Aristides

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

an Athenian philosopher, who became a Christian, without, however, forsaking his original profession. He presented to the Emperor Adrian, at the same time with Quadratus, an Apology for the Christian Faith, which existed in the time of Eusebius and Jerome, and even as late as that of Usuardus, and Addo of Vienne, if the account given of the passion of St. Dionysius the Areopagite may be relied on. Aristides flourished about A.D. 123. Jerome says that his Apology was filled with passages from the writings of the philosophers, and that Justin afterward made much use of it. He is commemorated August 31st. — Cave, Hist. Lit. anno 123; Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. 4, cap. 3; Lardner, Works, 2, 308; Fabricius, Bibl. Grac. 6, 39.