a Grecian astronomer of Samos, one of the first who maintained that the earth revolves round the sun. He was the contemporary of Cleanthes, the successor of Zeno. The opinion ascribed to him with respect to the motion of the earth is not to be found in his only existing work, namely his Treatise on the Magnitudes and Distances of the Sun and Moon. A Latin translation of the treatise ἐπὶ γῆς ἀναγωγή was published by G. Valla, Venet. 1498, and another by Commandine, Pesauri, 1572. The Greek text, with a Latin translation and the commentary of Pappus, was edited by Wallis, Oxon. 1688, and reprinted in vol. iii. of his works. There is also a French translation, with the text, Paris, 1810.

ARISTARCHUS of Samothrace, the most famous of Greek grammarians and critics, flourished about 150 years B.C. He received his education at Alexandria under Aristophanes of Byzantium, and was the founder of a school of grammar and criticism that flourished long at Alexandria, and afterwards also at Rome. The young Ptolemy Epiphanes and Physcon were among his pupils. The labours of Aristarchus were directed chiefly to the Greek poets, especially to the works of Homer, his recension of which has been the basis of the text in all subsequent editions down to the present day. In consequence of the ill-treatment experienced by the learned at Alexandria in Physcon's reign, he retired to Cyprus, where he is said to have perished in his 72d year, in attempting to cure himself of a dropsey by excessive abstinence.—See Dr Schmitz in Smith's Dict. of Greek and Rom. Biogr. and Mythol.