THE 



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THE 



which was to be taken on sudden and extraordinary emer- 

 gencies, and sagacity in calculating the consequences of 

 his own actions ; and these were the qualities which Athens 

 (luring her wars with Persia stood most in need of. His 

 ambition was unbounded, but he was at the same time per- 

 suaded that it could not reach its end unless Athens was 

 the first among the Grecian states ; and as he was not very 

 scrupulous about the means that he employed for these 

 en, Is, he came into frequent conflict with Aristides the 

 Just, who had nothing at heart but the welfare of his 

 country: and no desire of personal aggrandizement. In 

 the year 483 B.C., when Aristides was sent into exile by 

 ostracism, Themistocles, who had for several years taken an 

 active part in public affairs, and was one of the chief 

 authors oi the banishment of his rival, remained in the 

 almost undivided possession of the popular favour, and the 

 year after, B.C. 482, he was elected archon eponymus of 

 Athens. The city was at that time involved in a war with 

 Aegina, which then possessed the strongest navy in Greece, 

 and with which Athens was unable to cope. It was in this 

 year that Themistocles conceived and partly carried into 

 effect the plans by which he intended to raise the power of 

 Athens. His first object was to increase the navy of 

 Athens ; and this he did ostensibly to enable Athens to 

 contend with Aegina, but his real intention was to put his 

 country in a position to meet the danger of a second Per- 

 sian invasion, with which Greece was threatened. The 

 manner in which he raised the naval power of Athens was 

 this. Hitherto the people of Athens had been accustomed 

 to divide among themselves the yearly revenues of the 

 silver-mines of Laurion. In the year of his archonship 

 these revenues were unusually large, and he persuaded his 

 countrymen to forego their personal advantage, and to 

 apply these revenues to the enlargement of their fleet. His 

 advice was followed, and the fleet was raised to the number 

 of 200 sail. (Herodot., vii. 144 ; Plutarch, Themist., 4.) 

 It was probably at the same time that he induced the 

 Athenians to pass a decree that, for the purpose of keep- 

 ing up their navy, twenty new ships should be built every 

 i Bockh, J'lttt/ir 1'sonomy of Athens, p. 249, Engl. 

 transl., 2nd edit.) Athens soon after made peace with 

 Aegina, as Xerxes was at Sardis making preparations for 

 invading Greece with all the forces he could muster. At 



me time Themistocles was actively engaged in allay- 

 ing the disputes and hostile feelings which existed among 

 u states of Greece. He acted however with 

 grrat severity towards those who espoused the cause of the 

 Persians, and a Greek interpreter, who accompanied the 

 envoys of Xerxes that came to Athens to demand earth 

 mid water as a sign of submission, was put to death for 

 having made use of the Greek tongue in the service of the 

 common enemy. After the affairs among the Greeks were 

 tolerably settled, a detachment of the allied troops of the 

 Greeks was MT.t out to take possession of Tempe, under 

 the command of Themistocles of Athens and Euaenetus of 

 Sparta; but on finding that there they would be over- 

 whelmed by the host of the barbarians, they returned to the 

 Corinthian isthmus. When Xerxes arrived in Pieria, the 

 Greek fleet took its post near Artemisium, on the north 

 coast of Euhoea, under the command of the Spartan ad- 

 miral Eurybiades, under whom Themistocles condescended 

 to serve in order not to cause new dissensions among the 

 Greeks, although Athens alone furnished 127 ships, and 

 supplied the Chalcidians with twenty others ; while the 

 Spartan contingent was incomparably smaller. When the 

 Persian fleet, notwithstanding severe losses which it had 

 sustained by a storm, determined to sail round the eastern 

 and southern coasts of Euboea, and then up the Eiuipus, 

 in order to cut off the Greek fleet at Artemisium, the 

 Greeks were so surprised and alarmed, that Themistocles 



/real difficulty in inducing them to remain and main- 

 tain their station. The Euboeans, who perceived the ad- 

 \ milages of the plan of Themistocles, rewarded him with 



.urn of thirty talents, part of which he gave to the 

 Spartan Eurybiades and the Corinthian Adimantus to in- 

 duce them to remain at Artemisium. (Herodot., viii. 4, 5 ; 

 Plutarch, Thrmist., 7.) In the battle which then took 



, the Greeks gained considerable advantage, though 

 tli- \k-tnry was. not decided. A storm, and a second en- 

 i near Artemisium, severely injured the fleet of 

 Greeks also sustained great losses, as 

 '.i' their ships were partly destroyed and partly ren- 

 dered 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 Arte- 

 misium, and sailed to the Saronic gulf. Xerxes was now 

 advancing from Thermopylae, and Athens trembled for her 

 existence, while the Peloponnesians were bent upon seek- 

 ing shelter and safety in their peninsula, and upon fortify- 

 ing themselves by a wall across the Corinthian isthmus. 

 On the approach of the danger the 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 The- 

 mistocles, 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 infirm should be removed 

 to Salamis, Aegina, or Troezen, 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. Themistocles and his friend 

 Mnesiphilus saw the disastrous results of such a course, 

 and the former exerted all his powers of persuasion to in- 

 duce 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 the meantime the Persian fleet ar- 

 rived in the Saronic gulf, and the fears of the Pelopon- 

 nesians 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 message 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 the enemy, who now hastened, as he thought, to de- 

 stroy the fleet of the Greeks. But the event proved the 

 wisdom of Themistocles. The unwieldy armament of the 

 Persians was unable to perform any movements in the 

 narrow straits between the island of Salamis and the main- 

 land. 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 his fleet left the Attic coast and sailed towards 

 the Hellespont. The battles of Artemisium and Salamis 

 occurred in the same year, 480 B.C. [SALAMIS.] 



Coin of Salamis. 

 Biituh Museum. Actual Size. Silver 



When the Greeks were informed of the departure of 

 Xerxes, they pursued him as far as Andros without gain- 

 ing sight ef his fleet, and Themistocles and others pro- 

 posed 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 mes- 

 sage to him, exhorting him to hasten back to Asia as 

 speedily as possible, for otherwise he would be in dange. 

 of having his retreat cut off. Themistocles availed him- 

 self 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 



