Stock Photo - Aristides (540-468 B. C. ) was a Greek statesman from Athens who was given the nickname ""Aristides the Just. "" He was widely praised and honored for his actions as general in the Persian Wars, Greece versus Persia, wars that the Greeks won against Darius and his son Xerxes. Aristides was a strategos at the time of the great Battle of Salamis in 480. There is a tale that tells of Aristides around 482 when it was being vited to send him into exile that an illiterate citizen approached him, but did not recognize him. Wanting to vote but not knowing how to write, the citizen asked Aristides if he would write the name of the person he wanted ostracized on his ostracon. He then said he wanted the name Aristides written on the sherd. Aristides asked why, and the citizen replied that he was tired of Aristides being called ""the Just. "" Aristides then wrote his own name on the ostracon, the ballot. This illustration shows the citizen asking Aristides writing his name.