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 of the tribe Leontis; and by his mother's

side, as it is reported, he was base-born.

I am not of the noble Grecian race,

I'm poor Abrotonon, and born in Thrace;

Let the Greek women scorn me, if they please,

I was the mother of Themistocles.

Yet Phanias writes that the mother of Themistocles was not of Thrace,

but of Caria, and that her name was not Abrotonon, but Euterpe; and

Neanthes adds farther that she was of Halicarnassus in Caria. And, as

illegitimate children, including those that were of the half-blood or

had but one parent an Athenian, had to attend at the Cynosarges (a

wrestling-place outside the gates, dedicated to Hercules, who was also

of half-blood amongst the gods, having had a mortal woman for his

mother), Themistocles persuaded several of the young men of high birth

to accompany him to anoint and exercise themselves together at

Cynosarges; an ingenious device for destroying the distinction between

the noble and the base-born, and between those of the whole and those of

the half blood of Athens. However, it is certain that he was related to

the house of the Lycomedae; for Simonides records, that he rebuilt the

chapel of Phlya, belonging to that family, and beautified it with

pictures and other ornaments, after it had been burnt by the Persians.

It is confessed by all that 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 or accusing 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 or 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 his years, from confidence in his natural capacities for

such things. And thus afterwards, when in company where people engaged

themselves in what are commonly thought the liberal and elegant

amusements, he was obliged to defend himself against the observations of

those who considered themselves highly accomplished, by the somewhat

arrogant retort, that he certainly could not make use of any stringed

instrument, could only, were a small and obscure city put into his

hands, make it great and glorious. Notwithstanding this, Stesimbrotus

says that Themistocles was a hearer of Anaxagoras, and that he studied

natural philosophy under Melissus, contrary to chronology; for Melissus

commanded the Samians in their siege by Pericles, who was much

Themistocles's junior; and with Pericles, also, Anaxagoras was intimate.

They, therefore, might rather be credited, who report, that Themistocles

was an admirer of Mnesiphilus the Phrearrhian, who was neither

rhetorician nor natural philosopher, but a professor of that which was

then called wisdom, consisting in a sort of political shrewdness and

practical sagacity, which had begun and continued, almost like a sect of

philosophy, from Solon; but those who came afterwards, and mixed it with

pleadings and legal artifices, and transformed the practical part of it

into a mere art of speaking and an exercise of words, were generally

called sophists. Themistocles resorted to Mnesiphilus when he had

already embarked in politics.

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. But those who upon this fasten stories

of their own invention, as of his being disowned by his father, and that

his mother died for grief of her son's ill fame, certainly calumniate

him; and there are others who relate, on the contrary, how that to deter

him from public business, and to let him see how the vulgar behave

themselves towards their leaders when they have at last no farther use

of them, his father showed him the old galleys as they lay forsaken and

cast about upon the sea-shore.

Yet it is evident that his mind was early imbued with the keenest

interest in public affairs, and the most passionate ambition for

distinction. Eager from the first to obtain the highest place, he

unhesitatingly accepted the hatred of the most powerful and influential

leaders in the city, but more especially of Aristides, the son of

Lysimachus, who always opposed him. And yet all this great enmity

between them arose, it appears, from a very boyish occasion, both being

attached to the beautiful Stesilaus of Ceos, as Ariston the philosopher

tells us; ever after which, they took opposite sides, and were rivals in

politics. Not but that the incompatibility of their lives and manners

may seem to have increased the difference, for Aristides was of a mild

nature, and of a nobler sort of character, and, in public matters,

acting always with a view, not to glory or popularity, but to the best

interests of the state consistently with safety and honesty, he was

often forced to oppose Themistocles, and interfere against the increase

of his influence, seeing him stirring up the people to all kinds of

enterprises, and introducing various innovations. For 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 Persians, upon

the skillful conduct of the general, Miltiades, being everywhere talked

about, he was observed to be thoughtful, and reserved, alone by him

self; he passed the nights without sleep, and avoided all his usual

places of recreation, and to those who 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 conflicts, and for

these, to the benefit of all 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 dared 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 was more easily able to persuade them,

avoiding all mention of danger from Darius or the Persians, who were at

a great distance, and their coming very uncertain, and at that time not

much to be feared; but, by a seasonable employment of the emulation and

anger felt by the Athenians against the Aeginetans, he induced them to

preparation. So that with this money a hundred ships were built, with

which they afterwards fought against Xerxes. And, henceforward, little

by little, turning and drawing the city down towards the sea, in the

belief, that, whereas by land they were not a fit match for their next

neighbors, with their ships they might be able to repel the Persians 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. These measures he

carried in the assembly, against the opposition, as Stesimbrotus

relates, of Miltiades; and whether or no he hereby injured the purity

and true balance of government, may be a question for philosophers, but

that the deliverance of Greece came at that time from the sea, and that

these galleys restored Athens again after it was destroyed, were others

wanting, Xerxes himself would be sufficient evidence, who, though his

land-forces were still entire, after his defeat at sea, fled away, and

thought himself no longer able to encounter the Greeks; and, as it seems

to me, left Mardonius behind him, not out of any hopes he could have to

bring them into subjection, but to hinder them from pursuing him.

Themistocles is said to have been eager in the acquisition of riches,

according to some, that he might be the more liberal; for loving to

sacrifice often, and to be splendid in his entertainment of strangers,

he required a plentiful revenue; yet he is accused by others of having

been parsimonious and sordid to that degree that he would sell

provisions which were sent to him as a present. He desired Diphilides,

who was a breeder of horses, to give him a colt, and when he refused it,

threatened that in a short time he would turn his house into a wooden

horse, intimating that he would stir up dispute and litigation between

him and some of his relations.

He went beyond all men in the passion for distinction. When he was

still young and unknown in the world, he entreated Epicles of Hermione,

who had a good hand at the lute and was much sought after by the

Athenians, to come and practice at home with him, being ambitious of

having people inquire after his house and frequent his company. When he

came to the Olympic games, and was so splendid in his equipage and

entertainments, in his rich tents and furniture, that he strove to outdo

Cimon, he displeased the Greeks, who thought that such magnificence

might be allowed in one who was a young man and of a great family but

was a great piece of insolence in one as yet undistinguished, and

without title or means for making any such display. In a dramatic

contest, the play he paid for won the prize, which was then a matter

that excited much emulation; he put up a tablet in record of it, with

the inscription, "Themistocles of Phrearrhi was at the charge of it;

Phrynichus made it; Adimantus was archon." He was well liked by the

common people, would salute every particular citizen by his own name,

and always show 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 not

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." And at another time, laughing at Simonides, he said, that he was

a man of little judgment to speak against the Corinthians, who were

inhabitants of a great city, and to have his own picture drawn so often,

having so ill-looking a face.

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 king of Persia was now

advancing against Greece, and the Athenians were in consultation who

should be general, and many withdrew themselves of their own accord,

being terrified with the greatness of the danger, there was one

Epicydes, a popular speaker, son to Euphemides, a man of an eloquent

tongue, but of a faint heart, and a slave to riches, who was desirous of

the command, and was looked upon to be in a fair way to carry it by the

number of votes; but Themistocles, fearing that, if the command should

fall into such hands, all would be lost, bought off Epicydes and his

pretensions, it is said, for a sum of money.

When the king of Persia sent messengers into Greece, with an

interpreter, to demand earth and water, as an acknowledgment 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; this is one of the

actions he is commended for, as also for what he did to Arthmius of

Zelea, who brought gold from the king of Persia to corrupt the Greeks,

and was, by an order from Themistocles, degraded and disfranchised, he

and his children and his posterity; but that which most of all redounded

to his credit was, that he put an end to all the civil wars of Greece,

composed their differences, and persuaded them to lay aside all enmity

during the war with the Persians; and in this great work, Chileus the

Arcadian was, it is said, of great assistance to him.

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; but many being against this, he led a large force,

together with the Lacedaemonians, into Tempe, that in this pass they

might maintain the safety of Thessaly, which had not as yet declared for

the king; but when they returned without performing anything; and it

was known that not only the Thessalians, but all as far as Boeotia, was

going over to Xerxes, then the Athenians more willingly hearkened to the

advice of Themistocles to fight by sea, and sent him with a fleet to

guard the straits of Artemisium.

When the contingents met here, 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, extenuating the loss by 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.

And by this moderation of his, it is evident that he was the chief means

of the deliverance of Greece, and gained the Athenians the glory of

alike surpassing their enemies in valor, and their confederates in

wisdom.

As soon as the Persian armada arrived at Aphetae, Eurybiades was

astonished to see such a vast number of vessels before him, and, being

informed that two hundred more were sailing round behind the island of

Sciathus, he immediately determined to retire farther into Greece, and

to sail back into some part of Peloponnesus, where their land army and

their fleet might join, for he looked upon the Persian forces to be

altogether unassailable by sea. But the Euboeans, fearing that the

Greeks would forsake them, and leave them to the mercy of the enemy,

sent Pelagon to confer privately with Themistocles, taking with him a

good sum of money, which, as Herodotus reports, he accepted and gave to

Eurybiades. In this affair none of his own countrymen opposed him so

much as Architeles, captain of the sacred galley, who, having no money

to supply his seamen, was eager to go home; but Themistocles so incensed

the Athenians against him, that they set upon him and left him not so

much as his supper, at which Architeles was much surprised, and took it

very ill; but Themistocles immediately sent him in a chest a service of

provisions, and at the bottom of it a talent of silver, desiring him to

sup tonight, and tomorrow provide for his seamen; if not, he would

report it amongst the Athenians that he had received money from the

enemy. So Phanias the Lesbian tells the story.

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, nor 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; these things they were to despise, and to come up close

and grapple with their foes. 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; most nearly opposite to it stands Olizon, in the country

which formerly was under Philoctetes; there is a small temple there,

dedicated to Diana, surnamed of the Dawn, and trees about it, around

which again stand pillars of white marble; and if you rub them with your

hand, they send forth both the smell and color of saffron. On one of

the pillars these verses are engraved,--

With numerous tribes from Asia's regions brought

The sons of Athens on these waters, fought;

Erecting, after they had quelled the Mede,

To Artemis this record of the deed.

There is a place still to be seen upon this shore, where, in the middle

of a great heap of sand, they take out from the bottom a dark powder

like ashes, or something that has passed the fire; and here, it is

supposed, the shipwrecks and bodies of the dead were burnt.

But when news came from Thermopylae to Artemisium, informing them 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, the

Athenians having the command of the rear, the place of honor and danger,

and much elated by what had been done.

As Themistocles sailed along the coast, he took notice of the harbors

and fit places for the enemies' ships to come to land at, and engraved

large letters in such stones as he found there by chance, as also in

others which he set up on purpose near to the landing-places, or where

they were to water; in which inscriptions he called upon the Ionians to

forsake the Medes, if it were possible, and come over to the Greeks, who

were their proper founders and fathers, and were now hazarding all for

their liberties; but, if this could not be done, at any rate to impede

and disturb the Persians in all engagements. He hoped that these

writings would prevail with the Ionians to revolt, or raise some trouble

by making their fidelity doubtful to the Persians.

Now, though 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

theater, and employed prodigies and oracles. The serpent of Minerva,

kept in the inner part of her temple, disappeared; the priests gave it

out to the people that the offerings which were set for it were found

untouched, 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 Minerva, "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, by a daily payment of two obols to

every one, and leave be given to the children to gather fruit where they

pleased, and schoolmasters paid to instruct them. This vote was

proposed by Nicagoras.

There was no public treasure at that time in Athens; but the council of

Areopagus, as Aristotle says, distributed to every one that served,

eight drachmas, which was a great help to the manning of the fleet; but

Clidemus ascribes this also to the art of Themistocles. When the

Athenians were on their way down to the haven of Piraeus, the shield

with the head of Medusa was missing; and he, under the pretext of

searching for it, ransacked all places, and found among their goods

considerable sums of money concealed, which he applied to the public

use; and with this the soldiers and seamen were well provided for their

voyage.

When the whole city of Athens were going on board, it afforded a

spectacle worthy of pity alike and admiration, to see them thus send

away their fathers and children before them, and, unmoved with their

cries and tears, pass over into the island. But that which stirred

compassion most of all was, that many old men, by reason of their

great age, were left behind; and even the tame domestic animals could

not be seen without some pity, running about the town and howling, as

desirous to be carried along with their masters that had kept them;

among which it is reported that Xanthippus, the father of Pericles, had

a dog that would not endure to stay behind, but leaped into the sea, and

swam along by the galley's side till he came to the island of Salamis,

where he fainted away and died, and that spot in the island, which is

still called the Dog's Grave, is said to be his.

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." Again, Eurybiades lifting up his staff as if

he were going to strike, Themistocles said, "Strike if you will, but

hear;" Eurybiades, wondering much at his moderation, desired him to

speak, and Themistocles now brought him to a better understanding. And

when one who stood by him told him that it did not become those who had

neither city nor house to lose, to persuade others to relinquish their

habitations and forsake their countries, Themistocles gave this reply:

"We have indeed left our houses and our walls, base fellow, not thinking

it fit to become slaves for the sake of things that have no life nor

soul; and yet our city is the greatest of all Greece, consisting of two

hundred galleys, which are here to defend you, if you please; but if you

run away and betray us, as you did once before, the Greeks shall soon

hear news of the Athenians possessing as fair a country, and as large

and free a city, as that they have lost." These expressions of

Themistocles made Eurybiades suspect that if he retreated the Athenians

would fall off from him. When one of Eretria began to oppose him, he

said, "Have you anything to say of war, that are like an ink-fish? you

have a sword, but no heart." 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 seaside, 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.

The Teuthis, loligo, or cuttlefish, is said to have a bone or

cartilage shaped like a sword, and was conceived to have no heart.

Themistocles, in great distress that the Greeks should retire, and lose

the advantage of the narrow seas and strait passage, and slip home every

one to his own city, considered with himself, and contrived that

stratagem that 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 hereby

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 Yet 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 afterwards 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 tent 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,

and how it was set in order. Phanodemus says, he sat upon a promontory

above the temple of Hercules, where the coast of Attica is separated

from the island by a narrow channel; but Acestodorus writes, that it was

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.

When Themistocles was about to sacrifice, close to the admiral's galley,

there were three prisoners brought to him, fine looking men, and richly

dressed in ornamented clothing and gold, said to be the children of

Artayctes and Sandauce, sister to Xerxes. As soon as the prophet

Euphrantides saw them, and observed that at the same time the fire

blazed out from the offerings with a more than ordinary flame, and that

a man sneezed on the right, which was an intimation of a fortunate

event, he took Themistocles by the hand, and bade him consecrate the

three young men for sacrifice, and offer them up with prayers for

victory to Bacchus the Devourer: so should the Greeks not only save

themselves, but also obtain victory. Themistocles was much disturbed at

this strange and terrible prophecy, but the common people, who, in any

difficult crisis and great exigency, ever look for relief rather to

strange and extravagant than to reasonable means, calling upon Bacchus

with one voice, led the captives to the altar, and compelled the

execution of the sacrifice as the prophet had commanded. This is

reported by Phanias the Lesbian, a philosopher well read in history.

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; which 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 him with their pikes, and thrust him

into the sea; his body, as it floated amongst other shipwrecks, was

known to Artemisia, and carried to Xerxes.

It is reported, that, in the middle of the fight, a great flame rose

into the air above the city of Eleusis, and that sounds and voices were

heard through all the Thriasian plain, as far as the sea, sounding like

a number of men accompanying and escorting the mystic Iacchus, and that

a mist seemed to form and rise from the place from whence the sounds

came, and, passing forward, fell upon the galleys. Others believed that

they saw apparitions, in the shape of armed men, reaching out their

hands from the island of Aegina before the Grecian galleys; and supposed

they were the Aeacidae, whom they had invoked to their aid before the

battle. 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 arm of the

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 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, Asia 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 in

such a strait will attempt all things; he will be resolute, and appear

himself in person upon all occasions, he will soon correct his errors,

and supply what he has formerly omitted through remissness, and will be

better advised in 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 of the king Of Persia's

eunuchs, 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 boats were fastened together, and destroy the

bridge; but that Themistocles, being concerned for the king, revealed

this to him, that he might hasten towards the Asiatic seas, and pass

over into his own dominions; and in the mean time would cause delays,

and hinder the confederates from pursuing him. Xerxes no sooner heard

this, but, being very much terrified, he proceeded to retreat out of

Greece with all speed. The prudence of Themistocles and Aristides in

this was afterwards 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

farther notice of those who were contesting 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 meet

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 said to Antiphates, a handsome young man,

who had formerly avoided, but now in his glory courted him, "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 the 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."

When another of the generals, who thought he had performed considerable

service for the Athenians, boastingly compared his actions with those of

Themistocles, he told him that once upon a time the Day after the

Festival found fault with the Festival: "On you there is nothing but

hurry and trouble and preparation, but, when I come, everybody sits down

quietly and enjoys himself;" which the Festival admitted was true, but

"if I had not come first, you would not have come at all." "Even so,"

he said, "if Themistocles had not come before, where had you been now?"

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 in Greece: "For the Athenians command the rest of Greece, I

command the Athenians, your mother commands me, and you command your

mother." Loving to be singular in all things, when he had land to sell,

he ordered the crier to give notice that there were good neighbors near

it. Of 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. Such was the character of his sayings.

After these things, he began to rebuild and fortify the city of Athens,

bribing, as Theopompus reports, the Lacedaemonian ephors not to be

against it, but, as most relate it, overreaching and deceiving them.

For, under pretest of an embassy, he went to Sparta, where, upon the

Lacedaemonians charging him with rebuilding the walls, and Poliarchus

coming on purpose from Aegina to denounce it, he denied the fact,

bidding them to send people to Athens to see whether it were so or no;

by which delay he got time for the building of the wall, and also placed

these ambassadors in the hands of his countrymen as hostages for him;

and so, when the Lacedaemonians knew the truth, they did him no hurt,

but, suppressing all display of their anger for the present, sent him

away.

Next he proceeded to establish the harbor of Piraeus, observing the

great natural advantages of the locality and desirous to unite the whole

city with the sea, and to reverse, in a manner, the policy of ancient

Athenian kings, who, endeavoring to withdraw their subjects from the

sea, and to accustom them to live, not by sailing about, but by planting

and tilling the earth, spread the story of the dispute between Minerva

and Neptune for the sovereignty of Athens, in which Minerva, by

producing to the judges an olive tree, was declared to have won; whereas

Themistocles did not only knead up, as Aristophanes says, the port and

the city into one, but made the city absolutely the dependent and the

adjunct of the port, and the land of the sea, which increased the power

and confidence of the people against the nobility; the authority coming

into the hands of sailors and boatswains and pilots. Thus it was one of

the orders of the thirty tyrants, that the hustings in the assembly,

which had faced towards the sea, should be turned round towards the

land; implying their opinion that the empire by sea had been the origin

of the democracy, and that the farming population were not so much

opposed to oligarchy.

Themistocles, however, formed yet higher designs with a view to naval

supremacy. For, after the departure of Xerxes, when the Grecian fleet

was arrived at Pagasae, where they wintered, Themistocles, in a public

oration to the people of Athens, told them that he had a design to

perform something that would tend greatly to their interests and safety,

but was of such a nature, that it could not be made generally public.

The Athenians ordered him to impart it to Aristides only; and, if he

approved of it, to put it in practice. And when Themistocles had

discovered to him that his design was to burn the Grecian fleet in the

haven of Pagasae, Aristides, coming out to the people, gave this report

of the stratagem contrived by Themistocles, that no proposal could be

more politic, or more dishonorable; on which the Athenians commanded

Themistocles to think no farther of it.

When the Lacedaemonians proposed, at the general council of the

Amphictyonians, that the representatives of those cities which were not

in the league, nor had fought against the Persians, should be excluded,

Themistocles, fearing that the Thessalians, with those of Thebes,

Argos, and others, being thrown out of the council, the Lacedaemonians

would become wholly masters of the votes, and do what they pleased,

supported the deputies of the cities, and prevailed with the members

then sitting to alter their opinion in this point, showing them that

there were but one and thirty cities which had partaken in the war, and

that most of these, also, were very small; how intolerable would it be,

if the rest of Greece should be excluded, and the general council should

come to be ruled by two or three great cities. By this, chiefly, he

incurred the displeasure of the Lacedaemonians, whose honors and favors

were now shown to Cimon, with a view to making him the opponent of the

state policy of Themistocles.

He was also burdensome to the confederates, sailing about the islands

and collecting money from them. Herodotus says, that, requiring money

of those of the island of Andros, he told them that he had brought with

him two goddesses, Persuasion and Force; and they answered him that they

had also two great goddesses, which prohibited them from giving him any

money, Poverty and Impossibility. Timocreon, the Rhodian poet,

reprehends him somewhat bitterly for being wrought upon by money to let

some who were banished return, while abandoning himself, who was his

guest and friend. The verses are these:--

Pausanias you may praise, and Xanthippus he be for,

For Leutychidas, a third; Aristides, I proclaim,

From the sacred Athens came,

The one true man of all; for Themistocles Latona doth abhor

The liar, traitor, cheat, who, to gain his filthy pay,

Timocreon, his friend, neglected to restore

To his native Rhodian shore;

Three silver talents took, and departed (curses with him) on his way,

Restoring people here, expelling there, and killing here,

Filling evermore his purse: and at the Isthmus gave a treat,

To be laughed at, of cold meat,

Which they ate, and prayed the gods some one else might give the feast

another year.

But after the sentence and banishment of Themistocles, Timocreon reviles

him yet more immoderately and wildly in a poem which begins thus:--

Unto all the Greeks repair

O Muse, and tell these verses there,

As is fitting and is fair.

The story is, that it was put to the question whether Timocreon should

be banished for siding with the Persians, and Themistocles gave his vote

against him. So when Themistocles was accused of intriguing with the

Medes, Timocreon made these lines upon him:--

So now Timocreon, indeed, is not the sole friend of the Mede,

There are some knaves besides; nor is it only mine that fails,

But other foxes have lost tails. --

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 ask those who were offended with him whether they were weary with

receiving benefits often from the same person, so rendering himself more

odious. 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. He built this temple near his own house,

in the district called Melite, where now the public officers carry out

the bodies of such as are executed, and throw the halters and clothes of

those that are strangled or otherwise put to death. There is to this

day a small figure of Themistocles in the temple of Diana of Best

Counsel, which represents him to be a person, not only of a noble mind,

but also of a most heroic aspect. 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, disproportionable 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, which gave such advantage to his

enemies, that Leobotes of Agraule, son of Alcmaeon, indicted him of

treason, the Spartans supporting him in the accusation.

When Pausanias went about this treasonable design, he concealed it at

first from Themistocles, though he were his intimate friend; but when he

saw him expelled out of the commonwealth, and how impatiently he took

his banishment, he ventured to communicate it to him, and desired his

assistance, showing him the king of Persia's letters, and exasperating

him against the Greeks, as a villainous, ungrateful people. However,

Themistocles immediately rejected the proposals of Pausanias, and wholly

refused to be a party in the enterprise, though he never revealed his

communications, nor disclosed the conspiracy to any man, either hoping

that Pausanias would desist from his intentions, or expecting that so

inconsiderate an attempt after such chimerical objects would be

discovered by other means.

After that Pausanias was put to death, letters and writings being found

concerning this matter, which rendered Themistocles suspected, the

Lacedaemonians were clamorous against him, and his enemies among the

Athenians accused him; when, being absent from Athens, he made his

defense by letters, especially against the points that had been

previously alleged against 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 accusers, sent

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 for

refuge to Admetus, king 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 a 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. And some say that his wife, Phthia, intimated to

Themistocles this way of petitioning, and placed her young son with him

before the hearth; others, that king Admetus, that he might be under a

religious obligation not to deliver him up to his pursuers, prepared and

enacted with him a sort of stage-play to this effect. At this time,

Epicrates of Acharnae privately conveyed his wife and children out of

Athens, and sent them hither, for which afterwards Cimon condemned him

and put him to death, as Stesimbrotus reports, and yet somehow, either

forgetting this himself, or making Themistocles to be little mindful of

it, says presently that he sailed into Sicily, and desired in marriage

the daughter of Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, promising to bring the Greeks

under his power; and, on Hiero refusing him, departed thence into Asia;

but this is not probable.

For Theophrastus writes, in his work on Monarchy, that when Hiero sent

race-horses to the Olympian games, and erected a pavilion sumptuously

furnished, Themistocles made an oration to the Greeks, inciting them to

pull down the tyrant's tent, and not to suffer his horses to run.

Thucydides says, that, passing over land to the Aegaean Sea, he took

ship at Pydna in the bay of Therme, 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 that if they went on shore he would accuse them, and make

the Athenians to believe that they did not take him in out of ignorance,

but that he had corrupted them with money from the beginning, he

compelled them to bear off and stand out to sea, and sail forward

towards the coast of Asia.

A great part of his estate was privately conveyed away by his friends,

and sent after him by sea into Asia; besides which there was discovered

and confiscated to the value of fourscore talents, as Theophrastus

writes, Theopompus says a hundred; though Themistocles was never worth

three talents before he was concerned in public affairs.

When he arrived at Cyme, and understood that all along the coast there

were many laid wait for him, and particularly Ergoteles and Pythodorus

(for the game was worth the hunting for such as were thankful to make

money by any means, 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. While Themistocles lay hid for some days

in his house, one night, after a sacrifice and supper ensuing, Olbius,

the attendant upon Nicogenes's children, fell into a sort of frenzy and

fit of inspiration, and cried out in verse,--

Night shall speak, and night instruct thee,

By the voice of night conduct thee.

After this, 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 amongst them the Persians especially, are

extremely jealous, severe, and suspicious about their women, not only

their wives, but also their bought slaves and concubines, 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 tents, 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 journeys 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.

Thucydides and Charon of Lampsacus say that Xerxes was dead, and that

Themistocles had an interview with his son; but Ephorus, Dinon,

Clitarchus, Heraclides, and many others, write that he came to Xerxes.

The chronological tables better agree with the account of Thucydides,

and yet neither can their statements be said to be quite set at rest.

When Themistocles was come to the critical point, he applied himself

first to Artabanus, commander of a thousand men, telling him that he was

a Greek, and desired to speak with the king about important affairs

concerning which the king was extremely solicitous. Artabanus answered

him, "O stranger, the laws of men are different, and one thing is

honorable to one man, and to others another; but it is honorable for all

to honor and observe their own laws. It is the habit of the Greeks, we

are told, to honor, above all things, liberty and equality; but amongst

our many excellent laws, we account this the most excellent, to honor

the king, and to worship him, as the image of the great preserver of the

universe; if, then, you shall consent to our laws, and fall down before

the king and worship him, you may both see him and speak to him; but if

your mind be otherwise, you must make use of others to intercede for

you, for it is not the national custom here for the king to give

audience to anyone that doth not fall down before him."

Themistocles, hearing this, replied, "Artabanus, I that come hither to

increase the power and glory of the king, will not only submit myself to

his laws, since so it hath pleased the god who exalteth the Persian

empire to this greatness, but will also cause many more to be

worshippers and adorers of the king. Let not this, therefore, be an

impediment why I should not communicate to the king what I have to

impart." Artabanus asking him, "Who must we tell him that you are? for

your words signify you to be no ordinary person," Themistocles answered,

"No man, O Artabanus, must be informed of this before the king himself."

Thus Phanias relates; to which Eratosthenes, in his treatise on Riches,

adds, that it was by the means of a woman of Eretria, who was kept by

Artabanus, that he obtained this audience and interview with him.

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 that 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, will destroy an enemy of the Greeks." He

talked also of divine admonitions, such as the vision which he saw at

Nicogenes's house, and the direction given him by the oracle of Dodona,

where Jupiter commanded him to go to him that had a name like his, by

which he understood that he was sent from Jupiter to him, seeing that

they both were great, and had the name of kings.

The king heard him attentively, and, though he admired his temper and

courage, gave him no answer at that time; but, when he was with his

intimate friends, rejoiced in his great good fortune, and esteemed

himself very happy in this, and prayed to his god Arimanius, that all

his enemies might be ever of the same mind with the Greeks, to abuse and

expel the bravest men amongst them. Then he sacrificed to the gods, and

presently fell to drinking, and was so well pleased, that in the night,

in the middle of his sleep, he cried out for joy three times, "I have

Themistocles the Athenian."

In the morning, calling together the chief of his court, he had

Themistocles brought before him, who expected no good of it, when he

saw, for example, the guards fiercely set against him as soon as they

learnt his name, and giving him ill language. As he came forward

towards the king, who was seated, the rest keeping silence, passing by

Roxanes, a commander of a thousand men, he heard him, with a slight

groan, say, without stirring out of his place, "You subtle Greek

serpent, the king's good genius hath brought thee hither." Yet, when he

came into the presence, and again fell down, the king saluted him, and

spoke 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 Persian 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, it being supposed that he discoursed only about the affairs

of Greece; but there happening, at the same time, great alterations at

court, and removals of the king's favorites, he drew upon himself the

envy of the great people, who imagined that he had taken the boldness to

speak concerning them. For the favors shown to other strangers were

nothing in comparison with the honors conferred on him; 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.

When Demaratus the Lacedaemonian, being ordered by the king to ask

whatsoever he pleased, and it should immediately be granted him, desired

that he might make his public entrance, and be carried in state through

the city of Sardis, with the tiara set in the royal manner upon his

head, Mithropaustes, cousin to the king, touched him on the head, and

told him that he had no brains for the royal tiara to cover, and if

Jupiter should give him his lightning and thunder, he would not any the

more be Jupiter for that; the king also repulsed him with anger

resolving never to be reconciled to him, but to be inexorable to all

supplications on his behalf. Yet Themistocles pacified him, and

prevailed with him to forgive him. And it is reported, that the

succeeding kings, in whose reigns there was a greater communication

between the Greeks and Persians, when they invited any considerable

Greek into their service, to encourage him, would write, and promise him

that he should be as great with them as Themistocles had been. 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.

Neanthes of Cyzicus, and Phanias, add two more, the city of

Palaescepsis, to provide him with clothes, and Percote, with bedding and

furniture for his house.

As he was going down towards the sea-coast to take measures against

Greece, a Persian whose name was Epixyes, governor of the upper Phrygia,

laid wait to kill him, having for that purpose provided a long time

before a number of Pisidians, who were to set upon him when he should

stop to rest at a city that is called Lion's-head. But Themistocles,

sleeping in the middle of the day, saw the Mother of the gods appear to

him in a dream and say unto him, "Themistocles, keep back from the

Lion's-head, for fear you fall into the lion's jaws; for this advice I

expect that your daughter Mnesiptolema should be my servant."

Themistocles was much astonished, and, when he had made his vows to the

goddess, left the broad road, and, making a circuit, went another way,

changing his intended station to avoid that place, and at night took up

his rest in the fields. But one of the sumpter-horses, which carried

the furniture for his tent, having fallen that day into the river, his

servants spread out the tapestry, which was wet, and hung it up to dry;

in the mean time the Pisidians made towards them with their swords

drawn, and, not discerning exactly by the moon what it was that was

stretched out thought it to be the tent of Themistocles, and that they

should find him resting himself within it; but when they came near, and

lifted up the hangings, those who watched there fell upon them and took

them. Themistocles, having escaped this great danger, in admiration of

the goodness of the goddess that appeared to him, built, in memory of

it, a temple in the city of Magnesia, which he dedicated to Dindymene,

Mother of the gods, in which he consecrated and devoted his daughter

Mnesiptolema to her service.

When he came to Sardis, he visited the temples of the gods, and

observing, at his leisure, their buildings, ornaments, and the number of

their offerings, he saw in the temple of the Mother of the gods, the

statue of a virgin in brass, two cubits high, called the water-bringer.

Themistocles had caused this to be made and set up when he was surveyor

of waters at Athens, out of the fines of those whom he detected in

drawing off and diverting the public water by pipes for their private

use; and whether he had some regret to see this image in captivity, or

was desirous to let the Athenians see in what great credit and authority

he was with the king, he entered into a treaty with the governor of

Lydia to persuade him to send this statue back to Athens, which so

enraged the Persian officer, that he told him he would write the king

word of it. Themistocles, being affrighted hereat, got access to his

wives and concubines, by presents of money to whom, he appeased the fury

of the governor; and afterwards behaved with more reserve and

circumspection, fearing the envy of the Persians, and did not, as

Theopompus writes, continue to travel about Asia, but 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 Asia.

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 check 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, neither was he any way elevated with the thoughts of the

honor and powerful command he was to have in this war; but judging,

perhaps, that the object would not be attained, the Greeks having at

that time, beside other great commanders, Cimon, in particular, who was

gaining wonderful military successes; but chiefly, 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 more than ever, and continued to

show kindness to his friends and relations.

Themistocles left three sons by Archippe, daughter to Lysander of

Alopece, -- Archeptolis, Polyeuctus, and Cleophantus. Plato the

philosopher mentions the last as a most excellent horseman, but

otherwise insignificant person; of two sons yet older than these,

Neocles and Diocles, Neocles died when he was young by the bite of a

horse, and Diocles was adopted by his grandfather, Lysander. He had

many daughters, of whom Mnesiptolema, whom he had by a second marriage,

was wife to Archeptolis, her brother by another mother; Italia was

married to Panthoides, of the island of Chios; Sybaris to Nicomedes the

Athenian. After the death of Themistocles, his nephew, Phrasicles, went

to Magnesia, and married, with her brothers' consent, another daughter,

Nicomache, and took charge of her sister Asia, the youngest of all the

children.

The Magnesians possess a splendid sepulchre of Themistocles, placed in

the middle of their market-place. It is not worthwhile taking notice

of what Andocides states in his Address to his Friends concerning his

remains, how the Athenians robbed his tomb, and threw his ashes into the

air; for he feigns this, to exasperate the oligarchical faction against

the people; and there is no man living but knows that Phylarchus simply

invents in his history, where he all but uses an actual stage machine,

and brings in Neocles and Demopolis as the sons of Themistocles, to

incite or move compassion, as if he were writing a tragedy. Diodorus

the cosmographer says, in his work on Tombs, but by conjecture rather

than of certain knowledge, that near to the haven of Piraeus, where the

land runs out like an elbow from the promontory of Alcimus, when you

have doubled the cape and passed inward where the sea is always calm,

there is a large piece of masonry, and upon this the tomb of

Themistocles, in the shape of an altar; and Plato the comedian confirms

this, he believes, in these verses,--

Thy tomb is fairly placed upon the strand,

Where merchants still shall greet it with the land;

Still in and out 'twill see them come and go,

And watch the galleys as they race below.

Various honors also 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.