wise man will wish to preserve the enjoyment he may secure by practicing self-control, judgment, and moderation; and for the same end will resist the mastery of the passions. Further, the greatest pleasure is to be found in the cultivation of the mind. For this teaching he has been not inaptly named a pseudo-Socratic.
Many anecdotes about Aristippus have come down from antiquity. They show him to have been a skillful man of the world, capable of adapting himself to the changes of fortune. Plato is reported to have said that Aristippus was the only man he knew who could wear with equal grace both fine clothes and rags. Diogenes Laërtius has preserved to us many of his bon-mots and repartees. He apparently did not formulate a philosophy himself; the Cyrenaic system was probably worked out by Arete, his daughter, and by her son, Aristippus the younger. (See Hedonism.) Aristippus's works, if he left any, have been lost: the five letters to which his name is attached are unquestionably spurious. Consult: Zeller, Geschichte der griechischen Philosophie (Leipzig, 1893), and Ueberweg, History of Philosophy, English translation (New York, 1877).
ARISTO, a-res'to. Sganarelle's brother in Molière's Ecole des maris.
ARISTOBU'LUS (Gk. Άριστόβονλος, Aristoboulos) . An Alexandrian Jew who lived under Ptolemy VI., Philometor, and was considered by the early fathers as founder of the Jewish philosophy in Alexandria. He was the author of certain works (B.C. 170–150) on the Pentateuch, of which only fragments are preserved in Clement of Alexandria and in Eusebius. It was intended to show that Greek philosophers and poets borrowed their views from the Pentateuch; and to support this theory, numerous questions were professedly taken from Linus, Hesiod, Homer, and Orpheus, of which the Christian apologists made abundant use. There is no reason to question the genuineness of the work of Aristobulus, which exhibits all the characteristics of the literature of Hellenistic Judaism. As for the supposed quotations from the Greek poets, it is probable that Aristobulus adopted them from some older work by a Jewish writer, who forged the verses in question. See Schürer, History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ, Vol. II., 237-243.
ARISTOBULUS of Cassandria. A Greek historian, born in a city of Chalcidice, but afterwards—later than B.C. 316—a citizen of Cassandria. When eighty-four, he wrote an historical work of unknown title on Alexander the Great, whom he accompanied on his Asiatic campaigns. This work was freely used by later authors, noticeably by Arrian, Strabo, and Plutarch.
ARISTOBULUS I. A prince of Judæa, who succeeded his father, John Hyrcanus, as high-priest in B.C. 105. His mother had been given the royal office by the will of Hyrcanus, but the son deposed her, put her in prison, where she died of hunger, while he took the title of king, the first instance of its assumption among the Jews after the Babylonian captivity. Aristobulus had a decided leaning toward Hellenism, though, despite this fact, he remained Jewish in his feelings. He was disliked by the people for imprisoning his mother, and all his brothers except Antigonus, and even him, at a later period, he murdered at the instigation of Queen Salome. He conquered a large part of the Iturean country and compelled the inhabitants to accept Judaism. He died in B.C. 104 of a malignant disease, although his death may have been hastened because of remorse for the murder of his brother.
ARISTOBULUS II. (? -B.C. 49). Son of Alexander Jannæus (brother of Aristobulus 1.) and Salome Alexandra (widow of Aristobulus 1.), who succeeded in grasping the high-priestship and the royal authority from his elder brother, Hyreanus II., to whom both belonged. Aristobulus maintained himself from B.C. 69 to B.C. 63, when Hyeranus appealed to Pompey. After many intrigues and changes of front Pompey finally took sides against Aristobulus, and, after reducing the extent of the Jewish possessions, placed Hyeranus in charge as high-priest, without the title of king. Aristobulus was taken as a prisoner of war to Rome. He was released by Cæsar, but was poisoned by adherents of Pompey, and died in B.C. 49.
ARISTOC’RACY (Gk. άριστοκρατια aristokratia, from άριστος, aristos, best + κρατος, kratos, power). A form of government in which the sovereign power is vested in a small number of citizens, as opposed to monarchy, in which the supreme authority rests with one man, or to democracy, where the ultimate authority is exercised by the entire body of freemen. Etymologically, the term denotes the rule of the "best," used, however, in the sense of the Greek aristos, which connoted high birth and the possession of wealth, as well as personal excellence. In an aristocracy, however, though the power of government was wielded by a few, theoretically the administration of government was carried on for the welfare of the many. Whenever the interests of the commonwealth were made subservient to the interests of the rulers, aristocracy degenerated into oligarchy. To the Greek mind aristocracy appealed as the most acceptable form of government, in that it was free alike from the dangers of despotism and mob rule. Athens, before the period of the Persian Wars, and Sparta, practically during the entire course of its history, were aristocracies in fact, since in both places the chief power was exercised by senates which represented only the noblest and wealthiest families of the state. The same was true of Rome for at least two hundred and fifty years before the establishment of the Empire. As pre-eminence in rank became less closely associated with the ownership of land, there arose aristocracies of wealth as well as of birth, typified by ancient Carthage and modern Venice. In the Middle Ages there was no aristocracy, strictly speaking, for though political power reposed in the hands of a very small portion of the people, each feudal lord in his own domain was sole master. It was only with the rise of the modern state that an aristocracy again became possible. It appeared, however, in quite a different form from the ancient aristocracy, and partook rather of the nature of a privileged social class. Where the sovereign power was vested in the king, as was the theory of monarchical government in early modern times, aristocracy referred rather to a monopoly of titles and offices than of actual political power. Still, the rule of powerful families was not rare in the history of Europe, especially at times when weak kings occupied the throne, as was the case with the Guises of France and
