After the Persian Wars

After the Persian Wars Plutarch Life of Aristeides the Just 19. 5-6 (from Kleidemos of Athens, Fragment 22): Of those who struggled on behalf of Hellas there fell in all 1, 360 men. Fiftytwo of these were Athenians, all from the Tribe Aiantis, as Kleidemos says, it having fought most valiantly. That is why the men of Aiantis used to celebrate in honor of the Nymphs of Sphragidion the sacrifice declared by the Pythian Oracle for the victory. They take th emoney required from the Public Treasury. [This refers to the Battle of Plataea, 479 B.C.] Inscription [Meiggs and Lewis, Greek Historical Inscriptions #27.] on the famous Serpent Column, once in the sanctuary area at Delphi, a fragment of which still survives, in the Hippodrome in Istanbul, to which place it was removed by the Emperor Constantine By these [the] war was fought: Laced[aemonians,] Athenians, Corinthians, Tegeans, Sicyonians, Aeginetans, Megarians, Epidaurians, Erchomenians, Phleiasians, Troezenians, Hermionians, Tirynthians, Plataeans, Thespians, Styrians, Haleians, Potidaeans, Leucadians, Anactorians, Cythnians, Siphnians, Ambraciots, Lepraeans. Herodotus Histories Book 9, chapter 83: When all the stuff had been collected [from the battlefield at Plataea] a tenth was set apart for the god at Delphi, and from this was made the gold tripod which stands next to the altar on the three-headed bronze snake; shares were also assigned to the gods at Olympia and the Isthmus, and from these were made a bronze Zeus fifteen feet high and a bronze Poseidon nine-and-a-half feet high. The rest of the booty—the Persians' women, pack-animals, gold, silver, and so on—was divided among the troops, every man receiving his share. There is no record for any special awards for distinguished service in the battle, but I imagine that they must have been made. Pausanias himself was granted ten of everything, women, horses, camels and everything else. Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War Book I, chapter 132: But by his contempt of the laws and imitation of the barbarians [Pausanias] gave grounds for much suspicion of his being discontented with things as they were. All the occasions on which he had in any way departed from regular customs were passed in review, and it was remembered that he had taken upon himself to have inscribed on the tripod at Delphi, which was dedicated by the Hellenes as the tithe of the spoils of the Persians, the following poem: The Mede defeated, the great Pausanias raised This monument, that Phoebus might be praised. At the time the Lacedaemonians had at once erased the poem, and inscribed the names of the cities that had aided in the overthrow of the Barbarian and dedicated the offering. Plutarch Life of Themistocles, chapters 20-21: When the Lacedaemonians proposed, at the General Assembly of the Allies, that the representatives of those cities which were not in the League, nor had fought against the Persians, should be excluded, Themistocles, afriad that the Thessalians, Thebans, Argives and others would be thrown out of the Assembly, and that the Lacedaemonians would come to control the vote and do what they pleased, supported the ambassadors of the cities, and prevailed with the members then sitting to alter their opinion on this matter, showing them that there were only thirty-one cities which had taken part in the war...." Plutarch Life of Aristeides, chapter 21 and 24: A General Assembly of all the Greeks being called, Aristeides proposed a decree that the deputies and religious representatives of the Greek states should assemble annually at Plataea, and every fifth year celebrate the Eleutheria or games of freedom; and that there should be a levy upon all Greece for the war against the barbarians of ten thousand spearmen, one thousand horse, and a hundred ships; but the Plataeans to be exempt and sacred to the service of the gods, offering sacrifice for the welfare of Greece. These things being ratified, the Plataeans undertook the performance of annual sacrifices to such as were slain and buried in that place, which they still perform . . . Even during the command of the Lacedaemonians, the Greeks paid a certain contribution towards the maintenance of the war; and being desirous to be rated city by city in their due proportion, they desired Aristeides of the Athenians, and gave him command, surveying the country and revenue, to assess every one according to their ability and what they were worth. But he, being so largely empowered, Greece as it were submitting all her affairs to his sole management, went out poor and returned poorer, laying the tax not only without corruption and injustice, but to the satisfaction and convenience of all. For as the ancients celebrated the Age of Saturn, so did the confederates of Athens Aristeides' assessment, terming it the happy time of Greece; and that more especially, as the sum was in a short time doubled and afterwards trebeled. For the assessment which Aristeides made was four hundred and sixty talents. But to this Pericles added very nearly one-third part more; for Thucydides says that in the beginning of the Peloponnesian War the Athenians had coming in from their confederates six hundred talents. . . .