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ThemistoclesThemistocles, Part II.
Themistocles, Part II.
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 Aegina before the
Grecian galleys; and supposed they were the Aeacidae, whom they had invoked to
their aid before the battle. The first man that took a ship was Lycomedes the
Athenian, captain of 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.
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.
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 Plataea, where Mardonius, with a very small
fraction of the forces of Xerxes, put the Greeks in danger of losing all.
Herodotus writes, that, of all the cities of Greece, Aegina was held to
have performed the best service in the war; while all single men yielded to
Themistocles, though, out of envy, unwillingly; and when they returned to the
entrance of Peloponnesus, where the several commanders delivered their
suffrages at the altar, to determine who was most worthy, every one gave the
first vote for himself and the second for Themistocles. The Lacedaemonians
carried him with them to Sparta, where, giving the rewards of 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.
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.
After these things, he began to rebuild and fortify the city of Athens,
bribing, as Theopompus reports, the Lacedaemonian ephors not to be against it,
but, as most relate it, overreaching and deceiving them. For, under pretext of
an embassy, he went to Sparta, where, upon the Lacedaemonians charging him
with rebuilding the walls, and Poliarchus coming on purpose from Aegina to
denounce it, he denied the fact, bidding them to send people to Athens to see
whether it 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 Lacedaemonians knew the truth, they did him
no hurt, but, suppressing all display of their anger for the present, sent him
away.
Next he proceeded to establish the harbor of Piraeus, observing the great
natural advantages of the locality and desirous to unite the whole city with
the sea, and to reverse, in a manner, the policy of ancient Athenian kings,
who, 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 Pagasae, where they wintered, Themistocles, in a public oration to
the people of Athens, told them that he had a design to perform something that
would tend greatly to their interests and safety, but was of such a nature,
that it could not be made generally public. The Athenians ordered him to
impart it to Aristides only; and, if he approved of it, to put it in practice.
And when Themistocles had discovered to him that his design was to burn the
Grecian fleet in the haven of Pagasae, Aristides, coming out to the people,
gave this report of the stratagem contrived by Themistocles, that no proposal
could be more politic, or more dishonorable; on which the Athenians commanded
Themistocles to think no farther of it.
When the Lacedaemonians proposed, at the general council of the
Amphictyonians, that the representatives of those cities which were not in the
league, nor had fought against the Persians, should be excluded, Themistocles,
fearing that the Thessalians, with those of Thebes, Argos, and others, being
thrown out of the council, the Lacedaemonians would become wholly masters of
the votes, and do what they pleased, supported the deputies of the cities, and
prevailed with the members then sitting to alter their opinion 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 Lacedaemonians, whose honors and favors were
now shown to Cimon, with a view to making him the opponent of the state policy
of Themistocles.
He was also burdensome to the confederates, sailing about the islands and
collecting money from them. Herodotus says, that, requiring money of those of
the island of Andros, he told them that he had brought with him two goddesses,
Persuasion and Force; and they answered him that they had also two great
goddesses, which prohibited them from giving him any money, Poverty and
Impossibility. Timocreon, the Rhodian poet, reprehends him somewhat bitterly
for being wrought upon by money to let some who were banished return, while
abandoning himself, who was his guest and friend. The verses are these: -
"Pausanias you may praise, and Xanthippus he be for,
For Leutychidas, a third; Aristides, I proclaim,
From the sacred Athens came,
The one true man of all; for Themistocles Latona doth abhor,
"The liar, traitor, cheat, who, to gain his filthy pay,
Timocreon, his friend, neglected to restore
To his native Rhodian shore;
Three silver talents took, and departed (curses with him) on his way,
"Restoring people here, expelling there, and killing here,
Filling evermore his purse: and at the Isthmus gave a treat,
To be laughed at, of cold meat,
Which they ate, and prayed the gods some one else might give the feast another
year."
But after the sentence and banishment of Themistocles, Timocreon reviles him
yet more immoderately and wildly in a poem 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 Councel; 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.
Themistocles being banished from Athens, while he stayed at Argos the
detection of Pausanias happened, which gave such advantage to his enemies,
that Leobotes of Agraule, son of Alcmaeon, indicted him of treason, the
Spartans supporting him in the accusation.
When Pausanias went about this treasonable design, he concealed it at
first from Themistocles, though he were his intimate friend; but when he saw
him expelled out of the commonwealth, and how impatiently he took his
banishment, he ventured to communicate it to him, and desired his assistance,
showing him the king of Persia`s letters, and exasperating him against the
Greeks, as a villainous, ungrateful people. However, Themistocles immediately
rejected the proposals of Pausanias, and wholly refused to be a party in the
enterprise, though he never revealed his communications, nor disclosed the
conspiracy to any man, either hoping that Pausanias would desist from his
intentions, or expecting that so inconsiderate an attempt after such
chimerical objects would be discovered by other means.
After that Pausanias was put to death, letters and writings being found
concerning this matter, which rendered Themistocles suspected, the
Lacedaemonians were clamorous against him, and his enemies among the Athenians
accused him; when, being absent from Athens, he made his defence by letters,
especially against the points that had been previously alleged against him. In
answer to the malicious detractions of his enemies, he merely wrote to the
citizens, urging that he who was always ambitious to govern, and not of a
character or a disposition to serve, would never sell himself and his country
into slavery to a barbarous and hostile nation.
Notwithstanding this, the people, being persuaded by his accusers, sent
officers to take him and bring him away to be tried before a council of the
Greeks, but, having timely notice of it, he passed over into the island of
Corcyra, where the state was under obligations to him; for, being chosen as
arbitrator in a difference between them and the Corinthians, he decided the
controversy by ordering the Corinthians to pay down twenty talents, and
declaring the town and island of Leucas a joint colony from both cities. From
thence he fled into Epirus, and, the Athenians and Lacedaemonians still
pursuing him, he threw himself upon chances of safety that seemed all but
desperate. For he fled for refuge to Admetus, king of the Molossians, who had
formerly made some request to the Athenians, when Themistocles was in the
height of his authority, and had been disdainfully used and insulted by him,
and had let it appear plain enough, that, could he lay hold of him, he would
take his revenge. Yet in this misfortune, Themistocles fearing the recent
hatred of his 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 Acharnae privately conveyed his wife and children out of
Athens, and sent them hither, for which afterwards Cimon condemned him and put
him to death as Stesimbrotus reports, and yet somehow, either forgetting this
himself, or making Themistocles to be little mindful of it, says presently
that he sailed into Sicily, and desired in marriage the daughter of Hiero,
tyrant of Syracuse, promising to bring the Greeks under his power; and, on
Hiero refusing him, departed thence into Asia; but this is not probable.
For Theophrastus writes, in his work on Monarchy, that when Hiero sent
race - horses to the Olympian games, and erected a pavilion sumptuously
furnished, Themistocles made an oration to the Greeks, inciting them to pull
down the tyrant`s tent, and not to suffer his horses to run. Thucydides says,
that, passing over land to the Aegaean 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.
A great part of his estate was privately conveyed away by his friends,
and sent after him by sea into Asia; besides which, there was discovered and
confiscated to the value of fourscore talents, as Theophrastus writes;
Theopompus says an hundred; though Themistocles was never worth three talents
before he was concerned in public affairs.
When he arrived at Cyme, and understood that all along the coast there
were many laid wait for him, and particularly Ergoteles and Pythodorus (for
the game was worth the hunting for such as were thankful to make money by any
means, the king of Persia having offered by public proclamation two hundred
talents to him that should take him), he fled to Aegae, a small city of the
Aeolians, where no one knew him but only his host Nicogenes, who was the
richest man in Aeolia, and well known to the great men of Inner Asia. While
Themistocles lay 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.
His departure was effected by Nicogenes by the following artifice; the
barbarous nations, and amongst them the Persians especially, are extremely
jealous, severe, and suspicious about their women, not only their wives, but
also their bought slaves and concubines, whom they keep so strictly that no
one ever sees them abroad; they spend their lives shut up within doors, and,
when they take a journey, are carried in close tents, curtained in on all
sides, and set upon a wagon. Such a travelling carriage being prepared for
Themistocles, they hid him in it, and carried him on his journey, and told
those whom they met or spoke with upon the road that they were conveying a
young Greek woman out of Ionia to a nobleman at court.
Thucydides and Charon of Lampsacus say that Xerxes was dead, and that
Themistocles had an interview with his son; but Ephorus, Dinon, Clitarchus,
Heraclides, and many others, write that he came to Xerxes. The chronological
tables better agree with the account of Thucydides, and yet neither can their
statements be said to be quite set at rest.
When Themistocles was come to the critical point, he applied himself
first to Artabanus, commander of a thousand men, telling him that he was a
Greek, and desired to speak with the king about important affairs concerning
which the king was extremely solicitous. Artabanus answered him, "O stranger,
the laws of men are different, and one thing is 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.
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.
The king heard him attentively, and, though he admired his temper and
courage, gave him no answer at that time; but, when he was with his intimate
friends, rejoiced in his great good fortune, and esteemed himself very happy
in this, and prayed to his god Arimanius, that all his enemies might be ever
of the same mind with the Greeks, to abuse and expel the bravest men amongst
them. Then he sacrificed to the gods, and presently fell to drinking, and was
so well pleased, that in the night, in the middle of his sleep, he cried out
for joy three times, "I have Themistocles the Athenian."
In the morning, calling together the chief of his court, he had
Themistocles brought before him, who expected no good of it, when he saw, for
example, the guards fiercely set against him as soon as they learnt his name,
and giving him ill language. As he came forward towards the king, who was
seated, the rest keeping silence, passing by Roxanes, a commander of a
thousand men, he heard him, with a slight groan, say, without stirring out of
his place, "You subtle Greek serpent, the king`s good genius hath brought thee
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.
When Demaratus the Lacedaemonian, 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
Palaescepsis, to provide him with clothes, and Percote, with bedding and
furniture for his house.
As he was going down towards the sea - coast to take measures against
Greece, a Persian whose name was Epixyes, governor of the upper Phrygia, laid
wait to kill him, having for that purpose provided a long time before a number
of Pisidians, who were to set upon him when he should stop to rest at a city
that is called Lion`s - head. But Themistocles, sleeping in the middle of the
day, saw the Mother of the gods appear to him in a dream and say unto him,
"Themistocles, keep back from the Lion`s - head, for fear you fall into the
lion`s jaws; for this advice I expect that your daughter Mnesiptolema should
be my servant." Themistocles was much astonished, and, when he had made his
vows to the goddess, left the broad road, and, making a circuit, went another
way, changing his intended station to avoid that place, and at night took up
his rest in the fields. But one of the sumpter - horses, which carried the
furniture for his tent, having fallen that day into the river, his servants
spread out the tapestry, which was wet, and hung it up to dry; in the meantime
the Pisidians made towards them with their swords drawn, and, not discerning
exactly by the moon what it was that was stretched out, thought it to be the
tent of Themistocles, and that they should find him resting himself within it
but when they came near, and lifted up the hangings, those who watched there
fell upon them and took them. Themistocles, having escaped this great danger,
in admiration of the goodness of the goddess that appeared to him, built, in
memory of it, a temple in the city of Magnesia, which he dedicated to
Dindymene, Mother of the gods, in which he consecrated and devoted his
daughter Mnesiptolema to her service.
When he came to Sardis, he visited the temples of the gods, and
observing, at his leisure, their buildings, ornaments, and the number of their
offerings, he saw in the temple of the Mother of the gods the statue of a
virgin in brass, two cubits high, called the water - bringer. Themistocles had
caused this to be made and set up when he was surveyor of 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.
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.
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.
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
Piraeus, where the land runs out like an elbow from the promontory of Alcimus,
when you have doubled the cape and passed inward where the sea is always calm,
there is a large piece of masonry, and upon this the tomb of Themistocles, in
the shape of an altar; and Plato the comedian confirms this, he believes, in
these verses, -
"Thy tomb is fairly placed upon the strand,
Where merchants still shall greet it with the land;
Still in and out `t will see them come and go,
And watch the galleys as they race below."
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.
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