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At once, then, Aristeides advised all the allies as they were holding a general assembly to designate the island of Delos1 as their common treasury and to deposit there all the money they collected, and towards the war which they suspected would come from the Persians to impose a levy upon all the cities according to their means, so that the entire sum collected would amount to five hundred and sixty talents.2 [2] And when he was appointed to allocate the levy, he distributed the sum so accurately and justly that all the cities consented to it. Consequently, since he was considered to have accomplished an impossible thing, he won for himself a very high reputation for justice, and because he excelled in that virtue he was given the epithet of "the Just." [3] Thus at one and the same time the baseness of Pausanias deprived his countrymen of the supremacy on the sea, and the all-round virtue of Aristeides caused Athens to gain the leadership which she had not possessed before.

These, then, were the events of this year.

1 That is, the temple of Apollo on that island.

2 According to Thuc. 1.96.2 and Plut. Arist. 24.3 and Plut. Arist. 24.3 the first assessment amounted to four hundred and sixty talents. The latest and fullest treatment of this subject is B. D. Meritt, H. T. Wade-Gery, M.F. McGregor, The Athenian Tribute Lists, Vol. 1 (1939).

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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    • Plutarch, Aristeides, 24.3
    • Thucydides, Histories, 1.96.2
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