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Themistocles (Greek: Θεμιστοκλῆς; c.
524–459 BC[1]) 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, Abrotonum by some
accounts.[2] 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).
Thucydides, a well-respected historian who was born around the time of Themistocles'
death, described him in the following terms: "Themistocles was a man who most clearly presents the phenomenon of natural
genius...to a quite extraordinary and exceptional degree by sheer personal intelligence, without either previous study or special
briefing, he showed both the best grasp of an emergency situation at the shortest notice, and the most far-reaching appreciation
of probable future developments."
Plutarch, more disparagingly, remarks that he was power-hungry and willing to use any means
to gain both personal and national prestige.
Ostracon with inscription: "Themistocles, son of Neocles"
The death of Miltiades, the hero of Marathon, left a political void filled by Aristides
"the Just" and Themistocles. Themistocles prevailed in 483-82 by arranging the ostracism of Aristides. Themistocles advocated a policy of naval expansion while Aristides represented the
interests of the "hoplite" or traditional land-based military establishment. Athens' traditional enemy, Aegina, had a powerful navy while the danger of a renewed Persian
invasion was well known. The Persians had recently subjugated the Ionian Greeks who were known for developing a new three level
warship known as the "Trireme" which was destined to change naval warfare for years to come. Themistocles successfully persuaded
the Athenian Assembly to build 200 Triremes and to continue his work of fortifying the harbours of Piraeus largely facilitated by a fortuitous newly-discovered rich vein of silver at Laureion.
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 forstalled Spartan action by means of a visit to Sparta that allowed diplomatic delays and
subterfuges and 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
Athens Greece. He was well received by the Persians and was made
governor of Magnesia on the Maeander River in Asia Minor (modern Turkey). 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 due to illness according to
Thucydides, although he (book I, 138) tells us of a rumor 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.
References and notes
- ^ Hornblower and Spawforth (1998) s.v. Themistocles. Secondary sources vary
on the dates of birth and death. Other dates often given are 525/523 - 460 BC.
- ^
Smith, William (1867), "Abrotonum", in Smith, William,
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and
Mythology, vol. 1, Boston, MA, pp. 3
Bibliography
- JACT, The World of Athens
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia
Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public
domain.
- Hornblower, Simon and Spawforth, Antony (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1998).
External links
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