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Themistocles
The birth of Themistocles was somewhat too obscure to do him
honor. His father, Neocles, was not of the distinguished people of
Athens, but of the township of Phrearrhi; and by his mother's
side, as it is reported, he was low-born.
"I am not of the noble Grecian race,
I'm poor Abrotonon, and born in Trace;
Let the Greek women scorn me, if they please,
I was the mother of Themistocles."
From his youth he was of a vehement and impetuous nature, of a
quick apprehension, and a strong and aspiring bent for action and
great affairs. the holidays and intervals in his studies he did
not spend in play or idleness, as other children, but would be
always inventing or arranging some oration or declamation to
himself, the subject of which was generally the excusing of
accusing of his companions, so that his master would often say to
him, "You, my boy, will be nothing small,, but great one way or
other, for good and else for bad." he received reluctantly and
carelessly instructions given him to improve his manners and
behavior, or to teach him any pleasing or graceful accomplishment,
but whatever was said to improve him in sagacity, or in management
of affairs, he would give attention to beyond one of years, from
confidence in his natural capacities for such things.
In the first essays of his youth he was not regular nor happily
balanced; he allowed himself to follow mere natural character,
which, without the control of reason and instruction, is apt to
hurry, upon either side, into sudden and violent courses, and very
often to break away and determine upon the worst; as he afterwards
owned himself, saying that the wildest colts make the best
horses, if they only get properly trained and broken in.
Yet it is evident that his mind was early imbued with the keenest
interest in public affairs, and the most passionate ambition for
distinction. It is said that Themistocles was so transported with
the thoughts of glory, and so inflamed with the passion for great
actions, that, though he was still young when the battle of
Marathon was fought against the Persian, upon the skillful conduct
of the general, Miltiades, being everywhere talked about, he was
observed to be thoughtful and reserved; he passed the nights
without sleep, and avoided all his usual places of recreation, and
to those how wondered at the change, and inquired the reason of
it, he gave the answer that "the trophy of Miltiades would not let
him sleep." And when others were of opinion that the battle of
Marathon would be an end to the war, Themistocles thought that it
was but the beginning of far greater conflict, and for these, to
the benefit of Greece, he kept himself in continual readiness, and
his city also in proper training, foreseeing from far before what
would happen.
And, first of all, the Athenians being accustomed to divide
amongst themselves the revenue proceeding from the silver mines at
Laurium, he was the only man that durst propose to the people that
this distribution should cease, and that with the money, ships
should be built to make war against the Aeginetans, who were the
most flourishing people in all Greece, and by the number of their
ships held the sovereignty of the sea; and Themistocles thus,
little by little, turned and drew the city down towards the sea,
in the belief that, whereas by land they were not a match for
their next neighbors, with their ships they might be able to repel
the Persian and command Greece; thus, as Plato says, from steady
soldiers he turned them into mariners and seamen tossed about the
sea, and gave occasion for the reproach against him, that he took
away from the Athenians the spear and the shield, and bound them
to the bench and the oar. He was well liked by the common people,
would salute every particular citizen by his own name, and always
showed himself a just judge in questions of business between
private men; he said to Simonides, the poet of Ceos, who desired
something of him when he was commander of the army that was no
reasonable, "Simonides, you would be no good poet if you wrote
false measure, nor should I be a good magistrate if for favor I
made false law."
Gradually growing to be great, and winning the favor of the
people, he at last gained the day with his faction over that of
Aristides, and procured his banishment by ostracism. When the kind
of Persia was now advancing against Greece, and sent messengers
into Greece, with an interpreter, to demand earth and water, as an
acknowledgement of subjection, Themistocles, by the consent of the
people, seized upon the interpreter, and put him to death, for
presuming to publish the barbarian orders and decrees in the Greek
language; and having taken upon himself the command of the
Athenian forces, he immediately endeavored to persuade the
citizens to leave the city, and to embark upon their galleys, and
meet with the Persians at a great distance from Greece.
When the contingents met at the straits of Artemisium, the Greeks
would have the Lacedaemonians to command, and Eurybiades to be
their admiral; but the Athenians, who surpassed all the rest
together in number of vessels, would not submit to come after any
other, till Themistocles, perceiving the danger of this contest,
yielded his own command to Eurybiades, and got the Athenians to
submit, persuading them that if in this war they behaved
themselves like men, he would answer for it after that, that the
Greeks, of their own will, would submit to their command.
Though the fights between the Greeks and Persians in the straits
of Euboea were not so important as to make any final decision of
the war, yet the experience which the Greeks obtained in them was
of great advantage; for thus, by actual trial and in real danger,
they found out, that neither number of ships, or riches and
ornaments, nor boasting shouts, nor barbarous songs of victory,
were any way terrible to men that knew how to fight, and were
resolved to come hand to hand with their enemies. This, Pindar
appears to have seen, and says justly enough of the fight at
Artemisium, that
There the sons of Athens set
The stone that freedom stands on yet.
For the first step towards victory undoubtedly is to gain courage.
Artemisium is in Euboea, beyond the city of Histiaea, a sea-beach
open to the north; there is small temple there, dedicated to
Diana, surnamed of the Dawn, and trees about it, around which
again stand pillars of white marble; and if rub them with your
hand, they send forth both the smell and color of saffron.
But when news came from Thermopylae to Artemisium, informing that
that king Leonidas was slain, and that Xerxes had made himself
master of all the passages by land, they returned back to the
interior of Greece. Xerxes had already passed through Doris and
invaded the country of Phocis, and was burning and destroying the
cities of the Phocians, yet the Greeks sent them no relief; and,
though the Athenians earnestly desired them to meet the Persians
in Boeotia, before they could come into Attica, as they themselves
had come forward by sea at Artemisium, they gave no ear to their
request, being wholly intent upon Peloponnesus, and resolved to
gather all their forces together within the Isthmus, and to build
a wall from sea to sea in that narrow neck of land; so that the
Athenians were enraged to see themselves betrayed, and at the same
time afflicted and dejected at their own destitution. For to fight
alone against such a numerous army was to no purpose, and the only
expedient now left them was to leave their city and cling to their
ships; which the people were very unwilling to submit to,
imagining that it would signify little now to gain a victory, and
not understanding how there could be deliverance any longer after
they had once forsaken the temples of their gods and exposed the
tombs and monuments of their ancestors to the fury of their
enemies.
Themistocles, being at a loss, and not able to draw the people
over to his opinion by any human reason, set his machines to work,
as in a theatre, and employed prodigies and oracles. The serpent
of Athena, kept in the inner part of her temple, disappeared; the
priests gave it out to the people and declared, by the suggestion
of Themistocles, that the goddess had left the city, and taken her
flight before them towards the sea. And he often urged them with
the oracle which bade them "trust to walls of wood," showing them
that walls of wood could signify nothing else but ships; and that
the island of Salamis was termed in it not miserable or unhappy,
but had the epithet of divine, for that it should one day be
associated with a great good fortune of the Greeks. At length his
opinion prevailed, and he obtained a decree that the city should
be committed to the protection of Athena, "queen of Athens"; that
they who were of age to bear arms should embark, and that each
should see to sending away his children, women, and slaves where
he could. This decree being confirmed, most of the Athenians
removed their parents, wives, and children to Troezen, where they
were received with eager good-will by the Troezenians, who passed
a vote that they should be maintained at the public charge.
Among the great actions of Themistocles at this crisis, the recall
of Aristides was not the least, for, before the war, he had been
ostracized by the party which Themistocles headed, and was in
banishment; but now, perceiving that the people regretted his
absence, and were fearful that he might go over to the Persians to
revenge himself, and thereby ruin the affairs of Greece,
Themistocles proposed a decree that those who were banished for a
time might return again, to give assistance by word and deed to
the cause of Greece with the rest of their fellow citizens.
Eurybiades, by reason of the greatness of Sparta, was admiral of
the Greek fleet, but yet was faint-hearted in time of danger, and
willing to weigh anchor and set sail for the Isthmus of Corinth,
near which the land army lay encamped; which Themistocles,
resisted; and this was the occasion of the well-known words, when
Eurybiades, to check his impatience, told him that at the Olympic
games they that start up before the rest are lashed. "And they,"
replied Themistocles, "that are left behind are not crowned." Some
say that while Themistocles was thus speaking things upon the
deck, an owl was seen flying to the right hand of the fleet, which
came and sat upon the top of the mast; and this happy omen so far
disposed the Greeks to follow his advice, that they presently
prepared to fight. Yet, when the enemy's fleet was arrived at the
haven of Phalerum, upon the coast of Attica, and with the number
of their ships concealed all the shore, and when they saw the king
himself in person come down with his land army to the sea-side,
with all his forces united, then the good counsel of Themistocles
was soon forgotten, and the Peloponnesians cast their eyes again
towards the Isthmus, and took it very ill if any one spoke against
their returning home; and, resolving to depart that night, the
pilots had order what course to steer.
Themistocles, in great distress that the Greeks should return, and
lost the advantage of the narrow seas and strait passage, and slip
home very one to his own city, considered with himself, and
contrived that stratagem which was carried out by Sicinnus. this
Sicinnus was a Persian captive, but a great lover of Themistocles,
and the attendant of his children. Upon this occasion he sent him
privately to Xerxes, commanding him to tell the king that
Themistocles, the admiral of the Athenians, having espoused his
interest, wished to be the first to inform him that the Greeks
were ready to make their escape, and that he counseled him to
hinder their flight, to set upon them while they were in this
confusion and at a distance from their land army, and thereby
destroy all their forces by sea. Xerxes was very joyful at this
message, and received it as from one who wished him all that was
good. and immediately issued instructions to the commanders of his
ships that they should instantly set out with two hundred galleys
to encompass all the islands, and enclose all the straits and
passages, that none of the Greeks might escape, and that they
should afterward follow with the rest of their fleet at leisure.
This being done, Aristides, the son of Lysimachus, was the first
man that perceived it, and went to the test of Themistocles, not
out of any friendship, for he had been formerly banished by his
means, as has been related, but to inform him how they were
encompassed by their enemies. Themistocles, knowing the generosity
of Aristides, and much struck by his visit at that time, imparted
to him all that he had transacted by Sicinnus, and entreated him
that, as he would be more readily believed among the Greeks, he
would make use of his credit to help to induce them to stay and
fight their enemies in the narrow seas. Aristides applauded
Themistocles, and went to the other commanders and captains of the
galleys and encouraged them to engage; yet they did not perfectly
assent to him till a galley of Tenos, which deserted from the
Persians, of which Panaetius was commander, came in, while they
were still doubting, and confirmed the news that all the straits
and passages were beset; and then their rage and fury, as well as
their necessity, provoked them all to fight.
As soon as it was day, Xerxes placed himself high up, to view his
fleet, as Acestodorus writes, in the confines of Megara, upon
those hills which are called the Horns, where he sat in a chair of
gold, with many secretaries about him to write down all that was
done in the fight.
The number of the enemy's ships the poet Aeschylus gives in his
tragedy called the Persians, as on his certain knowledge, in the
following words:
Xerxes, I know, did into battle lead
One thousand ships; of more than usual speed
Seven and two hundred. So is it agreed.
The Athenians had a hundred and eighty; in every ship eighteen men
fought upon the deck, four of whom were archers and the rest men-
at-arms.
As Themistocles had fixed upon the most advantageous place, so,
with no less sagacity, he chose the best time of fighting; for he
would not run the prows of his galleys against the Persians, nor
begin the fight till the time of day was come when there regularly
blows in a fresh breeze from the open sea, and brings in with it a
strong swell into the channel; this was no inconvenience to the
Greek ships, which were low-built, and little above the water, but
did much hurt to the Persians, which had high sterns and lofty
decks, and were heavy and cumbrous in their movements, as it
presented them broadside to the quick charges of the Greeks, who
kept their eyes upon the motions of Themistocles, as their best
example, and more particularly because, opposed to his ship,
Ariamenes, admiral to Xerxes, a brave man, and by far the best and
worthiest of the king's brothers, was seen throwing darts and
shooting arrows from his huge galley, as from the walls of a
castle. Aminias the Decelean and Sosicles the Pedian, who sailed
in the same vessel, upon the ships meeting stem to stem, and
transfixing each the other with their brazen prows, so that they
were fastened together, when Ariamenes attempted to board theirs,
ran at them with their pikes, and thrust him into the sea; his
body, as it floated amongst other shipwrecks, was discovered by
Artemisia, and carried to Xerxes.
The first man that took a ship was Lycomedes the Athenian, captain
of a galley, who cut down its ensign, and dedicated it to Apollo
the Laurel-crowned. And as the Persians fought in a narrow sea,
and could bring but part of their fleet to fight, and fell foul of
one another, the Greeks thus equaled them in strength, and fought
with them till the evening, forced them back, and obtained, as
says Simonides, that noble and famous victory, than which neither
amongst the Greeks nor barbarians was ever known more glorious
exploit on the seas; by the joint valor, indeed, and zeal of all
who fought, but most by the wisdom and sagacity of Themistocles.
After this sea-fight, Xerxes, enraged at his ill-fortune,
attempted, by casting great heaps of earth and stones into the
sea, to stop up the channel and to make a dam, upon which he might
lead his land forces over into the island of Salamis.
Themistocles, being desirous to try the opinion of Aristides, told
him that he proposed to set sail for the Hellespont, to break the
bridge of ships, so as to shut up, he said, Aisa a prisoner within
Europe; but Aristides, disliking the design, said: "We have
hitherto fought with an enemy who has regarded little else but his
pleasure and luxury; but if we shut him up within Greece, and
drive him to necessity, he that is master of such great forces
will no longer sit quietly with an umbrella of gold over his head,
looking upon the fight for his pleasure; but he will be resolute,
and attempt all things. Therefore, it is noways our interest,
Themistocles," he said, "to take away the bridge that is already
made, but rather to build another, if it were possible, that he
might make his retreat with the more expedition." To which
Themistocles answered: "If this be requisite, we must immediately
use all diligence, art, and industry, to rid ourselves of him as
soon as may be;" and to this purpose he found out among the
captives one named Arnaces, whom he sent to the king, to inform
him that the Greeks, being now victorious by sea, had decreed to
sail to the Hellespont, where the boasts were fastened together,
and destroy the bridge; but that Themistocles, being concerned for
the king, revealed this to him, that he might hasten toward the
Asiatic seas, and pass over into his own dominions; and in the
meantime would cause delays, and hinder the confederates from
pursuing him. Xerxes no sooner heard this than, being very much
terrified, he proceeded to retreat out of Greece with all speed.
The prudence of Themistocles and Aristides in this was afterward
more fully understood at the battle of Plataea, where Mardonius,
with a very small fraction of the forces of Xerxes, put the Greeks
in danger of losing all.
Herodotus writes that, of all the cities of Greece, Aegina was
held to have performed the best service in the war; while all
single men yielded to Themistocles, though, out of envy,
unwillingly; and when they returned to the entrance of
Peloponnesus, where the several commanders delivered their
suffrages at the altar, to determine who was most worthy, every
one gave the first vote for himself and the second for
Themistocles. The Lacedaemonians carried him with them to Sparta,
where, giving the rewards of valor to Eurybiades, and of wisdom
and conduct to Themistocles, they crowned him with olive,
presented him with the best chariot in the city, and sent three
hundred young men to accompany him to the confines of their
country. And at the next Olympic games, when Themistocles entered
the course, the spectators took no further notice of those who
were competing for the prizes, but spent the whole day in looking
upon him, showing him to the strangers, admiring him, and
applauding him by clapping their hands, and other expressions of
joy, so that he himself, much gratified, confessed to his friends
that he then reaped the fruit of all his labors for the Greeks.
He was, indeed, by nature, a great lover of honor, as is evident
from the anecdotes recorded of him. When chosen admiral by the
Athenians, he would not quite conclude any single matter of
business, either public or private, but deferred all till the day
they were to set sail, that, by dispatching a great quantity of
business all at once, and having to met a great variety of people,
he might make an appearance of greatness and power. Viewing the
dead bodies cast up by the sea, he perceived bracelets and
necklaces of gold about them, yet passed on, only showing them to
a friend that followed him, saying, "Take you these things, for
you are not Themistocles." He aid to Antiphates, a handsome young
man, "Time, young man, has taught us both a lesson." He said that
the Athenians did not honor him or admire him, but made, as it
were, a sort of plane-tree of him; sheltered themselves under him
in bad weather, and as soon as it was fine, plucked his leaves and
cut his branches. When a Seriphian told him that he had not
obtained this honor by himself, but by the greatness of his city,
he replied: "You speak truth; I should never have been famous if I
had been of Seriphus; nor you, had you been of Athens." Laughing
at his own son, who got his mother, and by his mother's means, his
father also to indulge him, he told him that he had the most power
of any one is Greece: "For the Athenians command the rest of
Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother commands me, and you
command your mother." Of the two who made love to his daughter, he
preferred the man of worth to the one who was rich, saying he
desired a man without riches, rather than riches without a man.
When the citizens of Athens began to listen willingly to those who
traduced and reproached him, he was forced, with somewhat
obnoxious frequency, to put them in mind of the great services he
had performed. And he yet more provoked the people by building a
temple to Diana with the epithet of Aristobule, or Diana of Best
Counsel; intimating thereby that he had given the best counsel,
not only to the Athenians, but to all Greece. At length the
Athenians banished him, making use of the ostracism to humble his
eminence and authority, as they ordinarily did with all whom they
thought too powerful, or, by their greatness, disproportionate to
the equality thought requisite in a popular government. For the
ostracism was instituted, not so much to punish the offender as to
mitigate and pacify the violence of the envious, who delighted to
humble eminent men, and who, by fixing this disgrace upon them,
might vent some part of their rancor.
Themistocles being banished from Athens, while he stayed at Argos
the detection of Pausanias happened. And after Pausanias was put
to death, letters and writings were found which rendered
Themistocles suspected, and his enemies among the Athenians
accused him. In answer to the malicious detractions of his
enemies, he merely wrote to the citizens urging that he who was
always ambitious to govern, and not of a character or a
disposition to serve, would never sell himself and his country
into slavery to a barbarous and hostile nation.
Notwithstanding this, the people, being persuaded by his accuser,
set officers to take him and bring him away to be tried before a
council of the Greeks; but, having timely notice of it, he passed
over into the island of Corcyra, where the state was under
obligations to him; for, being chosen as arbitrator in a
difference between them and the Corinthians, he decided the
controversy by ordering the Corinthians to pay down twenty
talents, and declaring the town and island of Leucas a joint
colony from both cities. From thence he fled into Epirus, and, the
Athenians and Lacedaemonians still pursuing him, he threw himself
upon chances of safety that seemed all but desperate. For he fled
fro refuge to Admetus, kind of the Molossians, who had formerly
made some request to the Athenians when Themistocles was in the
height of his authority, and had been disdainfully used and
insulted by him, and had let it appear plain enough that could he
lay hold of him he would take his revenge. Yet in this misfortune,
Themistocles, fearing the recent hatred of his neighbors and
fellow-citizens more than the old displeasure of the king, put
himself at his mercy, and became an humble suppliant to Admetus,
after a peculiar manner, different from the custom of other
countries. For taking the king's son, who was then a child, in his
arms, he laid himself down at his hearth, this being the most
sacred and only manner of supplication, among the Molossians,
which was not to be refused.
Thucydides says, that, passing over land to the Aegean Sea, he
took shop at Pydna in the bay of Thermae, not being known to any
one in the ship, till, being terrified to see the vessel driven by
the winds near to Naxos, which was then besieged by the Athenians,
he made himself known to the master and pilot, and, partly
entreating them, partly threatening, he compelled them to bear off
and stand out to sea, and sail forward toward the coast of Aisa.
When he arrived at Cyme, and understood that all along the coast
many laid in wait for him (the king of Persia having offered by
public proclamation two hundred talents to him that should take
him), he fled to Aegae, a small city of the Aeolians, where no one
knew him but only his host Nicogenes, who was the richest man in
Aeolia, and well known to the great men of Inner Asia. There
Themistocles, going to bed, dreamed that he saw a snake coil
itself up upon his belly, and so creep to his neck; then, as soon
as it touched his face, it turned into an eagle, which spread its
wings over him, and took him up and flew away with him a great
distance; then there appeared a herald's golden wand, and upon
this at last it set him down securely, after infinite terror and
disturbance.
His departure was effected by Nicogenes by the following artifice:
the barbarous nations, and among them the Persians especially, are
extremely jealous, severe, and suspicious about their wives, whom
they keep so strictly that no one ever sees them abroad; they
spend their lives shut up within doors, and, when they take a
journey, are carried in close tenets, curtained in on all sides,
and set upon a wagon. Such a traveling carriage being prepared for
Themistocles, they hid him in it, and carried him on his journey,
and told those whom they met or spoke with upon the road that they
were conveying a young Greek woman out of Ionia to a nobleman at
court.
When he was introduced to the king, and had paid his reverence to
him, he stood silent, till the king commanding the interpreter to
ask him who he was, he replied: "O king, I am Themistocles the
Athenian, driven into banishment by the Greeks. The evils I have
done to the Persians are numerous; but my benefits to them yet
greater, in withholding the Greeks from pursuit, so soon as the
deliverance of my own country allowed me to show kindness also to
you. I come with a mind suited to my present calamities; prepared
alike for favors and for anger; to welcome your gracious
reconciliation, and to deprecate your wrath. Take my own
countrymen for witnesses of the services I have done for Persia,
and make use of this occasion to show the world your virtue,
rather than to satisfy your indignation. If you save me, you will
save your suppliant; if otherwise, you will destroy an enemy of
the Greeks."
In the morning, calling together the chief of his court, he had
Themistocles brought before him, who expected no good of it. Yet,
when he came into the presence, and again fell down, the king
saluted him, and spake to him kindly, telling him he was now
indebted to him two hundred talents; for it was just and
reasonable that he should receive the reward which was proposed to
whosoever should bring Themistocles; and promising much more, and
encouraging him, he commanded him to speak freely what he would
concerning the affairs of Greece. Themistocles replied, that a
man's discourse was like to a rich Persians carpet, the beautiful
figures and patterns of which can only be shown by spreading and
extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up, they are
obscured and lost; and, therefore, he desired time. The king being
pleased with the comparison, and bidding him take what time he
would, he desired a year; in which time, having learnt the Persian
language sufficiently, he spoke with the king by himself without
the help of an interpreter; the king invited him to partake of his
own pastimes and recreations both at home and abroad, carrying him
with him a-hunting, and made him his intimate so far that he
permitted him to see the queen-mother, and converse frequently
with her. By the king's command, he also was made acquainted with
the Magian learning.
They relate, also, how Themistocles, when he was in great
prosperity, and courted by many, seeing himself splendidly served
at his table, turned to his children and said: "Children, we had
been undone if we had not been undone." Most writers say that he
had three cities given him--Magnesia, Myus and Lampsacus--to
maintain him in bread, meat and wine; and some add two more, the
city of Palaescepsis, to provide him with clothes, and Percote,
with bedding and furniture for his house.
He lived quietly in his own house in Magnesia, where for a long
time he passed his days in great security, being courted by all,
and enjoying rich presents, and honored equally with the greatest
persons in the Persian empire; the king, at that time, not minding
his concerns with Greece, being taken up with the affairs of Inner
Aisa.
But when Egypt revolted, being assisted by the Athenians, and the
Greek galleys roved about as far as Cyprus and Cilicia, and Cimon
had made himself master of the seas, the king turned his thoughts
thither, and, bending his mind chiefly to resist the Greeks, and
to cheek the growth of their power against him, began to raise
forces, and send out commanders, and to dispatch messengers to
Themistocles at Magnesia, to put him in mind of his promise, and
to summon him to act against the Greeks. Yet this did not increase
his hatred nor exasperate him against the Athenians, but, being
ashamed to sully the glory of his former great actions, and of his
many victories and trophies, he determined to put a conclusion to
his life, agreeable to its previous course. He sacrificed to the
gods, and invited his friends; and having entertained them and
shaken hands with them, drank bull's blood, as is the usual story;
as others state, a poison, producing instant death; and ended his
days in the city of Magnesia, having lived sixty-five years, most
of which he had spent in politics and in the wars, in government
and command. The king, being informed of the cause and manner of
his death, admired him the more than ever, and continued to show
kindness to his friends and relations.
The Magnesians possess a splendid sepulchre of Themistocles,
placed in the middle of their market-place. And various honors and
privileges were granted to the kindred of Themistocles at
Magnesia, which were observed down to our times, and were enjoyed
by another Themistocles of Athens, with whom I had an intimate
acquaintance and friendship in the house of Ammonius the
philosopher.
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