Plato considers that this man alone, of all the great men of Athens, is worthy of mention by him.  Themistokles, and Kimon, and Perikles, did indeed fill the city with public buildings, and money, and folly, but Aristeides in his political acts cared for nothing but virtue.  One great proof of this is his kindly treatment of Themistokles.  Though this man was his enemy throughout, and was the cause of his banishment by ostracism, yet when Themistokles gave him an opportunity of revenging himself in a similar manner he never remembered the injuries which he had received at his hands, but while Kimon, and Alkmaeon, and many others, were endeavouring to drive him into exile and bringing all kinds of accusations against him, Aristeides alone never did or said anything against him, and did not rejoice over the spectacle of his enemy’s ruin, just as he never envied his previous prosperity.

XXVI.  Some writers say that Aristeides died in Pontus, to which country he had been sent on matters of state:  while others say that he died of old age at Athens, respected and honoured by all his countrymen there.  Kraterus of Macedonia tells us the following particulars about his end.  After Themistokles went into exile the common people grew insolent and produced a numerous brood of informers, who constantly assailed the noblest and most powerful citizens through envy of their prosperity and influence.  One of these men, Diophantus of Amphitrope by name, obtained a verdict against Aristeides on a charge of receiving bribes.  It was stated that when he was regulating the assessment of the Ionians he received money from them to tax them more lightly.  As he was unable to pay the fine of fifty minae, which the court laid upon him, he left Athens and died somewhere in Ionia.  But Kraterus offers no documentary evidence of this, neither of the sentence of his condemnation nor the decree of the people, although in general it is his habit to quote his authority for statements of this kind.  And almost all others who have spoken of the harsh treatment of generals by the people mention the banishment of Themistokles, the imprisonment of Miltiades, the fine imposed on Perikles, and the suicide of Paches in court when sentence was pronounced against him, but although they speak of the banishment of Aristeides, they never allude to this trial and sentence upon him.

XXVII.  Moreover, there is his tomb at Phalerum, which is said to have been constructed at the public expense, because he did not leave enough money to defray his funeral expenses.  It is also related that his daughters were publicly married at the charges of the state, which provided them each with a dowry of three thousand drachmas.  At the instance of Alkibiades, his son Lysimachus was also presented with a hundred silver mines, and as many acres of planted land, and in addition to this, an allowance of four drachmas a day.  Kallisthenes also tells us that this Lysimachus leaving a daughter named Polykrite,