alternatehistory.com

The interview begins now.

I must tell you, it is no easy thing being separated from my people. I appreciate that you are only performing your role in justice, and with just manner, but they have suffered so much, and there was still so much I could have done for them. It has been a perilous thing these past years, balancing the rule of Xerxes and his satrap with the needs of a polis wounded by war and driven to a fearful frenzy. I have exerted all possible energies and wisdom to finding the most just path for them to follow, which has required my constant supervision, the sapping of all strength that I possessed. Now I think about it, this has probably reduced the span of my life. I do not find I regret this, except perhaps that I could have served my polis for longer in other circumstances, and could have spent more time among the exiled Athenians who had finally begun to open up to us.

In a way, I envy those who took the choice of exile. It cannot have been easy to turn their backs on homeland, to our way of life, but they were also taking control over their lives. They had the chance to begin anew, to retain sovereignty, to act in whatever way they saw fit. More than once, I wished I had joined them in those early days. But somebody had to rebuild Athenai’s ruins, to protect those who could or would not leave, to give all Athenians a metropolis to return to one day. So thus I laboured. I worked to keep Persian interference in their daily lives to a minimum. As onerous as the Arkhon ton Medikon was the Persians were never more visible than that. I worked to continue what Kleisthenes had started; the end of strife between the noble families of Athenai. I worked to give them hope that there was a life after submission to Xerxes. I do not know that I succeeded at this last objective. I did restore the ties between Athenai and the exiles, however, something I did not expect was even possible until the final years of my life. It was good to see that they had taken their chance at independence and made the most of it, and to spend time with Athenians free from fear as we were in the old days. My hope is that they shall restore the faith of Athenians in good fortune and that the Gods watch over them.

But still, my abiding memory is of Athenai in those years after the disaster at Salamis, and my efforts to keep our polis from sinking into the abyss. Was it pride that made me insist on personal involvement at every step, that made me believe that I had a particular role in steering Athens through this crisis? Now I consider it, I feel the honest answer to the question is no. I did not consider myself the basileus of my fellow citizens, nor their superior in any other fashion, but one who had the power and influence and drive to take responsibility when nobody wanted to. I did not seek to make myself indispensable, or to establish my family’s power beyond its existing levels, I sought the opposite. I sought to end the dependency of Athenai on such efforts as mine, and as free from dependency on Persia as much as possible. I wanted to restore Athenai as a living polis that could think about the future with something other than fear for what it could hold. I did not even have particular self belief that I could manage these things, only that I had to make the attempt for the love of my fellow Athenians.

And what is it we all feared, really? It was not the Persians exactly. I knew cruel and vicious Persians, I knew noble and generous Persians. It was submission. Particularly unwilling submission to a power far greater than our own, that of Xerxes and his Empire, and one that had come after our resistance had been defeated in war. How was justice to be created and ensured in such an unequal relationship, with such disparate powers of the two parties? Even before the Persians ever came to our shores we had seen such things, between Hellenes and other peoples in both directions, and among fellow Hellenes. We have seen what people armed with such power can do when given temptation. Xerxes was one man, armed with such an array of arms, supporters, and wealth. How could one trust that he would remain equitable on a day to day basis? How could we guarantee that any successor of his would keep the word of Xerxes? How could we predict what conflicts of Xerxes would drag us in and put us at even greater danger? Is this what it is like for anyone subject to any king in such a fashion?

And more than that, this is a conflict a slave has already lost, with little hope of redress. The fear we felt, we were still free men with arms and ships and a city and a brotherhood. All of those slaves across the world, with no power to guarantee themselves justice in any matter except by aligning themselves with those they fear the least. What dread they must feel, what powerlessness. Now I think of it, how can we feel this fear over submission and ignore those that have been cast into this role? It is not just or correct to believe that any human being is naturally made to be subordinated. Now I consider it, I have never believed that such a thing was just, but I have never allowed myself to truly consider the implications of such a thing. To be raised from birth to consider slaves a natural part of society… how many other injustices are we inculcated to ignore, I wonder.

I feel ashamed to have lived so many years in this world and to have been blind to such things. To have considered myself a man who worked for justice while such things were treated as no more unnatural than building a house or growing a field of crops. Even in Dikaia, the land of the free Athenians, there are those under bondage who probably fear for their bodies, lives, and souls every single day. I would hope that in this, of all places, those who have been slaves have a chance to speak their thoughts and receive true justice. If they do not, then I shall advocate for them. I am resolved to this, and cannot be dissuaded. And if such a thing is not permitted, then I shall find a way. In either case, I am ready to encounter the law, and to depart on the rest of my journey. Fear no longer has any hold upon me. Aristeides, son of Lysimakhos, is ready for your justice.

The interview is over.​