Today is the supposed birthday in 530 B.C. of Aristides of Athens. This famous politician was known as “the Just”. Here is a famous story involving his nickname.
Aristides was a popular politician in ancient Athens. He was so respected that he was called “Aristides the Just”. Athens had a policy called “ostracism” where the Assembly could vote to exile any politician who was considered a danger to the democracy or who had proposed an unpopular (or failed) policy. If you received a majority of the votes, you were banished for ten years. One year, in the 480’s, Aristides’ rival Themistocles proposed that Aristides be ostracized. At the Assembly meeting, all the male citizens were allowed to write the name of someone on a pottery fragment (an ostrakon). Aristides was attending his own potential ostracism when an illiterate Athenian, not recognizing him, approached him and asked that he write Aristides on his ostrakon. When Aristides asked why he was voting for Aristides, the man said “I’m sick and tired of hearing him called ‘The Just'”. Aristides did not say a word as he wrote his own name on the fragment.
- Little, Brown p. 20
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