Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
S.A. Bent, comp. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887.
Aristides
[An Athenian general and statesman, called “the Just;” the rival of Themistocles, by whose intrigues he was ostracised 483 B.C.; recalled to oppose Xerxes, and commanded the Athenian force at Platæa, 479; died about 468.]
May the Athenians never see the day which shall force them to remember Aristides.
On leaving Athens after his banishment. The Persian Mardonius attempted to bribe the Athenians to desert the cause of the Greeks; but by the advice of Aristides, who had now returned, the offer was spurned, the latter saying, “As long as this sun shall shine, the Athenians will wage war against the Persians for their ravaged country and for their violated temples.”He once sat as judge between two persons, one of whom was charged by the other with having done many injuries to Aristides. “Tell me,” said “the Just,” “what injury he has done to thee; for it is thy cause I am judging, not my own.”One of his maxims was, “Power gotten by the assistance of friends is an encouragement of the unjust.”—PLUTARCH: Apothegms.He was sent on an embassy with Themistocles, with whom he was at variance; but, concerned only for the cause they had undertaken, he asked his rival, “Are you content, Themistocles, to leave our enmity at the borders? Then, if you please, we will take it up again on our return.”—Ibid.
