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Themistocles (ca. 525 BC-460 BC) was a leader in
the Athenian democracy during the Persian War.
Themistocles favored the expansion of the navy to
meet the Persian threat and persuaded the
Athenians to spend the surplus generated by their
silver mines on building new ships - the Athenian
navy grew from 70 to 200 ships.

He was the son of Neocles, an Athenian of no
distinction and moderate means, his mother being a
Caria|Carian or a Thrace|Thracian. Hence according
to the Periclean law, which of course came several
decades later, he would not have been a free
Athenian at all. Thucydides properly brings out
the fact that, though he lacked education, he
displayed a marvellous power of analysing a
complex situation together with a genius for rapid
action. Plutarch similarly enlarges on his
consuming ambition for power both personal and
national, and the unscrupulous ability with which
he pursued his ends. In all these points he is the
antithesis of his rival Aristides. Little is known
of his early years. He may have been strategos of
his tribe at Marathon  and we are told that he
deeply envied the glory which Miltiades earned.
This is attested by a phrase he is said of often
repeating to himself "Miltiades' trophy does not
let me sleep" (in Greek: "Ουκ
εά με
καθεύδει&#
957; το του
Μιλτιάδο&#
965;
τρόπαιον")
.

At all events the death of Miltiades left the
stage to Aristides and Themistocles. It is
sufficiently clear that their rivalry, terminated
in 483 BC|483-82 by the ostracism of Aristides,
turned largely on the fact that Themistocles was
the advocate of a policy of naval expansion. This
policy was unquestionably of the highest
importance to Athens and indeed to Greece. Athens
was faced by the equal if not superior power of
Aegina, while the danger of a renewed Persian
Empire|Persian invasion loomed large on the
horizon. Themistocles therefore persuaded his
countrymen to build 200 trireme|triremes,
and—what was of even greater
importance—to fortify the three natural
harbours of Piraeus in place of the open roadstead
of Phalerum. For the building of the ships
Themistocles persuaded the Athenians to allocate
100 talents (around $60,000,000) obtained from the
new silver mines at Laurium which were about to be
distributed to the citizens. One hundred of the
proposed 200 were built. 

Themistocles may have been Archons of
Athens|archon in 483-82 at the time when this
naval programme began. Dionysius of Halicarnassus
places his archonship in 493-92, in favour of
which are several considerations. In 487 the
office lost much of its importance owing to the
substitution of the lot for election: the chance
that the lot would at the particular crisis of 483
fall on Themistocles was obviously remote. In any
case the year prior to the invasion of Xerxes
I|Xerxes found Themistocles the most influential
politician in Athens if not in Greece. Though the
Greek fleet was nominally under the control of the
Sparta|Spartan Eurybiades, it was Themistocles who
caused the Greeks to fight the indecisive Battle
of Artemisium, and still more it was he who, by
his threat that he would lead the Athenian army to
found a new home in the West, and by his seemingly
treacherous message to Xerxes, brought about the
Battle of Salamis. 

The retirement of the Persians left the Athenians
free to restore their ruined city. Sparta,
nominally on the ground that it was dangerous to
Greece that there should be any citadel north of
the Isthmus of Corinth which an invader might
hold, urged that this should not be done, but
Themistocles by means of diplomatic delays and
subterfuges enabled the work to be carried
sufficiently near to completion to make the walls
defensible. He also carried out his original plan
of making Piraeus a real harbour and fortress for
Athens. Athens thus became the finest trade centre
in Greece, and this fact, coupled with
Themistocles’ remission of the alien’s
tax, induced many foreign business men to settle
in Athens. 

After the crisis of the Persian invasion
Themistocles and Aristides appear to have made up
their differences. But Themistocles soon began to
lose the confidence of the people, partly owing to
his arrogance (it is said that he built near his
own house a sanctuary to Artemis Aristoboulë
“of good counsel “) and partly to his
alleged readiness to take bribes. Diodorus  and
Plutarch both refer to some accusation levelled
against him, and some time between 476 and 471 he
was ostracized. He retired to Argos, but the
Spartans further accused him of treasonable
intrigues with Persia, and he fled to Corcyra,
thence to Admetus, king of Molossia, and finally
to Asia Minor. He was proclaimed a traitor at
Athens and his property was confiscated, though
his friends saved him some portion of it. 

He was well received by the Persians and was
allowed to settle in Magnesia on the
Maeander|Magnesia on the Maeander River. The
revenues (50 talents) of this town were assigned
to him for bread, those of Myus for condiments,
those of Lampsacus for wine. His death, at the age
of sixty five, at Magnesia, was possibly due to
illness - although Thucydides (book I, 138) tells
us that he possibly committed suicide by taking
poison, when he found that he could not keep the
promises that he had made to Xerxes. It was said
that his bones were secretly transferred to
Attica. He was worshipped by the Magnesians as a
god, as we find from a coin on which he is shown
with a patera in his hand and a slain bull at his
feet (hence perhaps the legend that he died from
drinking bull’s blood).

Though his end was discreditable, though his great
wealth can hardly have been obtained by loyal
public service, there is no doubt that his
services to Athens and to Greece were great. He
created the Athenian fleet and with it the
possibility of the Delian League  which became the
Athenian empire, and there are many indications
(e.g. his well-attested plan of expansion in the
west) that the later imperialist ideal originated
with him.

==External links==
* http://www.indepthinfo.com/salamis/index.shtml
An Overview of the Battle of Salamis
1911