Scanned text contains errors.
292
AEtSTARCHtiS.
whereas its real value is less than a right angle by about half a minute only; and hence he infers that the distance of the sun is between eighteen and twenty times greater than that of the moon, whereas the true ratio is about twenty times as great, the distances being to one another nearly as 400 to 1. The ratio of the true diameters of the sun and moon would follow immediately from that of their distances, if their apparent (angular) diameters were known. Aristarchus assumes that their apparent diameters are equal, which is nearly true; but estimates their common value at two degrees, which is nearly four times too great. The theory of parallax was as yet unknown, and hence, in order to compare the diameter of the earth with the magnitudes already mentioned, he compares the diameter of the moon with that of the earth's shadow in its neighbourhood, and assumes the latter to be twice as great as the former. (Its mean value is about 84'.) Of course all the numerical results deduced from these assumptions are, like the one first mentioned, very erroneous. The geometrical processes employed shew that nothing like trigonometry was known. No attempt is made to assign the absolute values of the magnitudes whose ratios are investigated; in fact, this could not be done without an actual measurement of the earth—an operation which seems to have been first attempted on scientific principles in the next.generation. [eratosthenes.] Aristarchus does not explain his method of determining the apparent diameters of the sun and of the earth's shadow; but the latter must have been deduced from observations of lunar eclipses, and the former may probably have been observed by means of the skaphium by a method described by Macrobius. (Somn. Scip. i. 20.) This instrument is said to have been invented by Aristarchus (Vitruv. ix. 9): it consisted of an improved gnomon [anaximan-der], the shadow being received not upon a horizontal plane, but upon a concave hemispherical surface having the extremity of the style'at its centre, so that angles might be measured directly by arcs instead of by their tangents. The gross error in the value attributed to the sun's apparent diameter is remarkable; it appears, however, that Aristarchus must afterwards have adopted a much more correct estimate, since Archimedes in the il/a/u/aiTys (Wallis, Op. vol. iii. p. 515) refers to a treatise in which he made it only half a degree. Pappus, whose commentary en the book Trepl ^€76-Qu>v, &c. is extant, does not notice this emendation, whence it has been conjectured, that the other works of Aristarchus did not exist in his time, having perhaps perished with the Alexandrian library.
It has been the common opinion, at least in modern times, that Aristarchus agreed with Philolaus and other astronomers of the Pythagorean school in considering the sun to be fixed, and attributing a motion to the earth, Plutarch (defac. in orb. lunt p. 922) says, that Cleanthes thought that Aristarchus ought to be accused of impiety for supposing (,u7roTi0ejuez'os), that the heavens were at rest, and that the earth moved in an oblique circle, and also about its own axis (the true reading is evidently KAeaj/07js (pero SeiV 'ApiVrapxov, k. r. A.); and Diogenes Laertius, in his list of the works of Cleanthes mentions one irpos *Api(rrapXQv. (See also S.ext. Einpir. adv. Math p. 410, c,; Stobaeus, i. 26.) Archimedes,, in the Tj/a/x/xmjs (/. c.), refers to the
ARIST'EAS,
same theory. (vTroriderai yap, k, r. A.) But the treatise irepl /j-eyeBoov contains not a word upon the subject, nor does Ptolemy allude to it when he maintains the immobility of the earth. It seema therefore probable, that Aristarchus adopted it rather as a hypothesis for particular purposes than as a statement of the actual system of the universe, In fact, Plutarch, in another place (Plat. Quaest* p. 1006) expressly says, that Aristarchus taught it only hypothetically. On this question, see Schau-bach. (Gesch. d. Griecli. Astronomic, p. 468, &c.) It appears from the passage in the if/a/^uMs alluded to above, that Aristarchus had much juster views than his predecessors concerning the extent of the universe. He maintained, namely, that the sphere of the fixed stars was so large, that it bore to the orbit of the earth the relation of a sphere to its centre. What he meant by the expression, is not clear : it may be interpreted as an anticipation of modern discoveries, but in this sense it could express only a conjecture which the observations of the age were not accurate enough either to confirm or refute—a remark which is equally applicable to the theory of the earth's motion. Whatever may be the truth on these points, it is probable that even the opinion, that the sun was nearly twenty times as distant as the moon, indicates a great step in advance of the popular doctrines.
Censorimis (de Die Natali, c. 18) attributes to Aristarchus the invention of the magnus annus of
2484 years.
A Latin translation of the treatise irepl ^y^QSiv was published by Geor. Valla, Venet. 1498, and another by Commandine, Pisauri, 1572. The Greek text, with a Latin translation and the com mentary of Pappus, was edited by Wallis, Oxon. 1688, and reprinted in vol. iii. of his works. There is also a French translation, and an edition of the text? Paris, 1810. (Delambre, Hist, de VAstronomie Ancienne, liv. i. chap. 5 and 9 ; La place, Syst. du Monde, p. 381; Schaubach in Ersch and Gruber's Encydopadie.} [W. F. D.j
ARISTARCHUS ('Apurrapxos) of tegea, a tragic poet at Athens, was contemporary with Euripides, and flourished about 454 b. c. He lived to the age of a hundred. Out of seventy tragedies which he exhibited, only two obtained the prize. (Suidas, s. v.; Euseb. -Chron. Armen.} Nothing remains of his works; except a few lines (Stobaeus, Tit. 63. § 9, tit. 120. § 2; Athen, xiii. p. 612, f.)3 and the titles of three of his plays namely, the 'AcrtfA^Taos,, which he is said to havt written and named after the god in gratitude fo.1 his recovery from illness (Suidas), the 'A^tAAeus which Ennius translated into Latin (Festus, s. v prolato aere], and the TdvraXos. (Stobaeus, ii
1. § L) [P. S.]
ARISTARETE, a painter, the daughter an-pupil of Nearchus, was celebrated for her pictur of Aesculapius. (Plin. xxxv. 40. § 4-3.) [P. S. ARI'STEAS ('Apto-reas-), of Proconnesus, a so of Caystrobius or Demochares, was an epic poe who flourished, according to Suidas, about th time of Croesus and Cyrus. The accounts of h life are as fabulous as those about Abaris the Hype borean. According to a tradition, which Herod tus (iv. 15) heard at Metapontum, in southe] Italy, he re-appeared ^here among the living 34 years after his death, and according to this trac tion Aristeas would belong to the eighth or nin century before the Christian era; and there a
