Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/313

GRECIAN AFFAIES AFTER THE PERSIAN INVASION. £89 there were several contradictions among the authors Avhom PIu- tarcli had before him. Some affirmed that he perished on foreign service in the Euxine sea ; others, that he died at home, amidst the universal esteem and grief of his fellow-citizens. A third story, confined to the single statement of Kraterus, and strenu- ously rejected by Plutarch, represents Aristeides as having been falsely accused before the Athenian judicature and condemned to a fine of fifty rainte, on the allegation of having taken bribes during the assessment of the tribute upon the allies, — which fine he was unable to pay, and was therefore obliged to retire to Ionia, where he died. Dismissing this last story, we find nothing cer- tain about his death except one fact, — but that fact at the same time the most honorable of all, — that he died very poor. It is even asserted that he did not leave enough to pay funeral ex- penses, — that a sepulchre was provided for him at Phalerum at the public cost, besides a handsome donation to his son Lysima- chus, and a dowry to each of his two daughters. In the two or three ensuing generations, however, his descendants still continued poor, and even at that remote day, some of them received aid out of the public purse, from the recollection of their incorruptible ancestor. Near a century and a half afterwards, a poor man, named Lysimachus, descendant of the just Aristeides, was to be seen at Athens, near the chapel of lacclius, carrying a mysterious tablet, and obtaining his scanty fee of two oboli tor interpreting the dreams of the passers by : Demetrius the Phalerean procured from the people, for the mother and aunt of this poor man, a small daily allowance.' On all these points the contrast is marked when we compare Aristeides with Themistokles. The latter, having distinguished himself by ostentatious cost at Olym- pia, and by a choregic victory at Athens, with little scrujile as to the means of acquisition, — ended his life at Magnesia in dishon- orable affluence, greater than ever, and left an enriched pusterit}' both at that place and at Athens. More than five centuries after- wards, his descendant, the Athenian Themistokles, attended tho lectures of the philosopher Ammonius at Athens, as the comrade and friend of Plutarch himself.'^ 'Plutarch, Arist. c. 26, 27 ; Cornelias Nepos, Ai-ist. c. : compare Ari.-: tophan. Vesp. 53, * Plutarch, Themist. c, 5-32. VOL. V. 13 19oc