Aristides, the son of Lysimachus, was of the tribe Antiochis, and
township of Alopece. As to his wealth, statements differ; some say
he passed his life in extreme poverty, and left behind him two
daughters whose indigence long kept them unmarried: but Demetrius,
the Phalerian, in opposition to this general report, professes in his
Socrates, to know a farm at Phalerum going by Aristides's name, where
he was interred; and, as marks of his opulence, adduces first, the
office of archon eponymus, which he obtained by the lot of the bean;
which was confined to the highest assessed families, called the
Pentacosiomedimni; second, the ostracism, which was not usually
inflicted on the poorer citizens, but on those of great houses, whose
elation exposed them to envy; third and last, that he left certain
tripods in the temple of Bacchus, offerings for his victory in
conducting the representation of dramatic performances, which were
even in our age still to be seen, retaining this inscription upon
them, "The tribe Antiochis obtained the victory: Aristides defrayed
the charges: Archestratus's play was acted." But this argument,
though in appearance the strongest, is of the least moment of any.
For Epaminondas, who all the world knows was educated, and lived his
whole life, in much poverty, and also Plato, the philosopher,
exhibited magnificent shows, the one an entertainment of flute-players
the other of dithyrambic singers; Dion, the Syracusan, supplying the
expenses of the latter, and Pelopidas those of Epaminondas. For good
men do not allow themselves in any inveterate and irreconcilable
hostility to receiving presents from their friends, but while looking
upon those that are accepted to be hoarded up and with avaricious
intentions, as sordid and mean, they do not refuse such as, apart from
all profit, gratify the pure love of honor and magnificence.
Panaetius, again, shows that Demetrius was deceived concerning the
tripod by an identity of name. For, from the Persian war to the end
of the Peloponnesian, there are upon record only two of the name of
Aristides, who defrayed the expense of representing plays and gained
the prize neither of which was the same with the son of Lysimachus;
but the father of the one was Xenophilus, and the other lived at a
much later time, as the way of writing, which is that in use since the
time of Euclides, and the addition of the name of Archestratus prove,
a name which, in the time of the Persian war, no writer mentions, but
which several, during the Peloponnesian war, record as that of a
dramatic poet. The argument of Panaetius requires to be more closely
considered. But as for the ostracism, everyone was liable to it,
whom his reputation, birth, or eloquence raised above the common
level; insomuch that even Damon, preceptor to Pericles, was thus
banished, because he seemed a man of more than ordinary sense. And,
moreover, Idomeneus says, that Aristides was not made archon by the
lot of the bean, but the free election of the people. And if he held
the office after the battle of Plataea, as Demetrius himself has
written, it is very probable that his great reputation and success in
the war, made him be preferred for his virtue to an office which
others received in consideration of their wealth. But Demetrius
manifestly is eager not only to exempt Aristides but Socrates
likewise, from poverty, as from a great evil; telling us that the
latter had not only a house of his own, but also seventy minae put out
at interest with Crito.
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