Plutarch
46-119 A.C.E - Wrote in Greek
Themistocles
Written 75 A.C.E.
Translated by John Dryden
Themistocles
(legendary, died 365 B.C.E.)
By Plutarch
The birth of Themistocles was somewhat too obscure to do him honour. His
father, Neocles, was not of the distinguished people of Athens, but of
the township 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 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 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 behaviour,
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; Melissus commanded the Samians in the
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 rhetorican 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 interest 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 skilful conduct of the general,
Miltiades, being everywhere talked about, he was observed to be thoughtful
and reserved, alone by himself; 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 for 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 durst 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 an
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 neighbours, 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 be 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 Episcles of Hermione,
who had a good hand at the lute and was much sought after by the Athenians,
to come and practise 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 price, 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 favour 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 favour 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 elegant 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 endeavoured 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 the
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 valour, 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 around 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 them, 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 to-morrow provide for his seamen;
if not, he would report it among 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 formally 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 colour
of saffron. On one of these pillars these verses are
engraved:-
"With numerous tribes from Asia's region 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 honour and danger,
and much elated by what had been done.
As Themistocles sailed along the coasts, he took notice of the
harbours and fit places for the enemy's 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 to 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 has 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 requests, 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 theatre, and employed prodigies and oracles. The serpent of Minerva,
kept in the inner part of her temple, disappeared; the priest 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 be, 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 alike of pity and admiration, to see them thus send
away their fathers and children before them, and, unmoved with their cries
and tears, passed 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 inkfish? you have a sword, but no heart."
Some say that while Themistocles was thus speaking upon the deck, an owl
was seen flying to the right hand of the fleet, which came and sate 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 orders what course to
steer.
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 counselled 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 set 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 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 it is 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 to hurt 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 the
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 equalled 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 valour, 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 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 meantime 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 valour 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 labours for the
Greeks.
He was, indeed, by nature, a great lover of honour, 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 despatching 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 honour 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 honour by himself, but by the greatness of the 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 action 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 neighbours 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 the pretext of an embassy, he went to Sparta, whereupon 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 harbour 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, endeavouring 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 dependant 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 dishonourable;
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 on 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 honours and favours 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 that 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, disproportional
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
rancour.
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 defence 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 neighbours and fellow-citizens more than
the old displeasure of the king, put himself at his mercy and became an
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 overland to the Aegaean Sea, he took ship at Pydna
in the bay 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 an 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 bid 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 travelling carriage being
prepared for Themistocles, they hid him in it, and carried him on his journey,
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 honourable to one man,
and to others another; but it is honourable for all to honour and observe
their own laws. It is the habit of the Greeks, we are told, to honour,
above all things, liberty and equality; but amongst our many excellent
laws, we account this the most excellent, to honour 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 any one 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 favours 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 thither." Yet, when he came into the presence, and again fell
down, the king saluted him, and spake 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 obscure
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
favourites, he drew upon himself the envy of the great people, who imagined
that he had taken the boldness to speak concerning them. For the favours
shown to other strangers were nothing in comparison with the honours 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, that 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 meantime 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 is 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 the 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 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 honoured 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 despatch 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 in any way elevated with the thoughts of the honour 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 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, Poleuctus, 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 worth while taking notice
of what Andocides states in his address to his Friends concerning his remains,
how the Athenian 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 honours 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.
THE END
|
