A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

176 The Delian Confederacy
II. The Delian Confederacy is Formed
Aristeides.
Aristotle,
Constitution
of the Athenians,
23.
Objects of
the confederacy.
Thucydides,
i. 96.
The main
object, however,
was
defence
against
Persia.
It was Aristeides who brought about the defection of
the lonians from the Lacedaemonian alliance, finding his
opportunity in the circumstance that the people of Laconia
were in ill repute because of Pausanias.
Thus the Athenians by the good-will of the allies, who
detested Pausanias, obtained the leadership. They immediately
fixed which of the cities should supply money
and which of them ships for the war against the barbarians,
the avowed object being to compensate themselves
and the allies for their losses by devastating the king's
country. Then was first instituted at Athens the ofiice
of Hellenic treasurers, who received the tribute, for so the
The assessment
by
Aristeides.
Plutarch,
Aristeides, 23.
Ancient
World, 184 f.
impost was termed. . . .
As they wished each city to be assessed to pay a reasonable
sum, they asked the Athenians to appoint Aristeides
to visit each city, learn the extent of its territory and revenues,
and fix upon the amount which each was capable
of contributing according to its means. Although he was
in possession of such a power as this—the whole of Greece
having as it were given itself up to be dealt with at his
discretion— yet he laid down his office a poorer man than
when he accepted it, but having completed his assessment
As the ancients used to tell of the
to the satisfaction of all.
blessedness of the golden age, even so did the states of
Greece honor the assessment made by Aristeides, calling
the time when it was made, fortunate and blessed for
Greece, especially when no long time afterward it was
doubled, and subsequently trebled. The money which
Aristeides proposed to raise amounted to four hundred and
sixty talents; to which Pericles added nearly a third part,
for Thucydides tells us that, at the commencement of the