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ARIANS-ARIOSTI.

sects, ended the contest, and suffered no religious disputes to arise. Arianism again ascended the throne in the East with Valens, 364, and, growing bold, proceeded to acts of violence against the Catholics. But Gratian maintained peace, Theodosius restored the dominion of the ancient faith, and the divisions among the Arians themselves hastened the downfall of their influence and respectability in the Roman empire. After the first half of the 5th century, Arianism was extinct in that portion of the Roman empire which remained under the rule of the emperors. Among the Goths, who had become acquainted with Christianity, about 340, by means of the Arians, it prevailed in the western part of the empire, till the victories of the orthodox Frank Clovis, and the reformation of the church by the Visigothic king Reccared, suppressed it here, also, at the end of the 5th century. About this time, it was destroyed among the Suevi in Spain, among whom it had prevailed for a century. The Burgundians, who received it 450, had already renounced it, at the beginning of the 6th century. It was more difficult to convert the Vandals to the Catholic faith. Ever since 430, they had been strict Arians, and propagated the doctrines of their sect in Northern Africa, even by the severest persecutions. The victories of Belisarius, 534, first put an (end to their kingdom, as well as to their separation from the orthodox church. Arianism was maintained longest among the Lombards, who brought it to Italy, and adhered to it firmly till 662. Since that time, the Arians have no where constituted a distinct sect; and, though the Albigenses, in France, in the 12th and 13th centuries, were accused of similar doctrines, and the sects, which, from the 16th century till the present time, have been comprehended under the name of Antitrinitarians, have, in reality, maintained the opinion that Christ is inferior to the Father, yet neither of them can be regarded as Arians.

ARICA; a seaport of Peru, and capital of a province; 210 miles N. W. La Plata; lon. 70° 11′ W.; lat. 18° 27' S. In this port the silver from the mines of Potosi is shipped for Europe. It is much frequented by vessels, and has a considerable trade with Lima. Near it is a mountain of rock-salt, great quantities of which are dug, and sent to all parts of the coast.

ARIES (Latin, a ram); one of the 12 signs of the zodiac; the vernal sign. In the ancient military art, aries signified, 31

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also, a battering-ram, an engine with an iron head, to batter and beat down the walls of places besieged. (See BatteringRam.)

ARIETTA. (See Air.)

ARIMANES, OF AHRIMAN; the principle of evil in the Persian theology, which perpetually counteracts the designs of Ormuzd, or Oromazdes, who denotes the principle of good. (See Demon and Zoroaster.)

ARIMASPIANS; a fabulous people, placed sometimes in Scythia, sometimes on the Rhipæan mountains, and used synonymously with the Cyclops.

ARION; the inventor of dithyrambics, born at Methymna, in Lesbos, and flourished about B. C. 625. He lived at the court of Periander, in Corinth, and afterwards visited Sicily and Italy. At Tarentum, he won the prize in a musical contest. Having embarked in a Corinthian vessel, with rich treasures, to return to his friend Periander, the avaricious sailors resolved to murder him. Apollo, however, having informed him in a dream of the impending danger, Arion, in a magnificent dress, with his lyre in his hand, went upon deck, and endeavored to soften the hearts of the crew by the power of his music. The dolphins, attracted by the sound, assembled around the vessel, and listened to his sweet songs, though the avaricious seamen still continued unmoved. A. then resolved to escape the hands of the murderers by a voluntary death, and threw himself into the sea. A dolphin received him on his back, and, while he soothed the stormy billows by the power of his strains, bore him safe to mount Tenarus, whence he sailed for Corinth. The sailors, having returned to Corinth, and being questioned by Periander concerning A., replied that he was dead. Upon this, he appeared before them, and convicted them of their crime, when Periander caused them to be crucified. The lyre of A., and the dolphin which rescued him, became constellations in the heavens. Of the poems of Arion, we have only a hymn to Neptune, which may be found in Brunck's Analecta.

ÁRIOSO, in music. (See Air.)

ARIOSTI, Attilio; a composer of eminence, born at Bologna. He is said to have given lessons to Handel in his childhood, in conjunction with whom, and with the celebrated Bononcini, he afterwards produced the opera of Muzio Scevola; Ariosti setting the first act, Bononcini the second, and Handel the third. He likewise composed several other ope

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ras in England about the year 1721, at which time the royal academy of music was established; and is said to have introduced into that country, for the first time, the instrument called the viol d'amour, on which he performed a new symphony at the sixth representation of Handel's Amadis, on the 12th July, 1716, soon after his arrival. He then went abroad, but again returned in 1720, and composed several operas. He once more left England, after publishing a book of cantatas by subscription; and the place and date of his death are unknown.

ARIOSTO, Ludovico, born at Reggio, Sept. 8, 1474, was descended from a noble family. His father was a member of the first judicial court of Ferrara. He was the eldest of ten children. Even in his childhood, he prepared tragedies, which he acted with his brothers; among others, one founded on the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. In the school of Ferrara, he distinguished himself in his studies. His father designed him for the profession of the law; but, after five years of fruitless application to it, the young man renounced the study, that he might devote himself to literature. He enjoyed the instructions of the learned Gregory of Spoleto. Plautus and Terence, whom he studied with this teacher, furnished thoughts for two comedies, the Cassandra and the Supposti, which he there planned. His lyric poems, in the Italian and Latin languages, distinguished for ease and elegance of style, introduced him to the notice of the cardinal Ippolito d' Este, son of duke Ercole I. In 1503, Ippolito fixed him at his court, used his counsel in the most important affairs, and took him with him on a journey to Hungary. After the death of Ercole, Alfonso, his son and successor, put the same confidence in A. At this court he began and finished, amid distractions of every kind, in 10 or 11 years, his immortal poem, the Orlando Furioso, In 1516, the printing of it was finished. When Ariosto gave a copy to the cardinal, he asked him," Master Louis, where did you pick up all this trumpery?" In 1517 or 1518, A. was invited to accompany the cardinal Ippolito d' Este on a second journey to Hungary. The unhealthy climate and the infirm health of the poet appeared to him no sufficient apology; and, on declining to attend him, therefore, A. lost forever the cardinal's favor, which gradually passed from coldness and indifference to settled hatred. A. was now received by the noble duke Alfonso, a lover of the arts, who put much confi

dence in him, but bestowed on him only trifling rewards, and (what seemed more like a punishment than a mark of favor), in 1521 and 1522, commissioned him to quell the disturbances that had broken out in the wild and mountainous Garfagnana. He successfully accomplished this difficult enterprise, and, after three years, returned to Ferrara, where he employed himself in the composition of his comedies, and in putting the last touches to his Orlando. He died June 6, 1533, at the age of 58. A. had a good figure, a gentle character, polished manners and an amiable disposition. He had been rich, and he loved splendor. He was obliged to content himself, however, with a small, but convenient and pleasant house, over which he caused the following verses to be inscribed:

Parva sed apta mihi, sed nulli obnoxia, sed non Sordida, parta meo sed tamen aere domus.

His Orlando Furioso, which is a continuation of Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, and cannot be perfectly understood without it, is a perfect epic romance, full of the fairest flowers of poetry, and of freshness and spirit, in which A. far excels even Tasso. The Orlando displays a splendid and inexhaustible richness of invention, an ever-changing variety of incidents connected with the talent of lively narration. The activity of a youthful fancy animates the whole work. A. exhibits, also, a wonderful skill in interweaving the episodes, which he continually interrupts, and again takes up with an agreeable, and often imperceptible art, and so entwines them with one another, that it is difficult to give a connected history of the contents of the poem, consisting of 46 cantos. These qualities place him among the great masters of poetry, and have gained for him, among his countrymen, the appellation of divine. Besides this great epic, we have some comedies, satires, capitoli and sonnets by A., and a collection of Latin poems, in all of which the richness of his genius shines with more or less brightness.

ARISMENDI, Juan Bautista; a distinguished general in the war of Colombian independence. Subsequently to the reduction of Margarita by Morillo, in 1815, A. raised the republican standard anew in 1826, defeated Morillo's garrison in several actions, and regained part of the island. This movement was eminently useful to Bolivar, who, landing in Margarita, from Aux Cayes, restored the wavering fortunes of his country. In 1819,

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A. was vice-president of Venezuela, previous to its union with New Grenada.

ARISTEUS, Son of Apollo and Cyrene, was brought up by the Nymphs. The introduction of the use of bees is ascribed to him (hence he is called Melissaus), and gained for him divine honors. His love of Eurydice, the young bride of Orpheus, caused her death; for, as she fled from him, along the side of a river, she received a mortal bite from a poisonous snake. He was punished by the loss of his bees. The loss, however, was repaired by new swarms, produced, after nine days, in the bodies of some cattle which he had slain. He was the son-in-law of Cadmus, and father of Acteon. He has been confounded with the Proconnesian Aristæus, who appeared on earth from time to time, e. g., as the instructer of Homer, and, afterwards, as a scholar of Pythagoras. This is explained by the fact, that there was a scholar of Pythagoras of this name, who succeeded that philosopher, and whose whole life was afterwards involved in fable.

ARISTARCHUS; a Greek grammarian, who criticised Homer's poems with the greatest severity, and established a new text; for that reason, severe and just critics are often called Aristarchi. He was born in the island of Samothrace, and lived at Alexandria about B. C. 150. Ptolemy Philometor, who highly esteemed him, confided to him the education of his children. After having spent his life in criticising Pindar and other poets, especially Homer, he died at Cyprus, aged 72. -Aristarchus of Samos, born B. C. 267, was a famous astronomer, who first asserted the revolution of the earth about the sun. His work on the magnitude and distance of the sun and moon is still extant. He is also regarded as the inventor of the sun-dial.

ARISTIDES, for his strict integrity surnamed the Just, was the son of Lysimachus, and descended from one of the most honorable families of Athens. He was one of the ten generals of the Athenians, when they fought with the Persians at Marathon. According to the usual arrangement, the command of the army was held by each of the generals, in rotation, for one day. But Aristides, perceiving the disadvantages of such a change of commanders, prevailed on his colleagues each to give up his day to Miltiades; and to this, in a great measure, must be ascribed the victory of the Greeks. The year ensuing, he was archon, and, in this office, enjoyed so universal a popu

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larity, that he thereby excited the jealousy of Themistocles. This ambitious man, not daring, openly, to attack his rival, contrived to spread a report, that A. was aiming at a kind of sovereignty, and, at last, succeeded in procuring his banishment by the ostracism. It is said, that a rustic citizen, who happened to stand near A. in the public assembly which decreed his banishment, turned to him, without knowing who he was, and asked him to write the name of Aristides upon the shell with which he was going to vote. "Has Aristides injured thee ?" inquired he. "No," answered the voter; "but I am tired of hearing him called the Just." A. wrote his name, and returned the shell in silence to the voter. He left the city, with prayers for its welfare. Three years after, when Xerxes invaded Greece with a large army, the Athenians hastened to recall a citizen to whom they looked for aid in this emergency. Forgetting every thing but the good of his country, upon receiving intelligence that the Greek fleet was surrounded, at Salamis, by the Persians, he hastened thither with all speed, to warn Themistocles of the danger which threatened him. Touched by his generosity, Themistocles admitted him at once to his confidence, telling him that the report had been purposely spread by himself, to prevent the separation of the Grecian fleet. He also invited him to assist in the council of war, and, having determined on battle, posted him on the little island of Psyttalia, where those, whose ships were sunk during the engagement, found refuge. In the battle of Platæa, A. commanded the Athenians, and had a great share in the merit of the victory. It is thought that he was again archon the year following, and that, during this time, he procured the passage of the law by which the common people were admitted to all public offices, even that of archon. On one occasion, when Themistocles announced that he had formed a project of great importance to the state, but which he could not make known in a public assembly, the people appointed A. to confer with him on the subject. The project was to set fire to the combined fleet of the Greeks, which was then lying in a neighboring port, and thereby to secure to the Athenians the sovereignty of the sea. A. returned to the people, and told them that nothing could be more advantageous, but, at the same time, nothing more unjust, than the plan of Themistocles. The plan was at once rejected. To defray the expenses of the

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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 implicit confidence which was felt in his integrity appeared in their intrusting him with the office of apportioning the contribution,-an office which he executed with universal satisfaction. He died at a very advanced age, and, what most strikingly evinces his integrity and disinterestedness, so poor that he was buried at the public expense. He left two daughters, who received dowries from the state, and a son, who was presented with 100 silver mine and a tract of wood-land.-Aristides Ælius, a famous rhetorician, born A. D. 129, in Bithynia, after travelling for some time, settled in Smyrna. When the city was destroyed by an earthquake, A. D. 178, A., by his influence with the emperor Antoninys, had it rebuilt. The inhabitants showed their gratitude for this service by erecting a statue to him. The merit of his orations, of which forty-five are yet extant, consists only in the splendor of the language, by which the emptiness of the matter is tolerably well concealed. Another Aristides, a Theban painter, contemporary with Apelles, flourished B. C. 240. A famous picture of his is spoken of by Pliny, representing a mother, in a captured town, mortally wounded, with an infant sucking at her breast, who, she is apprehensive, will suck blood instead of milk: it became the property of Alexander the Great. Several other very famous pictures of his are also mentioned, for one of which Attalus, king of Pergamus, is said to have given 100 talents. Expression seems to have been the great excellence of this ancient artist.-Aristides was also the name of a Christian philosopher in the 2d century.

ARISTIPPUS; the founder of a celebrated philosophical school among the Greeks, which was called Cyrenaic, from his native city, Cyrene, in Africa. He flourished 380 B. C. Being sent by his wealthy father to Olympia, probably to take part there in the chariot-races, he heard Socrates spoken of, and was so desirous to receive instruction from him, that he immediately hastened to Athens, and mingled with his disciples. He did not, however, adopt all the principles of this philosopher. Like him, he thought that we should refrain from speaking of things which are beyond human comprehension, and likewise paid but little attention to the physical and mathematical

sciences; but 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. As Socrates disapproved of these doctrines, they were the cause of many disputes between him and his disciple; and it was, probably, to avoid his censures, that Aristippus spent a part of his time at Egina, where he was when his master died. He made many journeys to Sicily, where he met with a very friendly reception from Dionysius the tyrant. The charms of the celebrated Lais allured him to Corinth, and he became very intimate with her. When he was reproached with squandering so much money upon a woman who gratuitously surrendered herself to Diogenes, he answered, “I pay her that she may grant her favors to me, not that she may refuse them to another." He said, another time, "I possess her, not she me.' (See Lais.) Diogenes Laertius is not to be credited, when he says that Aristippus opened a school after he returned to Athens, as we know of no disciple instructed by him. His doctrines were taught only by his daughter, Arete, and by his grandson, Aristippus the younger. Other Cyrenians compounded them into a particular doctrine of pleasure, and are hence called Hedonici. ́ The time of his death is unknown. His writings are lost. Wieland's historico-philosophical romance (Aristippus and some of his Contemporaries) gives us a lively and highly interesting delineation of the life and doctrines of this amiable sensual philosopher.

ARISTOCRACY. (See Government.)

ARISTOGITON; a citizen of Athens, whose name is rendered famous by a conspiracy formed, in conjunction with his friend Harmodius, against the tyrants Hippias and Hipparchus, the sons of Pisistratus. They succeeded in killing Hipparchus (514 B. C.); but, not being seconded by the people, Harmodius was despatched by the guards, and A. secured. Hippias instituted a severe inquisition into the plot, and tortured A. to discover his accomplices; upon which he is reported to

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have named all the best friends of the tyrant in succession, and they were immediately put to death. On being asked by Hippias if there were any more, "There now remains," said Aristogiton, with a smile, only thyself worthy of death." Hippias being expelled three years after, the Athenians paid the greatest honors to the two friends Harmodius and Aristogiton, placing in the forum their statues by Praxiteles, singing hymns to their praise at the Panathenæa, and decreeing that no slave should ever bear their names. (See Plutarch and Thucydides.)

ARISTOMENES; a young, valiant hero, and leader of the Messenians against the Spartans, B. C. 682. The story of his escape from a deep cavern (into which he had been thrown by the Spartans), by creeping through a fox-hole, is extraordinary, but not well authenticated. Notwithstanding his boldness and heroic courage, he could not prevent the subjection of the Messenians.

ARISTOPHANES; the only Grecian comic poet of whom any pieces have been preserved entire; the son of a certain Philippus, and by birth an Athenian. He appeared, as a poet, in the fourth year of the Peloponnesian war, B. C. 427; and, having indulged himself in some sarcasms on Cleon, at that time a powerful demagogue, was accused, by the latter, of having unlawfully assumed the title of an Athenian citizen. He defended himself before the judges merely with the known verses of Homer,

To prove a genuine birth (the prince replies),
On female truth assenting faith relies:
Thus manifest of right, I build my claim,
Sure founded, on a fair maternal fame,
Ulysses' son.

Pope's Od. i. 275-9. and, when the same accusation was renewed against him, he succeeded in repelling it a second time. He afterwards revenged himself on Cleon, in his comedy of the Knights, in which he himself acted the part of Cleon, because no actor had the courage to do it. This little remains to us of the life of A., who was distinguished, among the ancients, by the appellation of the comedian, as Homer was by that of the poet. Of 54 comedies which he composed, 11 only remain; and in these, without doubt, we possess the flower of the ancient comedy, which, in his last play, the Plutus, borders on the middle; but, in order fully to enjoy them, and not to be offended by the extravagances and immoralities with which they abound, we must be intimately acquainted with ancient customs and opinions. His

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pure and elegant Attic dialect, the skill and care displayed in the plan and execution of his pieces, and their various other excellences, have gained for A. the fame of a master. His wit and humor are inexhaustible, and his boldness unrestrained. The Greeks were enchanted with the grace and refinement of his writings; and Plato said, the Graces would have chosen his soul for their habitation. " According to our ideas of decorum," says a late scholar, "we should esteem the soul of A. a fitter residence for the licentious and malicious satyr, or, at least, we should call him, with Gothe, the spoiled child of the Graces." He made use of allegory in his attacks on the politicians of the day, as well as in scourging the vices and follies of his age In a political and moral view, he is a strong advocate for ancient discipline manners, doctrines and art; hence his sallies against Socrates, in the Clouds, and against Euripides, in the Frogs and other comedies. The freedom of ancient com. edy allowed an unbounded degree of personal satire, and A. made so free use of it, that nothing, divine or human, which offered a weak side, escaped his sarcasms. He feared the Athenian people so little, that he personated them, under a most miserable figure, in his old Demos. He incessantly reproached them for their fickleness, their levity, their love of flattery, their foolish credulity, and their readiness to entertain extravagant hopes. Instead of being irritated, the Athenians rewarded him with a crown from the sacred olivetree, which was, at that time, considered an extraordinary mark of distinction. This excessive freedom characterized the ancient comedy, which was long considered as a support of democracy. After the Peloponnesian war, its licentiousness was much restrained; and, in the year. 388 B. C., it was forbidden by law to name any person on the stage. At that time, A. produced, under the name of his eldest son, the Cocalus, a play in which a young man seduces a maiden, and, after having discovered her descent, marries her. With this play the new comedy began. A., who was very old, appears to have died soon after.-The best editions of his comedies are those of L. Küster, Amsterdam, 1710, fol.; Bergler, Amsterdam, 1760, 2 vols., 4to.; Brunck, Strasburg, 1781, 4 vols., 4to. and 8vo.; Invernizio, Leipsic, 1794, 2 vols., with Beck's commentaries.

ARISTOTLE, one of the most celebrated philosophers of Greece, and founder of the Peripatetic sect, was born at Stagira, in Macedonia, in the 1st year of the 99th

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