ARISTOLAÏDES (Ἀριστολαΐδης, ὁ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Patronymic, father of the Athenian LYCURGUS who was politically prominent c. 560 BCE (1.59.3). Nothing more is known of Aristolaïdes.
SEE ALSO: Athens; Peisistratus son of Hippocrates
ARISTOMACHUS (Ἀριστόμαχος, ὁ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Legendary figure in the GENEALOGY of the Spartan kings. Aristomachus was a great‐grandson of HERACLES and grandfather of the two kings who gave their names to the Spartan royal houses (Agis and EURYP(H)ON). In the MYTH of the “Return of the HERACLEIDAE,” Aristomachus misunderstood an ORACLE and failed in his attempt to conquer the PELOPONNESE (Apollod. Bibl. 2.8.2; Paus. 2.7.6). Herodotus mentions his name only in the genealogies he provides for ARISTODEMUS SON OF ARISTOMACHUS (6.52.1), LEONIDAS (7.204), and LEOTYCHIDES II (8.131.2).
SEE ALSO: Agis son of Eurysthenes; Sparta
ARISTON (Ἀρίστων, ὁ) king of Sparta
SARAH BOLMARCICH
Arizona State University
Ariston was a king of SPARTA c. 560–510 BCE. He was a member of the Eurypontid branch, the son of HEGESICLES and the putative father of DEMARATUS. His colleague in the kingship was ANAXANDRIDES II, and together they presided over Sparta’s final conquest of TEGEA in the Second Arcadian War around 550 (1.67).
Ariston is best known for his role in a succession crisis engineered by CLEOMENES with the aim of removing Ariston’s son Demaratus from the throne; ultimately, this event led to Demaratus’ desertion to the Persian side during the PERSIAN WARS. Ariston had been childless by his first two wives, and, desperate for an heir, settled on the wife of a friend of his, reputedly the most beautiful woman in Sparta, as his third wife. After tricking his friend (AGETUS) into swearing an OATH to give up whatever possession of his Ariston desired, Ariston married her. Their son Demaratus was born less than nine months later, leading Ariston to say in public that the child was not his (6.61–63). It was this statement that Cleomenes later seized on to remove Demaratus from the throne. Cleomenes’ motive was to install a more pliant Eurypontid, LEOTYCHIDES II, as his colleague. After Demaratus was exiled, he joined the Persian court (6.64–70).
Demaratus’ mother claimed that Ariston was in fact infertile, and that the shade of the hero ASTRABACUS was his actual father. She also told her son that Ariston had repented disowning his son and accepted him as his own (6.69).
SEE ALSO: Deception; Women in the Histories
FURTHER READING
1 Pomeroy, Sarah B. 2002. Spartan Women, 73–93. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2 Poralla, Paul. 1985. A Prosopography of Lacedaemonians from the Earliest Times to the Death of Alexander the Great (X–323 B.C.). 2nd edition, edited by Alfred S. Bradford, p. 29. Chicago: Ares.
3 Scott, Lionel. 2005. Historical Commentary on Herodotus Book 6, 252–77. Leiden: Brill.
ARISTON (Ἀρίστων, ὁ) of Byzantium
CARLO SCARDINO
Heinrich‐Heine‐Universität Düsseldorf
Tyrant of the city of BYZANTIUM during the campaign of DARIUS I against the SCYTHIANS (c. 513 BCE). According to Herodotus, Ariston took part in the council of the Greeks allied to Darius which debated whether to break up the BRIDGE of boats over the ISTER (Danube) River after the designated sixty‐day window had passed, although the Persians had not yet returned (4.138.1). Along with most of the Greek TYRANTS, he sided with HISTIAEUS of MILETUS, against the proposal of MILTIADES THE YOUNGER and the request of the Scythians to destroy the entire bridge. Thus he helped save the army of the Persian expedition. Nothing is known of his later fate.
FURTHER READING
1 Libero, Loretana de. 1996. Die archaische Tyrannis, 414–17. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.
2 Waters, Kenneth H. 1971. Herodotos on Tyrants and Despots: A Study in Objectivity. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner.
ARISTONICE (Ἀριστονίκη, ἡ)
ESTHER EIDINOW
University of Bristol
Herodotus very occasionally provides us with the NAMES of women serving as PYTHIA at the oracular sanctuary of APOLLO at DELPHI (see also PERIALLUS). Aristonice (“Noble Victory”) is given as the name of the woman serving when the Athenians consult the ORACLE on the eve of XERXES’ invasion of Greece in 480 BCE (7.140). The Athenian consultation is distinctive because when the ambassadors find the first oracle too hopeless to take back to their fellow citizens, they request a second.
SEE ALSO: Athens; Priests and Priestesses; Women in the Histories
ARISTONYMUS (Ἀριστώνυμος, ὁ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Patronymic, father of Cleisthenes, tyrant of SICYON. Herodotus mentions Aristonymus (6.126.1) as part of his “pedigree” for Cleisthenes, at the beginning of his story regarding the suitors of Cleisthenes’ daughter AGARISTE (I). Despite being the father and, perhaps, the son of TYRANTS (Cleisthenes and MYRON, respectively), no ancient sources attribute that position to Aristonymus himself.
SEE ALSO: Andreas; Cleisthenes of Sicyon
FURTHER READING
1 Scott, Lionel. 2005. Historical Commentary on Herodotus Book 6, 417–18. Leiden: Brill.
ARISTOPHANES (Ἀριστοϕάνης, ὁ)
IAN OLIVER
University of Colorado Boulder
Aristophanes was an Athenian comic playwright of the late‐fifth and early‐fourth century BCE. Eleven of his plays survive, of which Acharnians (425 BCE), Knights (424), Clouds (423, revised 418–416), Wasps (422), Birds (414), Lysistrata (411), and Thesmophoriazusae (411) all appear to allude to Herodotus’ Histories in some way. These allusions have often been taken to provide a terminus ante quem for the “publication” of the Histories. The evidence, however, remains circumstantial and inconclusive: without an explicit mention of Herodotus, Aristophanic resemblances may simply reflect common sources, common subjects, or a common historical context between the two authors.
