Origin and name. Aelius Aristides was born around 117 CE at Hadrianoi (Hadrianoutherai) in Mysia, in the north-western part of Asia Minor (other sources put him at his father's estate near Hadrianoi, others at Smyrna; the exact place of birth is contested). The tria nomina P. Aelius Aristides Theodorus indicates Roman citizenship received by the family under Hadrian (whence the nomen Aelius — the imperial name). His father Eudaemon was a local landowner and priest of Olympian Zeus.

Education. He studied under several grammarians and rhetors in Phrygia and at Athens, including under Alexander of Cotiaeum — the principal grammarian and Homeric scholar of his generation and subsequently Marcus's teacher. This link between Aristides and Alexander is the only documented case in which a teacher of Marcus's appears separately as the instructor of a major literary figure of the age. On Aristides's own testimony, he was a hard-working pupil, deeply dependent on his teachers; Alexander is a figure for whom Aristides preserved a steady reverence.

Illness and the cult of Asclepius. From about 144 CE, Aristides suffered from a heavy and prolonged illness (its exact nature is debated — perhaps a psychosomatic complex with somatic complications), and spent about two decades at Pergamum, at its temple of Asclepius, for his treatment. This period is documented in his own writings — the Sacred Tales (Ἱεροὶ Λόγοι, Or. 47–52 in the standard numbering) — a unique corpus of religious-medical self-description from antiquity. The Sacred Tales contain details of incubation dreams in which the god Asclepius prescribed remedies, regimen, and physical exercises; this is a direct parallel to what Marcus himself says in 01-17 about "remedies through dreams at Caieta."

Oratorical career. Apart from the Sacred Tales, Aristides is the author of about fifty oratorical works (the complete collection survives thanks to the Byzantine manuscript tradition). The principal genres:

• Panegyrics, including the "Roman Oration" (Εἰς Ῥώμην, Or. 26) — perhaps the most famous contemporary panegyric on Roman power, delivered around 144 CE or somewhat later, under Antoninus Pius.
• City-orations in honour of major poleis (Smyrna, Athens, Cyzicus).
• Polemical works against Platonist critics of rhetoric (two large speeches "Against Plato" in defence of rhetoric).
• Hymns in prose to the gods (to Zeus, Athena, Serapis).
• Encomiastic and funeral orations, including the Ἐπιτάφιος εἰς Ἀλέξανδρον (the Funeral Oration for Alexander) — the speech in honour of the death of Alexander the Grammarian, numbered Or. 32 in Behr's standard numbering, though for the precise correspondence of the number to this speech in different editions it is better to consult directly (the Dindorf numbering differs).

Aristides is not named directly by Marcus. The connections arise through the commentary:

• 01-10 — Aristides as another pupil of Alexander the Grammarian and author of his funeral oration (the Funeral Oration for Alexander, Or. 32 Behr).
• 01-16 — Aristides's "Roman Oration" (Or. 26), a panegyric contemporary with the reign of Antoninus Pius; a parallel to Marcus's portrait of Antoninus.
• 01-17 — Aristides's Sacred Tales as the principal background for the line on "remedies given through dreams at Caieta."

• Aristides, Opera Omnia — the standard editions are Dindorf (Leipzig 1829) and the more recent Keil + Lenz–Behr; Russian translations are fragmentary (S. I. Radzig and others; no complete translation exists).
• C. A. Behr, Aelius Aristides and the Sacred Tales, Amsterdam 1968 — the standard monograph on the Sacred Tales.
• C. A. Behr (tr.), P. Aelius Aristides: The Complete Works, 2 vols., Leiden 1981–1986 — the English translation of the whole corpus.
• L. Pernot, Rhétorique de l'éloge dans le monde gréco-romain, Paris 1993 — a fundamental study of the panegyric genre of the Antonine age, with sections on Aristides.
• Philostratus, Vitae Sophistarum, book 2 (the vita of Aristides) — the principal ancient vita.