Talk:Aristides

Plato's admiration

The comment "Plato called him the only man in Athens worth admiring." is mentioned in a little more detail in Plutarch's Life of Aristides as translated by John Dryden. Plutarch says, "But Plato declares that, of all the great renowned men in the city of Athens, he was the only one worthy of consideration; for Themistocles, Cimon, and Pericles filled the city with porticoes, treasure, and many other vain things, but Aristides guided his public life by the rule of justice." So it's true... but as for that citation that's been requested it should be lifted straight from Plato (primary source is better than secondary source) which I don't have. -BiancaOfHell 05:34, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

I've just tried searching for anything in Plato's works where he says Aristides is the only Athenian worth admiring. All I can find is the following text, from Gorgias where Plato has Socrates counting Aristides as one of the few good men of power.

"No, Callicles, the very bad men come from the class of those who have power. And yet in that very class there may arise good men, and worthy of all admiration they are, for where there is great power to do wrong, to live and to die justly is a hard thing, and greatly to be praised, and few there are who attain to this. Such good and true men, however, there have been, and will be again, at Athens and in other states, who have fulfilled their trust righteously; and there is one who is quite famous all over Hellas, Aristeides, the son of Lysimachus. But, in general, great men are also bad, my friend."[1]

Earlier in the dialogue he states that other great men of Athens' recent history - Themistocles, Cimon, Militiades, and even Pericles - were flawed. Perhaps Plutarch added more emphasis than Plato had originally used (the only one rather than one of a few) but this does seem to me to be the source of this assertion. If so, the sentence as it it stands needs qualification. --Spondoolicks 17:02, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

Lycurgus

I suppose that the Lacaedaemonian Lycurgus, who was admired by Aristides --accordingly-with Plutarch-- & who turned Aristides --toward the aristocratic politics, in Athens--, was Lycurgus (Sparta) but I don't know. --Anawhoisawitch 23:49, 2 March 2007 (UTC)anawhoisawitch

Tag

If nobody gets angered, I will remove the "lack of sources" tag. --Anawhoisawitch 23:48, 2 March 2007 (UTC)anawhoisawitch

A big effort, but do you need help?

Anawhoisawitch

I have been noting the huge effort you have been putting in over the last few days to rewrite and improve the article about Aristides. I would be happy to help you improve your grammar and expression. I don't want to cause you any offence, but I believe that some of the material you have recently included in this article is poorly structured and could be expressed more clearly. However, I don't want to start changing things until you tell me that you have finished with your changes.

I am happy to make changes to fix up the language without changing the overall intention of what you're trying to say. So, let me know when you're finished and then I will have a go at improving the overall readability of the article. --Chaleyer61 11:51, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree, and am willing to help too. But, Anawhoisawitch, the 'overall intention of what you're trying to say' is not good english either. The intention belongs to the writer, not the words he writes.

Xavier

There are a number of errors in the discussion of Plataea - either from a misunderstanding or due to the poor grammar. Specifically, there were no revolting Athenian soldiers , and certainly none who had turned Persian just then. The Thebans were not Athenian, and had sided with the Persians for years at this point in time. See the Battle of Plataea for a better description.

Michael

Slur?

"It is believed that the early population in Athens quoted the statement for the fact that he constantly had pleasured many wealthy men in the kingdom expressing his homosexual tendencies."

This sounds like a political slur to me. Surely being homosexual doesn't mean he traded sex for favors?

Writing out Plutarch

Really, it's not hard to find actual reliable secondary sources on the Athenian Empire. Please try; there's already an online edition of Plutarch. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 00:15, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

In fact, if we're going to copy somebody, the 1911 Britannica is preferable; at least that way we get nineteenth century scholarship into the article. Reverting accordingly. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 00:25, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

Time to remove Neutrality Check?

This article was nominated for a neutrality check over a year ago.

Reading it myself, I do not think the article is biased as most claims are attributed to ancient authors so the perspective is fairly clear. If there are no objections, I might remove the neutrality check. If there are objections, please let me know where there are problems and I can rectify them.

Aristipp0s (talk) 13:50, 24 March 2020 (UTC)

Go fit it. It's not perfect, but I don't see an issue worthy of the tag. Noel (talk) 14:34, 2 November 2020 (UTC)