THEMISTOCLES DECEIVES THE SPARTANS
After the battle of Plataea, the Athenians brought their wives and
children back to the city, which the Persians had again left in ruins.
Not only were the temples and the houses burned, but of the city wall
scarce a trace was to be found.
Themistocles encouraged the citizens to rebuild the city, and this they
did with good will. More beautiful temples, better houses, soon sprang
up under the eager hands of the citizens.
The wall they determined to make so strong and so high that they
would be able to defend their city against any attack rather than be
compelled again to forsake her.
But Sparta was alarmed at her neighbour’s industry; she was more than
alarmed, she was suspicious and angry. Athens was making herself too
strong, the Spartans murmured in ungenerous mood.
The wall had risen but a little way from the ground when the Spartans
sent to ask the Athenians not to go on with their work. The reason they
gave was a selfish one, for they said, ‘If the Persians return and
take a strongly walled town so near to Peloponnesus, our cities will
not be safe.’ They then promised to offer shelter to the Athenians,
should they again be forced to leave their city, but only on condition
that they would stop building a wall round Athens. They even asked the
Athenians to help them to destroy the walls that already surrounded the
other cities of Greece.
The Athenians were in a dilemma. They were determined to finish the
wall, yet they dared not anger the Spartans, lest they attacked their
city while the wall was still unfinished.
In their perplexity they turned to Themistocles, who had before now
saved them by craft when open defiance threatened to ruin them.
Themistocles was not long in solving the difficulty. He said that
he would go as an ambassador to Sparta to talk over the matter.
Other ambassadors were to follow him only when the walls were nearly
complete, and meanwhile men, women and children, all must work day and
night, so that the wall might grow apace.
When Themistocles reached Sparta, he at once said to the council that
he could do nothing until his fellow ambassadors arrived, and he
pretended that he expected them every day.
He refused to attend the council alone, and when the Spartans grumbled,
he assured them that the Athenians were not going on with the wall.
When they grew impatient he amused them so well by his clever speeches
that they forgot for a little while to be angry with him.
But when day after day passed and still the other ambassadors did not
come, the Spartans did not hide their suspicion that they were being
deceived. When a rumour reached them that the Athenians had never
ceased to build the wall, which was now nearly complete, they were
angry indeed, and going to Themistocles they demanded that he should
tell them the truth.
He still denied that the citizens had been building the wall in his
absence, but if they doubted his word, he bade them send ambassadors
to Athens, that they might see for themselves whether he was deceiving
them or not.
So the Spartans sent ambassadors to Athens, and then Themistocles bade
his colleagues join him, for he knew that now both he and they would be
safe. The Spartan ambassadors would be hostages for their lives.
The first thing the Spartans saw as they approached Athens was a high,
strong wall. Then they knew that they had been deceived, and they sent
a messenger to tell their countrymen that Themistocles had played them
false.
Themistocles was no coward. He went into the council and boldly told
the Spartans that it was true he had deceived them, so that the walls
of Athens might be built before they could interfere.
Indignant as the Spartans were and ashamed of their own folly in being
deceived by the crafty Athenian, they dared not harm the ambassadors
lest their own messengers should not return in safety.
So they sent them away, and Themistocles and his fellows returned in
triumph to Athens.
Soon after this the city wall was finished, and Themistocles then urged
the people to build another great wall round the Piraeus. When this was
done, Athens had the largest and safest harbour in Greece.
The other states now appointed her to be the head of the allied fleet,
and no one was more proud of this than Themistocles. For it was he
who had first persuaded the Athenians to make themselves into a great
sea-power.