Aelius Aristides

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Aelius Aristides (AD 117 - 181) was a popular Greek orator who lived during the Roman Empire. He is considered to be a prime example of the Second Sophistic, a group of showpiece orators who flourished from the reign of Nero until ca. 230 AD. His surname was Theodorus. He showed extraordinary talents even in his early youth, and devoted himself with remarkable zeal to the study of rhetoric, which appeared to him the worthiest occupation of a man, and along with it he cultivated poetry as an amusement. Besides the rhetorician Herodes Atticus, whom he heard at Athens, he also received instructions from Aristocles at Pergamum, from Polemon at Smyrna, and from the grammarian Alexander of Cotiaeon.

[edit] Life

The son of a wealthy landowner, Aristides studied under Alexander of Cotiaeon, the tutor of Marcus Aurelius. A career as an orator ended at the age of 26 when he was afflicted during a visit to Rome with the first of a long series of illnesses, possibly of psychosomatic origin. His health problem drove him to the sanctuary of Pergamon (present-day Bergama) where Asclepius, the god of healing, would often advise people certain remedies in their dreams.

After being sufficiently prepared for his profession, he traveled for some time throughout Asia and Africa, particularly Egypt, Greece, and Italy. The fame of his talents and acquirements, which preceded him everywhere, was so great that monuments were erected in his honor in several towns he visited. Shortly before his return, in Italy, he was attacked by an illness which lasted for 13 years.

He had from his childhood been of weak constitution, but neither this nor his protracted illness prevented his prosecuting his studies, for he was well at intervals; and in his Sacred Tales (Hieroi Logoi), a sort of diary of his illness and recovery, he relates that he was frequently encouraged by visions in his dreams to cultivate rhetoric to the exclusion of all other studies. During this period and afterwards, he resided at Smyrna, whither he had gone on ac­count of its baths, but he made occasional excur­sions into the country, to Pergamus, Phocaea, and other towns. He had great influence with Emperor Marcus Aurelius, whose acquaintance he had made in Ionia, and when in 178, Smyrna was to a great extent destroyed by an earthquake, Aristides represented the deplorable condition of the city and its inhabitants in such vivid colors to the emperor that he was moved to tears, and gene­rously assisted the Smyrnaeans in rebuilding their town.

The Smyrnaeans showed their gratitude to Aristides by erecting to him a brazen statue in their agora, and by calling him the founder of their town. Va­rious other honors and distinctions were offered to him at Smyrna, but he refused them, and accept­ed only the office of priest of Asclepius, which he held until his death, about 180 according to some, at the age of 60, and according to others of 70. The circumstance of his living for so many years at Smyrna, and enjoying such great honors there, is probably the reason that in an epigram still extant he is regard­ed as a native of Smyrna.

[edit] Works

The extant works of Aristides include 55 orations and declamations (including those which were discovered by Morelli and Mai), and two treatises on rhetorical subjects. Some of his orations are eulogies on the power of certain divinities, others are panegyrics on towns, such as Smyrna, Cyzicus, Rome; one among them is a Panathenaicus, and an imitation of that of Isocrates. Others again treat on subjects con­nected with rhetoric and eloquence. The six orations mentioned above, have attracted considerable attention in the mid-19th century, on account of the various stories they contain respecting the cures of the sick in temples, and on account of the apparent resem­blance between these cures and those said to be effected by Mesmerism. A list of the orations extant as well as of the lost works of Aristides, is given in Fabricius (Bibl. Gr. vi p. 15, &c.), and more completely by Westermann. (Gesch. der Griech. Beredtsamk, p. 321, &c.) Aristides as an orator is much superior to the majority of rhetoricians in his time, whose great and only ambition was to shine and make a momentary impression by ex­tempore speeches, and a brilliant and dazzling style. Aristides, with whom thought was of far greater importance than the form in which it ap­peared, expressed that difference between himself and the other rhetoricians, at his first interview with the emperor, M. Aurelius.

He despised the silly puns, the shallow witticisms and insignificant or­naments of his contemporaries, and sought nourish­ment for his mind in the study of the ancients. In his panegyric orations, however, he often endeavored to display as much brilliancy of style as he could. On the whole his style is brief and con­cise, but too frequently deficient in ease and clear­ness. His sentiments are often trivial and spun out to an intolerable length, which leaves the reader nothing to think upon for himself. His orations remind one of a man who is fond of hear­ing himself talk. Notwithstanding these defects, however, Aristides is still unsurpassed by any of his contemporaries. His admirers compared him to Demosthenes, and even Aristides did not think himself much inferior. This vanity and self-sufficiency made him enemies and opponents, among whom are mentioned Palladius, Sergius, and Porphyrius. But the number of his admirers was far greater, and several learned grammarians wrote commentaries on his orations. Besides Athanasius, Menander, and others, whose works are lost, we must mention especially Sopater of Apamea, who is pro­bably the author of the Greek Prolegomena to the orations of Aristides, and also of some among the Scholia on Aristides, which contain a great many things of importance for mythology, history, and antiquities. They also contain numerous fragments of works now lost. The greater part of these Scholia are probably compilations from the com­mentaries of Arethas, Metrophanes, and other grammarians.

According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary, the remainder of his surviving writings, although praised by his contemporaries, is of primary interest for the incidental light they cast on the social history of Asia Minor in the 2nd century AD. His Sacred Tales may also be of interest for researchers of ancient medicine or ancient religion. A complete English translation was published by C.A. Behr in 1968.

[edit] References