that of the Pentakosiomedimni, or citizens who possessed a
yearly income of five hundred _medimni_[17] of dry or liquid produce.
Secondly, he mentions the fact that he was ostracised: now, ostracism
never was used against poor men, but against those who descended from
great and wealthy houses, and whose pride made them feared and
disliked by their fellow citizens. Thirdly, and lastly, he writes that
Aristeides placed in the temple of Dionysus tripods dedicated to the
god by a victorious chorus, which even in my own time are still to be
seen, and which bear the inscription: "The tribe Antiochis won the
prize; Aristeides was choragus; Archestratus taught the chorus." Now
this, which seems to be the strongest argument of all, is really the
weakest. Epameinondas, whom all men know to have been born and to have
passed his life in the greatest possible poverty, and Plato the
philosopher, both exhibited excellent choruses, the former bearing the
expense of a chorus of men playing on the flute, while the latter
exhibited a _cyclic_[18] chorus of boys. Plato's expenses were borne
by Dionysius of Syracuse, and those of Epameinondas by Pelopidas and
his friends. Good men do not always refuse to receive presents from
their friends, but, though they would scorn to make money by them,
they willingly receive them to further an honourable ambition.
Panaetius, moreover, proves that Demetrius is wrong in the matter of
the tripods, because from the time of the Persian war to the end of
the Peloponnesian war there are only two Aristeides recorded as
victors, neither of whom can be identified with the son of Lysimachus,
as the father of one of them was Xenophilus, and the other was a much
more modern personage, as is proved by his name being written in the
characters which came into use after the archonship of Eukleides, and
from the name of the poet or teacher of the chorus, Archestratus,
whose name we never meet with in the time of the Persian war, but who
taught several choruses (that is, wrote several successful plays)
during the Peloponnesian war. These remarks of Panaetius must, however,
be received with caution. As to ostracism, any man of unusual talent,
nobility of birth, or remarkable eloquence, was liable to suffer from
it, for Damon, the tutor of Perikles, was ostracised, because he was
thought to be a man of superior intellect. Idomeneus tells us that
Aristeides obtained the office of archon, not by lot, but by the
universal voi