Plutarch, Lives that Made Greek History

Themistocles opens after a gap of nearly a century after the end of Solon. Plutarch’s surviving Lives do not include any figures from the middle and late decades of the sixth century BCE. This was the time of the tyranny at Athens founded by Pisistratus and continued by his son Hippias, and of the coup that overthrew Hippias (508 BCE), and of the democratic reforms of Cleisthenes—events narrated in brief by Herodotus, Histories 5.62–70. Plutarch’s Lives give us little insight into these events, or into the rise of the Achaemenid Persian empire and its first conflicts with the Greeks, the subject of Herodotus’ first five books. At the start of Themistocles, those Perso-Greek conflicts are already well under way, and Athens stands directly in the crosshairs of the Persian war machine, having helped the Greeks in Asia launch a revolt from Persia in 499.

Plutarch took his cue from Herodotus and Thucydides in his portrait of Themistocles (c. 528–462). Both historians admired Themistocles as a self-made man, a political climber, and a brilliant strategist whose sole determination to fight the Persian navy at Salamis in 480 turned the tide of the conflict. But both were also aware that Themistocles’ patriotism could not be easily disentangled from his intense interest in self-advancement and self-enrichment. Plutarch’s portrait of Themistocles, like those of his two main sources, reveals a complex blend of heroism and self-serving machination.

[1] The family of Themistocles was too obscure to enhance his reputation. His father was Neocles, a man of no great distinction at Athens.… And as these lines tell us, Themistocles was the son of a foreign-born mother:¹

Abrotonon, a Thracian born and bred, though I
Claim to have borne the Greeks mighty Themistocles.

Since the offspring of foreigners used to gather at Cynosarges, a gymnasium of Heracles outside the gates (for Heracles, too, was not native-born among the gods, but was held to be of foreign birth because his mother was mortal), Themistocles persuaded some of the well-born youths to go out to Cynosarges and exercise with him; and by this clever stroke he is thought to have removed the distinction between the foreign- and native-born.

[2] It is agreed that as a boy he was impulsive, by nature astute, and by choice ambitious and political. For in his hours of leisure and during rests from studying, he did not play or idle away his time like other boys, but would be found composing and privately rehearsing speeches in which he either accused one of the boys or argued on his behalf. And consequently his teacher was in the habit of saying to him, “You’ll be no minor figure, lad, but immensely powerful, either for good or ill.” … Later on, when he attended gatherings graced by the so-called liberal and urbane pastimes, and was mocked by men who considered themselves cultivated, he was forced to defend himself rather bluntly by saying that though he did not know how to tune a lyre or play a harp, he could take a small and obscure city and make it famous and important.…

In his first youthful efforts he was inconsistent and unsteady, since he relied solely on his natural impulses, which, without the control of reason and training, veer erratically in the pursuit of their ends and often lapse into disorder.

[3] Soon, however, politics laid firm hold of Themistocles, and the strong drive for renown overpowered him. That was why, right from the start, he was eager to be first, and why he boldly faced the hostility of the city’s most powerful citizens, particularly that of Aristides, son of Lysimachus,² who constantly opposed him.… For Aristides was mild by nature and upright in character, and as he conducted the government not for the sake of winning favor or renown, but with a view to shaping the best policy consistent with safety and fairness, he was often compelled to resist Themistocles (on many occasions the latter stirred the people up by introducing important innovations) and to oppose his growing influence. For it is said that Themistocles was so carried away by his desire for renown, and that his ambition inspired him with such a passion for grand exploits, that though he was still a young man when the battle against the barbarians was fought at Marathon and Miltiades’ generalship was celebrated,³ Themistocles was often seen to be deep in thought. He lay awake at night and declined to attend his friends’ drinking parties, and told those who questioned him and who marveled at the change in his way of life that Miltiades’ trophy would not let him sleep. For whereas others thought the defeat of the barbarians at Marathon had put the quarrel behind them, Themistocles regarded it as the beginning of more important struggles; and to these he dedicated himself on behalf of Greece as a whole and kept the city in training, since he foresaw from afar what lay ahead.

[4] His first effort concerned the revenues from the silver mines at Laurion,⁴ which had customarily been distributed among the Athenians. Themistocles alone ventured to come before the people and say that they should forgo the distribution and instead use the money to build triremes⁵ for their war with the Aeginetans.⁶ For that war was at its height in Greece, and the islanders, who had a great many ships, had thereby gained control of the sea. Themistocles easily persuaded the Athenians, not by holding Darius⁷ or the Persians out as a threat (for these were far away, and excited no great fear of their coming), but by making timely use of the citizens’ resentment of the Aeginetans and their eager rivalry. And thus the Athenians used those funds to build a hundred triremes, with which they later fought at sea against Xerxes.

After this, Themistocles gradually enticed the city, drawing her down toward the sea. Arguing that with their infantry the Athenians were no match even for their neighbors, whereas their naval prowess made them strong enough to ward off the barbarians and hold sway in Greece, he made them sailors and seafarers, instead of “steadfast hoplites,” as Plato refers to them, and laid himself open to the charge that “Themistocles deprived the citizens of the spear and shield, and reduced the people of Athens to the rower’s cushion and oar.” He achieved this over Miltiades’ objections, as Stesimbrotus⁸ says.

Now whether or not, in doing so, Themistocles harmed the discipline or purity of their public life is a question for a more philosophical writer to consider;⁹ but that the Greeks’ salvation at that period depended on the sea, and that those triremes restored the city of Athens, the behavior of Xerxes himself, among other things, bears witness. For though his infantry stood by unscathed, Xerxes fled after his naval defeat, understanding that his men were not a match for the Greeks in battle; and he left Mardonius behind, in my opinion, more to prevent the Greeks from pursuing him than to try to enslave them.¹⁰

[5] Themistocles made himself popular with the common people, partly by knowing each citizen’s name by heart, and partly by showing himself an unerring settler of contract disputes.… Growing in power, and pleasing the common people, he eventually formed an opposition party and managed to have Aristides banished by ostracism.¹¹

[6] When the Persians¹² were already descending upon Greece, and the Athenians were deliberating about the choice of a general, everyone else, they say, willingly shunned the office, as they were intimidated by the danger; but Epicydes, son of Euphemidius, a politician who spoke cleverly but was soft in spirit and open to bribery, was eager to obtain the post and would probably have prevailed in the vote. As Themistocles was afraid that their undertaking would be utterly ruined if the command fell to Epicydes, he bought off the man’s ambition with bribes.

He is also praised for the action he took against the bilingual man in the delegation sent by the King to demand earth and water.¹³ He had the interpreter arrested and put to death by decree for daring to issue barbarian orders in the Greek language.… But greatest among all his achievements was that he ended the Greek wars and reconciled the cities with one another, having persuaded them to suspend their enmities because of the war.¹⁴

[7] As soon as Themistocles assumed the command,¹⁵ he at once made every effort to embark the citizens on their triremes, and tried to persuade them to leave the city and meet the barbarian at sea, as far from Greece as possible. But when many resisted the plan, he led a large army to Tempe¹⁶ with the Spartans, in order to make a stand there in defense of Thessaly, which was not yet thought to be siding with the Persians.¹⁷ But when they retired without having accomplished anything, and the territory as far as Boeotia had sided with the Persians (the Thessalians having gone over to the King),¹⁸ the Athenians paid more heed to Themistocles’ desire to fight at sea, and he was sent with a fleet to guard the narrows at Artemisium.

There the Greeks were urging Eurybiades¹⁹ and the Spartans to take command, though the Athenians, since they were contributing more ships than all the other cities combined, thought it unseemly for them to obey others. Perceiving the danger, Themistocles ceded his command to Eurybiades and conciliated the Athenians by promising them that if they proved brave in the war, he would see to it that the Greeks willingly obeyed them in future. And that is why Themistocles is thought to be most responsible for the deliverance of Greece and for leading the Athenians to the renown of surpassing their enemies in courage and their allies in judgment.

When the barbarian fleet reached Aphetae, Eurybiades was astounded by the number of ships at the mouth of the river.²⁰ And when he learned that two hundred more were sailing around above Sciathus, he wanted to proceed southward in Greece to the Peloponnese and surround the infantry with his ships,²¹ as he believed that the King’s prowess at sea was utterly irresistible. Meanwhile the Euboeans, fearing that the Greeks might abandon them, entered into secret discussions with Themistocles, having sent Pelagon to him with a large sum of money. Themistocles took the money, as Herodotus reports,²² and gave it to Eurybiades.

Among his fellow citizens, Themistocles met with most opposition from Architeles, the captain of the sacred ship.²³ Lacking funds to furnish his sailors with supplies, Architeles was eager to sail away; but Themistocles so incensed his crew against him that they banded together, rushed at him, and stole his supper. Architeles took this hard and grew dejected, whereupon Themistocles sent him a box containing a supper of bread and meat under which he had placed a talent of silver, and urged him to eat now, and take care of his seamen in the morning; otherwise he said he would denounce him before the assembled Greeks for being in possession of money from the enemy. This incident has been recorded by Phanias of Lesbos.

[8] The engagements that then took place against the barbarian ships near the narrows²⁴ were not decisive, but the Greeks benefited enormously from the experience, since they were taught by their actual exploits in the face of danger that neither large numbers of ships, nor brilliantly decorated ensigns, nor boastful shouts, nor barbarian war cries held any fear for men who know how to come to blows and dare to fight; instead they must despise such things and simply attack their enemies directly,²⁵ grapple with them, and fight to the finish.

[9] But when the news about Thermopylae was brought to Artemisium, and the Greeks learned that Leonidas was slain²⁶ and that Xerxes was in control of the passes, they withdrew into Greece, the Athenians keeping guard over the entire force because of their valor, and taking great pride in what they had accomplished. As Themistocles sailed along the coast, wherever he saw necessary landing-places and refuges for the enemy he engraved clear messages on the stones (finding some by chance, and standing others near the safe anchorages and watering-places), enjoining the Ionians, if they could, to change sides and join the Greeks,²⁷ who were their ancestors, and who were braving danger on behalf of their freedom. But if this was not possible, he urged them to undermine the barbarians’ cause in the battle and throw them into confusion. He was hoping that these messages would either move the Ionians to change sides, or cause trouble by making the barbarians more suspicious of them.²⁸

When Xerxes invaded from above, through Doris into Phocis, and burned and destroyed the Phocians’ cities, the Greeks did not come to their aid, though the Athenians begged the allies to confront the barbarians in Boeotia before they reached Attica, just as they themselves had sailed to Artemisium to aid others. But no one would listen to them. All were intent upon the Peloponnese and were eager to collect all their forces within the Isthmus, which they were fortifying from coast to coast.²⁹ Anger at the betrayal seized the Athenians, as well as despair and dejection at being left destitute.

[10] Thereupon Themistocles, at a loss how to persuade the people by any human reasoning, resorted to a device of the tragic stage and brought divine signs and oracles to bear on them. He took as an omen the incident of the serpent, which was thought to have disappeared at about that time from the sacred enclosure. The priests, finding untouched the first-fruits they used to put out for it day after day, reported to the people (Themistocles giving them the story) that the goddess had abandoned the city, as she was leading them to the sea.³⁰ Then he persuaded the people to accept his interpretation of the oracle, saying that its “wooden wall” meant nothing but the ships;³¹ and that this was why the god referred to Salamis as “divine,” rather than “terrible” or “wretched,” since the word revealed that the island would be a great boon to the Greeks. Having won them over to his view, he wrote a decree³² requiring that the city be entrusted to Athena, their patroness, and that all eligible citizens embark on their triremes, each man having provided as best he could for the safety of his children, womenfolk, and slaves. When the decree had been ratified, most of the Athenians carried their parents and wives safely away to Troezen,³³ the Troezenians welcoming them very creditably. Indeed, they voted to support the Athenians at public expense, giving each citizen two obols, and allowing the boys to pick from the ripe crops everywhere.

[11] These were important accomplishments on Themistocles’ part; and when he perceived that the citizens were yearning for Aristides, and were fearful that this man might, in anger, attach himself to the barbarian and ruin the affairs of Greece (for Aristides had been ostracized before the war, when Themistocles’ party overpowered his own), Themistocles wrote a decree stating that those who had temporarily emigrated were permitted to return and to devote themselves, in word and deed, to serving the Greek cause along with their fellow citizens.

Because of Sparta’s standing, Eurybiades was posted as commander in chief of the naval forces. But as he was faint-hearted in time of danger, and willing to put to sea and sail to the Isthmus, where the infantry of the Peloponnesians had also assembled, Themistocles spoke out in opposition.³⁴ It was then that Themistocles’ memorable remarks are said to have been made. For when Eurybiades said to him, “Themistocles, in races they flog those who start before the signal is given,” Themistocles replied, “Yes, but they don’t award crowns to those who lag behind.” And when Eurybiades raised his cane as if to strike him, Themistocles said, “Strike, then, but listen.” Astonished by Themistocles’ mildness, Eurybiades urged him to speak, whereupon Themistocles tried to bring him over to his own view. But when someone said that it was not right for a man without a city to instruct others to desert and abandon their native places, Themistocles turned to him and said, “But of course we have abandoned our houses and walls, poor fool, since we disdain to be slaves of soulless things. But we have a city, the greatest in Greece: our two hundred triremes, which stand ready for you, if you wish to be saved by them; but then again, if you betray us a second time and depart, many a Greek will soon hear that the Athenians have acquired a free city and a country no worse than the one they lost.” When Themistocles had said this, Eurybiades was seized with fear at the thought that the Athenians might forsake them and depart. And when the Eretrian tried to say something to him, Themistocles said, “After all, what notion can you have about war—you who, like the cuttlefish, have a blade but no heart?”³⁵

[12] Some writers say that while Themistocles was speaking of these matters from the upper deck of his ship, an owl was seen flying from the right³⁶ through the fleet and alighting on their mastheads, and that this omen, more than anything, inspired them to adopt Themistocles’ plan and prepare to fight at sea. But when the enemy fleet, attacking the coast of Attica all the way to Phalerum, concealed the neighboring shores from view,³⁷ and the King himself, coming down to the coast with his infantry, was seen with all his assembled forces, the land and naval divisions coming into view simultaneously, Themistocles’ counsels were forgotten and the Peloponnesians again gazed with longing toward the Isthmus and raged at anyone who said anything different. They decided to withdraw that night, and gave the pilots their sailing orders. It was then that Themistocles, distressed that the Greeks might desert their advantageous position at the narrows³⁸ and disperse to their various cities, took counsel and devised the stratagem associated with Sicinnus.

Sicinnus was a Persian by race.³⁹ Though a prisoner of war, he was well-disposed to Themistocles and served as his children’s tutor. Themistocles sent him in secret to Xerxes, ordering him to say, “Themistocles, the Athenian commander, having espoused the King’s cause, reports, before anyone else, that the Greeks are running away, and urges him not to let them escape but to attack while they are in distress and separated from their infantry, and to destroy their naval forces.”

Xerxes, who assumed the message was sincere, was delighted, and immediately told his fleet’s commanders to man their other ships at leisure, but to send out two hundred at once, in order to surround the strait, including the islands, so that no enemy ship might escape.

When these orders had been carried out, Aristides, son of Lysimachus, who was the first to notice the deployment, came to Themistocles’ tent, though he was not the man’s friend, but had in fact been ostracized through his machinations, as has been mentioned. When Themistocles came forth, Aristides told him of the encirclement. Aware of the man’s perfect integrity, and pleased with his arrival just then, Themistocles told him about the Sicinnus affair and urged him to second his efforts and help persuade the Greeks, who he admitted were more likely to trust Aristides, that they should fight in the narrows. Aristides, accordingly, after praising Themistocles for his stratagem, went around to the other generals and captains, spurring them on to battle. While they were still expressing their incredulity, a Tenian trireme⁴⁰ that had deserted from the enemy came into view. Its captain, Panaetius, reported the encirclement, whereupon the Greeks, overtaken by necessity, set out whole-heartedly to confront the danger.

[13] At dawn Xerxes was seated at a height overlooking the naval force and its battle array, above the Heracleum⁴¹ … where the island is separated from Attica by a narrow strait.

[14] As for the numbers of barbarian ships, the poet Aeschylus, speaking in his tragedy the Persians, as though he has positive knowledge, says,

Xerxes, I know, had a thousand ships
Under his command; but vessels superior in speed
Numbered two hundred and seven;⁴² such was the reckoning.

Of the Attic ships, which numbered 180, each had eighteen men fighting from the deck, four of whom were archers and the rest hoplites.

Themistocles is thought to have succeeded just as well in determining the exact time for the battle as he had in choosing its location. For he took care not to stand his ships prow to prow with the barbarians’ until the hour that usually brought a clear breeze from the open sea and a swell through the narrows. The breeze did no harm to the Greek ships, as they had shallow drafts and low profiles; but it doomed the slower-moving, high-roofed barbarian ships, with their lofty prows and decks. Falling on them, the wind turned them broadside to the Greeks,⁴³ who attacked eagerly and paid close attention to Themistocles, since he could best spot advantageous openings, and because Ariamenes, Xerxes’ admiral, a brave man and the strongest and most honorable of the King’s brothers, with his large ship confronting that of Themistocles, was firing arrows and javelins, as though from a fortress. Ameinias of Decelea and Socles the Paeanian, whose ship was close by, went after Ariamenes. And when their ships met prow to prow, collided, and were pierced by one another’s bronze beaks, Ariamenes tried to board the other trireme. Standing their ground and striking him with their spears, the captains hurled him into the sea. Artemisia,⁴⁴ pointing out Ariamenes’ body floating among the other wreckage, had it carried to Xerxes.

[15] At that point in the struggle, they say that a great light shone forth from Eleusis,⁴⁵ and that a voice resounded and filled the Thriasian plain as far as the sea.… And from the shouting mass a cloud seemed to rise gradually from the earth and then to sink down and settle over the triremes. Others thought they saw apparitions and phantoms of armed men from Aegina stretching out their hands to defend the Greek triremes; these, it was supposed, were the sons of Aeacus,⁴⁶ whose aid they had invoked before the battle.

The first man to capture a ship was Lycomedes, one of the Athenian captains.… When the other Greeks became equal in number to the barbarians, who were attacking by turns in the narrow strait and falling foul of one another, they routed them, though the barbarians resisted until evening.⁴⁷

[16] After the sea battle, Xerxes, still enraged at his failure, set about building moles, so that by blocking up the strait he could lead his infantry against the Greeks on Salamis. Themistocles now sounded Aristides and broached his plan of sailing with the fleet to the Hellespont and breaking up the bridge of ships, “in order,” as he said, “to capture Asia in Europe.”⁴⁸ But Aristides disliked the plan and said, “Up to now, the barbarian we have fought has been richly supplied. But if we confine him in Greece and reduce to fearful necessity a man who is master of such resources, he will no longer sit still under a golden canopy and survey the battle at his ease, but will risk his all. Overseeing everything in person because of his danger, he will mend his ways and take better counsel on behalf of his affairs in general. So we should not destroy the bridge that is already in existence, Themistocles, but should if possible build another, and swiftly drive the man out of Europe.” “Well, if that seems best,” said Themistocles, “it’s time we all take thought and devise a way for Greece to be rid of him as soon as possible.”

When this policy had been adopted, Themistocles sent one of the king’s eunuchs, whom he had found among the prisoners of war—the man’s name was Arnaces—to tell the King that the Greeks had resolved, now that they had prevailed in the naval battle, to sail up to the Hellespont,⁴⁹ where the strait was spanned, and demolish the bridge; but that Themistocles, out of concern for the King, advised him to hasten to his own sea and cross over to Asia. Themistocles, meanwhile, would contrive various delays for the allies and thereby postpone the pursuit.⁵⁰ On hearing this, the barbarian grew fearful and hastened to retreat. And the prudence of Themistocles and Aristides was vindicated in the battle at Plataea, where Mardonius, though he commanded a force many times smaller than that of Xerxes, put the Greeks in danger of losing everything.⁵¹

[19] In the aftermath of the achievements here related, Themistocles immediately tried to rebuild and fortify Athens—by bribing the ephors⁵² not to stand in his way, according to Theopompus,⁵³ though most say that he merely misled them. For he came to Sparta ostensibly on an embassy, and when the Spartans charged that the Athenians were fortifying their city⁵⁴ … Themistocles denied it and urged them to send observers—not only because this delay would give his fellow citizens time to complete the fortification, but also because he wanted the Athenians to hold these ambassadors as hostages for him. And that is what happened. When the Spartans realized the truth, they did Themistocles no harm, but suppressed their anger and sent him away.

He then equipped the Piraeus,⁵⁵ since he had noticed the favorable configuration of its harbors and wished to orient the entire city toward the sea and thereby reverse, in some sense, the policy of the ancient Athenian kings. For they, as it is said, attempted to draw the citizens away from the sea and accustom them to making their living not by sailing but by agriculture.… Themistocles did not, as the comic poet Aristophanes says, “knead the Piraeus onto the city,”⁵⁶ but he fastened the city to the Piraeus, and the land to the sea. He thereby exalted the common people in relation to the nobility, and filled them with confidence, since power was now coming to sailors, signalmen, and pilots.⁵⁷ It was for this reason too that the dais built on the Pnyx,⁵⁸ which had faced toward the sea, was later turned by the Thirty⁵⁹ to face the land, since they thought that the maritime empire had been the wellspring of democracy, and that tillers of the soil were less hostile to oligarchy.

[20] But Themistocles harbored even more grandiose plans for their naval supremacy. When the Greek fleet, after Xerxes’ departure, put into Pagasae and passed the winter there, Themistocles addressed the Athenian assembly and said he had a plan that would be beneficial to them and their security, but which should not be revealed to the multitude. When the Athenians urged him to disclose it only to Aristides, and, if he approved of it, to put it into effect, Themistocles told Aristides that he proposed to burn the Greeks’ dockyards.⁶⁰ Aristides then came before the people, and said of Themistocles’ proposal that nothing was more advantageous—or more unjust. After that the Athenians ordered Themistocles to abandon it.

At the Amphictyonic council,⁶¹ the Spartans proposed that the cities that had not fought together against the Persians be excluded from membership. At this Themistocles grew alarmed, imagining that the Spartans, if they expelled the Thessalians, Argives, and Thebans from the council, would gain complete control of the votes and see to it that their views prevailed. So he spoke on the cities’ behalf and changed their deputies’ minds. He explained that only thirty-one cities had taken part in the war, and most of these were very small; it would therefore be intolerable if the rest of Greece should be excluded and the league be dominated by the two or three largest cities. It was for this reason, chiefly, that he incurred the resentment of the Spartans, who now sought to promote Cimon⁶² for public honors and make him Themistocles’ political rival.

[21] Themistocles also made himself offensive to the allies by sailing around to the islands and trying to exact money from them. For example, Herodotus says that when Themistocles asked the Andrians for money, the following exchange took place. Themistocles said that he had come bringing two gods, Persuasion and Force. To this the Andrians replied that they, too, had two powerful gods, Poverty and Helplessness, who prevented them from giving him money.⁶³

[22] The Athenians, accordingly, ostracized Themistocles,⁶⁴ curtailing his rank and preeminence, as they were in the habit of doing in the cases of all who were felt to be oppressively powerful and at odds with democratic equality. For the ostracism was not a punishment, but a means of mitigating and soothing that jealousy that delights in humbling the eminent, and by imposing such a disgrace vents its ill will.

[23] When he had been banished from the city and was living in Argos, the scandalous doings of Pausanias furnished Themistocles’ enemies with grounds against him.… For Pausanias, while pursuing his treasonous scheme,⁶⁵ had previously concealed it from Themistocles, though the two men were friends. But when he saw Themistocles banished from public life and in an indignant state of mind, he made so bold as to invite him to take part in his activities, showing him a letter he had received from the King and stoking his anger against the Greeks for their base ingratitude. Themistocles rejected Pausanias’ entreaty and wholly renounced the association; but he told no one of Pausanias’ proposals, nor did he expose his traitorous scheme, as he assumed either that Pausanias would desist of his own accord or that he would somehow be found out, since he was senselessly grasping at absurd and perilous objects.

When Pausanias had been killed,⁶⁶ certain letters and documents pertaining to these matters were found that threw suspicion on Themistocles. The Spartans denounced Themistocles, and the citizens who envied him accused him in his absence, though he defended himself in writing, particularly against the earlier accusations. He pointed out that he had been vilified by his enemies for always seeking to rule, and for being naturally unable and unwilling to be ruled; but if that were the case, he would never have sold himself along with Greece either to barbarians or to enemies. But the people, persuaded by his accusers, dispatched men with orders to arrest him and bring him up to be tried before a council of the Greeks.⁶⁷

[24] Learning of this in advance, Themistocles crossed over into Corcyra, where the city was beholden to him.… From there he fled to Epirus. And then, pursued by the Athenians and the Spartans, he indulged in desperate and impracticable hopes by fleeing for refuge to Admetus, the king of the Molossians,⁶⁸ who had once asked some favor of the Athenians and been offensively rebuffed by Themistocles, then at the height of his power, and had remained angry with him and would clearly take vengeance if he caught him. But in his present predicament, since Themistocles dreaded the recent ill will of his own people more than a king’s long-standing resentment, he went to Admetus and approached him as a suppliant in a unique and distinctive manner. For he took hold of the king’s son, a mere boy, and prostrated himself at the hearth, the Molossians regarding this as the greatest and almost the only undeniable form of supplication. Some say that it was Phthia, the king’s wife, who suggested this mode of supplication to Themistocles and seated her son with him at the hearth; others, that Admetus, in order to justify himself to Themistocles’ pursuers, imposed on himself the necessity of not surrendering him by staging the supplication scene and taking part in it himself.

It was there that Themistocles received his wife and children, who had been spirited out of Athens and sent to him by Epicrates of Acharnae. (Cimon later condemned Epicrates for this and had him put to death, as Stesimbrotus⁶⁹ reports.)

[25] Thucydides says that after traveling across Greece to the Aegean, Themistocles sailed from Pydna, and that none of his fellow passengers knew who he was until a gale had carried his vessel down to Naxos, which was then being besieged by the Athenians. Taking alarm, he revealed himself to the shipmaster and the helmsman, and by pleading and threatening to denounce and malign them to the Athenians (he said he would claim that they had not been ignorant when they took him aboard, but had been bribed from the outset), he compelled them to sail on and make for Asia. Most of his money was secretly conveyed away by his friends and sent by sea to Asia. But the sum total of that which came to light and was confiscated for the public treasury amounted to one hundred talents, according to Theopompus (eighty, according to Theophrastus), though Themistocles’ fortune had not amounted to three talents before he entered public life.

[26] When he landed at Cyme⁷⁰ and learned that many were keeping watch at the coast in order to seize him, and especially Ergoteles and Pythodorus (for the hunt seemed worthwhile to those who embrace any opportunity to turn a profit, the King having offered two hundred talents as a reward for his capture), he fled to Aegae, a small Aeolic town, unrecognized by everyone but his guest-friend Nicogenes, the wealthiest property holder in Aeolia, who was well-acquainted with men of influence in the interior. Themistocles concealed himself with Nicogenes for a few days.… Themistocles was sent on his way by Nicogenes, who had devised the following stratagem. Most barbarian races, and particularly the Persians, are naturally savage and cruel in their jealousy where women are concerned. They keep close watch not only over their wedded wives but also over their prostitutes and concubines, making sure that they are seen by no outsiders. At home these women spend their lives in seclusion, and even on journeys their covered carriages are screened with curtains on all sides. Such a wagon was prepared for Themistocles, who slipped inside and journeyed on, his attendants telling those who met and questioned them that they were conducting a young Greek woman from Ionia to one of the King’s courtiers.

[27] When Themistocles appeared at that fateful moment, he met first with the chiliarch Artabanus⁷¹ and said that he was a Greek, and that he wished to meet with the King⁷² about important matters that were of particular interest to him. Artabanus replied, “The customs of mankind, friend, vary considerably. Different peoples regard different things as noble. But everyone considers it noble to honor and preserve his own ways. It is said that you Greeks especially admire liberty and equality; but for our part, while we have many fine laws, the finest is this: to honor the King, and to make a ritual bow⁷³ to him as to an image of god, who preserves all things. If, accordingly, approving our customs, you will make this bow, it will be possible for you to see and address the King; if you are otherwise disposed, you may employ others to convey your message to him. For it is not the custom here for the King to listen to a man who has not made obeisance.” Themistocles replied, “Well, I have come, Artabanus, with the intention of increasing his fame and power. I shall obey your laws, since this accords with the will of the god who exalts the Persians. And through my having done so, many others will make obeisance to the King. So let this not stand in the way of the conversation I wish to have with him.” “Which of the Greeks,” said Artabanus, “shall we say has arrived? For your turn of mind resembles that of no ordinary man,” to which Themistocles answered, “No one should learn this, Artabanus, before the King himself.”

[28] When he was brought before the King, and after making his ritual bow stood in silence, the King ordered the interpreter to ask who he was, and when the interpreter asked, he said, “Themistocles the Athenian has come to you, sire, as an exile, pursued by the Greeks; and to me the Persians are indebted for many evils, but for many more benefits, since I prevented the pursuit as soon as Greece was out of danger and my security at home enabled me to oblige you. Of course, nothing will surprise me in my current predicament, but I have come prepared to receive the favor of one who graciously offers reconciliation, and to entreat away the anger of one who recalls the wrongs done him. Regard my enemies as witnesses of the good I have done Persia, and make my misfortunes the occasion for a display of your virtue, rather than for the satisfaction of your anger. For you may either save your suppliant, or destroy an enemy of the Greeks.” So saying, Themistocles alluded to divine influences … and remarked that, as he was commanded to proceed to the god’s namesake, he concluded that he was being sent to him, as both are great and are called “Great King.”

On hearing him out, the Persian made no reply to Themistocles, though he was astonished at the man’s intelligence and boldness. But among his friends he congratulated himself on what he regarded as the greatest good fortune, and prayed to Arimanius⁷⁴ to always dispose his enemies to drive away their best men; he then sacrificed to the gods and embarked at once on a carousal. And during the night, when he was fast asleep, it is said that he thrice sent up the joyous shout, “I have Themistocles the Athenian.”

[31] Themistocles was not wandering about Asia, but was living in Magnesia, receiving lavish gifts, and being honored as highly as the foremost Persians. He lived for a long time without worry, as the King was paying no heed to Greek affairs, preoccupied as he was with internal matters.

But when Egypt revolted with Athenian aid,⁷⁵ and Greek triremes had sailed as far as Cyprus and Cilicia, and Cimon, holding the upper hand at sea, had forced the King to resist the Greeks and to hinder the growth of their power against him, forces were finally deployed, and generals dispatched here and there, and messages were reaching Themistocles saying that the King commanded him to fulfill his promises and apply himself to the Greek problem. Now Themistocles’ anger had not been roused against his fellow citizens, nor was he puffed up by the great honor and power he was to have in the war, though he may have thought his task impracticable, since Greece now had other great generals, and Cimon was then enjoying remarkable success against his enemies. But principally out of respect for himself and for his record of achievements and earlier triumphs, he determined that his best course would be to bring his life to a fitting end. On sacrificing to the gods, assembling his friends, and clasping their hands, he drank bull’s blood,⁷⁶ as the popular account has it, though some say he took a drug that would act the same day, and ended his life in Magnesia, having lived for sixty-five years, most of which he had spent as a leading statesman. When the King learned of the cause and manner of his death, it is said that he admired the man more than ever and continued to support his friends and family.

1. These humble origins would have made a political career unthinkable for any ordinary Athenian at this time. Despite the reforms of Cleisthenes in 508 BCE, when Themistocles was around twenty, leadership of Athens was still heavily dominated by the aristocracy.

3. In 490 BCE, when Themistocles was in his mid-thirties. The battle of Marathon was Athens’ first great victory over the Persians, and the beginning of a long conflict. See Aristides 5.

4. Laurion was a district of Attica rich in silver, mined both by private citizens and the Athenian state. In the mid-480s a new vein of silver was discovered in one of the state-run mines, creating a rich source of revenue.

6. Aegina, an island off the coast of Attica, had engaged in a long commercial rivalry with Athens that often reached the level of military hostilities.

7. Darius I was the Persian king who engineered the invasion of Attica that was defeated at Marathon. He seems, in fact, to have died before the silver strike at Laurion, and to have handed power down to his son Xerxes.

9. Plutarch implicitly answers Plato, who in a passage of the Laws (706c ff., the source of the “steadfast hoplites” phrase quoted above) argued that strength in naval warfare, as compared with infantry, corrupts and weakens a city’s moral fiber.

10. Plutarch looks ahead to the events of 480–479 BCE, the main episodes of Themistocles’ career (see chapters 11–18).

11. Probably between 485 and 482 BCE. The institution of ostracism was a unique feature of the Athenian constitution. If a large number of citizens voted to hold an ostracism in any given year, then one man, the recipient of a majority of ballots, was forced to leave the city for ten years. Plutarch explains the process in detail at Aristides 7.

12. The term translated as “Persians” here (and at several points below) is actually “Medes.” Although the Medes were a different people than the Persians, the two groups had become closely intertwined by the fifth century BCE, so that the Greeks often used the names interchangeably.

13. The giving of earth and water was a symbolic expression of submission to the Persian empire. As always in this volume, “King” when capitalized refers to the Great King of Persia.

14. Herodotus (7.145) reports a general conference of the Hellenic states aimed at resolving differences, in 481 BCE, but does not record that Themistocles played any major role.

15. Plutarch only later (chapter 10) narrates the story, which chronologically occurs here, of how Themistocles won out in the assembly with his interpretation of an ambiguous oracle.

16. The vale of Tempe, formed by the Peneius River, gives an easy entry route into northern Greece from the coast, since it cuts through the high mountains that otherwise bar passage.

19. Eurybiades was the Spartan admiral chosen to command the collective Greek fleet. Though Athens had contributed by far the largest share of warships, the Greeks felt it was important that a single city hold command of both land and sea forces, and therefore Sparta was the only logical choice. Plutarch makes this selection seem to come from Themistocles, in contrast to Herodotus, who depicts it as the consensus of the Greek states.

20. Plutarch says “river” even though he really refers to the straits at Artemisium, between the northern tip of Euboea and the Greek mainland. Aphetae was a city on the mainland across the straits from Artemisium.

21. Plutarch here gives a hazy description of the Spartan fallback strategy: to defend the Peloponnese with a land-and-sea barricade at the Isthmus of Corinth but surrender all territory to the north (see chapter 9).

22. Herodotus 8.4–5, but the story there does less credit to Themistocles, who is said to have pocketed much of the money himself.

23. Probably meaning the Paralus, one of two state triremes reserved for special functions. Architeles is otherwise unknown.

25. Plutarch says “attack their very bodies,” perhaps a metaphor from wrestling, or perhaps referring to the corps of armed troops each trireme carried for the purpose of boarding an enemy vessel.

26. Leonidas, a Spartan king, was leader of the famous band of three hundred that died defending the pass of Thermopylae. The naval defense of Artemisium was coordinated with the land defense of Thermopylae, since the Greeks recognized that it would be best to stop the Persian army and fleet at about the same point.

27. The Greeks of the Ionian cities, on the coast of Asia Minor, had been forced to join Xerxes’ invasion forces. Their geographical location gave them little choice.

29. Since the Spartans were in control of grand strategy, they naturally favored this fallback to an isthmus wall, which had some hope of saving the Peloponnese from invasion. Attica and Boeotia, however, would be sacrificed in such a strategy.

30. Herodotus (8.41) records the story without involving Themistocles. Apparently the Athenians believed that a snake, which they considered an incarnation of a god, lived in a sanctuary on the Acropolis, so they left out a honey cake for it at regular intervals. When one day the cake was not consumed, it appeared to them that the god had departed.

31. As often, Plutarch assumes his readers know the fuller version of the story and truncates his account. The oracle given at Delphi, to Athenian envoys inquiring how they should respond to the Persian invasion, is reported in full by Herodotus (7.141). It referred to “a wooden wall” that would protect the Athenians from harm and ended with an invocation to “divine Salamis,” referring to the island off the coast of Attica. Most Athenians thought the “wooden wall” referred to the palisade surrounding the Acropolis, according to Herodotus, until Themistocles pointed out it could also mean the sides of a trireme.

32. A stone tablet containing a decree much like this was found in 1959 near the site of Troezen. It has since become known as the Themistocles Decree, but scholars are divided on the question of its authenticity.

33. Herodotus reports, rather, that most of the Athenians were transported to Salamis, but the Themistocles Decree (see note 32) favors Plutarch’s version.

34. This memorable confrontation, which took place at Salamis in a strategy conference of the Greek commanders, is more fully described by Herodotus (8.62–63).

35. The cuttlefish has a flat piece of hard cartilage running down the length of its body, which the Greeks called machaira or “sword.” According to popular belief, mollusks in general had no heart or lungs (see Aristotle, History of Animals 1.11–12).

36. In ancient divination, the direction of flight of a notable bird gives important clues about the will of the gods. A bird flying into view from the right is a favorable sign.

37. That is, the Persian ships were so numerous as to fill the horizon. For their numbers, see note 42.

38. The Greeks derived advantage from the narrowness of the strait of Salamis, since the Persians could bring only a portion of their more numerous fleet into play.

39. The Persian origins of this slave are not attested by Herodotus (8.75) and must be considered unlikely, but the idea that a Persian had helped defeat the Persians improves the story.

40. From one of the Greek cities in Asia that had been forced to fight on Xerxes’ side.

41. The Heracleum was a temple of Heracles situated on the high ground above the strait of Salamis. Xerxes reportedly seated himself on a lofty throne there to watch the battle unfold, both because he anticipated victory and because he wanted to record which ships fought well or poorly on his behalf.

42. Herodotus 7.89 gives the exact same number, but that does not mean the number has any authority. Probably both authors consulted a common source, or Herodotus got the number from Aeschylus. The actual fleet was most likely less than half this size.

44. A Carian queen who fought courageously in Xerxes’ forces; one of Herodotus’ most memorable characters.

45. A sacred site near Athens, the center of the mystery cult that was especially patronized by Athenians.

47. The battle of Salamis took place in the autumn of 480 BCE. It can be followed in much closer detail in Herodotus 8.84–99.

49. The Hellespont is today the strait of Dardanelles. Xerxes had bridged it in order to bring his army into Europe, by tying together more than three hundred warships stationed side by side.

51. Plutarch looks ahead by a year to the final battle for control of Europe, the land battle at Plataea (479 BCE). Mardonius, the Persian commander left in Greece after Xerxes’ departure, had a fair chance of winning that battle, Plutarch implies; hence, the naval forces commanded by Themistocles might well have lost, had they forced the Persians into a corner.

52. The ephors are government officials of Sparta, the city to which the scene has now shifted. See Lycurgus, n. 11.

53. An important historical writer of the fourth century BCE, whose work is now lost.

54. Athens had always had city walls, but the Persians had largely wrecked them during their occupation of Athens. Sparta, as the only unwalled city in southern Greece and its leading land power, had an interest in preventing Athens from refortifying and indeed reportedly proposed a pact to the Athenians whereby all Greek cities would pull down their walls.

55. The Piraeus was a set of fine natural harbors a few miles west of Athens, in the Saronic Gulf. The Athenians had long used it as a transit point for shipping but had not before this time thought to fortify it as a naval base.

57. Military service in Athens was organized by economic class, since citizens supplied their own armor and weaponry. Those who could afford neither a horse nor hoplite gear were consigned to naval service.

58. The Pnyx was the meeting-place of the assembly, the organ of government where the poor played the biggest role.

59. The oligarchic rulers installed by Sparta after the defeat of Athens in 404 BCE; see Lysander 15.

60. A proposal paralleling that of the Spartans to pull down all Greek city walls (see note 54). Since Athens had attained naval supremacy, it was in the city’s interest to prevent all other cities from building up navies.

61. The governing board that supervised the site of the Delphic oracle, composed of representatives from many states.

62. See Cimon in this volume for more on the leading political opponent of Themistocles in the postwar period.

63. Herodotus 8.111. Plutarch retells the story without looking it up in his source, and so alters it a little: In Herodotus Themistocles claims to have “Persuasion and Necessity” as his deities. In either version, the tale anticipates Thucydides’ exploration of imperial strong-arm tactics in the so-called Melian dialogue (The Peloponnesian War 5.84ff.).

64. The date of the ostracism is uncertain, but 473 or 472 BCE is the most likely. On ostracism see note 11 and Aristides 7.

65. See Thucydides 1.128–34. Pausanias, a Spartan king and leader of the collective Greek forces at Plataea, apparently let glory go to his head and began colluding with the Persian king, offering to help him subdue the Greek world in exchange for sovereignty over it.

67. The story that follows was taken principally from Thucydides, 1.135ff., but Plutarch has added generous details from other sources. The flight of Themistocles should probably be dated to 470 or 469 BCE.

71. A chiliarch was a Persian officer who served as the King’s right-hand man, sometimes also called a vizier.

72. Here and in what follows, Plutarch declines to use the name of the Persian king, since he has admitted (in a passage not given here) to uncertainty as to whether Xerxes was still on the throne or had been succeeded by Artaxerxes I.

73. The Greek term Plutarch uses, proskynēsis, was a highly formalized gesture of submission, seen by the Greeks as a shameful self-prostration. Herodotus reports that two Spartan envoys refused to perform the ritual even under threat of execution. Later, in the time of Alexander the Great, a Greek philosopher vigorously protested Alexander’s plan to introduce the ritual at his own court.

74. Arimanius is apparently Plutarch’s version of the name Ahriman, the deity representing the forces of evil and darkness in the Zoroastrian faith. Much of the Persian nation at this time was Zoroastrian, but it is doubtful that Persians would pray to Ahriman in this way.

75. In 460 or 459 BCE, after Themistocles had been almost a decade in Asia. The Egyptians had long chafed at their subjection to Persia, and Athens was all too eager to help the enemies of their enemies; see Cimon 18.