Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

ARISTOMENES

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 498 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

ARISTOMENES , of Andania, the semi-legendary See also:

hero of the second Messenian See also:war. He was a member of the Aepytid See also:family, the son of Nicomedes (or, according to another version, of See also:Pyrrhus) and Nicoteleia, and took a prominent See also:part in stirring up the revolt against See also:Sparta and securing the co-operation of See also:Argos and See also:Arcadia. He showed such heroism in the first en-See also:counter, at Derae, that the See also:crown was offered him, but he would accept only the See also:title of See also:commander-in-See also:chief. His daring is illustrated by the See also:story that he came by See also:night to the See also:temple of Athene " of the Brazen See also:House " at Sparta, and there set up his See also:shield with the inscription, "Dedicated to the goddess by Aristomenes from the Spartans." His prowess contributed largely to the Messenian victory over the Spartan and Corinthian forces at " The See also:Boar's See also:Barrow " in the See also:plain of Stenyclarus, but in the following See also:year the treachery of the Arcadian See also:king Aristocrates caused the Messenians to suffer a crushing defeat at " The See also:Great See also:Trench." Aristomenes and the survivors retired to the See also:mountain stronghold of Eira, where they defied the Spartans for eleven years. On one of his raids he and fifty of his companions were captured and thrown into the Caeadas, the chasm on Mt. See also:Taygetus into which criminals were See also:cast. Aristomenes alone was saved, and soon reappeared at Eira: See also:legend told how he was upheld in his fall by an See also:eagle and escaped by grasping the tail of a See also:fox, which led him to the hole by which it had entered. On another occasion he was captured during a truce by some Cretan auxiliaries of the Spartans, and was released only by the devotion of a Messenian girl who afterwards became his daughter-in-See also:law. At length Eira was betrayed to the Spartans (668 B.C. according to See also:Pausanias), and after a heroic resistance Aristomenes and his followers had to evacuate See also:Messenia and seek a temporary See also:refuge with their Arcadian See also:allies. A desperate See also:plan to seize Sparta itself was foiled by Aristocrates, who paid with his See also:life for his treachery. Aristomenes retired to Ialysus in See also:Rhodes, where Damagetus, his son-in-law, was king, and died there while planning a See also:journey to See also:Sardis and See also:Ecbatana to seek aid from the Lydian and Median sovereigns (Pausanias iv. 14-24).

Another tradition represents him as captured and slain by the Spartans during the war (See also:

Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi. 187; Val. See also:Maximus i. 8, 15; Steph. Byzant. s.v. 'Avbavla). Though there seems to be no conclusive See also:reason for doubting the existence of Aristomenes, his See also:history, as related by Pausanias, following mainly the Messeniaca of the Cretan epic poet Rhianus (about 230 s.c.), is evidently largely interwoven with See also:fictions. These probably arose after the See also:foundation of See also:Messene in 369 B.C. Aristomenes' statue was set up in the See also:stadium there: his bones were fetched from Rhodes and placed in a See also:tomb surmounted by a See also:column (Pans. iv. 32. 3, 6); and more than five centuries later we still find heroic honours paid to him, and his exploits a popular subject of See also:song (ib. iv.

14. 7; 16. 6). For further details see Pausanias iv.; See also:

Polyaenus ii. 31; G. See also:Grote, History of See also:Greece, pt. ii. See also:chap. vii. ; M. See also:Duncker, History of Greece, Eng. trans., See also:book iv. chap. viii. ; A. Holm, History of Greece, Eng. trans., vol. i. chap. xvi. (M. N.

T.) 498 peoples who were inferior by nature and adapted to submission (riUo i boi Xo) ; such See also:

people had no " virtue " in the technical civic sense, and were properly occupied in performing the See also:menial functions of society, under the See also:control of the apuvrot. Thus, combined with the criteria of descent, civic status and the ownership of the See also:land, there was the further See also:idea of intellectual and social superiority. These qualifications were naturally, in course of See also:time, shared by an increasingly large number of the See also:lower class who See also:broke down the barriers of See also:wealth and See also:education. From this See also:stage the transition is easy to the See also:aristocracy of wealth, such as we find at See also:Carthage and later at See also:Venice, in periods when the importance of See also:commerce was See also:paramount and See also:mercantile pursuits had cast off the stigma of inferiority (in Gr. (3avavvda). It is important at this stage to distinguish between aristocracy and the feudal governments of See also:medieval See also:Europe. In these it is true that certain See also:power was exercised by a small number of families, at the expense of the See also:majority. But under this See also:system each See also:noble governed in a particular See also:area and within strict limitations imposed by his See also:sovereign; no sovereign authority was vested in the nobles collectively. Under the conditions of the See also:present See also:day the distinction of aristocracy, See also:democracy and See also:monarchy cannot be rigidly maintained from a purely governmental point of view. In no See also:case does the sovereign power in a See also:state reside any longer in an aristocracy, and the word has acquired a social rather than a See also:political sense as practically See also:equivalent to " See also:nobility," though the distinction is sometimes See also:drawn between the " aristocracy of See also:birth " and the " aristocracy of wealth." See also:Modern history, however, furnishes many examples of See also:government in the hands of an aristocracy. Such were the aristocratic republics of Venice, See also:Genoa and the Dutch See also:Netherlands, and those of the See also:free imperial cities in See also:Germany, Such, too, in practice though not in theory, was the government of Great See also:Britain from the Revolution of 1689 to the Reform See also:Bill of 1832. The See also:French nobles of the Ancien Regime, denounced as " aristocrats " by the Revolutionists, had no See also:share as such in government, but enjoyed exceptional privileges (e.g. exemption from See also:taxation).

This privileged position is still enjoyed by the heads of the See also:

German mediatized families of the " High Nobility." In Great Britain, on the other See also:hand, though the aristocratic principle is still represented in the constitution by the House of Lords, the "aristocracy" generally, apart from the peers, has no See also:special privileges.

End of Article: ARISTOMENES

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
ARISTOLOCHIA (Gr. apwros, best, Xoxeia, child-birth... 		[next]
ARISTONICUS

Site © 2006 - Net Industries