310 ARISTIDES.

Fortune that fought for him at Platfea ; for hitherto, in reverence to that, the Greeks had forborne from inflicting on him the punishment he deserved. In fine, they all went off and joined the Athenians. And here the mag- nanimity of the Lacedemonians was wonderful. For when they perceived that their generals were becoming corrupted* by the greatness of their authority, they vol- untarily laid down the chief command, and left off send- ing any more of them to the wars, choosing rather to have citizens of moderation and consistent in the observ- ance of their customs, than to possess the dominion of all Greece. Even during the command of the Lacedremonians, the Greeks paid a certain contribution towards the mainte- nance of the war ; and being desirous to be rated city by city in their due proportion, they desired Aristides of the Athenians, and gave him command, surveying the coun- try and revenue, to assess every one according to their ability and what they were worth. But he, being so largely empowered, Greece as it were submitting all her affairs to his sole management, went out poor, and re- turned poorer ; laying the tax not only without corrup- tion and injustice, but to the satisfaction and convenience of all. For as the ancients celebrated the age of Saturn, so did the confederates of Athens Aristides's taxation, terming it the happy time of Greece; and that more especially, as the sum was in a short time doubled, and afterwards trebled. For the assessment which Aristides made, was four hundred and sixty talents. But to this Pericles added very near one third part more ; for Thucyd- ides says, that in the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, the Athenians had coming in from their confederates six hundred talents. But after Pericles's death, the dem- agogues, increasing by little and little, raised it to the eum of thirteen hundred talents; not so much through