Themistocles

Themistocles (Greek: Θεμιστοκλῆς; c. 524–459 BC) was a leader in the Athenian democracy during the Persian Wars. He favored the expansion of the navy to meet the Persian threat and persuaded the Athenians to spend the surplus generated by their silver mines on building new ships - the Athenian navy grew from 70 to 200 ships.

Themistocles was the son of Neocles, an Athenian of no distinction and moderate means, his mother being a Carian or a Thracian. According to Thucydides, although he lacked a proper education, he displayed marvellous analytical skills, even when required to act quickly. Plutarch, more disparagingly, remarks that he was power-hungry and willing to use any means to gain both personal and national prestige. Contrast can be drawn between his motivations and those of his 'just' rival, Aristides. Little is known of his early years, but many authors resort to the myth that he was badly behaved as a child and disowned by his father (e.g. Libanius Declamations 9 and 10; Aelian; Cornelius Nepos "Themistocles"). He may have been strategos of his tribe at Marathon and it is said that he was jealous of the victories of Miltiades, repeating to himself, "Miltiades' trophy does not let me sleep" (in Greek: Οὐκ ἐᾷ με καθεύδειν τὸ τοῦ Μιλτιάδου τρόπαιον).

Ostracon with the inscription of Themistocles

The death of Miltiades left the stage to Aristides and Themistocles. Their rivalry, terminated in 483-82 by the ostracism of Aristides, was largely due to the fact that Themistocles was the advocate of a policy of naval expansion. This policy was of the highest importance to Athens, and indeed, Greece. Athens faced the equal if not superior power of Aegina, while the danger of a renewed Persian invasion loomed. Themistocles persuaded his countrymen to build 200 triremes with the money (100 talents) from a newly-discovered rich vein of silver at Laureion, and to continue his work of fortifying the harbours of Piraeus in place of the open roadstead of Phalerum. One hundred of the proposed 200 ships were built.

Themistocles may have been archon in 483-82 at the time when this naval programme began. Dionysius of Halicarnassus places his archonship in 493-92, which may be more likely: in 487 the office lost much of its importance owing to the substitution of the lot for election: the chance that the lot would at the particular crisis of 483 fall on Themistocles was remote. In any case, at the year prior to the invasion of Xerxes Themistocles was the most influential politician in Athens, if not in Greece. Though the Greek fleet was nominally under the control of the Spartan Eurybiades, Themistocles caused the Greeks to fight the indecisive Battle of Artemisium, and more, it was he who brought about the Battle of Salamis, by his threat that he would lead the Athenian army to found a new home in the West, and by his seemingly treacherous message to Xerxes, whose fleet was lured into the channel between Salamis and the mainland, and crushed.

This left the Athenians free to restore their ruined city. Sparta, on the ground that it was dangerous to Greece that there should be any citadel north of the Isthmus of Corinth which an invader might hold, urged against this, but Themistocles by means of diplomatic delays and subterfuges enabled the work to be carried sufficiently near to completion to make the walls defensible. He also carried out his original plan of making Piraeus a real harbour and fortress for Athens. Athens thus became the finest trade centre in Greece, and this, along with Themistocles' remission of the alien's tax, induced many foreign business men to settle in Athens.

After the crisis of the Persian invasion Themistocles and Aristides appear to have made up their differences. But Themistocles soon began to lose the confidence of the people, partly due to his arrogance (it is said that he built near his own house a sanctuary to Artemis Aristoboulë ["of good counsel"]) and partly due to his alleged readiness to take bribes. Diodorus and Plutarch both refer to some accusation levelled against him, and at some point between 476 and 471 he was ostracised. He retired to Argos, but the Spartans further accused him of treasonable intrigues with Persia, and he fled to Corcyra, thence to Admetus, king of Molossia, and finally to Asia Minor. He was proclaimed a traitor at Athens and his property was confiscated, though his friends saved him some portion of it.

Artaxerxes I succesor of Xerxes I, offered Themistocles – who is the winner of the Battle of Salamis, asylum , after Themistocles was ostracized (banned) from Athen Greece. He was well received by the Persians and was allowed to settle in Magnesia in Thessaly. Thessaly was an ally of Persia, having supported Persia during the invasion by Xerxes. The revenues (50 talents) of this town were assigned to him for bread, those of Myus for condiments, and those of Lampsacus for wine. His death at Magnesia, at the age of sixty-five, was possibly due to illness - although Thucydides (book I, 138) tells us that he may have taken poison, finding that he could not keep the promises that he had made to Xerxes. It was said that his bones were secretly transferred to Attica. He was worshipped by the Magnesians as a god, as we find from a coin on which he is shown with a patera in his hand and a slain bull at his feet (hence perhaps the legend that he died from drinking bull’s blood).

Though his end was discreditable, and his great wealth can hardly have been obtained by loyal public service, there is no doubt that his services to Athens and to Greece were great. He created the Athenian fleet and with it the possibility of the Delian League, which became the Athenian empire, and there are indications (e.g. his plan of expansion in the west) that the later imperialist ideal originated with him.

Bibliography

• JACT, The World of Athens
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Hornblower, Simon and Spawforth, Antony (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).

External links

• Livius.org, Themistocles by Jona Lendering