Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/565

Rh ARISTIDES 505 very poor, and never enriched himself at the expense of the state. His poverty, however, seems scarcely reconcilable with the fact that he was made archon at a time when the pos session of a certain amount of property was an indispensable qualification for that office. But extremely little is known of his early life. So far as political tendencies went, he had been a companion and follower of Clisthenes, and it is also told that he had a great veneration for the character and legislation of Lycurgus. He, therefore, naturally took the aristocratic side in questions of state policy, and conse quently found himself incessantly opposed to the great democratic leader, Themistocles. Plutarch relates many anecdotes of the constant opposition between the two, but in several points his account must be inaccurate.! The first certain appearance of Aristides in history was at the battle of Marathon, 490 B.C., where he was one of the ten generals, and led his own tribe, Antiochis. He is said to have been second in command to Miltiades. Accord ing to custom each of the ten generals had supreme com mand of the whole army for one day ; Aristides saw the disadvantages of this system, which totally prevented any fixed plan being carried out, and by his advice and example prevailed on the other generals to relinquish their right in favour of Miltiades. This prudent measure contributed largely to the success of the battle, in which also, according to Plutarch, much was due to the valour of Aristides. He was left with one tribe to collect the spoil from the field of battle, while Miltiades marched to Athens to protect the city from the Persian fleet. He discharged the duty intrusted to him with the most scrupulous honesty. Next year he was made archon eponymus, and his reputation for justice appears to have been increased by the manner in which he performed the duties of his office. But his great rival, Themistocles, who had been meanwhile increas ing his own power, grew jealous, and gradually raised a strong feeling against him by representing how dangerous it was for a democracy that any individual should be allowed to gain such influence as that of Aristides. The Athenians, uneasy at this idea, banished him by ostracism in 483. It is said that, on this occasion, an ignorant fellow, who did not know Aristides, came up to him, and, giving him his shell, desired him to write upon it the name of Aristides. The latter asked in surprise if Aristides had done him any wrong. &quot; No,&quot; was the reply, &quot;and I do not even know him, but it irritates me to hear him everywhere called the just.&quot; Aristides made no answer, but took the shell and wrote his own name on it. On the night before the battle of Salamis, Aristides, who was still in exile, made a perilous journey through the enemy s fleet, and reached the tent of Themistocles. He told him that he had come to bury in oblivion their former differences ; that he had learned his plan for giving battle to the Persian fleet in the narrow straits of Salamis, and highly approved of it; and that he would assist him to the utmost of his ability. By his influence the other generals were induced to assent to the plans of Themistocles, of whom they were somewhat jealous. On the day of battle, Aristides collected some Athenian volunteers, and made a descent on the little island of Psyttalea, which was filled with the forces of the enemy. These he routed and almost annihilated. After the victory of Salamis he dissuaded Themistocles from his ambitious plan of con quering Asia by destroying the bridge which the Persians had built over the Hellespont, and thereby cutting off their communications. About this time his sentence of exile appears to have been revoked, for in 479 he was general of the Athenians i:i the campaign against Mardonius, and shared with Pausanias the glory of the victory at Plataea. By his prudent counsels before the battle, he settled a dangerous dispute with the Tegetse ; and after the victory, when the Athenians and Lacedaemonians were contending as to the right of erecting the trophy, he prevailed on the Athenians to give up their claim. The Lacedaemonians immediately followed this example, and the honours of the day were given to the Plataeans. He also instituted yearly sacrifices and quinquennial games at Plataea, to celebrate the victory over the barbarians and the liberation of Greece. On hU return to Athens, Aristides introduced the famous measure by which the archonship was thrown open to all classes of citizens. In 477, he was sent along with Cimon, over whom he had great influence, to take command of the Athenian contingent, under the general command of Pau sanias the Lacedaemonian. The haughtiness and oppressive conduct of the Spartans had disgusted the allies, who were completely won over by the mildness and prudence of Aristides and Cimon. In a body the allied Greeks threw off the hegemony of Sparta, and formed a confederation under the Athenians. To Aristides was committed the task of drawing up the hvws for this confederacy, and settling the amount of tribute which should be paid by each state. This duty he discharged to the complete satisfaction of the allies, who were delighted to be assessed at only 460 talents. The first instalment of the tax was paid into the national treasury, then situated on the sacred island of Delos, but afterwards transferred to Athens, a measure which Aristides is said to have declared unjust but expe dient. The time and place of his death are uncertain. It is known, at least, that he survived the banishment of Themi stocles, for his generous conduct towards his fallen rival is commemorated by Plutarch. He died, probably, about 468 B.C., according to some at Athens, according to others at Pontus. He is said to have died in such poverty that he did not leave enough to defray his funeral expenses, but had a tomb erected to him with funds from the public treasury. This tomb at Phalerum was still to be seen in the time of Plutarch. His daughters received marriage portions from the state, and his son, Lysimachus, was granted a sum of money and a portion of land. Such was the respect of the Athenians for the memory of their great statesman, that even his remote descendants are said to have received assistance from the public treasury. ARISTIDES, ^ELius, surnamed Theodorus, a distin guished Greek rhetorician or sophist, was the son of Eudao mon, a priest of Zeus, and was born at Adriani, in Mysia. The date of his birth is given by some as 129 A.D., by others, with more probability, as 117. He studied with great assiduity, and early manifested an uncommon aptitude for all that pertained to the art of rhetoric. He travelled extensively through Greece, Italy, Egypt, and Asia, and acquired such renown for eloquence that monuments were erected to him in several of the towns through which ho passed. A record of his journeys has been preserved by himself, and his vanity appears to have been increased to an inordinate extent by his success. Shortly after his return to Italy, he was seized with a peculiar illness, which lasted for 13 years, and the nature of which has been the subject of some speculation. It is described very fully in his six Sacred Discourses, along with a mass of details regarding visions, dreams, and wonderful cures. His account of these cures has excited considerable attention, from the similarity between them and the effects produced by Mesmerism or Hypnotism, i.e., nervous sleep. Aristides meanwhile had settled at Smyrna, whither he had gone for the sake of his health. In 178, when the city was partially destroyed by an earthquake, he wrote an eloquent account of the misfortune to the Emperor Aurelius, with whom lie was a great favourite, and prevailed on him to give assist ance to the citizens. The Smvrnaeans, out of gratitude for II. 64