24.4
So then Aristides had a great and admirable name for his adjustment of the revenues. But Themistocles is said to have ridiculed him, claiming that the praise he got therefor was not fit for a man, but rather for a mere money-wallet. He came off second best, however, in this retort upon the plain speech of Aristides, who had remarked, when Themistocles once declared to him the opinion that the greatest excellence in a general was the anticipation of the plans of his enemies: That is indeed needful, Themistocles, but the honorable thing, and that which makes the real general, is his mastery over his fingers.
25.1
Aristides did, indeed, bind the Hellenes by an oath, and took oath himself for the Athenians, to mark his imprecations casting iron ingots into the sea; but afterwards, when circumstances, forsooth, compelled a more strenuous sway, he bade the Athenians lay the perjury to his own charge, and turn events to their own advantage.
25.2
And in general, as Theophrastus tells us, while the man was strictly just in his private relations to his fellow-citizens, in public matters he often acted in accordance with the policy which his country had adopted, feeling that this required much actual injustice. For instance, he says that when the question of removing the moneys of the confederacy from Delos to Athens, 454 B.C. contrary to the compacts, was being debated, and even the Samians proposed it, Aristides declared that it was unjust, but advantageous.
