Arius was a citizen of
Alexandria. Areius as well as his two sons, Dionysius and Nicanor, are said to have instructed Augustus himself in philosophy, and Areius for a time resided directly within Augustus's household. He is frequently mentioned by the philosopher
Themistius, who says that Augustus valued Areius not less than
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, who is commonly thought of as Augustus's confidant and right-hand man (though it must be mentioned that Themistius was writing four hundred years after the fact).
Augustus esteemed him so highly, that after the conquest of Alexandria, he declared that he spared the city chiefly for the sake of Arius. According to
Plutarch, Arius advised Augustus to execute
Caesarion, the son of
Cleopatra and
Julius Caesar, with the words "ouk agathon polukaisarie" ("it is not good to have too many Caesars"), a pun on a line in
Homer. Modern scholars disagree over whether this was the actual reason Augustus spared the city, as at the same time Augustus claimed he was also doing it to honor the memory of
Alexander the Great, and some scholars also suggest that he did it to curry favor with that city's elite. Arius as well as his two sons, Dionysius and Nicanor, are said to have instructed Augustus in
philosophy. He is frequently mentioned by
Themistius, who says that Augustus valued him not less than
Agrippa. He is presumably the "Arius" whose
Life was among those in the missing final section of book VII of the
Lives of
Diogenes Laërtius. Others sources state that he was offered the post of
Praefectus or governor of Egypt, but that Areius turned Augustus down in order to take a post in the province of
Sicilia, though modern scholars have some doubt about this anecdote (primarily because there are no other examples of anyone being "offered" a post by Augustus and having turned him down). It has been suggested that this story was state propaganda to justify Augustus's removal of Areius from the province of Egypt and installation of
Cornelius Gallus as Praefectus. it appears that Areius also taught or wrote on rhetoric. ==Philosophy==