The Athenian Constitution   

advised the people to make a distribution of the money among
themselves, but this was prevented by Themistocles. He refused to
say on what he proposed to spend the money, but he bade them lend it
to the hundred richest men in Athens, one talent to each,
and then, if
the manner in which it was employed pleased the people, the
expenditure should be charged to the state, but otherwise the state
should receive the sum back from those to whom it was lent. On these
terms he received the money and with it he had a hundred triremes
built, each of the hundred individuals building one; and it was with
these ships that they fought the battle of Salamis against the
barbarians. About this time Aristides the son of Lysimachus was
ostracized. Three years later, however, in the archonship of
Hypsichides, all the ostracized persons were recalled, on account of
the advance of the army of Xerxes; and it was laid down for
the future
that persons under sentence of ostracism must live between Geraestus
and Scyllaeum, on pain of losing their civic rights irrevocably.

Part 23

So far, then, had the city progressed by this time, growing
gradually with the growth of the democracy; but after the
Persian wars
the Council of Areopagus once more developed strength and assumed
the control of the state. It did not acquire this supremacy by
virtue of any formal decree, but because it had been the cause of
the battle of Salamis being fought. When the generals were utterly
at a loss how to meet the crisis and made proclamation that every
one should see to his own safety, the Areopagus provided a
donation of
money, distributing eight drachmas to each member of the
ships' crews,
and so prevailed on them to go on board. On these grounds
people bowed
to its prestige; and during this period Athens was well
administered. At this time they devoted themselves to the
prosecution of the war and were in high repute among the Greeks, so
that the command by sea was conferred upon them, in spite of the
opposition of the Lacedaemonians. The leaders of the people during
this period were Aristides, of Lysimachus, and Themistocles, son of
Lysimachus, and Themistocles, son of Neocles, of whom the latter
appeared to devote himself to the conduct of war, while the
former had
the reputation of being a clever statesman and the most
upright man of
his time. Accordingly the one was usually employed as general, the
other as political adviser. The rebuilding of the fortifications
they conducted in combination, although they were political
opponents;
but it was Aristides who, seizing the opportunity afforded by the
discredit brought upon the Lacedaemonians by Pausanias, guided the
public policy in the matter of the defection of the Ionian
states from
the alliance with Sparta. It follows that it was he who made
the first
assessment of tribute from the various allied states, two years
after the battle of Salamis, in the archonship of Timosthenes; and
it was he who took the oath of offensive and defensive alliance with
the Ionians, on which occasion they cast the masses of iron into the
sea.

Part 24