the founder of the Cyrenaic sect of philosophy, was the son of Areataes, and born at Cyrene in Libya. He flourished about the 96th Olympiad. The great reputation of Socrates induced him to leave his own country, and remove to Athens, that he might have the satisfaction of hearing his discourses. He was chiefly delighted with those discourses of Socrates that related the most to pleasure; which he asserted to be the ultimate end in which all happiness consists. His manner of life was agreeable to his opinion; for he indulged himself extremely in all the luxuries of dress, wine and women. Though he had a good estate, and three country-seats, yet he was the only one of the disciples of Socrates who took money for teaching; which being observed by the philosopher, he asked Aristippus, How he came to have so much? Who in reply asked him, How he came to have so little? Upon his leaving Socrates, he went to Ægina, as Athenaeus informs us, where he lived with more freedom and luxury than before. Socrates sent frequent exhortations to him, in order to reclaim him; but all in vain; and with the same view he published that discourse. course which we find in Xenophon. Here Ariftippus became acquainted with Lais, the famous courtezan of Corinth; for whose sake he took a voyage to that city. He continued at Aegina till the death of Socrates, as appears from Plato's Phaedo, and the epistle which he wrote upon that occasion. He returned at last into his own country Cyrene, where he professed philosophy, and instituted a sect which, as we observed above, was called the Cyrenaic, from the place, and by some writers the Hedonic or voluptuous, from its doctrines. During the height of the grandeur of Dionysius the Sicilian tyrant, a great many philosophers reported to him; and among the rest Ariftippus, who was tempted thither by the magnificence of that court. Dionysius asking him the reason of his coming, he replied, "That it was in order to give what he had, and to receive what he had not?" or, as others represent it, "That when he wanted wisdom, he went to Socrates; but now as he wanted money, he was come to him." He very soon insinuated himself into the favour of Dionysius; for being a man of a soft easy temper, he conformed himself exactly to every place, time, and person, and was a complete master of the most refined complaisance.

We have several remarkable passages concerning him during his residence at that court mentioned by Diogenes Laertius. Dionysius, at a feast, commanded that all should put on women's purple habits, and dance in them. But Plato refused, repeating these lines:

I cannot in this gay effeminate dress Disgrace my manhood, or my sex betray.

But Ariftippus readily submitted to the command, and made this reply immediately:

— At feasts, where mirth is free, A sober mind can never be corrupted.

At another time, interceding with Dionysius in behalf of a friend, but not prevailing, he cast himself at his feet: being reproved by one for that excess of humility, he replied, "That it was not he who was the cause of that submission; but Dionysius, whose ears were in his feet." Dionysius showed him three beautiful courtezans, and ordered him to take his choice. Upon which, he took them all three away with him, alleging that Paris was punished for preferring one to the other two: but when he had brought them to his door, he dismissed them, in order to show that he could either enjoy or reject with the same indifference. Having desired money of Dionysius, the latter observed to him, that he had assured him a wife man wanted nothing. "Give me (says he) what I ask, and we will talk of that afterwards." When Dionysius had given it him, "Now (says he), you see I do not want." By this complaisance he gained so much upon Dionysius, that he had a greater regard for him than for all the rest of the philosophers, though he sometimes spoke with such freedom to that king, that he incurred his displeasure. When Dionysius asked, Why philosophers haunted the gates of rich men, but not rich men those of philosophers? he replied, "Because the latter know what they want, and the others not." Another time, Dionysius repeating (out of Sophocles, as Plutarch affirms, who attributes this to Zeno) these verses,

He that with tyrants seeks for bare support, Enslaves himself, though free he came to court;

he immediately answered,

He is no slave, if he be free to come.

Diocles, as Laertius informs us, related this in his Lives of the Philosophers; though others ascribe this saying to Plato. Ariftippus had a contest with Antisthenes the Cynic philosopher; notwithstanding which, he was very ready to employ his interest at court for some friends of Antisthenes, to preserve them from death, as we find by a letter of his to that philosopher. Diogenes followed the example of his master Antisthenes in ridiculing Ariftippus, and called him the court-paniell.

We have many apophthegms of his preserved. Suidas observes, that he surpassed all the philosophers in the acuteness of his apophthegms. Being once railed at, he left the room; and the person who abused him, following him, and asking him why he went away, he answered, "Because it is in your power to rail, but it is not in my power not to hear you." A person observing, that the philosophers frequented the houses of rich men; "Why (says he), the physicians frequent the chambers of the sick, yet that is no reason why a man should rather choose to lie sick than be cured. To one who boasted of his great reading, he said, "That as they who feed and exercise most are not always more healthy than they who only eat and exercise to satisfy nature; so neither they who read much, but they who read no more than is useful, are truly learned." Among other instructions which he gave to his daughter Arete, he advised her particularly to despise superfluity. To one who asked him what his son would be the better for being a scholar? "If for nothing else (said he), yet for this alone, that when he comes into the theatre, one stone will not fit upon another." When a certain person recommended his son to him, he demanded 500 drachmas; and upon the father's replying, that he could buy a slave for that sum, "Do so (said he), and then you'll be master of a couple." Being reproached, because, having a suit of law depending, he fed a lawyer to plead for him, "Just so (said he), when I have a great supper to make, I always hire a cook." Being asked what was the difference between a wife man and a fool, he replied, "Send both of them together naked to those who are acquainted with neither of them, and then you'll know." Being reproved by a certain person (who, according to Mr Stanley, was Plato) for his costly and voluptuous feast, "I warrant you (said he), that you would not have bestowed three farthings upon such a dinner;" which the other confessing, "Why, then (said he), I find myself less indulgent to my palate than you are to your covetous humour;" or, as it is otherwise represented, "I find, that I love my belly, and you love your money." When Simus, treasurer to Dionysius, showed him his house magnificently furnished, and paved with costly marble, (for he was a Phrygian, and consequently profuse); Ariftippus spit in his face: upon which the other growing angry, "Why, truly (said he), I could not find a fitter place." His servant carrying after him a great weight of money, and being ready to sink upon the road... road under his burden, he bid him throw away all that was too much for him to carry. Horace mentions this fact in his third satire of the second book:

Quid simile isti Græcus Arìstippus? qui servos proiecere aurum In media jussit Libya, quia tardius irent Propter onus segnes.

Being asked, what things were most proper for children to be instructed in? he answered, "Those which might prove of the greatest advantage to them when they came to be men." Being reproached for going from Socrates to Dionysius, he replied, "That he went to Socrates when he wanted serious instruction, and to Dionysius for diversion." Having received money of Dionysius at the same time that Plato accepted a book only, and being reproached for it, "The reason is plain (says he) I want money, and Plato wants books." Having lost a considerable farm, he said to one who seemed excessively to compaionate his loss, "You have but one field; I have three left: why should not I rather grieve for you?" Plutarch, who relates this in his book De Tranquillitate Animi, observes upon it, that it is very absurd to lament for what is lost, and not to rejoice for what is left. When a person told him, "That the land for his sake was lost," he replied, "That it was better so, than that he should be lost for the land." Being cast by shipwreck ashore on the island of Rhodes, and perceiving mathematical schemes and diagrams drawn upon the ground, he said, "Courage, friends; for I see the footsteps of men."

After he had lived a long time with Dionysius, his daughter Arete sent to him, to desire his presence at Cyrene, in order to take care of her affairs, since she was in danger of being opprested by the magistrates. But he fell sick in his return home, and died at Lipara, an Æolian island. With regard to his principal opinions; like Socrates, he rejected the sciences as they were then taught, and pretended that logic alone was sufficient to teach truth and fix its bounds. He asserted, that pleasure and pain were the criterions by which we were to be determined; that these alone made up all our passions; that the first produced all the soft emotions, and the latter all the violent ones. The appearance of all pleasure, he asserted, made true happiness, and that the best way to attain this was to enjoy the present moments. He wrote a great many books; particularly the History of Libya, dedicated to Dionysius; several Dialogues; and four books of the Luxury of the Ancients. There are four epistles of his extant in the Socratic Collection published by Leo Allatius.

Besides Arete his daughter, whom he educated in philosophy, Arìstippus had also a son, whom he disdained for his stupidity. Arete had a son, who was named Arìstippus from his grandfather, and had the surname of Μεταδιδάκτος from his mother's instructing him in philosophy. Among his auditors, besides his daughter Arete, we have an account of Aëthops of Ptolemais, and Antipater of Cyrene. Arete communicated the philosophy which she received from her father to her son Arìstippus, who transmitted it to Theodorus the Atheist, who instituted the sect called Theodorean. Antipater communicated the philosophy of Arìstippus to Epitimes his disciple; Epitimes to Parabates; Parabates to Hegesias and Anniceris; and these two last improving it by some additions of their own, obtained the honour each of them of giving a name to the Hegesian and Annician sect.

Laertius mentions two other persons of the name of Arìstippus; one, who wrote the History of Arcadia; the other a philosopher of the New Academy.

ARÌSTO, a Stoic philosopher, the disciple of Zeno the chief of the Stoics, flourished about 290 years before the Christian era. He differed but little from his master Zeno. He rejected logic as of no use, and natural philosophy as being above the reach of the human understanding. It is said, that being bald, the sun burnt his head; and that this caused his death.—There is a saying of his recorded, which might render the doctrine of Arìstippus less odious than it ordinarily is; (see Arìstippus). He used to say, "That a philosopher might do those of his hearers a prejudice who put a wrong interpretation upon good meanings; as for example, that the school of Arìstippus might fend out debauchees, and that of Zeno, Cynics;" which seems to imply, that the doctrine of this philosopher never produced this effect but when it was misunderstood. He should also have added, that every teacher is therefore obliged to forbear laying down ambiguous maxims, or to prevent false glosses being put upon them.