Aristae'netus
(
*)Aristai/netos), the reputed author of two books of Love-Letters (
ἐπιστολαὶ ἐρωτικαί).
Of the author nothing is known.
It has been conjectured, that he is the same as Aristaenetus of Nicaea, to whom several of Libanius' Epistles are addressed, and who lost his life in the earthquake in Nicomedia, A. D. 358. (Comp. Ammian. Marcell. 17.7.)
That this supposition, however, is erroneous, is proved by the mention of the celebrated pantomimus Caramallus in one of the epistles, who is mentioned in the fifth century by Sidonius Apolloniaris (23.267) as his contemporary. Sidonius died A. D. 484.
Works
Love-Letters
These Letters are taken almost entirely from Plato, Lucian, Philostratus, and Plutarch; and so owe to their reputed author Aristaenetus nothing but the connexion. They are short unconnected stories of love adventures ; and if the language in occasional sentences, or even paragraphs, is terse and elegant, yet on the whole they are only too insipid to be disgusting.
Editions
These were first edited by
Sambucus, (Antwerp, 1566), and subsequently by
de Pauw, (Utrecht, 1736),
Abresch, (Zwoll. 1749), and
Boissonade (1822). [
C.T.A]