939 



THEMISTOCLES. 



THEMISTOCLES. 



cidians with twenty others ; while the Spartan contingent was incom- 

 parably smaller. When the Persian fleet, notwithstanding the severe 

 losses which it had sustained by a storm, determined to sail round the 

 eastern and southern coasts of Eubcea, and then up the Euripus, in 

 order to cut off the Greek fleet at Artemisium, the Greeks were so sur- 

 prised and alarmed that Themistocles had great difficulty in inducing 

 them to remain and maintain their station. The Eubooans, who 

 perceived the advantages of the plan of Themistocles, rewarded him 

 with the sum of thirty talents, part of which he gave to the Spartan 

 Eurybiades and the Corinthian Adimantus to induce them to remain 

 at Artemisium. (Herodot., viii. 4, 5; Plutarch, 'Themist.,' 7.) In 

 the battle which then took place, the Greeks gained considerable 

 advantage, though the -victory was not decided. A storm and a 

 second engagement near Artemisium, severely injured tho fleet of the 

 Persians, but the Greeks also sustained great losses, as* half of their 

 ships were partly destroyed and partly rendered unfit for further 

 service. When at the same time they received intelligence of the 

 defeat of Leonidas at Thermopylae, the Greeks resolved to retreat 

 from Artemisium, and sailed to the Saronic gulf. Xerxes was now 

 advancing from Thermopylae, and Athens trembled for her existence, 

 while the Peloponnesians were bent upon seeking shelter and safety in 

 their peninsula, and upon fortifying themselves by a wall across the 

 Corinthian isthmus. On the approach of the danger tho Athenians 

 had sent to Delphi to consult the oracle about the means they should 

 employ for their safety, and the god had commanded Athens to defend 

 herself behind wooden walls. This oracle, which had probably been 

 given at the suggestion of Themistocles, was now also interpreted by 

 him as referring to the fleet, and his advice to seek safety in the fleet 

 was followed. He then further moved that the Athenians should 

 abandon the city to the care of its tutelary deity, that the women, 

 children, and irinrm should be removed to Salamis, JEgma., or Trcezen, 

 and that the men should embark in the ships. The fleet of the 

 Greeks, consisting of 380 ships, assembled at Salamis, still under the 

 supreme command of Eurybiades. When the Persians had made 

 themselves masters of Attica, and Athens was seen in flames at a 

 distance, some of the commanders of the fleet, under the influence of 

 fear, began to make preparations for an immediate retreat. Themis- 

 tocles and his friend Muesiphilus saw the disastrous results of such a 

 course, and the former exerted all his powers of persuasion to induce 

 the commanders of the fleet to maintain their post : when all attempts 

 proved ineffectual, Themistocles had recourse to threats, and thus 

 induced Eurybiades to stay. The example of the admiral was followed 

 by the other commanders also. In tho meantime the Persian fleet 

 arrived in the Saronic gulf, and the fears of the Peloponnesians were 

 revived and doubled, and nothing seemed to be able to keep them 

 together. At this last and critical moment Themistocles devised a 

 plan to compel them to remain and face the enemy. He sent a mes- 

 sage to the Persian admiral, informing him that the Greeks were on the 

 point of dispersing, and that if the Persians would attack them while they 

 were assembled, they would easily conquer them all at once, whereas it 

 would otherwise be necessary to defeat them one after another. 



This apparently well-meant advice was eagerly taken up by tho 

 enemy, who now hastened, as he thought, to destroy the fleet of the 

 Greeks. But the event proved the wisdom of Themistocles. The 

 uawieldy armament of the Persians was unable to perform any move- 

 ments in the narrow straits between the island of Salamis and the 

 mainland. The Greeks gained a most complete and brilliant victory, 

 for they only lost forty ships, while the enemy lost two hundred ; or, 

 according to Ctesias, even five hundred. Very soon after the victory 

 was decided, Xerxes with the remains of the fleet left the Attic coast 

 and sailed towards the Hellespont. The battles of Artemisium and 

 Salamis occurred in the same year, B.C. 480. 



Coin of Salamis. 

 British Museum. Actual Size. Silver. 



When the Greeks were informed of the departure of Xerxes, they 

 pursued him as far as Andros without gaining sight of his fleet, and 

 Themistocles and others proposed to continue the chase. But he gave 

 way to the opposition that was made to this plan, and consented not 

 to drive the vanquished enemy to despair. The Greek fleet therefore 

 only stayed some time among the Cyclades, to chastise those islanders 

 who had been unfaithful to the national cause. Themistocles, in the 

 meantime, in order to get completely rid of the king and his fleet, sent 

 a message to him, exhorting him to hasten back to Asia as speedily as 

 possible, for otherwise he would be in danger of having his retreat cut 

 off. Themistocles availed himself of the stay of the Greek fleet 

 among the Cyclades for the purpose of enriching himself at the cost of 

 the islanders, partly by extorting money from them by way of punish- 

 ment, and partly by accepting bribes for securing them impunity for 

 their conduct. His fame however spread over all Greece, and all 

 acknowledged that the country had been saved through hia wisdom 



and resolution. But the confederate Greeks, actuated by jealousy, 

 awarded to him only the second prize ; at Sparta, whither he went, as 

 Herodotus gays, to bo honoured, he received a chaplet of olive-leaves, 

 a reward which they had bestowed upon their own admiral Kury- 

 biades, and the best chariot that the city possessed, and on hia 

 return 300 knights escorted him as far as Tegea in Arcadia. 



When the Persian army had been ngain defeated at Plataca and 

 Mycale, in B.O. 479, and when the Athenians had rebuilt their private 

 dwellings, it was also resolved, on the advice of Themistocles, to 

 restore the fortifications of Athens, but on a larger scale than they had 

 been before, and more in accordance with the proud position which 

 the city now occupied in Greece. This plan excited tho fear and 

 jealousy of the rival states, and especially of Sparta, which sent an 

 embassy to Athens, and under the veil of friendship, which ill con- 

 cealed its selfish policy, endeavoured to persuade the Athenians not 

 to fortify their city. Themistocles, who saw through their designs, 

 undertook the task of defeating them with their own weapons. He 

 advised his countrymen to dismiss the Spartan ambassadors, and to 

 promise that Athenian envoys should be sent to Sparta to treat with 

 them there respecting the fortifications. He himself offered to go as 

 one of the envoys, but he directed the Athenians not to let hia 

 colleagues follow him, until the walls, on which all hands should be 

 employed during his absence, should be raised to such a height as to 

 afford sufficient protection against any attack that might be made 

 upon them. Hia advice was followed, and Themistoclea, after his 

 arrival at Sparta, took no steps towards opening the negociations, but 

 pretended that he was obliged to wait for the arrival of his colleagues. 

 When he was informed that the walls had reached a sufficient height, 

 and when he could irop the mask with safety, he gave the Spartans a 

 well-deserved rebuke, returned home, and the walls were completed 

 without any hindrance. He then proceeded to carry into effect the 

 chief thing which remained to be done to make Athens the first 

 maritime power of Greece. He induced the Athenians to fortify the 

 three ports of Phalerum, Munychia, and Piraeus, by a double range 

 of walls. 



When Athens was thus raised to the station on which it had been 

 the ambition of Themistocles to place it, his star began to sink, 

 though he still continued for some time to enjoy the fruits of his 

 memorable deeds. He was conscious of the services he had done to 

 his country, and never scrupled to show that he knew his own value. 

 His extortion and avarice, which made him ready to do anything, and 

 by which he accumulated extraordinary wealth, could not fail to raise 

 enemies against him. But what perhaps contributed more to hia 

 downfall was his constant watchfulness in maintaining and promoting 

 the interests of Athens against the encroachments of Sparta, which, in 

 its turn, was ever looking out for an opportunity to crush him. The 

 great men who had grown up by his side at Athens, such as Cimon, 

 and who were no less indebted to him for then 1 greatness in the eyes 

 of Greece than to their own talents, were his natural rivals, and 

 succeeded iu gradually supplanting him in the favour of the people. 

 They also endeavoured to represent him as a man of too much power, 

 and as dangerous to the republic. The consequence of all this was, 

 that in B.C. 472 he was banished from Athens by the ostracism. He 

 took up his residence at Argos, where he was still residing when, in 

 in the same year B.C. 472, Pausanias was put to death at Sparta for 

 his ambitious and treacherous designs, and his fate involved that of 

 Themistocles. [PAUSANIAS.] The Spartans, in their search to dis- 

 cover more traces of the plot of Pausanias, found a letter of Themis- 

 tocles, from which it was evident that he had been acquainted with 

 his plans. This was sufficient for the Spartans to ground upon it tho 

 charge that Themistocles had been an accomplice hi his crime, and 

 ambassadors were forthwith sent to Athens to demand that he should 

 suffer the same punishment as Pausanias. This charge was no less 

 welcome to his enemies at Athens than the discovery of his letter had 

 been to the Spartans. Orders were consequently issued to arrest and 

 convey him to Athens. But he had been informed in time of the pro- 

 ceedings at Athens, and foreseeing that his destruction would be 

 unavoidable if he should fall into the hands of his enemies, fled to 

 Corcyra, and thence to the opposite coast of Epirus, where he took 

 refuge at the court of Admetus, king of the Molossians. On his arrival, 

 the king was absent, but his Queen Phthia received him kindly, and 

 pointed out to him in what manner he might win the sympathy of 

 Admetus. When the king returned home, Themistocles, seated on 

 the hearth and holding the child of Admetus in his arms, implored 

 the king not to deliver him up to his persecutors, who traced him to 

 the court of the Molossians. It is stated that Themistocles was here 

 joined by his wife and children. The king not only granted his 

 request, but provided him with the means of reaching the coast of 

 the ^Egean, whence he intended to proceed to Asia, and seek refuge 

 at the court of the king of Persia. From Pydna ho sailed in a 

 merchant ship to the coast of Asia Minor. At Ephesus he received 

 such part of his property as his friends bad been able to wrest from 

 the hands of his enemies at Athens, together with that which he had 

 left at Argos. 



A few months after his arrival in Asia, Xerxes was assassinated 

 (B.C. 465), and was after a short interval succeeded by Artaxerxes. 

 Various adventures are told of Themistocles before he reached the 

 residence of the Persian king. On his arrival he sent him a letter, in 



