Lives by Plutarch - 3 - Themistocles
Themistocles
Quote
"Yes, you wretch, it's true that we have abandoned our homes and our city walls: we choose not to suffer slavery for the sake of lifeless objects. In actual fact, though, we have a city greater than any in Greece — our 200 triremes — which are standing by ready to help you if you want to be saved by them."
Notes
Themistocles grows up in a humble home and he's a very restless child. Instead of playing games like other kids, he likes practicing speeches to himself. One of his teachers predicts that he'll be outstanding when he grows up, "for good or ill."
He's very interested in politics early in life and he becomes obsessed with the Battle of Marathon where the Greeks defeated the Persians. It captivates him not only because it brought fame to the warriors who fought there, but he also believes that this is only the beginning of a greater conflict with Persia.
Around this time, Athens has a silver mine and collects regular revenue from it. The income from the mine is usually distributed to all the Athenians, but Themistocles stands up and argues that they should spend it on a navy instead. In his speech he says a navy would help them compete against their Greek neighbours, the Aeginetans, who already have a strong navy. But the real reason he wants a navy is because he thinks they could use it in the coming war against the Persians.
The war with the Persians eventually comes, just as Thucydides had foreseen. They break through the pass at Thermopylae and now have freedom to march their massive army into the rest of Greece, including into Athens. Themistocles argues they have to evacuate the city and move everyone into their ships. They consult the oracles and the oracles tell them to find defense behind "wooden walls." Themistocles cleverly interprets the wooden walls to mean their navy, and this finally persuades the Athenians to abandon their homes to escape the Persian invasion.
The war continues at sea where Athens joins forces with other Greek states. They see another massive force of Persian ships coming their way and they want to retreat. Themistocles secretly sends a message to the Persian king pretending to be a traitor and tells him that the Greeks are retreating so now is the perfect time to attack. The Persians take the bait and move in, preventing the Greeks from being able to retreat. But the narrowness of the strait means the Persians can only fight the Greeks a few ships at a time. This gives the Greeks the advantage and they win.
Greece ultimately wins the war against the Persians and it's largely thanks to Themistocles, who becomes famous throughout Athens. He also gets egotistic and boastful, holding his head above everyone else. The Athenians start becoming bitter against him and see his boasting is "incompatible with democratic equality," and they banish him from Athens.
On top of that, they also discover evidence that makes them believe Themistocles is conspiring with the Persians. It's a Greek general, Pausanius, who was conspiring with the Persians, who had written to Themistocles inviting him to join him. Themistocles rejected Pausanius, but Pausanius' letters still seem to implicate Themistocles. So now, above being ostracized, he is also wanted for treason and has to run for his life.
Ironically, he ends up escaping to Persia and tricks his way into seeing the king. Using more of his guile and charm he wins the king over and they become friends, though this also means Themistocles must bow to the Persian king, going against the core of the democratic, Athenian spirit, but he seems okay with that. He learns to speak Persian and spends the rest of his life happily with the Persians.
Later, Athens helps Egypt revolt against Persian rule and the king wants Themistocles' help winning it back. Themistocles does not want to go against his former home and so he poisons himself instead, and dies.
Key Takeaways
Themistocles played a key role in making Athens famous. The war against Persia is what establishes Athens' power and dominance in Greece. Themistocles not only sees the war coming ahead of time, he slyly convinces Athens to build a navy to help prepare for it, and he plays a key role in decisive battles to help Athens win, again using deception and trickery.
However, Themistocles is not a straightforward hero and he shows a few signs of being in it more for himself than for Athens. In Herodotus' account of the story, Themistocles sends his deceptive messages to the Persians pretending to be a defector to get them to attack, but also with the double purpose of putting him on the Persians' good side should they end up winning the war. Not only that, but he acts very arrogantly after the war to the point of being kicked out of Athens and hunted down by them. A very complicated, though consequential, hero, indeed.