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[1] Aristides, the son of Lysimachus, a native of Athens, was almost of the same age with Themistocles, and contended with him, in consequence, for preeminence, as they were determined rivals one to the other; and it was seen in their case how much eloquence could prevail over integrity: for though Aristides was so distinguished for uprightness of conduct, that he was the only person in the memory of man (as far at least as I have heard) who was called by the surname of Just, yet being overborne by Themistocles with the ostracism, he was condemned to be banished for ten.
Aristides, finding that the excited multitude could not be appeased, and noticing, as he yielded to their violence, a person writing that he ought to be banished, is said to have asked him, "why he did so, or what Aristides had done, that he should be thought deserving, of such a punishment?" The person writing replied, that "he did not know Aristides, but that he was not pleased that he had labored to be called Just beyond other men."
He did not suffer the full sentence of ten years appointed by law, for when Xerxes made a descent upon Greece, he was recalled into his coutry by a decree of the people, about six years after he had been exiled.
[2] He was present, however, in the sea fight at Salamis, which was fought before he was allowed to return. He was also commander of the Athenians at Plataeae, in the battle in which Mardonius was routed, and the army of the barbarians was cut off. Nor is there any other celebrated act of his in military affairs recorded, besides the account of this command; but of his justice, equity, and self-control, there are many instances. Above all, it was through his integrity, when he was joined in command of the common fleet of Greece with Pausanias, under whose leadership Mardonius had been put to flight, that the supreme authority at sea was transferred from the Lacedaemonians to the Athenians; for before that time the Lacedaemonians had the command both by sea and land. But at this period it hapend, through the indiscreet conduct of Pausanias, and the equity of Aristides, that all the states of Greece attached themselves as allies to the Athenians, and chose them as their leaders agains the barbarians.
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