(Αρης), son of Zeus and Hera, the god of war among the Greeks, identified by the Romans with their own Mars. From this word was derived ἀρετή, virtue, as also ἀρείαν, ἀρεταῖος, &c., the earliest idea of excellence being connected with martial superiority.

ARETEUS of Cappadocia, a Greek physician of the sect of the Pneumatists, who, according to some, lived in the reign of Augustus; according to others, under Trajan or Hadrian. He wrote, in the Ionian dialect, several treatises on acute diseases and other medical subjects, some of which are still extant. The best edition of his works is that of Boerhaave, in Greek and Latin, with notes, printed in 1731; that printed at Oxford in 1723, in folio, is also much esteemed; and an excellent edition by C. G. Kühn, was published at Leipzig in 1828.