A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

ARISTOMENES. ARISTON. 309
told, when Messenia had once more regained her his administration no less than previously by his
place among the nations (B. c. 370), how at Leuc- faithfulness to Agathocles. Scopas and Dicaeartra the apparition of Aristomenes had been seen, chus, two powerful men, who ventured to oppose
aiding the Theban host and scattering the bands of his government, were put to death by his comSparta. (Paus. iv. 32.) [E. E.] mand. Towards the young king, Aristomenes
ARISTO'MENES ('Apie-roA6vrs). 1. A was a frank, open, and sincere councillor; but as
comic poet of Athens. He belonged to the ancient the king grew up to manhood, he became less and
Attic comedy, or more correctly to the second class less able to bear the sincerity of Aristomenes,
of the poets constituting the old Attic comedy, who was at last condemned, to death, in B. c. 192.
For the ancients seem to distinguish the comic poets (Polyb. xv. 31, xviii. 36, &c.; Diod. Excerpt.
who flourished before the Peloponnesian war from lib. xxix., de Virt. et Vit. p. 573; Plut. de Discern.
those who lived during that war, and Aristomenes Adulat. 32.) [L. S.]
belonged to the latter. (Suidas, s. v. 'Ap,.uro- ARISTO'MENES, a painter, born at Thasos,
psvjs; Eudocia, p. 65; Argum. ad Aristoph. is mentioned by Vitruvius (iii. Prooem. ~ 2), but
Equit.) He was sometimes ridiculed by the sur- did not attain to any distinction. [C. P. M.]
name Svpo7roids, whichmay have been derived from ARISTON ('Apo-rTwv), king of Sparta, 14th of
the circumstance that either he himself or his father, the Eurypontids, son of Agesicles, contemporary of
at one time, was an artizan, perhaps a carpenter. Anaxandrides, ascended the Spartan throne before
As early as the year n. c. 425, he brought out a B. c. 560, and died somewhat before (Paus. iii. 7), or
piece called hAo<opot, on the same occasion that at any rate not long after, 510. He thus reigned
the Equites of Aristophanes and the Satyri of about 50 years, and was of high reputation, of
Cratinus were performed; and if it is true that which the public prayer for a son for him, when
another piece entitled Admetus was performed at the house of Procles had other representatives, is a
the same time with the Plutus of Aristophanes, in testimony. Demaratus, hence named, was borne
B. c. 389, the dramatic career of Aristomenes was him, after two barren marriages, by a third wife,
very long. (Argum. ad Aristoph. Plut.) But we whom he obtained, it is said, by a fraud from her
know of only a few comedies of Aristomenes; husband, his friend, Agetus. (Herod. i. 65, vi. 61 -Meineke conjectures that the Admetus was brought 66; Paus. iii. 7. ~ 7; Plut. Appophth. Lac.) [A. H. C.]
out together with the first edition of Aristophanes' ARISTON ('Apio-'r), son of Pyrrhichus, a CoPlutus, an hypothesis based upon very weak rinthian, one of those apparently who made their
grounds. Of the two plays mentioned no frag- way into Syracuse in the second year of the Siciments are extant; besides these we know the lian expedition, 414 B. c., is named once by Thutitles and possess a few fragments of three others, cydides, in his account of the sea-fight preceding
"viz. 1. Boo0ei, which is sometimes attributed to the arrival of the second armament (413 B. c.), and
Aristophanes, the names of Aristomenes and Aristo- styled the most skilful steersman on the side of the
phanes being often confounded in the MSS. 2. Syracusans. He suggested to them the stratagem
F-Tres, and 3. Aidvvaos doricqT-sc. There are also of retiring early, giving the men their meal on the
three fragments of which it is uncertain whether shore, and then renewing the combat unexpectedly,
they belong to any of the plays here mentioned, which in that battle gave them their first naval
or to others, the titles of which are unknown. victory. (vii. 39; comp. Polyaen. v. 13.) Plu(Athen. i. p. 11; Pollux, vii. 167; Harpocrat. s. tarch (Nicias, 20, 25) and Diodorus (xiii. 10) asv. ferotikLOY. Comp. Meineke, Quaest. Seen. Spec. cribe to him further the invention or introduction at
ii. p. 48, &c., Hist. Crit. Corn. Gr. p. 210, &c.) Syracuse of the important alterations in the build
2. An actor of the old Attic comedy, who lived of their galleys' bows, mentioned by Thucydides
in the reign and was a freed-man of the emperor (vii. 34), and said by him to have been previously
Hadrian, who used to call him'ATTI'rcoWrEig. He used by the Corinthians in the action off Erineus.
was a native of Athens, and is also mentioned as Plutarch adds, that lie fell when the victory was just
the author of a work rpos as lepoup-yias, the won, in the last and decisive sea-fight. [A. H. C.]
third book of which is quoted by Athenaeus. (iii. ARISTON ('Apiorwv), historical. 1. Was
p. 115.) le is perhaps the same as the one men- sent out by one of the Ptolemies of Egypt to extioned by the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius. plore the western coast of Arabia, which derived
(i. 164.) its name of Poseideion from an altar which Ariston
3. A Greek writer on agriculture, who is men- had erected there to Poseidon. (Diod. iii. 41.)
tioned by Varro (de Re Rust. i. 1; Columella, i. 2. A strategus of the Aetolians in B.. c221, who,
1) among those whose native place was unknown. labouring under some bodily defect, left the com4. An Acarnanian, a friend and flatterer of-the mand of the troops to Scopas and Dorimachus,
contemptible Agathocles, who for a time had the while he himself remained at home. Notwithgovernment of Egypt in the name of the young standing the declarations of the Achaeans to regard
king Ptolemy V. (Euergetes.) During the admi- every one as an enemy who should trespass upon
nistration of Agathocles Aristomenes was all-pow- the territories of Messenia or Achaia, the Aetolian
srful, and when the insurrection against Agathocles commanders invaded Peloponnesus, and Ariston
3roke out in B. c. 205, Aristomenes was the only was stupid enough, in the face of this fact, to
me among his friends who ventured to go and try assert that the Aetolians and Achaeans were at;o pacify the rebellious Macedonians. But this peace with each other. (Polyb. iv. 5, 9, 17.)
ittempt was useless, and Aristomenes himself nar- 3. The leader of an insurrection at Cyrene in:owly escaped being murdered by the insurgents. B. c. 403, who obtained possession of the town and
kfter Agathocles was put to death, Tlepolemus, put to death or expelled all the nobles. The latter
vho had headed the insurrection, was appointed however afterwards became reconciled to the
'egent. But about B. c. 202, Aristomenes popular party, and the powers of the government;ontrived to get the regency and distinguish- were divided between the two parties, XDiod. xiv,
fd himself now by the energy and wisdom of 34; comp. Paus. iv. 26. ~ 2.)