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Plutarch (A.D. 46?–c.A.D. 120).
Plutarch’s Lives. The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
Themistocles
THE BIRTH of Themistocles was somewhat too obscure to do him honor. His
father, Neocles, was not of the distinguished people of Athens, but of the
township of 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 the 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 the Lycomedæ; 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. 1 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 behavior, 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; for Melissus
commanded the Samians in their siege by Pericles, who was much
Themistocles’ 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 rhetorician 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. 2 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. 3 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 interests 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 of 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. 4
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 Æginetans,
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 Æginetans, 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
neighbors, 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 he 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 landforces 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. 5
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 1 horse, intimating that he would stir up dispute and litigation
between him and some of his relations. 6 He went beyond all men in the passion
for distinction. When he was still young and unknown in the world, he entreated
Epicles of Hermione, who had a good hand at the lute and was much sought after
by the Athenians, to come and practice 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 prize, 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 favor 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. 7 Gradually growing to be great, and
winning the favor 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 eloquent 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. 8 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. 9 Having taken upon himself the
command of the Athenian forces, he immediately endeavored 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 Lacedæmonians, 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 any thing, and it was
known that not only the Thessalians, but all as far as Bœotia, were 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. 10 When the contingents met here, the Greeks would have the
Lacedæmonians 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
this 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 valor, and their confederates in wisdom. 11 As soon as the Persian armada
arrived at Aphetæ, Eurybiades was astonished to see such a vast number of
vessels before him, and, being informed that two hundred more were sailing
round 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 Eubœans, 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 him, 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 to-night, and to-morrow provide for his seamen; if not, he
would report it amongst the Athenians that he had received money from the
enemy. So Phanias the Lesbian tells the story. 12 Though the fights between the
Greeks and Persians in the straits of Eubœa 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 Eubœa, beyond the city of Histiæa,
a sea-beach open to the north; most nearly opposite to it stands Olizon, in the
country which formerly 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 color of saffron. On one of the pillars these
verses are engraved,— With numerous tribes from Asia’s regions
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. 13 But when news came from Thermopylæ 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 honor and
danger, and much elated by what had been done. 14 As Themistocles sailed along
the coast, he took notice of the harbors and fit places for the enemies’
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 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. 15 Now, though Xerxes had 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 Bœotia, before
they could come into Attica, as they themselves had some forward by sea at
Artemisium, they gave no ear to their request, 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. 16 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 priests 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 2 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 Trœzen,
where they were received with eager good-will by the Trœzenians, 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. 17 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 Piræus, the shield with
the head of Medusa was missing; and he, 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. 18 When the whole city of Athens
were going on board, it afforded a spectacle worthy of pity alike and
admiration, to see them thus send away their fathers and children before them,
and, unmoved with their cries and tears, pass 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. 19 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. 20 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 soul 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 any thing to say of war, that are like an ink-fish? you have a sword, but
no heart.” 3 Some say that while Themistocles was thus speaking things
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 store, and when
they saw the king himself in person come down with his land army to the
sea-side, 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 order what course to steer.
21 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 gallery of Tenos,
which deserted from the Persians, of which Panætius 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. 22 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. 23 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
that 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. 24 The
number of the enemy’s ships the poet Æschylus 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 is it 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. 25 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 hurt to 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. 26 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
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 Ægina before the Grecian galleys; and supposed they were
the Æacidæ, whom they had invoked to their aid before the battle.
The first man that took a ship was Lycomedes the Athenian, captain of a 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 valor, indeed, and zeal of all who fought, but by the wisdom
and sagacity of Themistocles. 27 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 to make a dam, upon which he might lead his
land-forces over into the island of Salamis. 28 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 mean time 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 Platæa, where
Mardonius, with a very small fraction of the forces of Xerxes, put the Greeks
in danger of losing all. 29 Herodotus writes, that, of all the cities of
Greece, Ægina 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 Lacedæmonians carried him with them to Sparta, where,
giving the rewards of valor 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 labors for the Greeks. 30 He
was, indeed, by nature, a great lover of honor, 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 honor him or admire him, but made, as it were,
a sort of planetree 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 honor by himself, but by the
greatness of his 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 actions 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 neighbors 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. 31 After these things, he began to rebuild and
fortify the city of Athens, bribing, as Theopompus reports, the
Lacedæmonian ephors not to be against it, but, as most relate it,
overreaching and deceiving them. For, under pretext of an embassy, he went to
Sparta, where, upon the Lacedæmonians charging him with rebuilding the
walls, and Poliarchus coming on purpose from Ægina to denounce it, he
denied the fact, bidding them to send people to Athens to see whether it was 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 Lacedæmonians knew the truth, they did him no hurt, but,
suppressing all display of their anger for the present, sent him away. 32 Next
he proceeded to establish the harbor of Piræus, 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, endeavoring 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 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 Pagasæ, 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 Pagasæ, Aristides, coming out to
the people, gave this report of the stratagem contrived by Themistocles, that
no proposal could be more politic, or more dishonorable; on which the Athenians
commanded Themistocles to think no farther of it. 34 When the
Lacedæmonians 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 Lacedæmonians 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 in 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 Lacedæmonians, whose honors and favors were now shown
to Cimon, with a view to making him the opponent of the state policy of
Themistocles. 35 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 which 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, disproportionable 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 rancor. 36
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 Alcmæon, indicted him of treason, the Spartans
supporting him in the accusation. 37 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. 38
After that Pausanias was put to death, letters and writings being found
concerning this matter, which rendered Themistocles suspected, the
Lacedæmonians 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. 39 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 Lacedæmonians 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 neighbors 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 Acharnæ
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. 40 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 over land
to the Ægæan Sea, he took ship at Pydna in the bay of 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. 41 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. 42 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 Ægæ, a small city of the Æolians, where no one knew him
but only his host Nicogenes, who was the richest man in Æolia, and well
known to the great men of Inner Asia. While Themistocles lay hid for some days
in his house, one night, after a sacrifice and supper ensuing, Olbius, the
attendant upon Nicogenes’ 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. 43 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. 44 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. 45 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 honorable to
one man, and to others another; but it is honorable for all to honor and
observe their own laws. It is the habit of the Greeks, we are told, to honor,
above all things, liberty and equality; but amongst our many excellent laws, we
account this the most excellent, to honor 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. 46 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 favors 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 admonition, such as the vision which
he saw at Nicogenes’ 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. 47 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.” 48 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
hither.” 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 obscured 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 favorites, he drew upon himself the envy of the
great people, who imagined that he had taken the boldness to speak concerning
them. For the favors shown to other strangers were nothing in comparison with
the honors 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. 49 When Demaratus the
Lacedæmonian, being ordered by the king to ask whatsoever he pleased, and
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 Palæscepsis, to provide
him with clothes, and Percote, with bedding and furniture for his house. 50 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 he dedicated to
Dindymene, Mother of the gods, in which he consecrated and devoted his daughter
Mnesiptolema to her service. 51 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
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 of Lydia 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 honored 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. 52 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 any way elevated with the thoughts of
the honor 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
the 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. 53 Themistocles left three sons by Archippe,
daughter to Lysander of Alopece,—Archeptolis, Polyeuctus, 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. 54 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 Athenians 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 story; 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
heaven of Piræus, 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 ’t will see them come and go, And watch the galleys as they race
below.” 55 Various honors also the 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.
Note 1. Full of people ready for fighting, like the Trojan horse.
Note 2. “While all things else are taken,” said the oracle,
“within the boundary of Cecrops and the covert of divine Cithæron,
Zeus grants to Athena that the wall of wood alone shall remain uncaptured; that
shall help thee and thy children. Stay not for horsemen and an host of men on
foot, coming from the mainland; retire turning thy back; one day yet thou shalt
show thy face. O divine Salamis, but thou shalt slay children of women, either
at the scattering of Demeter or at the gathering.”
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