Ariston
3. A Peripatetic philosopher and a native of the island of Ceos, where his birthplace was the town of Julis, whence he is sometimes called
Κεῖος and sometimes
Ἰουλιήτης.
He was a pupil of Lycon (
D. L. 5.70,
74), who was the successor of Straton as the head of the Peripatetic school, about B. C. 270.
After the death of Lycon, about B. C. 230, Ariston succeeded him in the management of the school. Ariston, who was, according to Cicero (
de Fin. 5.5), a man of taste and elegance, was yet deficient in gravity and energy, which prevented his writings acquiring that popularity which they otherwise deserved, and may have been one of the causes of their neglect and loss to us.
In his philosophical views, if we may judge from the scanty fragments still extant, he seems to have followed his master pretty closely.
Works
Works mentioned by Diogenes Laertius
Diogenes Laertius (7.163), after enumerating the works of Ariston of Chios, says, that Panaetius and Sosicrates attributed all those works, except the letters, to the Peripatetic Ariston (of Ceos). How far this opinion is correct, we cannot, of course, say; at any rate, however, one of those works,
Ἐρωτικαὶ διατριβαί, is repeatedly ascribed to the Cean by Athenaeus (x. p. 419, xiii. p. 563, xv. p. 674), who calls it
Ἐρωτικὰ ὁμοῖα. One work of the Cean not mentioned by Diogenes, was entitled
Λύκων (Plut.
de Aud. poet. 1), in gratitude to his master.
Epigrams in the Greek Anthology
There are also two epigrams in the Greek Anthology (
6.303, and 7.457), which are commonly attributed to Ariston of Ceos, though there is no evidence for it.
Further Information
Compare J. G. Hubmann,
Ariston von Keos, der Peripatetiker, in Jahn's
Jahrb. für Philol. 3d supplementary vol. Leipz. 1835; Fabricius,
Bibl. Gr. iii. p. 467, &c. ; Jacobs,
ad Anthol. xiii. p. 861.
