nd displayed such pompous folly and
extravagance that the Spartans ordered him home, where he was tried for
treason, but not condemned.

He afterwards conspired with some of the states of Asia Minor, and when
again brought home formed a plot with the Helots to overthrow the
government. His treason was discovered, and he fled to a temple for
safety, where he was kept till he starved to death.

Thus ambition ended the careers of two of the heroes of the Persian war.
A third, Themistocles, ended his career in similar disgrace. In fact,
he grew so arrogant and unjust that the people of Athens found him
unfit to live with. They suspected him also of joining with Pausanias in
his schemes. So they banished him by ostracism, and he went to Argos to
live. While there it was proved that he really had taken part in the
treason of Pausanias, and he was obliged to fly for his life.

The fugitive had many adventures in this flight. He was pursued by
envoys from Athens, and made more than one narrow escape. While on
shipboard he was driven by storm to the island of Naxos, then besieged
by an Athenian fleet, and escaped only by promising a large reward to
the captain if he would not land. Finally, after other adventures, he
reached Susa, the capital of Persia, where he found that Xerxes was
dead, and his son Artaxerxes was reigning in his stead.

He was well received by the new king, to whom he declared that he had
been friendly to his father Xerxes, and that he proposed now to use his
powers for the good of Persia. He formed schemes by which Persia might
conquer Greece, and gained such favor with the new monarch that he gave
him a Persian wife and rich presents, sent him to Magnesia, near the
Ionian coast, and granted him the revenues of the surrounding district.
Here Themistocles died, at the age of sixty-five, without having kept
one of his alluring promises to the Persian king.

And thus, through greed and ambition, the three great leaders of Greece
in the Persian war ended their careers in disgrace and death. We have
now the story of a fourth great Athenian to tell, who through honor and
virtue won a higher distinction than the others had gained through
warlike fame.

Throughout the whole career of the brilliant Themistocles he had a
persistent opponent, Aristides, a man, like him, born of undistinguished
parents, but who by moral strength and innate power of intellect won the
esteem and admiration of his fellow-citizens. He