Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/288

 264 HISTORY OP GREECE. have Themistokles ; but to employ in his stead the well-known) we might almost say the ostentatious, probity of Aristeides. This must be accounted good fortune, since at the moment when Aristeides was sent out, the Athenians could not have anticipated that any such duty would devolve upon him. His assessment not only found favor at the time of its original proposition, when it must have been freely canvassed by the assembled allies — but also maintained its place in general esteem, as equitable and mod- erate, after the once responsible headship of Athens had degener* ated into an unpopular empire.^ Respecting this first assessment, we scarcely know more than one single fact, — the aggregate in money was four hundred and sixty talents, equal to about one hundred and six thousand pounds sterling. Of the items composing such aggregate, — of the individual cities which paid it, — of the distribution of obliga- tions to furnish ships and to furnish money, — Ave are entirely ignorant : the little information which we possess on these points relates to a period considerably later, shortly before the Pelopon- nesian war, under the uncontrolled empire then exercised by Athens. Thucydides, in his brief sketch, makes us clearly understand the difference between presiding Athens, with her ' Thucyd. v, 18; Plutarch, Aristeides, c. 24. Plutarch states that the allies expressly asked the Athenians to send Aristeides for the puipose of assessing the tribute. This is not at all probable : Aristeides, as com- mander of the Athenian contingent under Pausanias, was at Byzantium ■when the mutiny of the lonians against Pausanias occun^ed, and was the person to whom they applied for protection. As such, he was the natural person to undertake such duties as devolved upon Athens, without any necessity of supposing that he was specially asked for to perform it. Plutarch farther states that a certain contribution had been levied from the Greeks towards tlic war, even duiing the headship of Sparta. This statement also is highly improbable. The headship of Sparta covers only one single campaign, in which Pausanias had the command : the Ionic Greeks sent their ships to the fleet, which would be held sufficient, and there was no time for measuring commutations into money. Pausanias states, but I think quite erroneously, that the name of Arrs- teides was robbed of its due honor because he was the first person who ira^e (popovg rolg 'E/'/.-qci (Pausan. viii, .52, 2). Neither the assessment nor the name of Aristeides was othcnvise tlian popular, Aristotle employs the name of Aristeides as a symbol of unrivalled prob- ity (Rhetoric, ii, 24, 2),