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Publius Aelius Aristides Theodorus (; 117–181 CE) was a Greek orator and author considered to be a prime example of the Second Sophistic, a group of celebrated and highly influential orators who flourished from the reign of Nero until c. 230 CE. More than fifty of his orations and other works survive, dating from the reigns of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. His early success was interrupted by a decades-long series of illnesses for which he sought relief by divine communion with the god Asclepius, effected by interpreting and obeying the dreams that came to him while sleeping in the god’s sacred precinct; he later recorded this experience in a series of discourses titled ''Sacred Tales (Hieroi Logoi)''. In later life he resumed his career as an orator, achieving such notable success that Philostratus would declare that “Aristides was of all the sophists most deeply versed in his art.”〔Wright, II.9.〕 ==Life== Aristides was born at Hadriani in northern Mysia. His father, a wealthy landowner, arranged for Aristides to have the finest education available. Aristides first studied under Alexander of Cotiaeum (later a tutor of Marcus Aurelius) at Smyrna, then traveled to various cities to learn from the foremost sophists of the day, including a stay in Athens to hear Herodes Atticus. The capstone of his education was a trip to Egypt in 141 CE. Along the way he began his career as an orator, declaiming at Cos, Cnidis, Rhodes, and Alexandria. His travels in Egypt included a journey upriver in hopes of finding the source of the Nile, as he later recounted in "The Egyptian Discourse." Becoming ill, he returned home to Smyrna, and sought to cure himself by turning to the Egyptian god Serapis (as recounted in his earliest preserved speech, "Regarding Serapis"). Hoping to advance his career as an orator, late in 143 CE Aristides traveled to Rome, but his ambitions were thwarted by severe illness. He returned home to Smyrna. Seeking relief, he eventually turned to Asclepius, “the paramount healing god of the ancient world,” and traveled to the god’s temple in Pergamum, “one of the chief healing sites in the ancient world,” where “incubants” slept on the temple grounds, then recorded their dreams in search of prescriptions from the god; for Aristides, these included fasting, unusual diets, bloodletting, enemas, vomiting, and refraining from bathing or bathing in frigid rivers.〔Behr (1986), p. 1-2.〕 Despite recurrent bouts of illness, by 147 CE Aristides resumed his career as a writer and occasional lecturer, though he sought legal immunity from various civic and religious obligations expected of a citizen of his standing. By 154 CE he felt well enough to resume his career on a full scale, including lecture tours to Greece and to Rome, where, in the presence of the imperial court, he delivered what was to become his most famous speech, "Regarding Rome."〔Behr (1968), p. 88.〕 He also took pupils, the most famous being the sophist Damianus. In 165 CE, Aristides succumbed to the so-called Antonine Plague that ravaged the Roman Empire. He survived, but became less active and renewed his devotion to Asclepius. In 171 CE he set about writing the ''Sacred Tales'' to record the numerous omens and insights he had received from Asclepius in his dreams over a period of almost thirty years. His greatest career success came in 176 CE, when Marcus Aurelius visited Smyrna and Aristides delivered an oration that greatly impressed the emperor.〔Wright, II.9.〕 His greatest civic success followed in 177 CE when an earthquake destroyed Smyrna; Aristides wrote an appeal to Marcus Aurelius that was so instrumental in securing imperial funds for rebuilding that Philostratus would write, “To say that Aristides founded Smyrna is no mere boastful eulogy but most just and true.”〔Wright, II.9.〕 A bronze statue of Aristides was set up in the marketplace of Smyrna, inscribed, “For his goodness and speeches.”〔Behr (1968), p. 111, note 64.〕 Aristides spent his last years in seclusion at his country estates in Mysia, dying in 181 CE. Living a generation after Aristides, the most famous physician of antiquity, Galen, wrote: “As to them whose souls are naturally strong and whose bodies are weak, I have seen only a few of them. One of them was Aristides… () belonged to the most prominent rank of orators. Thus it happened to him, since he was active in teaching and speaking throughout his life, that his whole body wasted away.”〔Behr (1968), p. 162.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Aelius Aristides」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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