“I Also Have to Dialogue with the Posterity”. Aelius Aristides’ Legacy to the Late Antiquity

The paper examines the possible reasons for the extraordinary popularity of Aelius Aristides in Late Antiquity and in the Byzantine Age. In this perspective, the paper follows a new approach, since Aristides’ fortune has in general been observed as a matter of fact, rather than a problematic issue. The reasons of Aristides’ success can thus be grouped in five main domains: 1, Aristides’ mysticism and his claimed inspiration by a unique god, Asclepius, an approach understandable by both pagan and Christian readers; 2: the fact that his public self-presentation as an ill and suffering orator (which, in itself, was appropriate to the context of the sanctuaries of Asclepius) was apparently appreciated by later Christian readers, as far as it offered a good model for representing ‘worldly pains’; 3: the constant dialogue, in his works, with the most influential philosopher of Late Antiquity, Plato, and with the Platonists of his time; 4: the fact that he became a sort of new and up-to-date Demosthenes; 5: the fact that he rapidly became a major model for rhetorical theory and practice in various types of praise speeches, also thanks to his Atticism, his style, as well as for his piety and moderate vision of ethics.