Themistocles
an Athenian genв. c. His father, Neocles, belonged to an THEMISTOCLES THENARD convinced his countrymen that a power- ting his ruin. Plutarch tells us that he ful fleet was absolutely necessary for their provoked the anger and resentment of welfare. During the war with Persia the citizens by his insufferable arrogance. which followed, Themistocles, commander In 471 B. C. ostracism was demanded, and of the Athenian squadron, which num- he was banished from Athens. Argos bered 200 of the 324 vessels engaged, to avoid dissension was content to serve under the Spartan Eurybiadas, a man of narrow mind and hopeless obstinacy. On THEMISTOCLES the eve of Salamis it required all the influence of Themistocles' vehement personality and threats to induce his timid superior and colleagues to await the attack of the enemy. In his eagerness to precipitate a collision, he sent by night a messenger to urge the Persian generals to make an immediate attack, as the Greeks had resolved on retreat.
Intimation of the Persian advance was brought at nightfall by his rival Aristides, who had been ostracized in 483 в. c. The Peloponnesians refused to continue the pursuit of the Persians beyond Andros. From that place Themistocles sent a second message to Xerxes urging him to hasten back before the Greeks carried out their project of breaking down the bridges. The victor of Salamis was now the foremost name in the minds and mouths of men. The rebuilding of the walls of Athens by his advice on a scale far larger than anything in existence aroused great uneasiness among the allies of Sparta, but, by a series of adroit stratagems, Themistocles succeeded in cajoling the ephors till the walls had reached a height sufficient for defense.
But his popularity was now waning, and the Spartan faction in Athens was plotwas his first retreat, but so long as he remained there Sparta could have no security or peace. His condemnation on the false charge of implication in the treason of Pausanias drove him from Argos. He fled to Corcyra, and after a series of hairbreadth escapes was compelled to seek shelter in Asia. Artaxerxes received his suppliant with the greatest favor, and listened with attention to his schemes for the subjugation of Greece. He resided at Magnesia Magnesia till about 453 B. C.
It is said that the young king was so affected with joy that he was heard at night to cry thrice in his dreams, "Themistocles, the Athenian, is mine." After the Persian fashion, the town of Lampsacus was appointed to supply him with wine, Magnesia with bread, and Myus with other provisions. At Magnesia he lived securely till about 453 B. C. "In a word," says Thucydides, "Themistocles, by natural force of mind, and with the least preparation, was of all men the best able to extemporize the right thing to be done." Of his moral character the great historian says nothing. But if his patriotism seems at times to have been but a larger kind of selfishness, it must be remembered that Themistocles was possessed of the conviction that no one could realize the dream of a great Athenian empire but himself. The sentence passed on him was a bitter return for the unparalleled services he had rendered his country, and, due as it was to Spartan influence and jealousy, proved all the harder for a man of spirit to bear. a