[1][2] 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).
[3] Augustus esteemed him so highly, that after the conquest of Alexandria, he declared that he spared the city chiefly for the sake of Arius.
[12] He is presumably the "Arius" whose Life was among those in the missing final section of book VII of the Lives of Diogenes Laërtius.
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.
[19] That his full name is Arius Didymus we know from Eusebius, who quotes two long passages of his concerning Stoic views on God; the conflagration of the Universe; and the soul.