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to the officers but with menaces and arrogance; required extraordinary and unusual honours to be paid him; and by his whole behaviour rendered the Spartan dominion odious to all the confederates. On the other hand, the courteous, affable, and obliging deportment of Aristides and Cimon; their total disdain of all imperious and haughty airs, which only tend to alienate people and multiply enemies; a gentle, kind, and beneficent disposition, which showed itself in all their actions, and which served to temper the authority of their commands, and to render it both easy and amiable; the justice and humanity conspicuous in every thing they did; the great care they took to offend no person whatever, and to do kind offices and services to all about them; all this, hurt Pausanias exceedingly, by the contrast of their opposite characters, and greatly increased the general discontent. At last this dissatisfaction publicly broke out; and all the allies deserted him, and put themselves under the command and protection of the Athenians. Thus did Aristides, says Plutarch, by the prevalence of that humanity and gentleness, which he opposed to the arrogance and roughness of Pausanias, and by inspiring Cimon his colleague with the same sentiments, insensibly draw off the minds of the allies from the Lacedæmonians, without their perceiving it, and at length deprived them of the command; not by open force, or by sending out armies or fleets against them, and still less by making use of any arts or perfidious practices, but by the wisdom and moderation of his conduct, and by rendering the government of the Athenians respectable.*

It must be confessed at the same time, that the Spartan people on this occasion showed a greatness of soul and a spirit of moderation, that can never be sufficiently admired. For when they were convinced that their commanders grew haughty and insolent from their too great authority, they willingly renounced the superiority which they had hitherto exercised over the rest of the Grecians, and forbore sending any more of their generals to command the Grecian armies; choosing rather, adds the historian, to have their citizens wise, modest and submissive to the discipline and laws of the commonwealth, than to maintain their pre-eminence and superiority over all the Grecian states.

SECTION XV.-THE SECRET CONSPIRACY OF PAUSANIAS WITH THE PERSIANS. HIS DEATH.

UPON the repeated complaints which the Spartan commonwealth received on all hands against Pausanias, they recalled him home to give an account of his conduct. But not having sufficient evidence to convict him of his having carried on a correspondence with Xerxes, they were obliged to acquit him on his first trial; after which he returned of his own accord, and without the consent and approbation of the republic, to the city of Byzantium, from whence he continued to carry on his secret practices with Artabazus. But as he was still guilty of many violent and unjust proceedings while he resided there, the Athenians obliged him to leave the place; and he then retired to Colonæ, a small city of the Troas. There he received an order from the ephori to return to Sparta, on pain of being declared, in case of disobedience, a public enemy and traitor to his country. He complied with the summons, and went home, hoping he should still be able to bring himself off by the power of money. On his arrival he was committed to prison, and was soon afterwards brought again upon his trial before the judges. The charge brought against him was supported by many suspicious circumstances and strong presumptions. Several of his own slaves confessed that he had promised to give them their liberty, in case they would enter into his designs, and serve him with fidelity and zeal in the execution of his projects. But, as it was the custom for the ephori never to pronounce sentence of death against a Spartan, without a full and direct proof of the crime laid to his charge, they looked upon the evidence against him as insufficient; and the more so, as he was of the royal family, and was actually

*Plut. in Arist. p. 332, 339

88

invested with the administration of the regal office; for Pausanias exercised the function of king, as being the guardian and nearest relation to Plistarchus, the son of Leonidas, who was then in his minority. He was therefore acquitted a second time, and set at liberty.*

While the ephori were thus perplexed for want of clear and plain evidence against the offender, a certain slave, who was called the Argilian, came to them, and brought them a letter, written by Pausanias himself to the king of Persia, which the slave was to have carried and delivered to Artabazus. It must be observed by the way, that this Persian governor and Pausanias had agreed together, to put to death all the couriers sent from one to the other, as soon as their packets or messages were delivered, that there might be no possibility left of tracing out or discovering their correspondence. The Argilian, who saw none of his fellow servants that were sent expresses return again, had some suspicion; and when it came to his turn to go, he opened the letter he was entrusted with, in which Artabazus was positively desired to kill him, pursuant to their agreement. This was the letter the slave put into the hands of the ephori; who still thought even this proof insufficient in the eye of the law, and therefore endeavoured to corroborate it by the testimony of Pausanias himself. The slave, in concert with them, withdrew to the temple of Neptune in Tenaros, as to a secure asylum. Two small closets were purposely made there, in which the ephori and some Spartans hid themselves. The instant Pausanias was informed that the Argilian had fled to this temple, he hastened thither to inquire the reason. ter; and that finding by the contents of it that he was to be put to death, he The slave confessed that he had opened the lethad fled to the temple to save his life. As Pausanias could not deny the fact, he made the best excuse he could: promised the slave a great reward; obliged him to promise not to mention what had passed between them to any person whatever. Pausanias then left him. His guilt was now but too evident. The moment he returned to the city, the ephori were resolved, to seize him. From the aspect of one of these magistrates, he plainly perceived that some danger was impending over him, and therefore ran with the utmost speed to the temple of Pallas, called Chalciccos, near that place, and got into it before his pursuers could overtake him. The entrance was immediately stopped up with great stones, and history informs us, that the criminal's mother set the first example on that occasion. They now tore off the roof of the building; but as the ephori did not dare to take him out of it by force, because this would have been a violation of that sacred asylum, they resolved to leave him exposed to the inclemencies of the weather, and accordingly he was starved to death. His corpse was buried not far from that place; but the oracle of Delphos, whom they consulted soon after, declared, that to appease the anger of the goddess, who was justly offended on account of the violation of her temple, two statues must be set up there in honour of Pausanias, which was done accordingly.

Such was the end of Pausanias, whose wild and inconsiderate ambition had stifled in him all sentiments of probity, honour, love of country, zeal for liberty, and of hatred and aversion for the barbarians; sentiments which, in some measure, were inherent in all the Greeks, and particularly the Lacedæmonians.

SECTION XVI.-THEMISTOCLES FLIES FOR SHELTER TO KING ADMETUS.

THEMISTOCLES was also charged with being an accomplice of Pausanias. He was then in exile. A passionate thirst of glory, and a strong desire to command arbitrarily over the citizens, had made him very odious to them. He had built, very near his house, a temple in honour of Diana, under this title, "to Diana, goddess of good counsel;" thereby hinting to the Athenians, that he had given good counsel to their city, and to all Greece; and he had also placed his statue in it, which was standing in the time of Plutarch, who says it ap

* A. M. 3529. Ant. J. C. 475. Thucyd. 1. i. p. 86, 89. Diod. 1. xi. p. 94-36. Corn. Nep. in Pausan.

peared, from this statue, that his physiognomy was as heroic as his valour. Finding that men listened with pleasure to all the calumnies his enemies spread against him, to silence them he was for ever expatiating, in all public assemblies, on the services he had rendered his country. As they were at last tired with hearing him repeat the same thing so often, "how!" said he, “are you weary of having good offices frequently done you by the same persons?" "He did not consider, that putting them so often in mind of his services, was in a manner reproaching them with their having forgotten them, which was not very obliging; and he seemed not to know, that the surest way to acquire applause, is to leave it to be bestowed by others, and to resolve to do such things only as are praise-worthy; and that a frequent mention of one's own virtue and exalted actions, is so far from appeasing envy, that it only inflames it.t

Themistocles, after having been banished from Athens by the ostracism, withdrew to Argos. He was there when Pausanias was prosecuted as a traitor who had conspired against his country. He had at first concealed his designs from Themistocles, though he was one of his best friends; but as soon as he was expelled his country, and had highly resented that injury, he disclosed his projects to him, and pressed him to join in them. To induce this compliance, he showed him the letters which the king of Persia wrote to him; and endeavoured to animate him against the Athenians by painting their injustice and ingratitude in the strongest colours. Themistocles, however, rejected with indignation the proposals of Pausanias, and refused peremptorily to engage in any manner in his schemes; but then he concealed what had passed between them, and did not discover the enterprise he had formed, whether it was that he imagined Pausanias would renounce it of himself, or was persuaded that it would be discovered some other way; it not being possible for so dangerous and ill-concerted an enterprise to take effect.‡

After the death of Pausanias, several letters and other things were found among his papers, which raised a violent suspicion of Themistocles. The Lacedæmonians sent deputies to Athens, to accuse and have sentence of death passed upon him; and those citizens who envied him joined these accusers. Aristides had now a fair opportunity of revenging himself on his rival, for the injurious treatment he had received from him, had his soul been capable of receiving so cruel a satisfaction. But he refused absolutely to join in so horrid a combination; as little inclined to delight in the misfortunes of his adversary, as he had been before to regret his success. Themistocles answered by letters all the calumnies with which he was charged; and represented to the Athenians, that as he had ever been fond of ruling, and his temper being such as would not suffer him to be lorded over by others, it was highly improbable that he should have a design to deliver up himself, and all Greece, to enemies and barbarians.

In the mean time the people, too strongly wrought upon by his accusers, sent some persons to seize him, that he might be tried by the council of Greece. Themistocles, having timely notice of it, went into the island of Corcyra, to whose inhabitants he had formerly done some service: however, not thinking himself safe there, he fled to Epirus, and finding himself still pursued by the Athenians and Lacedæmonians, out of despair he made a very dangerous choice, which was, to fly to Admetus king of Molossus for refuge. This prince, having formerly desired the aid of the Athenians, and being refused with ignominy by Themistocles, who at that time presided in the government, had retained the deepest resentment on that account, and declared, that he would take the first opportunity to revenge himself. But Themistocles, imagining that in the unhappy situation of his affairs, the recent envy of his

* Hoc molestum est. Nam isthæc commemoratio quasi exprobatio est immemoris beneficii.-Terrent. in Andr. Thucyd. I. i. p. 89, 90. Plut. in Themist. p. 123, 124. Corn. Nep. in Themist. c. viii. Plut. in Themist. p. 112.

fellow-citizens was more to be feared than the ancient grudge of that king, was resolved to run the hazard of it. On his arrival at the palace of that monarch, on being, informed that he was absent, he addressed himself to the queen, who received him very graciously, and instructed him in the manner in which it was proper to make his request. When Admetus returned, Themistocles took the king's son in his arms, seated himself on his hearth amidst his household gods, and there telling him who he was, and the cause why he fled to him for refuge, he implored his clemency, owned that his life was in his hand, entreated him to forget the past; and represented to him, that no action can be more worthy in a great king than to exercise clemency. Admetus, surprised and moved with compassion in seeing at his feet, in so humble a posture, the greatest man of all Greece, and the conqueror of all Asia, raised him immediately from the ground, and promised to protect him against all his enemies. Accordingly, when the Athenians and Lacedæmonians came to demand him, he absolutely refused to deliver up a person who had made his palace his asylum, in the firm persuasion that it would be sacred and inviolable. While he was at the court of this prince, one of his friends found an opportunity to carry off his wife and children from Athens, and to send them to him; for which that person was sometime after seized, and condemned to die. His friends secured the greatest part of his effects for him, which they afterwards found opportunity to remit to him; but all that could be discovered, which amounted to a hundred talents,* was carried to the public treasury. When he entered upon the administration, he was not worth three talents. I shall leave this illustrious exile for some time at the court of king Admetus, to resume the sequel of this history.

SECTION XVII. DISINTERESTED ADMINISTRATION OF THE PUBLIC TREASURE BY ARISTIDES. HIS DEATH AND EULOGIUM.

I HAVE before observed, that the command of Greece had passed from Sparta to the Athenians. Hitherto the cities and nations of Greece had indeed contributed some sums of money towards the expense of carrying on the war against the barbarians; but this partition or division had always occasioned great feuds, because it was not made in a just or equal proportion. It was thought proper, under this new government, to lodge in the island of Delos, the common treasure of Greece; to fix new regulations with regard to the public moneys; and to lay such a tax as might be regulated according to the revenue of each city and state; in order that, the expenses being equally borne by the several individuals who composed the body of the alies, no one might have reason to murmur. The business was, to find a person of so honest and incorrupt a mind, as to discharge an employment of so delicate and dangerous a kind, the due administration of which so nearly concerned the public welfare. All the allies cast their eyes on Aristides; accordingly they invested him with full powers, and appointed him to levy a tax on each of them, relying entirely on his wisdom and justice.†

They had no cause to repent of their choice. He presided over the treasury with the fidelity and disinterestedness of a man who looks upon it as a capital crime to embezzle the smallest portion of another's possessions; with the care and activity of a father of a family, in the management of his own estate; and with the caution and integrity of a person who considers the public moneys as sacred. In fine, he succeeded in what is equally difficult and extraordinary, viz. in acquiring the love of all, in an office in which he that escapes the public odium gains a great point. Such is the glorious character which Seneca gives

About one hundred thousand dollars.
↑ Plut. in Arist. p. 333, 334. Diod. 1. xi. p. 36.

Tu quidem orbis terrarum rationes administras; tam abstinenter quam alienas, tam diligenter quam tuas, tam religiose quam publicas. In officio amorem consequeris, in quo odium vitare difficile est.-Senec. lib. de Brevit. Vit. cap. xviii.

of a person charged with an employment of almost the same kind, and the noblest eulogium that can be given of such as administer the public revenue. It is the exact picture of Aristides. He discovered so much probity and wisdom in the exercise of this office, that no man complained; and those times were considered ever after as the golden age, that is, the period in which Greece had attained its highest pitch of virtue and happiness. And indeed, the tax which he had fixed in the whole to four hundred and sixty talents* was raised by Pericles to six hundred, and soon after to thirteen hundred talents: it was not that the expenses of the war were increased, but the treasure was employed to very useless purposes, in distributions to the Athenians, in solemnizing games and festivals, in building temples and public edifices; not to mention, that the hands of those who superintended the treasury were not always clean and uncorrupt, as those of Aristides. This wise and equitable conduct secured to him, to the latest posterity, the glorious surname of "the Just."

Nevertheless, Plutarch relates an action of Aristides, which shows that the Greeks (and the same may be said of the Romans) had a very narrow and imperfect idea of justice. They confined the exercise of it to the interior, as it were of civil society; and acknowledged that individuals were bound to observe strictly its several maxims: but with regard to their country, to the republic, their great idol, to which they reduced every thing, they thought in a quite different manner; and imagined themselves essentially obliged to sacrifice to it, not only their lives and possessions, but even their religion and the most sacred engagements, contrary to and in contempt of the most solemn oaths. This will appear evidently in what follows.

After the regulation had been made in respect to the tributes of which I have just spoken, Aristides, having settled the several articles of the alliance, made the confederates take an oath to observe them punctually, and he himself swore in the name of the Athenians; and in denouncing the curses which always accompanied the oaths, he threw into the sea, pursuant to the usual custom, large bars of red-hot iron. But the ill state of the Athenian affairs forcing them afterwards to infringe some of those articles, and to govern a little more arbitrarily, he entreated them to vent those curses on him, and discharge themselves thereby of the punishment due to such as had forsworn themselves, and who had been reduced to it by the unhappy situation of their affairs. Theophrastus tells us, that in general (these words are borrowed from Plutarch) Aristides, who executed all matters relating to himself or the public with the most impartial and rigorous justice, used to act, during his administration, in several things, according as the exigency of affairs, and the welfare of his country, might require; it being his opinion, that a government, in order to support itself, is, on some occasions, obliged to have recourse to injustice; of which he gives the following example. One day, as the Athenians were debating in their council, about bringing to their city, in opposition to the articles of the treaty, the common treasures of Greece, which were deposited in Delos: the Samians having opened the debate; when it was Aristides's turn to speak, he said, that the dislodging of the treasure was an unjust action, but useful, and caused this opinion to prevail. The incident shows, that the pretended wisdom of the heathens was overspread with great obscurity and error.t

It was scarcely possible to have a greater contempt for riches than Aristides had. Themistocles, who was not pleased with the encomiums bestowed on other men, hearing Aristides applauded for the noble disinterestedness with which he administered the public treasures, did but laugh at it; and said, that the praises bestowed upon him for it, showed no greater merit or virtue than that of a strong chest, which faithfully preserves all the moneys that are shut up in it, without retaining any. This low sneer was by way of revenge for a stroke of raillery that had stung him to the quick. Themistocles saying, that,

*The talent is worth about a thousand dollars.

↑ Plut. in Vit. Arist. p. 333, 334.

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