ARISTEAS, the pseudonymous author of a famous Letter in which is described, in legendary form, the origin of the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint (q.v.). Aristeas represents himself as a Gentile Greek, but was really an Alexandrian Jew who lived under one of the later Ptolemies. Though the Letter is unauthentic, it is now recognized as a useful source of information concerning both Egyptian and Palestinian affairs in the 2nd and possibly in the 3rd century B.C.
See modern editions of the Greek by H. St. J. Thackeray (in Swete's Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, Cambridge, 19oo), and by P. Wendland (Leipzig, 190o) ; and H. St. J. Thackeray, The Letter of Aristeas (1917), translation with critical introduction and bibli ography.