austerity of Antisthenes and the Cynical school. See Wendt's De Philosophia Cyrenaica (Gött. 1842).

ARISTOBU'LUS, an Alexandrian Jew who

It was

lived under Ptolemæus Philometer about 175 B. C.,
and was considered by the early Fathers as the
founder of the Jewish philosophy in Alexandria.
He was long considered the author of the Exegetical
Commentaries on the Books of Moses which went
under his name, but it is now admitted that the
work in question was the composition of a later
period. Only fragments of it remain.
intended to shew that the oldest Greek writers
borrowed from the Hebrew Scriptures; and to sup-
fessedly taken from Linus, Musæus, Orpheus, &c., of
port this theory, numerous quotations were pro-
which the Christian apologists made abundant use.
These, however, have long been considered for-
geries, inasmuch as they do not exhibit a trace of
the antique Greek spirit, but make the writers speak
in the tone and style of the Old Testament. See
Valckenær's treatise, De Aristobulo Judæo (Leyden,
1806).

ARISTIPPUS, the founder of the Cyrenaic school of philosophy among the Greeks, was the son of Aritades, a wealthy gentleman of Cyrene, in Africa, and was born in that city about the year 424 B. C. Having come over to Greece to attend the Olympic games, he heard so much of Socrates, that he was filled with an eager desire to see the sage, and hurried to Athens, where he became one of his pupils. He remained with Socrates up nearly to the last moments of the great teacher, though he does not at ARISTOCRACY (Gr. aristocratia, from aristos, any period seem to have followed his doctrines or best, and kratos, power) means etymologically the his practice. We know that subsequently he was power or government of the best, noblest, or most the object of strong dislike, both to Plato and to worthy; and in the sense which it originally bore, A. Antisthenes the Stoic. He passed a considerable had reference not to a social class, but to a form of part of his life in Syracuse, at the court of Dionysius, government in which the sovereignty was placed in the tyrant, where he acquired the reputation of a the hands of a minority of the citizens of the state, philosophic voluptuary. That his manners must exclusive altogether of the slave population, which have been at once extremely graceful and accom- generally existed in antiquity. It is in this sense modating, is clear from the saying of his opponent, also that we use it when we speak of the Italian Plato, who declared that 'A. was the only man he states of the middle ages as aristocracies. In order knew who could wear with equal grace both fine to constitute an A., it was further necessary that the clothes and rags.' Diogenes Laertius records a minority which composed it should consist of the number of his dicta, some of which take the form highest class, in point not of wealth alone, but of of bons-mots, and indicate a sharp, cutting, lively, birth and culture; the government of a minority in and self-complacent nature. A. also lived at numbers simply, being known by the more odious Corinth, in intimacy with the famous courtesan | name of an oligarchy. Were the whole government

ARISTOGEITON—ARISTOLOCHIA.