Aristion

Aristion (Greek: Άριστίων; died 1 March 86 BC in Athens) was a philosopher who became tyrant of Athens from 88 BC until he was executed in 86 BC. Aristion joined forces with King Mithridates VI of Pontus against Greece's overlords, the Romans, fighting alongside Pontic forces during the First Mithridatic War, but to no avail. On 1 March 86 BC, after a long and destructive siege, Athens was taken by the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who had Aristion executed.

==Life== Aristion's early history is preserved by Athenaeus on the authority of Posidonius. Posidonius calls him Athenion and makes him a Peripatetic philosopher, whereas others, Pausanias, Appian, and Plutarch, call him Aristion, and Appian calls him an Epicurean philosopher. There is no universally accepted resolution to this confusion, and it is possible that two separate tyrants held power in Athens in quick succession during the First Mithridatic War, whose stories became conflated together. This is the most commonly accepted explanation for the confusion between the two figures. Athenion was likely an Athenian citizen and Peripatetic philosopher elected as a hoplite general in 88 BC. Aristion is a fellow Peripatetic philosopher who seized the reigns of Athenian government in c. 88 BC.