Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-c52kr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-09T13:56:27.669Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

AELIUS ARISTIDES AS TEACHER*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2016

Juan Pablo Sánchez Hernández
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Education was the core activity of the Greek sophists, the πεπαιδευμένοι or ‘those who have received an education’, during the Roman period. Publius Aelius Aristides (c.117–180 ce) is by far the best known of them. He studied under the grammarian Alexander of Cotiaeum, received additional training from the sophists Polemo and Herodes Atticus, and then made a successful speaking tour through Asia Minor and Egypt. Aristides’ career seemed assured, with his good connections among the Roman intelligentsia, but a serious illness struck him on his way to the imperial capital. A series of health issues led him to a long period of convalescence at the Asklepieion at Pergamum until 147, which he combined afterwards with stays and brief appearances at Smyrna and other cities. It is therefore commonly believed that his career failed because of his poor health and also because he disliked teaching and performing in public. Aristides would rather be a pure lover of speeches, concerned with his literary afterlife and devoted to the production of exemplary speeches for future generations (especially after his retirement in 170), as he maintained at the end of his Sacred Tales (Or. 47–52): ‘it is more important for me to revise some things which I have written; for I must converse with posterity’.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 63 , Issue 2 , October 2016 , pp. 227 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2016 

Education was the core activity of the Greek sophists, the πεπαιδευμένοι or ‘those who have received an education’, during the Roman period.Footnote 1 Publius Aelius Aristides (c.117–180 ce) is by far the best known of them. He studied under the grammarian Alexander of Cotiaeum, received additional training from the sophists Polemo and Herodes Atticus,Footnote 2 and then made a successful speaking tour through Asia Minor and Egypt.Footnote 3 Aristides’ career seemed assured, with his good connections among the Roman intelligentsia, but a serious illness struck him on his way to the imperial capital.Footnote 4 A series of health issues led him to a long period of convalescence at the Asklepieion at Pergamum until 147, which he combined afterwards with stays and brief appearances at Smyrna and other cities.Footnote 5 It is therefore commonly believed that his career failed because of his poor health and also because he disliked teaching and performing in public.Footnote 6 Aristides would rather be a pure lover of speeches,Footnote 7 concerned with his literary afterlifeFootnote 8 and devoted to the production of exemplary speeches for future generations (especially after his retirement in 170), as he maintained at the end of his Sacred Tales (Or. 47–52): ‘it is more important for me to revise some things which I have written; for I must converse with posterity’.Footnote 9

However, Aristides defined himself as a ‘teacher’ (διδάσκαλος).Footnote 10 He considered himself to be deeply committed to oratory as a socially relevant activity (even in the direst of circumstancesFootnote 11 ), and he always had some involvement with private tutoring of affluent people, such as the sophist Damianus of Ephesus.Footnote 12 In fact, the Sacred Tales were composed as a justification of his career: the dry testimony of the god Asclepius’ favour (Or. 47–9) evolves into an elaborated defence of Aristides’ own art (Or. 50–1), providing evidence of his accomplishments as orator and poet (Or. 50.14–70), his efforts on obtaining liturgical ‘immunity’ as a teacher (Or. 50.71–108),Footnote 13 and his public success (Or. 51.1–47), in front of selected groups of students and large gatherings.Footnote 14 Perhaps (as some have suggested) he had aspirations to be the tutor of the prince Commodus, Marcus Aurelius’ son and heir.Footnote 15 In sum, although Aristides was an atypical sophist with respect to teaching, under certain circumstances he would have been willing to teach.

In the context of Aristides’ campaign for his immunity, the present article argues that Aristides, while refusing many other appointments, may actually have set his sights on an appointment he deemed appropriate to his literary and intellectual accomplishments: teacher of the young. In a passage of the Sacred Tales, he surveys his efforts to obtain such a post at Smyrna, a splendorous metropolis with the most thriving sophistic schools,Footnote 16 during a public appearance at the Council Chamber:

Again, something similar happened nearly a year before these things, when Pollio was governor of Asia. I had just now gone to the Council Chamber, after a long rest, as I said, since the god was encouraging me in oratory. All were in hopes that I would now also teach the young, the wretched sophists were dying with fear; not all, but those who had the sense to be distressed. I was chosen tax-collector.Footnote 17

(Or. 50.95–6)

In this passage Aristides implies that the Smyrnaeans’ alleged intention was to enroll him ‘for the young men (τοῖς νέοις)’. But these assumptions proved incorrect. More often than not, to take Aristides’ claims about himself at face value is risky. However, to explain which position Aristides had in mind, it would be interesting here to know more about these ‘young people’.

This event is surely dated to 151–2, during the proconsulship of T. Pomponius Proculus Vitrasius Pollio, one year before the arrival of the new governor, C. Iulius Severus.Footnote 18 After resuming his career in 147, Aristides was expected to be involved in the civic affairs either of his native city (Hadrianoutherai) or his city of residence (Smyrna).Footnote 19 Between 147 and 152 he was, in fact, nominated at Smyrna for several religious and civic offices. Each time, however, he escaped such responsibilities by claiming his immunity as a practising orator.Footnote 20

The Smyrnaean Council Chamber was an important landmark in Aristides’ life. He chose this venue for his first public appearance after his convalescence, and it was there where he reportedly obtained his most resounding triumph over an Egyptian sophist in 167.Footnote 21 As he grew in popularity, it is likely that Aristides’ close friends would have encouraged him to teach and accept students (προσίεσθαι τοὺς νέους).Footnote 22 Indeed, the leading Roman officials clearly hinted that convincing the Smyrnaeans to enrol him among the orators would help to have his immunity confirmed: ‘It is one thing to be the first of the Greeks and supreme in oratory’, remarked Iulius Severus, ‘and another to be engaged in this and have pupils’.Footnote 23 Aristides, therefore, had strong reasons for appearing at the Smyrnaean Council Chamber.

Aristides’ reference to his prospective teaching duties might seem vague, as he says that he ‘would join’ or ‘would have dealings with’ (συνεσοίμην) the ‘young people’ (νέοις). This, however, is clearly referring to an official appointment as teacher. He was eventually chosen as tax collector, but he avoids the technical term for this office, ἐκλογιστής, in favour of one with a better Attic pedigree, ἐκλογεύς,Footnote 24 as is typical of him in other instances.Footnote 25 Conversely, Aristides uses the verb σύνειμι with the Attic sense of ‘to attend as pupil’ (active voice) or ‘to serve as a teacher’ (middle-passive voice),Footnote 26 as in the following passage of Plato:

And I replied to this: ‘the same point, Protagoras, will serve me for a beginning as a moment ago, in regard to the object of my visit. My friend Hippocrates finds himself desirous of joining your classes (τῆς σῆς συνουσίας); and therefore he says he would be glad to know what result he will get from joining them (ἐάν σοι συνῇ.) That is all the speech we have to make.’ Then Protagoras answered at once, saying: ‘Young man, you will gain this by coming to my classes, that on the day when you join them (ἐὰν ἐμοὶ συνῇς, ᾗ ἂν ἡμέρᾳ ἐμοὶ συγγένῃ) you will go home a better man, and on the day after it will be the same.’

(Pl. Prt. 318a, emphasis added)

In this passage, Socrates asks Protagoras for a ‘teaching philosophy’ of sorts, in a question similar in terms to one found in another Platonic dialogue, Gorgias: ‘What shall we get, Gorgias, by coming to hear you (ἐάν σοι συνῶμεν)? On what matters shall we be enabled to give advice to the state?’ (Grg. 455d, emphasis added). Xenophon also uses the verb σύνειμι when he refers to the young fellows who followed Socrates.Footnote 27 Although Socrates was accused by Aelius Aristides of corrupting these ‘young men’ (νέοι),Footnote 28 he remained, in fact, one of the models for the later philosopher.Footnote 29 Aristides, therefore, using the verb σύνειμι, claimed an association with the first sophists in fifth- to fourth-century bce Athens, reasserting their importance in education and politics.Footnote 30

With this reference to the Athenian sophists, Aristides also wanted to emphasize the anxiety he created in his less-gifted rivals, the Smyrnaean σοφισταὶ. In another speech in which he defends his work as orator (Or. 33), he explicitly distinguishes himself from ‘those execrable sophists’ (οἱ κατάπτυστοι σοφισταὶ; Or. 33.29) who made large fortunes from their teaching. As he claims: ‘I alone of the Greeks I know have set my hands to speeches not for the sake of wealth, reputation, honour, marriage or power’ (Or. 33.20).Footnote 31 Aristides naturally thought that he had to be offered a more institutionalized position; when he failed to receive such an offer, he presumed that his enemies had a hand in it.Footnote 32

Aristides was a well-known personality, customarily greeted whenever he made a public appearance.Footnote 33 He had become a famous orator after his trip to Egypt in 141, during which he had given public declamations,Footnote 34 and many ‘excellent young men’ (γνώριμοι νέοι) of Smyrna offered themselves as pupils.Footnote 35 In fact, Aristides had occasionally provided rhetorical instruction as a private tutor on request, as he claims:

Indeed for those who were eager to study with me privately (ἰδίᾳ συνιέναι), I not only made myself available when I engaged in oratorical contests, but also more or less acted as an instructor in the ways in which I thought that they would be improved.

(Or. 33.23, emphasis added)Footnote 36

Young men between twenty and thirty years old from well-to-do families, the νέοι (or νεανίσκοιFootnote 37 ), used gymnasia as venues for their physical and intellectual activities.Footnote 38 Aristides should have been familiar with these establishments, as he dreamt of conversing with a youth in training at one in Smyrna.Footnote 39 But he characterizes bathing in such places as a particularly degrading activity: ‘instead of going to lectures, most of you spend your time at swimming-pools…It is impossible for jewellery lovers, bath addicts and admirers of the unworthy to understand oratorical lectures’ (Or. 33.25).Footnote 40

However, the privileged youth (γνώριμοι νέοι) of Smyrna did something other than bathing. They gathered for the elegiac poet Mimnermus in the gymnasium named Mimnermeion,Footnote 41 which would certainly have had a library containing copies of their patron's works and commemorative inscriptions.Footnote 42 Mimnermus’ Smyrneis, a sort of national poem, was probably the main piece performed by the singers (ὑμνῳδοί) of the νέοι at festivals or state funerals.Footnote 43 His short elegies would also have been performed during the symposia of these local scions at Smyrna: verses such as ‘we enjoy the blossoms of youth for a short time’, ‘precious youth is short-lived as a dream’, ‘May I die when I be no more concerned with secret love and suasive gifts and the bed, such things as are the very flowers of youth!’ – all seem to have been well suited to these νέοι.Footnote 44

Perhaps the Smyrnaeans were originally considering Aristides’ appointment at the gymnasium of the νέοι, since gymnasia were typical venues in which sophists lectured.Footnote 45 Inscriptions provide an interesting parallel to the Mimnermeion in the Homereion, a gymnasium for elderly people (γερουσία) dedicated to Homer, ‘the poet of Smyrna’.Footnote 46 We know that the sophist Scopelianus addressed to these elders his ‘Epic of the Giants’ (Γιγαντίας) for public performance by their sacred singers (ὑμνῳδοί), as well as treatises for advanced rhetorical instruction.Footnote 47 It would be tempting to suggest that Aristides could have been appointed by the Smyrnaeans as a professor in the Mimnermeion in the same way as Scopelianus became associated with the Homereion.Footnote 48 However, would Aristides have been suitable for this job?

Aristides’ master, Alexander of Cotiaeum, lectured to his students (νέοιFootnote 49 ) and wrote commentaries on poets, such as Homer and Pindar. Aristides was able to quote these authors from memory and paraphrase them effortlessly.Footnote 50 But, besides being an avid reader of Ancient Greek poetry, even frequenting the company of poets of his generation (also pepaideumenoi Footnote 51 ), he was an incidental poet himself.Footnote 52 His first poetic contribution was a Pindaric Paean dedicated to Apollo, composed during his unfortunate trip to Rome in 144.Footnote 53 To this poetic composition he added many others: some written in solitary reflection, others performed in private by a chorus of boys (as part of Aristides’ treatmentFootnote 54 ) following the orders of the god Asclepius.Footnote 55 Finally, in 147 Aristides offered ten public performances in the Asklepieion of Pergamum with his compositions for choruses of boys and men whom he trained.Footnote 56 He became so proud of his poetic achievements that he actually records a dream in which he saw a children's school at Alexandria studying and singing his poems,Footnote 57 and he still seemed to have dreams of choruses of boys twenty years later.Footnote 58 His choruses were modelled on the ὑμνῳδοί or groups of young or mature men whose duties were to sing praises to both gods and emperors as in Roman Smyrna, where we even have ὑμνῳδοί praising the emperor Hadrian.Footnote 59 Since teachers acted as trainers to lead these groups in their public performances,Footnote 60 Aristides perhaps believed that he was eligible for a teaching position of the νέοι at Smyrna, as an author of hymns for young people, such as: ‘Come to Pergamon, young men (νέοι)’ (Or. 50.38–9 K).Footnote 61

In sum, Aristides claimed that the Smyrnaean assembly was giving serious thought to his official appointment as professor of the Smyrnaean νέοι. This would have been a very prestigious position: the gymnasium of the νέοι was called Mimnermeion for the elegiac poet Mimnermus, whose poems were surely the basis for the education of these νέοι, and it was, much like the Smyrnaean Homereion, a collegiate body (a σύνοδοςFootnote 62 ) of prestige. As Aristides composed poems for young people and occasionally trained them, he thought that he was therefore the perfect candidate for this post. He implies that his election as tax collector was motivated by his enemies, the Smyrnaean sophists, who envied him.

The final outcome was that Aristides was not offered a teaching position, but was nonetheless granted the privilege of immunity,Footnote 63 and he eventually retired to his estate at Laneion in Mysia in the 170s. There, he received news of the destruction of Smyrna after an earthquake in 178. Aristides decided to write an account of the disaster addressed to Marcus Aurelius, as an inducement to rebuild the city. In it he remembered the νέοι of Smyrna alongside other associations (also σύνοδοιFootnote 64 ), and the very same Council Chamber where he had delivered his speeches and which was now in ruins:

I who have endured all things, in what land am I to sing my monody? Where is my Council Chamber? Where are the assemblies of young and old (ποῦ νέων καὶ πρεσβυτέρων σύνοδοι) and their applause who gave me everything?

(Or. 18.8)Footnote 65

Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Prof. Jones, Prof. K. Brodersen, Prof. Konstan, Prof. A. Erskine, Prof. M. Paz de Hoz, Prof. Tom Armstrong, and Axel Marc Takacs (among others) for their comments and encouragement. Translations, with some slight amendments, are taken from C. A. Behr, P. Aelius Aristides. The Complete Works, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1981–6), and W. R. M. Lamb, Plato in Twelve Volumes. Vol. II. Laches, Protragoras, Meno, Euthydemus (London, 1924).

References

1 For the Second Sophistic, see Bowersock, G. W., Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire (Oxford, 1969)Google Scholar; Anderson, G., The Second Sophistic. A Cultural Phenomenon in the Roman Empire (London, 1993)Google Scholar; Gleason, M., Making Men. Sophists and Self–presentation in Ancient Rome (Princeton, NJ, 1995)Google Scholar; Goldhill, S. D. (ed.), Being Greek under Rome. The Second Sophistic, Cultural Conflict and the Development of the Roman Empire (Cambridge, 2001)Google Scholar; Whitmarsh, T., The Second Sophistic (Oxford, 2005)Google Scholar. On higher education, see Marrou, H.-I., Histoire de l'éducation dans l'Antiquité, sixth edition (Paris, 1965; first published 1948)Google Scholar; Morgan, T., Literate Education in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds (Cambridge, 1998)Google Scholar; Too, Y. L. (ed.), Education in Greek and Roman Antiquity (Leiden and Boston, MA, 2001)Google Scholar; Cribiore, R. Gymnastics of the Mind. Greek Education in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt (Princeton, NJ, 2001)Google Scholar.

2 On Aristides's early years, see Behr, C. A., Aelius Aristides and the Sacred Tales (Amsterdam, 1968), 10–13 Google Scholar; Behr, C. A., ‘Studies on the Biography of Aelius Aristides’, ANRW 34.2 (1994), 1141–55Google Scholar; Cortés, J. M., Elio Aristides. Un sofista griego en el Imperio Romano (Madrid, 1995), 1–14 Google Scholar; Downie, J., At the Limits of Art. A Literary Study of Aelius Aristides’ Hieroi logoi (Oxford, 2013), 7–11 Google Scholar. On Aristides in Athens, see Jones, C. P., ‘Three Foreigners in Attica’, Phoenix 32 (1978), 222–4Google Scholar.

3 On the trip to Egypt, see Behr (n. 2 [1968]), 14–22; Cortés (n. 2), 15–37; Downie (n. 2), 11–14. See also Petsalis-Diomidis, A., Truly Beyond Wonders. Aelius Aristides and the Cult of Asklepios (Oxford, 2010), 118–19Google Scholar.

4 On the trip to Rome, see Behr (n. 2 [1968]), 23–4; Cortés (n. 2), 38–54; Petsalis-Diomidis (n. 3), 119. Aristides’ speech to Rome (Or. 26 K) was composed in 154 ce: see Oliver, J. H. The Ruling Power. A Study of the Roman Empire in the Second Century after Christ through the Roman Oration of Aelius Aristides (Philadelphia, PA, 1953)Google Scholar.

5 On Aristides at Pergamum, see Nicosia, S., Elio Aristide. Discorsi Sacri (Milan, 1984), 16–21 and 192–7Google Scholar; Jones, C. P. ‘Aelius Aristides and the Asklepieion’, in Koester, H. (ed.), Pergamon. Citadel of the Gods. Archaeological Record, Literary Description, and Religious Development (Harrisburg, PA, 1998), 63–76 Google Scholar. See also Behr (n. 2 [1968]), 27–40; Cortés (n. 2), 55–86; Petsalis-Diomidis (n. 3), 167–220; Downie (n. 2), 14–17.

6 Eshleman, K., The Social World of Intellectuals in the Roman Empire. Sophists, Philosophers, and Christians (Cambridge, 2012), 132–3Google Scholar, but see also Swain, S. C. R., Hellenism and Empire. Language, Classicism, and Power in the Greek World, ad 50–250 (Oxford, 1996), 97–100 and 255Google Scholar; Whitmarsh (n. 1), 18–22; Downie (n. 2), 17–35.

7 Or. 33.20: ἀλλ᾽ αὐτῶν ἐρασταὶ καθαρῶς καταστάντες ἐτιμήθημεν τὰ πρέποντα ὑπὸ τῶν λόγων… ἐμοὶ δὲ λόγοι πάσας προσηγορίας καὶ πάσας δυνάμεις ἔχουσι.

8 Or. 51.67: περὶ τῆς ὕστερον δόξης.

9 Or. 51.52: σπουδαιότερόν μοί ἐστιν ἐπελθεῖν τινα τῶν γεγραμμένων: δεῖ γάρ με καὶ τοῖς ὕστερον ἀνθρώποις διαλέγεσθαι. See also Or. 51.56–67.

10 Or. 31.7: προείλετο μὲν διδάσκαλον ἐξ ἁπάντων ὅντινα δὴ καὶ προείλετο, οὐ γὰρ ἔμοιγε εὐπρεπέστατόν ἐστι λέγειν. See Vix, J.-L., L'enseignement de la rhétorique au IIe siècle ap. J.-C. à travers les discours 30–34 d'Aelius Aristide (Brepols, 2010)Google Scholar. Vix shows the depth of Aristides’ involvement in his relationship with his students and provides a foundation for the discussion of the language of teaching.

11 For example, when the great plague was at its height: Or. 33.6. See Behr (n. 2 [1968]), 102–3; Vix (n. 10), 77–83; Downie, J., ‘Proper Pleasures: Bathing and Oratory in Aelius Aristides’ Hieros Logos I and Oratio 33’, in Harris, W. V. and Holmes, B. (eds.), Aelius Aristides between Greece, Rome and the Gods (Leiden and Boston, MA, 2008), 123–6Google Scholar.

12 The Birthday Speech to Apellas (Or. 30) and his Funeral Oration for Eteoneus (Or. 31) were dedicated to former students. Aside from Vix (n. 10), 366–73, see also Berardi, E., Elio Aristide. Epicedio per Eteoneo. Epitafio per Alessandro (Turin, 2006)Google Scholar; and Binder, V., Korenjak, M., and Noak, B. (eds.), Epitaphien. Tod, Totenrede, Rhetorik. Auswahl, Übersetzung und Kommentar (Rahden, 2007)Google Scholar. On Damianus in particular, see Philostr. V S 2.23.605. Vix (n. 10), 23, also considers a teaching position at Pergamum mentioned in Or. 30.4.

13 See Or. 50.71–94 for the year 153 ce. On tax exemptions and immunities, see Dig. 27.1.6.2. The sophist Claudius Ruphinus was immune orator at Smyrna: see I.Smyrna 602; Bowersock (n. 1), 30–42.

14 On Aristides’ narcissism, see Michenaud, G., Crahay, R., and Dierken, J., Les Rêves dans les ‘Discours Sacrés’ d'Aelius Aristide (Mons, 1972), 59–83 Google Scholar. For the different tone of each of the Sacred Tales, see Quet, M.-H., ‘Parler de soi pour louer son dieu: le cas d'Aelius Aristide (du journal intime de ses nuits aux Discours sacrés en l'honneur du dieu Asklépios)’, in Baslez, M. F., Hoffmann, P., and Pernot, L. (eds.), L'invention de l'autobiographie d'Hésiode à Saint Augustin (Paris, 1993), 211–51Google Scholar ; Quattrocelli, L. ‘I pubblico dei Discorsi Sacri di Elio Aristide’, in Abbamonte, G., Miletti, L., and Spina, L. (eds.), Discorsi alla prova (Naples, 2009), 259–78Google Scholar.

15 Like his master, Alexander of Cotiaeum, who tutored Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius. See C. G. Weiss, ‘Literary Turns: The Representation of Conversion in Aelius Aristides’ Hieroi Logoi and Apuleius’ Metamorphoses’, PhD thesis, Yale University (1998), 37–46. Marcus Aurelius and Commodus were on an imperial tour in 175–6, during which they met Aristides at Smyrna: see Philostr. V S 2.10; Gascó, F. ‘The Meeting between Aelius Aristides and Marcus Aurelius in Smyrna’, AJPh 110 (1998), 471–8Google Scholar.

16 On the sophistic schools, see Philostr. V S 1.21.518 (Scopelian), 1.25.531 (Polemo), 2.26.613 (Heraclides); Hopwood, K. ‘Smyrna: Sophists between Greece and Rome’, in Braund, D. and Wilkins, J. (eds.), Athenaeus and His World. Reading Greek Culture in the Roman Empire (Exeter, 2000), 231–40Google Scholar. For a picture of Aristides’ involvement at Smyrna, see Franco, C., Elio Aristide e Smirne (Roma, 2005)Google Scholar.

17 οἷον δ᾽ αὖ καὶ τὸ πρόσθεν τούτων ἐνιαυτῷ σχεδὸν γενόμενον ἐπὶ Πολλίωνος ἄρχοντος τῆς Ἀσίας. ἄρτι μὲν εἰς τὸ βουλευτήριον παρεληλύθειν ἐκ τῆς πολλῆς ἡσυχίας, ὥσπερ ἔϕην, τοῦ θεοῦ προαγαγόντος κατὰ τοὺς λόγους: ἅπαντες δ᾽ ἦσαν ἐπ᾽ ἐλπίδων ὡς καὶ δὴ συνεσοίμην τοῖς νέοις: ἀπωλώλεσαν δὲ οἱ δείλαιοι σοϕισταὶ τῷ δέει, οὐχ ἅπαντες, ἀλλ᾽ οἷς ἀνιᾶσθαι ἐπιμελὲς ἦν, ᾑρέθην ἐκλογεύς.

18 See Behr (n. 2 [1968]), 77–8, n. 56, and 135 (Appendix B). The identification of Aristides’ Pollio is also confirmed in Behr (n. 2 [1994]), 1142–3, n. 3, and 1194. See also Cadoux, C. J., Ancient Smyrna. A History of the City from the Earliest Times to 324 A.D. (Oxford, 1938), 268–9Google Scholar; Festugière, A.-J., Aelius Aristide. Discours sacrés, avec notes de H.–D. Saffray, préface de J. Le Goff (Paris, 1986), 103, n. 173Google Scholar; Schröder, H. O., Heilige Berichte. Einleitung, deutsche Übersetzung und Kommentar (Heidelberg, 1986), 115 Google Scholar, n. 222, referring to Syme, R., ‘The Proconsul of Asia under Antoninus Pius’, ZPE 51 (1983), 278–9Google Scholar.

19 Zuiderhoek, A., The Politics of Munificence in the Roman Empire. Citizens, Elites and Benefactors in Asia Minor (Cambridge, 2009)Google Scholar. For example, Pomponius Cornelius Lollianos was rhetor and asiarch: I.Smyrna 638. See Puech, B., Orateurs et sophistes grecs dans les inscriptions d’époque impériale (Paris, 2002), 336–7Google Scholar, no. 166. On a Smyrnaean inscription of 124/138 ce, with a list of ‘patrons of the city’, appears a certain Εἰσίδωρος σοϕιστής (I.Smyrna 697.24), Claudia, the daughter of the sophist Nicetes (I.Smyrna 697.22), and the sophist Polemo (I.Smyrna 697.33–45).

20 Behr (n. 2 [1968]), 77–84; Behr (n. 2 [1994]), 1209–12; Bowersock (n. 1), 36–40; Cadoux (n. 18), 267–72; Cortés (n. 2), 87–105; Downie (n. 2), 157–64; Eshleman (n. 6), 86–8; Nicosia (n. 5), 30–33 and 250–4.

21 Or. 51.31–4 and 38. Aristides delivered nine speeches at Smyrna: see Behr (n. 2 [1968]), 128–30; Franco (n. 16), 368–71.

22 As we surmise from a dream in which he relates a discussion on this issue with his friend Lucius: Or. 51.57–8.

23 Or. 50.87: ἕτερόν ἐστι πρῶτον Ἑλλήνων εἶναι καὶ ἄκρον ἐν λόγοις…καὶ ἕτερον διατρίβειν ἐπὶ τούτῳ καὶ μαθητὰς ἔχειν.

24 See Behr (n. 2 [1968]), 77, n. 54; Festugière (n. 18), 103, n. 176; Schröder (n. 18), 116, n. 224; Downie (n. 2), 158, n. 6. In general, see Magie, D., Roman Rule in Asia Minor to the End of the Third Century after Christ (Princeton, NJ, 1950)Google Scholar, i.648, ii.1513–14.

25 For example, he avoids the title of Ἀσιάρχης, referring to this office as ‘the common priesthood of Asia’ (ἡ ἱερωσύνη ἡ κοινὴ τῆς Ἀσίας; Or. 50.53 and 101 K), since ἱερωσύνη is widely attested in decrees from fifth-century bce Athens. See LSJ, s.v. ἱερωσύνη; Behr (n. 2 [1968]), 61, n. 4, and 64, n. 15; Festugière (n. 18), 93, n. 103, and 104, n. 186; Schröder (n. 18), 118, n. 242; Downie (n. 2), 157, n. 5.

26 Or. 31. 8, 32.17, 32.26, 34.9, 34.53: συνίεναι, συνεῖναι, and συνουσία referring to Aristides’ activities as teacher. See Behr (n. 2 [1994]), 1163–77; Vix (n. 10), 324, 328–9, 389–91.

27 Xen. Mem. 1.1.4: πολλοῖς τῶν συνόντων, τῶν συνόντων ἑαυτῷ; 1.2.8: τοὺς συνόντας; 1.3.1.

28 Or. 2.335 K: Σωκράτης τοὺς νέους διέϕθειρεν.

29 Socrates even appears in Aristides’ dreams: Or. 50.15. On Aristides’ Socratic posturing, see Downie (n. 11), 127–30.

30 Aristides replied to Plato's Gorgias with his essay To Plato. In Defence of Oratory. See Milazzo, A. M., Un dialogo difficile. La retorica in conflitto nei Discorsi Platonici di Elio Aristide (Hildesheim, 2002)Google Scholar.

31 μόνοι δὲ ὧν ἴσμεν Ἑλλήνων οὐ πλούτου χάριν, οὐ δόξης, οὐ τιμῆς, οὐ γάμων, οὐ δυναστείας, οὐ προσθήκης οὐδεμιᾶς τοῖς λόγοις ἐπεχειρήσαμεν.

32 Perhaps they were aware of Aristides’ plans. See Vix (n. 10), 277: ‘La crainte des autres sophistes devant cette concurrence laisse plutôt supposer qu'il avait déjà assuré ces fonctions auparavant et que son retour attisait ses peurs’ (‘The fear of the other sophists before this competition rather suggests that he had already assumed his duties earlier and that this return stirred up theirs fears’). Aristides later reproached the Smyrnaeans for not employing him: οἱ μήτε χρῆσθαι τολμῶντες (Or. 33.16 K).

33 Or. 50.100–1.

34 The inscription erected by the Greeks of Egypt at Smyrna in his honour ‘for his honesty and his speeches’ (ἐπὶ ἀνδραγαθίαι καὶ λόγοις [OGI 709.12–13]) probably commemorated this successful tour. See Quet, M.-H., ‘L'Inscription de Vérone en l'honneur d'Aelius Aristides et le rayonnement de la seconde sophistique chez les “Grecs d’Égypte”’, REA 94 (1992), 379–401 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Puech (n. 19), 140–5, no. 44; Petsalis-Diomidis (n. 3), 118–19.

35 It has been argued that this term referred to the inner circle of students in contrast to the ἀκροαταὶ, the auditors. But, in other instances in Aristides, γνώριμος means ‘distinguished person’, i.e. clarissimus (as in 50.12, 16, 27, and 29). See Korenjak, M., Publikum und Redner. Ihre Interaktion in der sophistischen Rhetorik der Kaiserzeit (Munich, 2000), 126 Google Scholar. Contra R. Cribiore ‘Vying with Aristides in the Fourth Century: Libanius and His Friends’, in Harris and Holmes (n. 11), 276.

36 καὶ μὴν τοῖς ἰδίᾳ συνιέναι σπουδάσασιν οὐκ ἀγωνιζόμενον μόνον παρέσχον ἐμαυτὸν, ἀλλὰ καὶ παραδεικνύντα ἐπιεικῶς ἐξ ὧν ᾤμην τι βελτίους ἔσεσθαι. On the interpretation of ἰδίᾳ συνιέναι, see Vix (n. 10), 324 and 547–8, n. 415.

37 Forbes, C. A., Neoi. A Contribution to the Study of Greek Associations (Middletown, CT, 1933), 61–7Google Scholar; Sacco, G., ‘Sui νεανίσκοι dell'età ellenistica’, RFIC 107 (1979), 39–49 Google Scholar; Cantarella, E., ‘Neaniskoi: classi di età e passagi di status nel diritto ateniense’, MEFRA 102.1 (1990), 37–51 Google Scholar; Dreyer, B., ‘Die Neoi im Hellenistischen Gymnasion’, in Kah, D. and Scholz, P. (eds.), Das hellenistische Gymnasion (Munich, 2004), 211–36Google Scholar; Legras, B., Néotês. Recherches sur les jeunes grecs dans l’Égypte ptolémaïque et romaine (Geneva, 2006)Google Scholar; Van Bremen, R., ‘Neoi in Hellenistic cities: age class, institution, association?’, in Fröhlich, P. and Hamon, P. (eds.), Groupes et associations dans les cités grecques (IIIe siècle av. J.-C.–IIe siècle apr. J.-C.). Actes de la table ronde de Paris, INHA, 19–20 juin 2009 (Geneva, 2013), 31–58 Google Scholar. In general, see Kleijwegt, M., Ancient Youth. The Ambiguity of Youth and the Absence of Adolescence in Greco-Roman Society (Amsterdam, 1991)Google Scholar. For further examples and parallels, see Kennell, N. M., Ephebeia. A Register of Greek Cities with Citizen Training Systems in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods (Hildesheim, 2006)Google Scholar, Chankowski, A. S., L’Éphébie hellénistique. Étude d'une institution civique dans les cités grecques des îles de la Mer Égée et de l'Asie Mineure (Paris, 2010)Google Scholar.

38 Delorme, J., Gymnasion. Études sur les monuments consacrés à l'education en Grèce des origines à l'empire romain (Paris, 1960)Google Scholar; Yegül, F., Baths and Bathing in Classical Antiquity (Paris, 1992)Google Scholar. On gymnasia as venues of instruction, see Scholz, P., ‘Elementarunterricht und intellektuelle Bildung im hellenistischen Gymnasien’, in Kah, D. and Scholz, P. (eds.), Das hellenistische Gymnasion (Munich, 2004), 103–28Google Scholar; and see also Delorme (this note), 316–36; Korenjak (n. 37), 27–33; Cribiore (n. 1), 15–44; Eshleman (n. 6), 25–8.

39 Or. 47.18–21.

40 ἀλλ᾽ ἀντὶ τοῦ βαδίζειν ἐπὶ τὰς ἀκροάσεις περὶ τὰς κολυμβήθρας οἱ πλείους διατρίβετε,.. οὐκ ἔνεστι λίθων ἐρῶντας οὐδὲ λουτρῶν ἐξηρτημένους οὐδ᾽ ἃ μὴ δεῖ τιμῶντας τὰς περὶ τοὺς λόγους διατριβὰς γιγνώσκειν. Further on this dichotomy between oratory and bathing, see Downie (n. 11), 115–23.

41 νέων Μιμνερμείου (I.Smyrna 215.9). See Cadoux (n. 18), 83, n. 2; Franco (n. 16), 415 and 440.

42 As in the Archilocheion at Paros. See D. Clay, Archilochos Heros. The Cult of Poets in the Greek Polis (London and Cambridge, MA, 2004).

43 ἡ σύνο- / δος τῶν νέων καὶ οἱ ὑ- / μνῳδοί (I.Smyrna 208.6–9). See also Cic. Flac. 31.75 (state funeral of a Roman citizen). For Mimnermus’ poems, see Allen, A., The Fragments of Mimnermus. Text and Commentary (Stuttgart, 1993)Google Scholar. On Mimnermus in public festivals, see Bowie, E. L. ‘Early Greek Elegy, Symposium, and Public Festival’, JHS 106 (1986), 27–9Google Scholar.

44 πήχυιον ἐπὶ χρόνον ἄνθεσιν ἥβης / τερπόμεθα (Mimn. fr. 2.3–4); ὀλιγοχρόνιος γίγνεται ὥσπερ ὄναρ / ἥβη τιμήεσσα (Mimn. fr. 5.4–5); τεθναίην ὅτε μοι μηκέτι ταῦτα μέλοι, / κρυπταδίη ϕιλότης καὶ μείλιχα δῶρα καὶ εὐνή, / οἷ᾽ ἥβης ἄνθ εα γίγνεται ἁρπαλέα (Mimn. fr. 1.2–3). On Mimnermus at symposia of young people, see Slings, S. R., Symposium. Speech and Ideology. Two Hermeneutical Issues in Early Greek Lyric, with Special Reference to Mimnermus (Amsterdam, 2000), 25–8Google Scholar.

45 Delorme (n. 40), 316–36; specifically on the νέοι, see Korenjak (n. 37), 46–8.

46 Or. 22.21, 32.24. On the Smyrnaeans as descendants of Homer, see Or. 18.2.

47 Ὁμηρείῳ [γε]ρ̣ο̣υ̣σ̣ί̣ᾳ̣ (I.Smyrna 214.11); οἱ ὑμνῳδοὶ / τῆς γερουσίας (I.Smyrna 644.17–18). On Scopelianus’ epic compositions and the Homereion, see Philostr. V S 1.21.518; also I.Smyrna 206.8, 210.15, 211.8, 211.15, 212.10–11, and 891. The Homereion had a gymnasium (I.Smyrna 697.16–17) and a library (Strab. 14.1.37). See also Sánchez Hernández, J. P., ‘Scopelianus and the Homerids: Notes on Philostratus’ Lives of the Sophists (V S 1.21.518)’, Mnemosyne 64 (2011), 455–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

48 The sophist Heraclides paid for the construction of a fountain for olive oil and a golden roof for the gymnasium of the Asklepieion (Philostr. V S 2.26. 2), perhaps in imitation of the main anointing room of the gymnasium for the γερουσία (I.Smyrna 697.16–17). See Yegül (n. 40), 306.

49 λυσιτελεῖν τοῖς νέοις μαθημάτων ἕνεκα τολμᾶν προΐεσθαι (Or. 32.16). See also Vix (n. 10), 386 and 531, n. 275.

50 For Alexander of Cotiaeum on Homer and Pindar and the sophists, see Or. 32.24 and 32.26 K. On Alexander, see Vix (n. 10), 373–89. On Homer and Pindar in sophistic education, see Marrou (n. 1), 229–64; Cribiore (n. 1), 185–219. For Aelius Aristides and Ancient Greek lyric, see E. L. Bowie, ‘Aristides and Early Greek Lyric, Elegiac and Iambic Poetry’, in Harris and Holmes (n. 11), 9–30. See also Vix (n. 10), 350–1.

51 Metrodorus (Or. 47.42 K) and Hermocrates of Rhodes (Or. 50.23–4). For the importance of poetry in the lives of the sophists in this period, see Bowie, E., ‘Greek Sophists and Greek Poetry in the Second Sophistic’, ANRW 33.1 (1989), 209–58Google Scholar.

52 On the lost poetic production of Aristides, see Robert, F., Les œuvres perdues d'Aelius Aristide: fragments et témoignages (Paris 2012), 527–66Google Scholar.

53 Compare Or. 50.31 (fr. 30 Behr) and PO 2.1. See Robert (n. 54), 528–33.

54 Or. 50.38. On this therapy see also Nicosia (n. 5), 18, n. 53.

55 Or. 50.39 = frs. 25, 32, 36–42 Behr. See Robert (n. 54), 540–1.

56 Or. 50.43–5 = fr. 29 Behr. As a memorial of his triumph, he dedicated a tripod with an elegiac couplet: Or. 50.45. See Robert (n. 54), 537–40.

57 Or. 49.4.

58 Or. 47.30. See Bowie (n. 53), 214–20; Bowie, E. ‘Choral Performances’, in Konstan, D. and Saïd, S. (eds.), Greeks on Greekness. Viewing the Greek Past under the Roman Empire (Cambridge, 2006), 73–7Google Scholar.

59 Philostr. V S 530. συνυμνῳδοῖς θεοῦ Ἁδριανοῦ (ISmyrna 595.16–17). On the parallel between Aristides’ poetry and the ὑμνῳδοί, see Bowie (n. 60), 90–2.

60 For example, the worship of Zeus and Hecate in Panamara (I.Str. 1101.7–10) was enhanced during the second century with choruses of boys, in the company of their supervisor (παιδονόμος), performing in the Council Chamber a song composed by the secretary (γραμματεύς).

61 ἵκεσθε Περγάμῳ νέοι. See above, n. 57.

62 ἡ σύνοδος τῶν νέων (I.Smyrna 209 and 208.6–7).

63 A further emendation of the law (Dig. 27.1.6.10) also permitted exemptions for a number of individuals of outstanding merit (οἱ ἄγαν ἐπιστήμονες) without the burden of teaching. Judging from the words of the imperial letter (τὴν ἀτέλειαν…τὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς λόγοις; Or. 50.75), Aristides was probably included within this category. See Behr (n. 2 [1968]), 78, n. 58.

64 ἡ ἱερὰ σύνοδος τῶν πε- / ρὶ τὸν Βρεισέα Διόνυσον / τεχνειτῶν καὶ μυστῶν (I.Smyrna 639.1–3); …ἡ σύνοδος τῶν μυστῶν τῆς μεγάλης θεᾶς πρὸ πόλε- / ως θεσμοϕόρου Δήμητρος (I.Smyrna 655.1–2).

65 ὦ πάντα ὑπομείνας ἐγὼ, ποῦ γῆς νυνὶ μονῳδῶ; ποῦ μοι τὸ βουλευτήριον; ποῦ νέων καὶ πρεσβυτέρων σύνοδοι καὶ θόρυβοι διδόντων ἅπαντα.