Greece -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
witness to the truth of this, on behalf of Kallias, there was no one
who heard him but left the court wishing rather to be poor like
Aristeides than rich like Kallias. This story is preserved by
Æschines, the companion of Sokrates.
Plato considers that this man alone, of all the great men of Athens,
is worthy of mention by him. Themistokles, and Kimon, and Perikles,
did indeed fill the city with public buildings, and money, and folly,
but Aristeides in his political acts cared for nothing but virtue.
One great proof of this is his kindly treatment of Themistokles.
Though this man was his enemy throughout, and was the cause of his
banishment by ostracism, yet when Themistokles gave him an opportunity
of revenging himself in a similar manner he never remembered the
injuries which he had received at his hands, but while Kimon, and
Alkmæon, and many others, were endeavouring to drive him into exile
and bringing all kinds of accusations against him, Aristeides alone
never did or said anything against him, and did not rejoice over the
spectacle of his enemy's ruin, just as he never envied his previous
prosperity.
XXVI. Some writers say that Aristeides died in Pontus, to which
country he had been sent on matters of state: while others say that he
died of old age at Athens, respected and honoured by all his
countrymen there. Kraterus of Macedonia tells us the following
particulars about his end. After Themistokles went into exile the
common people grew insolent and produced a numerous brood of
informers, who constantly assailed the noblest and most powerful
citizens through envy of their prosperity and influence. One of these
men, Diophantus of Amphitrope by name, obtained a verdict against
Aristeides on a charge of receiving bribes. It was stated that when he
was regulating the assessment of the Ionians he received money from
them to tax them more lightly. As he was unable to pay the fine of
fifty minæ, which the court laid upon him, he left Athens and died
somewhere in Ionia. But Kraterus offers no documentary evidence of
this, neither of the sentence of his condemnation nor the decree of
the people, although in general it is his habit to quote his authority
for statements of this kind. And almost all others who have spoken of
the harsh treatment of generals by the people mention the banishment
of Themistokles, the imprisonment of Miltiades, the fine imposed on
Perikles, and the suicide of Paches in court when sentence was
pronounced against him, but although they speak of the banishment of
Aristeides, they never allude to this trial and sentence upon him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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