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.