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Aristides (Athenian statesman, c. 550 - c. 467 BC) and the Illiterate. A conflict between Aristides and Themistocles ended in the ostracism of Aristides from Athens between 482 and 480 BC. It is said that, on this occasion, an illiterate voter who did not recognise Aristides approached the statesman and requested that he write the name of Aristides on his voting shard to ostracize him. The latter asked if Aristides had wronged him. "No," was the reply, "and I do not even know him, but it irritates me to hear him everywhere called 'the Just'." Aristides then wrote his own name on the ballot. Wood engraving after an original by M. Hillemacher (German painter, 19th century), published in 1880.