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Cylon of Athens

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  

          Cylon (Greek: Κύλων Kylon) was an Athenian associated with the first reliably dated event in Athenian history, the Cylonian Affair, an attempted seizure of power in the city.

 

          Cylon, one of the Athenian nobles and a previous victor of the Olympic Games, attempted a coup in 632 BC with support from Megara, where his father-in-law, Theagenes, was tyrant. The oracle at Delphi had advised him to seize Athens during a festival of Zeus, which Cylon understood to mean the Olympics. However, the coup was opposed, and Cylon and his supporters took refuge in Athena's temple on the Acropolis. Cylon and his brother escaped, but his followers were cornered by Athens' nine archons. According to Plutarch and Thucydides (1.126), they were persuaded by the archons to leave the temple and stand trial after being assured that their lives would be spared.

 

          In an effort to ensure their safety, the accused tied a rope to the temple's statue and went to the trial. On the way, the rope (again, according to Plutarch) broke of its own accord. The Athenian archons, led by Megacles, took this as the goddess's repudiation of her suppliants and proceeded to stone them to death (on the other hand, Herodotus, 5.71, and Thucydides, 1.126, do not mention this aspect of the story, stating that Cylon's followers were simply killed after being convinced that they would not be harmed). Most likely, the story found in Plutarch is a later invention.

 

          Megacles and his genos, the Alcmaeonidae, were exiled from the city for violating the laws against killing suppliants. The Alcmaeonidae were cursed with a miasma ("stain" or "pollution"), which was inherited by later generations, even after the genos retook control of Athens.

 

          In April 2016, two mass graves containing 80 bodies, some shackled, were found in Palaio Faliro, a suburb of Athens. The skeletons date from the second quarter of the seventh century BC, and it has been suggested that they were the supporters of Cylon killed in the aftermath of his attempted coup.[1]

 


Cylon Tries and Fails to Takeover Athens

Written by GreekBoston.com in Ancient Greek History

 

The city-states were among the first units of government in Ancient Greece following the collapse of the Mycenaeans. Most of these city city-states developed naturally as populations in certain areas increased. Since the city-states operated as individual units, everything about those individual areas was self governed. Ancient Greece as we understand it didn’t have one governing body. In some places, like Athens, the city-state system provided the foundation where democracy was eventually developed.

 

Today, we see the development of democracy as truly groundbreaking. Back then, however, there were those who didn’t embrace it. Cylon, an Athenian nobleman, was one of these people. Here’s more information about him and what he ultimately did about his discontent over the new political system:

 

Cylon and His Relationship With Democracy

 

These individual political units provided freedoms for the common man and were the beginnings of a democratic system in which individuals had the right to voice their opinions, and cast votes on specific issues. Some did not meet the change from a ruling system led by those of nobility to giving more power to the people with open arms. Many members of the high class did not want to lose their power that previously was bestowed upon them thanks to their fortunes or what property they owned.

 

One of the disgruntled nobles was a man by the name of Cylon. Cylon (sometimes spelled as Kylon) was one of the Athenian nobles who took issue with the change in political system. Not only was he of the upper class, but also he was well known in Athens as he was a winner of the Olympic Games. His victory brought him a lot of respect from the common people and was considered a hero by many.

 

Cylon and Theagenes

 

Cylon furthered his status as a high-ranking individual by marrying the daughter of Theagenes, a tyrant who had taken over control of the city of Megara. This city, which still exists today, is located just to the northwest of the Athens, along the shores of the Aegean Sea.

 

Theagenes, a tyrant, had managed to take over Megara by slaughtering the herds of livestock owned by the rich members of the city (most likely Sheep). By killing the livestock, he took away the wealth and attached power held by the rich, and built confidence among the townspeople. With his tactical advantage, Theagenes pushed his way to power and is considered one of the first tyrants in Greek history.

 

Cylon was inspired by his father-in-law Theagenes for his actions in taking control of Megara, so much in fact that he enlisted Theagenes’ help to take over Athens. He eventually used all of the resources he had at his disposal to try to alter the course of history and do away with democracy in Athens.

 

Cylon Attempts to Take Over Athens

 

It is said that Cylon visited the Oracle at Delphi and was told to take control of Athens during the Festival of Zeus, which the Olympic Games were a part of. Having already participated in the Olympics and knowing that during the Games the city (including government officials) would be occupied, Cylon set his sights on the Olympics of 632 BC to make his move.

 

Using his political connections with Theagenes and leveraging his celebrity status, Cylon was able to rally enough support to establish a coup. However, his success was short-lived as as the nine Archons of Athens confronted him. . An Archon was usually the chief magistrate of a city-state, yet in Athens there was a council of nine archons who formed an executive government for the city. The magistrates stopped Cylon and forced him and his followers to retreat, who then ran to take cover in the Temple of Athena on the Acropolis.

 

After being held up in Athena’s temple, Cylon and his followers were persuaded by the Archons of Athens to leave the temple and stand trial. Cylon was promised his life would be spared if he appeared in court. However, shortly after Cylon and his men left the temple, they were stoned to death. Even though one power play was thwarted by the Athenian government, there were others who would soon come along to take control over Greece’s largest city.

 


2 – Cylon: Athens (632 BC)

historycollection.com

 

The information relating to Cylon is a little more reliable than what we know about Cypselus. That is because he was one of the chief protagonists in the Cylonian Affair, the first event in Athenian history that is reliably recorded. Cylon was an Athenian nobleman and gained fame for his success in the Olympic Games. He was married to the daughter of Theagenes, the tyrant of Megara and in 632 BC; he attempted a coup with the support of his father-in-law.

 

According to Herotodus, Cylon consulted the Oracle at Delphi and was advised to seize power in Athens during the greatest festival of Zeus. Cylon interpreted the message to mean that he was to attempt his coup during the Olympic Games. However, the would-be tyrant misinterpreted the message; it meant that he should make his attempt during the feast of Diasia in March; it was celebrated outside the city of Athens.

 

Nonetheless, Cylon followed through on his plan and enlisted the help of Megarian soldiers (sent by Theagenes) and noble youths because he didn’t have the support of the people. When Athenians saw that Cylon was aided by foreign soldiers, he lost his last chance of gaining their support. Although he succeeded in taking the Acropolis, the quick actions of Lord Megacles, the chief magistrate in the city, ensured the coup was a failure. He ensured that the Acropolis was quickly surrounded and he promised Cylon’s followers clemency if they left the building and surrendered.

 

Meanwhile, Cylon and his brother managed to escape the fortress. Cylon’s supporters apparently tied a rope to the temple’s statue to ensure their safety when they came out. Plutarch wrote that the rope broke on the way out and Megacles took this as a sign that the goddess had turned her back on the accused. As a result, they were stoned to death. Thucydides and Herodotus wrote that the supporters were killed but made no mention of the rope.

 

Megacles and his men were exiled from the city because it was illegal to murder supplicants. In April 2016, archaeologists found a mass grave containing 80 bodies in a suburb of Athens; some of them were shackled. Carbon dating suggests the bodies came from the third quarter of the 7th century BC so they may be the remains of Cylon’s supporters. Although he was never technically the tyrant of Athens, Cylon’s actions paved the way for others to seize power in the city state.

 


”Solon” ー From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

    Solon (Greek: Σόλων Sólōn [só.lɔːn]; c.  630 – c.  560 BC)[1] was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in archaic Athens.[2] His reforms failed in the short-term, yet he is often credited with having laid the foundations for Athenian democracy.[3][4][5] He wrote poetry for pleasure, as patriotic propaganda, and in defence of his constitutional reform.

 

    Modern knowledge of Solon is limited by the fact that his works only survive in fragments and appear to feature interpolations by later authors and by the general paucity of documentary and archaeological evidence covering Athens in the early 6th century BC.[6] Ancient authors such as Herodotus and Plutarch are the main sources, but wrote about Solon long after his death. 4th-century orators, such as Aeschines, tended to attribute to Solon all the laws of their own, much later times.[2][7] The English word solon (meaning "wise lawmaker") derives from his name.

 

Life

 

    Solon was born in Athens around 630 BC.[1] His family was distinguished in Attica as they belonged to a noble or Eupatrid clan, although they possessed only moderate wealth.[8] Solon's father was probably Execestides. If so his lineage could be traced back to Codrus, the last King of Athens.[9] According to Diogenes Laërtius, he had a brother named Dropides who was an ancestor (six generations removed) of Plato.[10] According to Plutarch, Solon was related to the tyrant Peisistratos, for their mothers were cousins.[11] Solon was eventually drawn into the unaristocratic pursuit of commerce.[12]

 

    When Athens and Megara were contesting the possession of Salamis, Solon was made leader of the Athenian forces. After repeated disasters, Solon was able to improve the morale of his troops through a poem he wrote about the island.[13] Supported by Peisistratos, he defeated the Megarians either by means of a cunning trick[14] or more directly through heroic battle around 595 BC.[13][15] The Megarians, however, refused to give up their claim. The dispute was referred to the Spartans, who eventually awarded possession of the island to Athens on the strength of the case that Solon put to them.[16]

 

    According to Diogenes Laertius, in 594 BC, Solon was chosen archon, or chief magistrate.[13][17] As archon, Solon discussed his intended reforms with some friends. Knowing that he was about to cancel all debts, these friends took out loans and promptly bought some land. Suspected of complicity, Solon complied with his own law and released his own debtors, amounting to 5 talents (or 15 according to some sources). His friends never repaid their debts.[18]

 

    After he had finished his reforms, he travelled abroad for ten years, so that the Athenians could not induce him to repeal any of his laws.[19] His first stop was Egypt. There, according to Herodotus, he visited the Pharaoh of Egypt, Amasis II.[20] According to Plutarch, he spent some time and discussed philosophy with two Egyptian priests, Psenophis of Heliopolis and Sonchis of Sais.[21] A character in two of Plato's dialogues, Timaeus and Critias, claims Solon visited Neith's temple at Sais and received from the priests there an account of the history of Atlantis. Next, Solon sailed to Cyprus, where he oversaw the construction of a new capital for a local king, in gratitude for which the king named it Soloi.[21]

 

    Solon's travels finally brought him to Sardis, capital of Lydia. According to Herodotus and Plutarch, he met with Croesus and gave the Lydian king advice, which Croesus failed to appreciate until it was too late. Croesus had considered himself to be the happiest man alive and Solon had advised him, "Count no man happy until he be dead." The reasoning was that at any minute, fortune might turn on even the happiest man and make his life miserable. It was only after he had lost his kingdom to the Persian king Cyrus, while awaiting execution, that Croesus acknowledged the wisdom of Solon's advice.[22][23]

 

 

The travel writer Pausanias listed Solon among the seven sages whose aphorisms adorned Apollo's temple in Delphi.[27] Stobaeus in the Florilegium relates a story about a symposium where Solon's young nephew was singing a poem of Sappho's; Solon, upon hearing the song, asked the boy to teach him to sing it. When someone asked, "Why should you waste your time on it?" Solon replied ἵνα μαθὼν αὐτὸ ἀποθάνω, "So that I may learn it before I die."[28] Ammianus Marcellinus, however, told a similar story about Socrates and the poet Stesichorus, quoting the philosopher's rapture in almost identical terms: "ut aliquid sciens amplius e vita discedam",[29] meaning "in order to leave life knowing a little more".

 

Historical setting

 

During Solon's time, many Greek city-states had seen the emergence of tyrants, opportunistic noblemen who had taken power on behalf of sectional interests. In Sicyon, Cleisthenes had usurped power on behalf of an Ionian minority. In Megara, Theagenes had come to power as an enemy of the local oligarchs. The son-in-law of Theagenes, an Athenian nobleman named Cylon, made an unsuccessful attempt to seize power in Athens in 632 BC. Solon was described by Plutarch as having been temporarily awarded autocratic powers by Athenian citizens on the grounds that he had the wisdom to sort out their differences for them in a peaceful and equitable manner.[30] According to ancient sources,[31][32] he obtained these powers when he was elected eponymous archon (594/3 BC). Some modern scholars believe these powers were in fact granted some years after Solon had been archon, when he would have been a member of the Areopagus and probably a more respected statesman by his peers.[33][34][35]

 

The social and political upheavals that characterized Athens in Solon's time have been variously interpreted by historians from ancient times to the present day. Two contemporary historians have identified three distinct historical accounts of Solon's Athens, emphasizing quite different rivalries: economic and ideological rivalry, regional rivalry and rivalry between aristocratic clans.[36][37] These different accounts provide a convenient basis for an overview of the issues involved.

 

Economic and ideological rivalry is a common theme in ancient sources. This sort of account emerges from Solon's poems (e.g. see below Solon the reformer and poet), in which he casts himself in the role of a noble mediator between two intemperate and unruly factions. This same account is substantially taken up about three centuries later by the author of the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia but with an interesting variation:

"...there was conflict between the nobles and the common people for an extended period. For the constitution they were under was oligarchic in every respect and especially in that the poor, along with their wives and children, were in slavery to the rich...All the land was in the hands of a few. And if men did not pay their rents, they themselves and their children were liable to be seized as slaves. The security for all loans was the debtor's person up to the time of Solon. He was the first people's champion."[38]

Here Solon is presented as a partisan in a democratic cause whereas, judged from the viewpoint of his own poems, he was instead a mediator between rival factions. A still more significant variation in the ancient historical account appears in the writing of Plutarch in the late 1st – early 2nd century AD:

"Athens was torn by recurrent conflict about the constitution. The city was divided into as many parties as there were geographical divisions in its territory. For the party of the people of the hills was most in favour of democracy, that of the people of the plain was most in favour of oligarchy, while the third group, the people of the coast, which preferred a mixed form of constitution somewhat between the other two, formed an obstruction and prevented the other groups from gaining control."[39]

 

Regional rivalry is a theme commonly found among modern scholars.[40][41][42][43]

"The new picture which emerged was one of strife between regional groups, united by local loyalties and led by wealthy landowners. Their goal was control of the central government at Athens and with it dominance over their rivals from other districts of Attika."[44]

Regional factionalism was inevitable in a relatively large territory such as Athens possessed. In most Greek city states, a farmer could conveniently reside in town and travel to and from his fields every day. According to Thucydides, on the other hand, most Athenians continued to live in rural settlements right up until the Peloponnesian War.[45] The effects of regionalism in a large territory could be seen in Laconia, where Sparta had gained control through intimidation and resettlement of some of its neighbours and enslavement of the rest. Attika in Solon's time seemed to be moving towards a similarly ugly solution with many citizens in danger of being reduced to the status of helots.[46]

 

Rivalry between clans is a theme recently developed by some scholars, based on an appreciation of the political significance of kinship groupings.[44][47][48][49][50][51] According to this account, bonds of kinship rather than local loyalties were the decisive influence on events in archaic Athens. An Athenian belonged not only to a phyle or tribe and one of its subdivisions, the phratry or brotherhood, but also to an extended family, clan or genos. It has been argued that these interconnecting units of kinship reinforced a hierarchic structure with aristocratic clans at the top.[36][37] Thus rivalries between aristocratic clans could engage all levels of society irrespective of any regional ties. In that case, the struggle between rich and poor was the struggle between powerful aristocrats and the weaker affiliates of their rivals or perhaps even with their own rebellious affiliates.

 

The historical account of Solon's Athens has evolved over many centuries into a set of contradictory stories or a complex story that might be interpreted in a variety of ways. As further evidence accumulates, and as historians continue to debate the issues, Solon's motivations and the intentions behind his reforms will continue to attract speculation.[52]

 

Solon's reforms

 

Solon's laws were inscribed on large wooden slabs or cylinders attached to a series of axles that stood upright in the Prytaneion.[53][54] These axones appear to have operated on the same principle as a turntable, allowing both convenient storage and ease of access. Originally the axones recorded laws enacted by Draco in the late 7th Century (traditionally 621 BC). Nothing of Draco's codification has survived except for a law relating to homicide, yet there is consensus among scholars that it did not amount to anything like a constitution.[55][56] Solon repealed all Draco's laws except those relating to homicide.[57] During his visit to Athens, Pausanias, the 2nd century AD geographer reported that the inscribed laws of Solon were still displayed by the Prytaneion.[58] Fragments of the axones were still visible in Plutarch's time[59] but today the only records we have of Solon's laws are fragmentary quotes and comments in literary sources such as those written by Plutarch himself. Moreover, the language of his laws was archaic even by the standards of the fifth century and this caused interpretation problems for ancient commentators.[60] Modern scholars doubt the reliability of these sources and our knowledge of Solon's legislation is therefore actually very limited in its details.[citation needed]

 

Generally, Solon's reforms appear to have been constitutional, economic and moral in their scope. This distinction, though somewhat artificial, does at least provide a convenient framework within which to consider the laws that have been attributed to Solon. Some short-term consequences of his reforms are considered at the end of the section.

 

Constitutional reform

Main article: Solonian Constitution

 

Before Solon's reforms, the Athenian state was administered by nine archons appointed or elected annually by the Areopagus on the basis of noble birth and wealth.[61][62] The Areopagus comprised former archons and it therefore had, in addition to the power of appointment, extraordinary influence as a consultative body. The nine archons took the oath of office while ceremonially standing on a stone in the agora, declaring their readiness to dedicate a golden statue if they should ever be found to have violated the laws.[63][64] There was an assembly of Athenian citizens (the Ekklesia) but the lowest class (the Thetes) was not admitted and its deliberative procedures were controlled by the nobles.[65] There therefore seemed to be no means by which an archon could be called to account for breach of oath unless the Areopagus favoured his prosecution.

 

According to the Constitution of the Athenians, Solon legislated for all citizens to be admitted into the Ekklesia[66] and for a court (the Heliaia) to be formed from all the citizens.[67] The Heliaia appears to have been the Ekklesia, or some representative portion of it, sitting as a jury.[68][69] By giving common people the power not only to elect officials but also to call them to account, Solon appears to have established the foundations of a true republic. However some scholars have doubted whether Solon actually included the Thetes in the Ekklesia, this being considered too bold a move for any aristocrat in the archaic period.[70] Ancient sources[71][72] credit Solon with the creation of a Council of Four Hundred, drawn from the four Athenian tribes to serve as a steering committee for the enlarged Ekklesia. However, many modern scholars have doubted this also.[73][74]

 

There is consensus among scholars that Solon lowered the requirements – those that existed in terms of financial and social qualifications – which applied to election to public office. The Solonian constitution divided citizens into four political classes defined according to assessable property[66][75] a classification that might previously have served the state for military or taxation purposes only.[76] The standard unit for this assessment was one medimnos (approximately 12 gallons) of cereals and yet the kind of classification set out below might be considered too simplistic to be historically accurate.[77]

 

Pentakosiomedimnoi

valued at 500 medimnoi or more of cereals annually.

eligible to serve as strategoi (generals or military governors)

Hippeis

valued at 300 medimnoi or more annually.

approximating to the medieval class of knights, they had enough wealth to equip themselves for the cavalry

Zeugitai

valued at a 200 medimnoi or more annually.

approximating to the medieval class of Yeoman, they had enough wealth to equip themselves for the infantry (Hoplite)

Thetes

valued up to 199 medimnoi annually or less

manual workers or sharecroppers, they served voluntarily in the role of personal servant, or as auxiliaries armed for instance with the sling or as rowers in the navy.

 

According to the Athenian Constitution, only the pentakosiomedimnoi were eligible for election to high office as archons and therefore only they gained admission into the Areopagus.[78] A modern view affords the same privilege to the hippeis.[79] The top three classes were eligible for a variety of lesser posts and only the thetes were excluded from all public office.

Depending on how we interpret the historical facts known to us, Solon's constitutional reforms were either a radical anticipation of democratic government, or they merely provided a plutocratic flavour to a stubbornly aristocratic regime, or else the truth lies somewhere between these two extremes.[a]

 

Economic reform

 

Solon's economic reforms need to be understood in the context of the primitive, subsistence economy that prevailed both before and after his time. Most Athenians were still living in rural settlements right up to the Peloponnesian War.[80] Opportunities for trade even within the Athenian borders were limited. The typical farming family, even in classical times, barely produced enough to satisfy its own needs.[81] Opportunities for international trade were minimal. It has been estimated that, even in Roman times, goods rose 40% in value for every 100 miles they were carried over land, but only 1.3% for the same distance were they carried by ship[82] and yet there is no evidence that Athens possessed any merchant ships until around 525 BC.[83] Until then, the narrow warship doubled as a cargo vessel. Athens, like other Greek city states in the 7th century BC, was faced with increasing population pressures[84] and by about 525 BC it was able to feed itself only in 'good years'.[85]

 

Solon's reforms can thus be seen to have taken place at a crucial period of economic transition, when a subsistence rural economy increasingly required the support of a nascent commercial sector. The specific economic reforms credited to Solon are these:

 

Fathers were encouraged to find trades for their sons; if they did not, there would be no legal requirement for sons to maintain their fathers in old age.[86]

 

Foreign tradesmen were encouraged to settle in Athens; those who did would be granted citizenship, provided they brought their families with them.[87]

 

Cultivation of olives was encouraged; the export of all other fruits was prohibited.[88]

 

Competitiveness of Athenian commerce was promoted through revision of weights and measures, possibly based on successful standards already in use elsewhere, such as Aegina or Euboia[89][90] or, according to the ancient account but unsupported by modern scholarship, Argos.[91]

 

It is generally assumed, on the authority of ancient commentators[91][92] that Solon also reformed the Athenian coinage. However, recent numismatic studies now lead to the conclusion that Athens probably had no coinage until around 560 BC, well after Solon's reforms.[93] Nevertheless, there are now reasons to suggest[94] that monetization had already begun before Solon's reforms. By early sixth century the Athenians were using silver in the form of a variety of bullion silver pieces for monetary payments.[95] Drachma and obol as a term of bullion value had already been adopted, although the corresponding standard weights were probably unstable.[96]

 

Solon's economic reforms succeeded in stimulating foreign trade. Athenian black-figure pottery was exported in increasing quantities and good quality throughout the Aegean between 600 BC and 560 BC, a success story that coincided with a decline in trade in Corinthian pottery.[97] The ban on the export of grain might be understood as a relief measure for the benefit of the poor. However, the encouragement of olive production for export could actually have led to increased hardship for many Athenians to the extent that it led to a reduction in the amount of land dedicated to grain. Moreover, an olive produces no fruit for the first six years[98] (but farmers' difficulty of lasting until payback may also give rise to a mercantilist argument in favour of supporting them through that, since the British case illustrates that 'One domestic policy that had a lasting impact was the conversion of "waste lands" to agricultural use. Mercantilists felt that to maximize a nation's power all land and resources had to be used to their utmost...'). The real motives behind Solon's economic reforms are therefore as questionable as his real motives for constitutional reform. Were the poor being forced to serve the needs of a changing economy, was the economy being reformed to serve the needs of the poor, or were Solon's policies the manifestation of a struggle taking place between poorer citizens and the aristocrats?

 

Moral reform

 

In his poems, Solon portrays Athens as being under threat from the unrestrained greed and arrogance of its citizens.[99] Even the earth (Gaia), the mighty mother of the gods, had been enslaved.[100] The visible symbol of this perversion of the natural and social order was a boundary marker called a horos, a wooden or stone pillar indicating that a farmer was in debt or under contractual obligation to someone else, either a noble patron or a creditor.[101] Up until Solon's time, land was the inalienable property of a family or clan[102] and it could not be sold or mortgaged. This was no disadvantage to a clan with large landholdings since it could always rent out farms in a sharecropping system. A family struggling on a small farm however could not use the farm as security for a loan even if it owned the farm. Instead the farmer would have to offer himself and his family as security, providing some form of slave labour in lieu of repayment. Equally, a family might voluntarily pledge part of its farm income or labour to a powerful clan in return for its protection. Farmers subject to these sorts of arrangements were loosely known as hektemoroi[103] indicating that they either paid or kept a sixth of a farm's annual yield.[104][105][106] In the event of 'bankruptcy', or failure to honour the contract stipulated by the horoi, farmers and their families could in fact be sold into slavery.

 

Solon's reform of these injustices was later known and celebrated among Athenians as the Seisachtheia (shaking off of burdens).[107][108] As with all his reforms, there is considerable scholarly debate about its real significance. Many scholars are content to accept the account given by the ancient sources, interpreting it as a cancellation of debts, while others interpret it as the abolition of a type of feudal relationship, and some prefer to explore new possibilities for interpretation.[5] The reforms included:

 

 ・annulment of all contracts symbolised by the horoi.[109]

 

 ・prohibition on a debtor's person being used as security for a loan, i.e., debt slavery.[107][108]

 

 ・release of all Athenians who had been enslaved.[109]

 

The removal of the horoi clearly provided immediate economic relief for the most oppressed group in Attica, and it also brought an immediate end to the enslavement of Athenians by their countrymen. Some Athenians had already been sold into slavery abroad and some had fled abroad to escape enslavement – Solon proudly records in verse the return of this diaspora.[110] It has been cynically observed, however, that few of these unfortunates were likely to have been recovered.[111] It has been observed also that the seisachtheia not only removed slavery and accumulated debt but may also have removed the ordinary farmer's only means of obtaining further credit.[112]

 

The seisachtheia however was merely one set of reforms within a broader agenda of moral reformation. Other reforms included:

 

 ・the abolition of extravagant dowries.[113]

 

 ・legislation against abuses within the system of inheritance, specifically with relation to the   

  epikleros (i.e. a female who had no brothers to inherit her father's property and who was

  traditionally required to marry her nearest paternal relative in order to produce an heir to her

  father's estate).[114]

 

 ・entitlement of any citizen to take legal action on behalf of another.[115][116]

 

 ・the disenfranchisement of any citizen who might refuse to take up arms in times of civil strife,

  and war, a measure that was intended to counteract dangerous levels of political apathy.[117]

  [118][119][120][121]

 

Demosthenes claimed that the city's subsequent golden age included "personal modesty and frugality" among the Athenian aristocracy.[122] Perhaps Solon, by both personal example and legislated reform, established a precedent for this decorum.[citation needed] A heroic sense of civic duty later united Athenians against the might of the Persians.[citation needed] Perhaps this public spirit was instilled in them by Solon and his reforms.[citation needed] (See also Solon and Athenian sexuality below).

 

 


"Cleisthenes of Athens"

 

Cleisthenes, an Athenian statesman of the late 6th century BC, deserves to be regarded as the founder of Athenian democracy. He belonged to the Alcmaeonid family, which had played a leading part in Athenian public life since the early Archaic period, and was born, c. 570, the son of Megacles. At the time, the family was still affected by a public curse incurred by his great-grandfather, also named Megacles. The latter had been chief archon when an Athenian noble Cylon had made an unsuccessful bid to seize the Acropolice and make himself tyrant (c. 632). Some of his followers had taken refuge at an altar and did not abandon their sanctuary until they had been promised that their lives would be spared. They were, however, put to death, and Megacles was held responsible. On the advice of Apollo's oracle at Delphi, a curse was pronounced on the Alcmaeonids, who had to go to exile, but they were back in Athens when the lawgiver Solon was called on to avert civil war in 594. The Alcmaeonids were strong supporters of Solon, and Megacles' son Alcmaeon led an Athenian contingent that fought with Thessaly and Cleisthenes, the powerful tyrant of Sicyon, in a so-called Sacred War for the protection of Delphi. It is not surprising that, when the tyrant of Sicyon was looking for a husband for his daughter Agariste (c. 574), he should have chosen Megacles, son of Alcmaeon. The first son of the marriage was named Cleisthenes after his grandfather. (Megacles - Alcmaeon - Megacles - Cleisthenes) In the period following Solon's reform, Attica was unsettled. (Taken from the Encyclopedia Britannica) 

Cleisthenes

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Modern bust of Cleisthenes, known as "the father of Athenian democracy", on view at the Ohio Statehouse, Columbus, Ohio

Cleisthenes (/ˈklsθɪˌnz/; Greek: Κλεισθένης, translit. Kleisthénēs Attic Greek[kle̝ːs.tʰé.nɛːs]; also Clisthenes via Latin: Clīsthenēs Classical Latin[ˈklʲiːs.t̪ʰɛ.neːs]) was an ancient Athenian lawgiver credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a democratic footing in 508 BC.[1][2] For these accomplishments, historians refer to him as "the father of Athenian democracy."[3] He was a member of the aristocratic Alcmaeonid clan. He was the younger son of Megacles and Agariste making him the maternal grandson of the tyrant Cleisthenes of Sicyon. He was also credited with increasing the power of the Athenian citizens' assembly and for reducing the power of the nobility over Athenian politics.[4]

In 510 BC, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow their king, the tyrant Hippias, son of Peisistratos. Cleomenes I, king of Sparta, put in place a pro-Spartan oligarchy headed by Isagoras. But his rival Cleisthenes, with the support of the middle class and aided by democrats, took over. Cleomenes intervened in 508 and 506 BC, but could not stop Cleisthenes, now supported by the Athenians. Through Cleisthenes' reforms, the people of Athens endowed their city with isonomic institutions—equal rights for all citizens (though only men were citizens)—and established ostracism.

Biography[edit]

Historians estimate that Cleisthenes was born around 570 BC.[5] Cleisthenes was the uncle of Pericles' mother Agariste[6] and of Alcibiades' maternal grandfather Megacles.[7]

Rise to power[edit]

With help from the Spartans and the Alcmaeonidae (Cleisthenes' genos, "clan"), he was responsible for overthrowing Hippias, the tyrant son of Pisistratus. After the collapse of Hippias' tyranny, Isagoras and Cleisthenes were rivals for power, but Isagoras won the upper hand by appealing to the Spartan king Cleomenes I to help him expel Cleisthenes. He did so on the pretext of the Alcmaeonid curse. Consequently, Cleisthenes left Athens as an exile, and Isagoras was unrivalled in power within the city. Isagoras set about dispossessing hundreds of Athenians of their homes and exiling them on the pretext that they too were cursed. He also attempted to dissolve the Boule (βουλή), a council of Athenian citizens appointed to run the daily affairs of the city. However, the council resisted, and the Athenian people declared their support of the council. Isagoras and his supporters were forced to flee to the Acropolis, remaining besieged there for two days. On the third day they fled the city and were banished. Cleisthenes was subsequently recalled, along with hundreds of exiles, and he assumed leadership of Athens.[8]

Contribution to the governance of Athens[edit]

Coinage of Athens at the time of Cleisthenes. Effigy of Athena, with owl and ΑΘΕ, initials of "Athens". Circa 510-500/490 BC.

After this victory, Cleisthenes began to reform the government of Athens. He commissioned a bronze memorial from the sculptor Antenor in honor of the lovers and tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton, whom Hippias had executed. In order to forestall strife between the traditional clans, which had led to the tyranny in the first place, he changed the political organization from the four traditional tribes, which were based on family relations and which formed the basis of the upper class Athenian political power network, into ten tribes according to their area of residence (their deme,) which would form the basis of a new democratic power structure.[9] It is thought that there may have been 139 demes (though this is still a matter of debate), each organized into three groups called trittyes ("thirds"), with ten demes divided among three regions in each trittyes (a city region, asty; a coastal region, paralia; and an inland region, mesogeia).[10] Cleisthenes also abolished patronymics in favour of demonymics (a name given according to the deme to which one belongs), thus increasing Athenians' sense of belonging to a deme.[10] He also established sortition - the random selection of citizens to fill government positions rather than kinship or heredity, a true test of real democracy. He reorganized the Boule, created with 400 members under Solon, so that it had 500 members, 50 from each tribe. He also introduced the bouletic oath, "To advise according to the laws what was best for the people".[11] The court system (Dikasteria — law courts) was reorganized and had from 201–5001 jurors selected each day, up to 500 from each tribe. It was the role of the Boule to propose laws to the assembly of voters, who convened in Athens around forty times a year for this purpose. The bills proposed could be rejected, passed or returned for amendments by the assembly.

Cleisthenes also may have introduced ostracism (first used in 487 BC), whereby a vote by a plurality of citizens would exile a citizen for 10 years. The initial trend was to vote for a citizen deemed a threat to the democracy (e.g., by having ambitions to set himself up as tyrant). However, soon after, any citizen judged to have too much power in the city tended to be targeted for exile (e.g., Xanthippus in 485/84 BC).[12] Under this system, the exiled man's property was maintained, but he was not physically in the city where he could possibly create a new tyranny. One later ancient author records that Cleisthenes himself was the first person to be ostracized.[13]

Cleisthenes called these reforms isonomia ("equality vis à vis law", iso-=equality; nomos=law), instead of demokratia. Cleisthenes' life after his reforms is unknown as no ancient texts mention him thereafter.

Attempt to obtain Persian support (507 BC)[edit]

According to Herodotus, the Athenians made the gift of "Earth and Water to the Persians in 507 BC, at the time Cleisthenes was leading Athenian politics.[14]

In 507 BC, during the time Cleisthenes was leading Athenian politics, and probably at his instigation, democratic Athens sent an embassy to Artaphernes, brother of Darius I and Achaemenid Satrap of Asia Minor in the capital of Sardis, looking for Persian assistance in order to resist the threats from Sparta.[15][16] Herodotus reports that Artaphernes had no previous knowledge of the Athenians, and his initial reaction was "Who are these people?".[15] Artaphernes asked the Athenians for "Water and Earth", a symbol of submission, if they wanted help from the Achaemenid king.[16] The Athenian ambassadors apparently accepted to comply, and to give "Earth and Water".[15] Artaphernes also advised the Athenians that they should receive back the Athenian tyrant Hippias. The Persians threatened to attack Athens if they did not accept Hippias. Nevertheless, the Athenians preferred to remain democratic despite the danger from the Achaemenid Empire, and the ambassadors were disavowed and censured upon their return to Athens.[15]

After that, the Athenians sent to bring back Cleisthenes and the seven hundred households banished by Cleomenes; then they despatched envoys to Sardis, desiring to make an alliance with the Persians; for they knew that they had provoked the Lacedaemonians and Cleomenes to war. When the envoys came to Sardis and spoke as they had been bidden, Artaphrenes son of Hystaspes, viceroy of Sardis, asked them, "What men are you, and where dwell you, who desire alliance with the Persians?" Being informed by the envoys, he gave them an answer whereof the substance was, that if the Athenians gave king Darius earth and water, then he would make alliance with them; but if not, his command was that they should begone. The envoys consulted together and consented to give what was asked, in their desire to make the alliance. So they returned to their own country, and were then greatly blamed for what they had done.

— Herodotus 5.73.[14]

There is a possibility that the Achaemenid ruler now saw the Athenians as subjects who had solemnly promised submission through the gift of "Earth and Water", and that subsequent actions by the Athenians, such as their intervention in the Ionian revolt, were perceived as a break of oath, and a rebellion to the central authority of the Achaemenid ruler.[15]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Ober, pp. 83 ff.
  2. ^ The New York Times (30 October 2007) [1st pub:2004]. John W. Wright (ed.). The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge, Second Edition: A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 628. ISBN 978-0-312-37659-8. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  3. ^ R. Po-chia Hsia, Julius Caesar, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein, and Bonnie G. Smith, The Making of the West, Peoples and Cultures, A Concise History, Volume I: To 1740 (Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007), 44.
  4. ^ Langer, William L. (1968) The Early Period, to c. 500 B.C. An Encyclopedia of World History (Fourth Edition pp. 66). Printed in the United States of America: Houghton Mifflin Company. Accessed: January 30, 2011
  5. ^ The Greeks:Crucible of Civilization (2000)
  6. ^ Herodotus, Histories 6.131
  7. ^ Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives. with an English Translation by. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1916. 4.
  8. ^ Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, Chapter 20
  9. ^ Aristotle, Politics 6.4.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, Chapter 21
  11. ^ Morris & Raaflaub Democracy 2500?: Questions and Challenges
  12. ^ Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, Chapter 22
  13. ^ Aelian, Varia historia 13.24
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b LacusCurtius • Herodotus — Book V: Chapters 55‑96.
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Waters, Matt (2014). Ancient Persia: A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550–330 BCE. Cambridge University Press. pp. 84–85. ISBN 9781107009608.
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b Waters, Matt (2014). Ancient Persia: A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550–330 BCE. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107009608.

References[edit]

Primary sources[edit]

Secondary sources[edit]

  • Morris I.; Raaflaub K., eds. (1998). Democracy 2500?: Questions and Challenges. Kendal/Hunt Publishing Co.
  • Ober, Josiah (2007). "I Besieged That Man, Democracy's Revolutionary Start". Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24562-4.
  • Lévêque, Pierre; Vidal-Naquet, Pierre (1996). Cleisthenes the Athenian: An Essay on the Representation of Space and Time in Greek Political Thought from the End of the Sixth Century to the Death of Plato. Humanities Press.
  • David Ames Curtis: Translator's Foreword to Pierre Vidal-Maquet and Pierre Lévêque's Cleisthenes the Athenian: An Essay on the Representation of Space and Time in Greek Thought from the End of the Sixth Century to the Death of Plato (1993-1994) http://kaloskaisophos.org/rt/rtdac/rtdactf/rtdactfcleisthenes.html

Further reading[edit]

  • Davies, J.K. (1993). Democracy and classical Greece. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-19607-4.
  • Ehrenberg, Victor (2010). From Solon to Socrates Greek History and Civilization During the 6th and 5th Centuries BC. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-203-84477-9.
  • Forrest, William G. (1966). The Emergence of Greek Democracy, 800–400 BC. New York: McGraw–Hill.
  • Hignett, Charles (1952). A History of the Athenian Constitution to the End of the Fifth Century BC. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  • Larsen, Jakob A. O. (1948). "Cleisthenes and the Development of the Theory of Democracy at Athens". In Konvitz, Milton R.; Murphy, Arthur E. (eds.). Essays in Political Theory Presented to George H. Sabine. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
  • O'Neil, James L. (1995). The origins and development of ancient Greek democracy. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-8476-7956-X.
  • Staveley, E. S. (1972). Greek and Roman voting and elections. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Pr. ISBN 0-8014-0693-5.
  • Thorley, John (1996). Athenian democracy. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-12967-2.
  • Zimmern, Alfred (1911). The Greek Commonwealth: Politics and Economics in Fifth Century Athens. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

External links[edit]

Preceded by
Hippias
Tyrant of Athens Succeeded by
Isagoras
Preceded by
Isagoras
Archon in the Athenian democracy Succeeded by

 

Themistocles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Themistocles (/θəˈmɪstəkliːz/; Greek: Θεμιστοκλῆς Greek pronunciation: [tʰemistoklɛ̂ːs] Themistoklẽs; "Glory of the Law";[3] c. 524–459 BC)[1][2] was an Athenian politician and general. He was one of a new breed of non-aristocratic politicians who rose to prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy. As a politician, Themistocles was a populist, having the support of lower-class Athenians, and generally being at odds with the Athenian nobility. Elected archon in 493 BC, he convinced the polis to increase the naval power of Athens, a recurring theme in his political career. During the first Persian invasion of Greece he fought at the Battle of Marathon[4] (490 BC) and was possibly one of the ten Athenian strategoi (generals) in that battle.[citation needed]

 

In the years after Marathon, and in the run-up to the second Persian invasion of 480–479 BC, Themistocles became the most prominent politician in Athens. He continued to advocate for a strong Athenian Navy, and in 483 BC he persuaded the Athenians to build a fleet of 200 triremes; these proved crucial in the forthcoming conflict with Persia. During the second invasion, he effectively commanded the Greek allied navy at the battles of Artemisium and Salamis in 480 BC. Due to his subterfuge, the Allies successfully lured the Persian fleet into the Straits of Salamis, and the decisive Greek victory there was the turning point of the war. The invasion was conclusively repulsed the following year after the Persian defeat at the land Battle of Plataea.

 

After the conflict ended, Themistocles continued his pre-eminence among Athenian politicians. However, he aroused the hostility of Sparta by ordering the re-fortification of Athens, and his perceived arrogance began to alienate him from the Athenians. In 472 or 471 BC, he was ostracised, and went into exile in Argos. The Spartans now saw an opportunity to destroy Themistocles, and implicated him in the alleged treasonous plot of 478 BC of their own general Pausanias. Themistocles thus fled from Greece. Alexander I of Macedon (r. 498–454 BC) temporarily gave him sanctuary at Pydna before he traveled to Asia Minor, where he entered the service of the Persian king Artaxerxes I (reigned 465–424 BC). He was made governor of Magnesia, and lived there for the rest of his life.

 

Themistocles died in 459 BC, probably of natural causes.[1][5] His reputation was posthumously rehabilitated, and he was re-established as a hero of the Athenian (and indeed Greek) cause. Themistocles can still reasonably be thought of as "the man most instrumental in achieving the salvation of Greece" from the Persian threat, as Plutarch describes him. His naval policies would have a lasting impact on Athens as well, since maritime power became the cornerstone of the Athenian Empire and golden age. Thucydides assessed Themistocles as "a man who exhibited the most indubitable signs of genius; indeed, in this particular he has a claim on our admiration quite extraordinary and unparalleled".[6]

 

Family

 

Themistocles was born in the Attic deme of Phrearrhioi around 524 BC,[1][2] the son of Neocles, who was, in the words of Plutarch "no very conspicuous man".[7] His mother is more obscure; according to Plutarch, she was either a Thracian woman called Abrotonon, or Euterpe, a Carian from Halicarnassus.[7] Like many contemporaries, little is known of his early years. Some authors report that he was unruly as a child and was consequently disowned by his father.[8][9] Plutarch considers this to be false.[10] Plutarch indicates that, on account of his mother's background, Themistocles was considered something of an outsider; furthermore the family appear to have lived in an immigrant district of Athens, Cynosarges, outside the city walls.[7] However, in an early example of his cunning, Themistocles persuaded "well-born" children to exercise with him in Cynosarges, thus breaking down the distinction between "alien and legitimate".[7] Plutarch further reports that Themistocles was preoccupied, even as a child, with preparing for public life.[10] His teacher is said to have told him:[10]

 

"My boy, you will be nothing insignificant, but definitely something great, either for good or evil."

 

Themistocles left three sons by Archippe, daughter to Lysander of Alopece:[11] Archeptolis, Polyeuctus, and Cleophantus. Plato the philosopher mentions Cleophantus as a most excellent horseman, but otherwise insignificant person. And Themistocles had two sons older than these three, Neocles and Diocles. Neocles died when he was young, bitten by a horse, and Diocles was adopted by his grandfather, Lysander. Themistocles had many daughters: Mnesiptolema, the product of his second marriage, married her step-brother Archeptolis and became priestess of Cybele; Italia was married to Panthoides of Chios; and Sybaris to Nicomedes the Athenian. After Themistocles died, his nephew Phrasicles went to Magnesia and married another daughter, Nicomache (with her brothers' consent). Phrasicles then took charge of her sister Asia, the youngest of all ten children.[12]

 

Political and military career

 

Background

 

Themistocles grew up in a period of upheaval in Athens. The tyrant Peisistratos had died in 527 BC, passing power to his sons, Hipparchus and Hippias.[13] Hipparchus was murdered in 514 BC, and in response to this, Hippias became paranoid and started to rely increasingly on foreign mercenaries to keep a hold on power.[14] The head of the powerful, but exiled (according to Herodotus only—the fragmentary Archon List for 525/4 shows a Cleisthenes, an Alcmaeonid, holding office in Athens during this period) Alcmaeonid family, Cleisthenes, began to scheme to overthrow Hippias and return to Athens.[15] In 510 BC, he persuaded the Spartan king Cleomenes I to launch a full-scale attack on Athens, which succeeded in overthrowing Hippias.[15] However, in the aftermath, the other noble ('eupatrid') families of Athens rejected Cleisthenes, electing Isagoras as archon, with the support of Cleomenes.[15] On a personal level, Cleisthenes wanted to return to Athens; however, he also probably wanted to prevent Athens becoming a Spartan client state. Outmaneuvering the other nobles, he proposed to the Athenian people a radical program in which political power would be invested in the people—a "democracy".[15] The Athenian people thus overthrew Isagoras, repelled a Spartan attack under Cleomenes, and invited Cleisthenes to return to Athens, to put his plan into action.[16] The establishment of the democracy was to radically change Athens:

 

"And so it was that the Athenians found themselves suddenly a great power... they gave vivid proof of what equality and freedom of speech might achieve"[17]

 

Early years of the democracy

 

The new system of government in Athens opened up a wealth of opportunity for men like Themistocles, who previously would have had no access to power.[18] Moreover, the new institutions of the democracy required skills that had previously been unimportant in government. Themistocles was to prove himself a master of the new system; "he could infight, he could network, he could spin... and crucially, he knew how to make himself visible."[18] Themistocles moved to the Ceramicus, a down-market part of Athens. This move marked him out as a 'man of the people', and allowed him to interact more easily with ordinary citizens. He began building up a support base among these newly empowered citizens:

 

"he wooed the poor; and they, not used to being courted, duly loved him back. Touring the taverns, the markets, the docks, canvassing where no politician had thought to canvas before, making sure never to forget a single voter's name, Themistocles had set his eyes on a radical new constituency"[18]

 

However, he took care to ensure that he did not alienate the nobility of Athens.[18] He began to practice law, the first person in Athens to prepare for public life in this way.[18] His ability as attorney and arbitrator, used in the service of the common people, gained him further popularity.[19]

 

Archonship

 

Themistocles probably turned 30 in 494 BC, which qualified him to become an archon, the highest of the magistracies in Athens.[citation needed] On the back of his popularity, he evidently decided to run for this office and was elected Archon Eponymous, the highest government office in the following year (493 BC).[18] Themistocles's archonship saw the beginnings of a major theme in his career; the advancement of Athenian sea-power. Under his guidance, the Athenians began the building of a new port at Piraeus, to replace the existing facilities at Phalerum.[18] Although further away from Athens, Piraeus offered three natural harbours, and could be easily fortified.[20] Since Athens was to become an essentially maritime power during the 5th century BC, Themistocles's policies were to have huge significance for the future of Athens, and indeed Greece. In advancing naval power, Themistocles was probably advocating a course of action he thought essential for the long-term prospects of Athens.[18] However, as Plutarch implies, since naval power relied on the mass mobilisation of the common citizens (thetes) as rowers, such a policy put more power into the hands of average Athenians—and thus into Themistocles's own hands.[20]

 

Rivalry with Aristides

 

After Marathon, probably in 489, Miltiades, the hero of the battle, was seriously wounded in an abortive attempt to capture Paros. Taking advantage of his incapacitation, the powerful Alcmaeonid family arranged for him to be prosecuted.[21] The Athenian aristocracy, and indeed Greek aristocrats in general, were loath to see one person pre-eminent, and such maneuvers were commonplace.[21] Miltiades was given a massive fine for the crime of 'deceiving the Athenian people', but died weeks later as a result of his wound.[21] In the wake of this prosecution, the Athenian people chose to use a new institution of the democracy, which had been part of Cleisthenes's reforms, but remained so far unused.[21] This was 'ostracism'—each Athenian citizen was required to write on a shard of pottery (ostrakon) the name of a politician that they wished to see exiled for a period of ten years.[21] This may have been triggered by Miltiades's prosecution, and used by the Athenians to try to stop such power-games among the noble families.[21] Certainly, in the years (487 BC) following, the heads of the prominent families, including the Alcmaeonids, were exiled.[21] The career of a politician in Athens thus became fraught with more difficulty, since displeasing the population was likely to result in exile.[21]

 

Themistocles, with his power-base firmly established among the poor, moved naturally to fill the vacuum left by Miltiades's death, and in that decade became the most influential politician in Athens.[21] However, the support of the nobility began to coalesce around the man who would become Themistocles's great rival—Aristides.[22] Aristides cast himself as Themistocles's opposite—virtuous, honest and incorruptible—and his followers called him "the just".[22] Plutarch suggests that the rivalry between the two had begun when they competed over the love of a boy: "... they were rivals for the affection of the beautiful Stesilaus of Ceos, and were passionate beyond all moderation."[23]

 

During the decade, Themistocles continued to advocate the expansion of Athenian naval power.[21] The Athenians were certainly aware throughout this period that the Persian interest in Greece had not ended; Darius's son and successor, Xerxes I, had continued the preparations for the invasion of Greece.[24] Themistocles seems to have realised that for the Greeks to survive the coming onslaught required a Greek navy that could hope to face up to the Persian navy, and he therefore attempted to persuade the Athenians to build such a fleet.[18][21] Aristides, as champion of the zeugites (the upper, 'hoplite-class') vigorously opposed such a policy.[22]

 

In 483 BC, a massive new seam of silver was found in the Athenian mines at Laurium.[25] Themistocles proposed that the silver should be used to build a new fleet of 200 triremes, while Aristides suggested it should instead be distributed among the Athenian citizens.[26] Themistocles avoided mentioning Persia, deeming that it was too distant a threat for the Athenians to act on, and instead focused their attention on Aegina.[25] At the time, Athens was embroiled in a long-running war with the Aeginetans, and building a fleet would allow the Athenians to finally defeat them at sea.[25] As a result, Themistocles's motion was carried easily, although only 100 warships of the trireme type were to be built.[25] Aristides refused to countenance this; conversely Themistocles was not pleased that only 100 ships would be built.[26] Tension between the two camps built over the winter, so that the ostracism of 482 BC became a direct contest between Themistocles and Aristides.[26] In what has been characterized as the first referendum, Aristides was ostracised, and Themistocles's policies were endorsed.[26] Indeed, becoming aware of the Persian preparations for the coming invasion, the Athenians voted for the construction of more ships than Themistocles had initially asked for.[26] In the run up to the Persian invasion, Themistocles had thus become the foremost politician in Athens.[19]

 

Second Persian invasion of Greece

 

Main articles: Second Persian invasion of Greece, Battle of Artemisium, and Battle of Salamis

 

In 481 BC, a congress of Greek city-states was held, during which 30 or so[citation needed] states agreed to ally themselves against the forthcoming invasion.[29] The Spartans and Athenians were foremost in this alliance, being sworn enemies of the Persians.[30] The Spartans claimed the command of land forces, and since the Greek (hereafter referred to as "Allied") fleet would be dominated by Athens, Themistocles tried to claim command of the naval forces.[31] However, the other naval powers, including Corinth and Aegina refused to give command to the Athenians, and Themistocles pragmatically backed down.[31] Instead, as a compromise, the Spartans (an insignificant naval power), in the person of Eurybiades were to command the naval forces.[32] It is clear from Herodotus, however, that Themistocles would be the real leader of the fleet.[33]

 

The 'congress' met again in the spring of 480 BC. A Thessalian delegation suggested that the allies could muster in the narrow Vale of Tempe, on the borders of Thessaly, and thereby block Xerxes's advance.[34] A force of 10,000 hoplites was dispatched under the command of the Spartan polemarch Euenetus and Themistocles to the Vale of Tempe, which they believed the Persian army would have to pass through. However, once there, Alexander I of Macedon warned them that the vale could be bypassed by several other passes, and that the army of Xerxes was overwhelmingly large, and the Greeks retreated.[35] Shortly afterwards, they received the news that Xerxes had crossed the Hellespont.[34]

 

Themistocles now developed a second strategy. The route to southern Greece (Boeotia, Attica and the Peloponnesus) would require the army of Xerxes to travel through the very narrow pass of Thermopylae.[36] This could easily be blocked by the Greek hoplites, despite the overwhelming numbers of Persians; furthermore, to prevent the Persians bypassing Thermopylae by sea, the Athenian and allied navies could block the straits of Artemisium.[36] However, after the Tempe debacle, it was uncertain whether the Spartans would be willing to march out from the Peloponnesus again.[37] To persuade the Spartans to defend Attica, Themistocles had to show them that the Athenians were willing to do everything necessary for the success of the alliance. In short, the entire Athenian fleet must be dispatched to Artemisium.

 

To do this, every able-bodied Athenian male would be required to man the ships. This in turn meant that the Athenians must prepare to abandon Athens.[37] Persuading the Athenians to take this course was undoubtedly one of the highlights of Themistocles's career.[38] As Holland has it:

 

"What precise heights of oratory he attained, what stirring and memorable phrases he pronounced, we have no way of knowing...only by the effect it had on the assembly can we gauge what surely must have been its electric and vivifying quality—for Themistocles' audacious proposals, when put to the vote, were ratified. The Athenian people, facing the gravest moment of peril in their history, committed themselves once and for all to the alien element of the sea, and put their faith in a man whose ambitions many had long profoundly dreaded."[37]

 

His proposals accepted, Themistocles issued orders for the women and children of Athens to be sent to the city of Troezen, safely inside the Peloponnesus.[39] He was then able to travel to a meeting of the Allies, at which he proposed his strategy; with the Athenian fleet fully committed to the defence of Greece, the other Allies accepted his proposals.[36]

 

Battle of Artemisium

 

Thus, in August 480 BC, when the Persian army was approaching Thessaly, the Allied fleet sailed to Artemisium, and the Allied army marched to Thermopylae.[40] Themistocles himself took command of the Athenian contingent of the fleet, and went to Artemisium. When the Persian fleet finally arrived at Artemisium after a significant delay, Eurybiades, who both Herodotus and Plutarch suggest was not the most inspiring commander, wished to sail away without fighting.[33][41] At this point Themistocles accepted a large bribe from the local people for the fleet to remain at Artemisium, and used some of it to bribe Eurybiades to remain, while pocketing the rest.[42] From this point on, Themistocles appears to have been more-or-less in charge of the Allied effort at Artemisium.[41] Over three days of battle, the Allies held their own against the much larger Persian fleet, but sustained significant losses.[43] However, the loss of the simultaneous Battle of Thermopylae to the Persians made their continued presence at Artemisium irrelevant, and the Allies thus evacuated.[44] According to Herodotus, Themistocles left messages at every place where the Persian fleet might stop for drinking water, asking the Ionians in the Persian fleet to defect, or at least fight badly.[45] Even if this did not work, Themistocles apparently intended that Xerxes would at least begin to suspect the Ionians, thereby sowing dissension in the Persian ranks.[45]

 

Battle of Salamis

 

In the aftermath of Thermopylae, Boeotia fell to the Persians, who then began to advance on Athens.[46] The Peloponnesian Allies prepared to now defend the Isthmus of Corinth, thus abandoning Athens to the Persians.[47] From Artemisium, the Allied fleet sailed to the island of Salamis, where the Athenian ships helped with the final evacuation of Athens. The Peloponnesian contingents wanted to sail to the coast of the Isthmus to concentrate forces with the army.[48] However, Themistocles tried to convince them to remain in the Straits of Salamis, invoking the lessons of Artemisium; "battle in close conditions works to our advantage".[48] After threatening to sail with the whole Athenian people into exile in Sicily, he eventually persuaded the other Allies, whose security after all relied on the Athenian navy, to accept his plan.[49] Therefore, even after Athens had fallen to the Persians, and the Persian navy had arrived off the coast of Salamis, the Allied navy remained in the Straits. Themistocles appears to have been aiming to fight a battle that would cripple the Persian navy, and thus guarantee the security of the Peloponnesus.[48]

 

To bring about this battle, Themistocles used a cunning mix of subterfuge and misinformation, psychologically exploiting Xerxes's desire to finish the invasion.[50] Xerxes's actions indicate that he was keen to finish the conquest of Greece in 480 BC, and to do this, he needed a decisive victory over the Allied fleet.[51] Themistocles sent a servant, Sicinnus, to Xerxes, with a message proclaiming that Themistocles was "on king's side and prefers that your affairs prevail, not the Hellenes".[52] Themistocles claimed that the Allied commanders were infighting, that the Peloponnesians were planning to evacuate that very night, and that to gain victory all the Persians needed to do was to block the straits.[52] In performing this subterfuge, Themistocles seems to have been trying to lure the Persian fleet into the Straits.[50] The message also had a secondary purpose, namely that in the event of an Allied defeat, the Athenians would probably receive some degree of mercy from Xerxes (having indicated their readiness to submit).[50] At any rate, this was exactly the kind of news that Xerxes wanted to hear.[50] Xerxes evidently took the bait, and the Persian fleet was sent out to effect the block.[53] Perhaps overconfident and expecting no resistance, the Persian navy sailed into the Straits,[54] only to find that, far from disintegrating, the Allied navy was ready for battle.[55]

 

According to Herodotus, after the Persian navy began its maneuvers, Aristides arrived at the Allied camp from Aegina.[57] Aristides had been recalled from exile along with the other ostracised Athenians on the order of Themistocles, so that Athens might be united against the Persians.[57] Aristides told Themistocles that the Persian fleet had encircled the Allies, which greatly pleased Themistocles, as he now knew that the Persians had walked into his trap.[58] The Allied commanders seem to have taken this news rather uncomplainingly, and Holland therefore suggests that they were party to Themistocles's ruse all along.[59] Either way, the Allies prepared for battle, and Themistocles delivered a speech to the marines before they embarked on the ships.[60] In the ensuing battle, the cramped conditions in the Straits hindered the much larger Persian navy, which became disarrayed, and the Allies took advantage to win a famous victory.[61]

 

Salamis was the turning point in the second Persian invasion, and indeed the Greco-Persian Wars in general.[62] While the battle did not end the Persian invasion, it effectively ensured that all Greece would not be conquered, and allowed the Allies to go on the offensive in 479 BC. A number of historians believe that Salamis is one of the most significant battles in human history.[63][64][65] Since Themistocles' long-standing advocacy of Athenian naval power enabled the Allied fleet to fight, and his stratagem brought about the Battle of Salamis, it is probably not an exaggeration to say, as Plutarch does, that Themistocles, "...is thought to have been the man most instrumental in achieving the salvation of Hellas."[25][41]

 

Autumn/Winter 480/479 BC

 

The Allied victory at Salamis ended the immediate threat to Greece, and Xerxes now returned to Asia with part of the army, leaving his general Mardonius to attempt to complete the conquest.[66] Mardonius wintered in Boeotia and Thessaly, and the Athenians were thus able to return to their city, which had been burnt and razed by the Persians, for the winter.[67] For the Athenians, and Themistocles personally, the winter would be a testing one. The Peloponnesians refused to countenance marching north of the Isthmus to fight the Persian army; the Athenians tried to shame them into doing so, with no success.[68]

 

During the winter, the Allies held a meeting at Corinth to celebrate their success, and award prizes for achievement.[69] However, perhaps tired of the Athenians pointing out their role at Salamis, and of their demands for the Allies to march north, the Allies awarded the prize for civic achievement to Aegina.[68][70] Furthermore, although the admirals all voted for Themistocles in second place, they all voted for themselves in first place, so that no-one won the prize for individual achievement. In response, realising the importance of the Athenian fleet to their security, and probably seeking to massage Themistocles's ego, the Spartans brought Themistocles to Sparta.[68][70] There, he was awarded a special prize "for his wisdom and cleverness", and won high praise from all.[70][71] Furthermore, Plutarch reports that at the next Olympic Games:

 

"[when] Themistocles entered the stadium, the audience neglected the contestants all day long to gaze on him, and pointed him out with admiring applause to visiting strangers, so that he too was delighted, and confessed to his friends that he was now reaping in full measure the harvest of his toils in behalf of Hellas."[70]

 

After returning to Athens in the winter, Plutarch reports that Themistocles made a proposal to the city while the Greek fleet was wintering at Pagasae:

 

"Themistocles once declared to the people [of Athens] that he had devised a certain measure which could not be revealed to them, though it would be helpful and salutary for the city, and they ordered that Aristides alone should hear what it was and pass judgment on it. So Themistocles told Aristides that his purpose was to burn the naval station of the confederate Hellenes, for that in this way the Athenians would be greatest, and lords of all. Then Aristides came before the people and said of the deed which Themistocles purposed to do, that none other could be more advantageous, and none more unjust. On hearing this, the Athenians ordained that Themistocles cease from his purpose."[72][73]

 

Spring/Summer 479 BC

 

However, as happened to many prominent individuals in the Athenian democracy, Themistocles's fellow citizens grew jealous of his success, and possibly tired of his boasting.[68][74] It is probable that in early 479 BC, Themistocles was stripped of his command; instead, Xanthippus was to command the Athenian fleet, and Aristides the land forces.[68][75] Though Themistocles was no doubt politically and militarily active for the rest of the campaign, no mention of his activities in 479 BC is made in the ancient sources.[76] In the summer of that year, after receiving an Athenian ultimatum, the Peloponnesians finally agreed to assemble an army and march to confront Mardonius, who had reoccupied Athens in June.[77] At the decisive Battle of Plataea, the Allies destroyed the Persian army, while apparently on the same day, the Allied navy destroyed the remnants of the Persian fleet at the Battle of Mycale.[78] These twin victories completed the Allied triumph, and ended the Persian threat to Greece.[78]

 

Rebuilding of Athens after the Persian invasion

 

Whatever the cause of Themistocles's unpopularity in 479 BC, it obviously did not last long. Both Diodorus and Plutarch suggest he was quickly restored to the favour of the Athenians.[20][79] Indeed, after 479 BC, he seems to have enjoyed a relatively long period of popularity.[80]

 

In the aftermath of the invasion and the Destruction of Athens by the Achaemenids, the Athenians began rebuilding their city under the guidance of Themistocles in the autumn of 479 BC.[81][20] They wished to restore the fortifications of Athens, but the Spartans objected on the grounds that no place north of the Isthmus should be left that the Persians could use as a fortress.[79] Themistocles urged the citizens to build the fortifications as quickly as possible, then went to Sparta as an ambassador to answer the charges levelled by the Spartans. There, he assured them that no building work was on-going, and urged them to send emissaries to Athens to see for themselves.[82] By the time the ambassadors arrived, the Athenians had finished building, and then detained the Spartan ambassadors when they complained about the presence of the fortifications.[82] By delaying in this manner, Themistocles gave the Athenians enough time to fortify the city, and thus ward off any Spartan attack aimed at preventing the re-fortification of Athens.[82] Furthermore, the Spartans were obliged to repatriate Themistocles in order to free their own ambassadors.[20][82] However, this episode may be seen as the beginning of the Spartan mistrust of Themistocles, which would return to haunt him.[20]

 

Themistocles also now returned to his naval policy,[20] and more ambitious undertakings that would increase the dominant position of his native state.[83] He further extended and fortified the port complex at Piraeus, and "fastened the city [Athens] to the Piraeus, and the land to the sea".[20] Themistocles probably aimed to make Athens the dominant naval power in the Aegean.[83] Indeed, Athens would create the Delian League in 478 BC, uniting the naval power of the Aegean Islands and Ionia under Athenian leadership.[84] Themistocles introduced tax breaks for merchants and artisans, to attract both people and trade to the city to make Athens a great mercantile centre.[85] He also instructed the Athenians to build 20 triremes per year, to ensure that their dominance in naval matters continued.[85] Plutarch reports that Themistocles also secretly proposed to destroy the beached ships of the other Allied navies to ensure complete naval dominance—but was overruled by Aristides and the council of Athens.[86]

 

Fall and exile

 

It seems clear that, towards the end of the decade, Themistocles had begun to accrue enemies, and had become arrogant; moreover his fellow citizens had become jealous of his prestige and power.[20][74] The Rhodian poet Timocreon was among his most eloquent enemies, composing slanderous drinking songs.[87] Meanwhile, the Spartans actively worked against him, trying to promote Cimon (son of Miltiades) as a rival to Themistocles. Furthermore, after the treason and disgrace of the Spartan general Pausanias, the Spartans tried to implicate Themistocles in the plot; he was, however, acquitted of these charges.[80] In Athens itself, he lost favour by building a sanctuary of Artemis, with the epithet Aristoboulẽ ("of good counsel") near his home, a blatant reference to his own role in delivering Greece from the Persian invasion.[74] Eventually, in either 472 or 471 BC, he was ostracised.[74][88] In itself, this did not mean that Themistocles had done anything wrong; ostracism, in the words of Plutarch,

 

"was not a penalty, but a way of pacifying and alleviating that jealousy which delights to humble the eminent, breathing out its malice into this disfranchisement."

 

Themistocles first went to live in exile in Argos.[88][89] However, perceiving that they now had a prime opportunity to bring Themistocles down for good, the Spartans again levelled accusations of Themistocles's complicity in Pausanias's treason.[88] They demanded that he be tried by the 'Congress of Greeks', rather than in Athens, although it seems that in the end he was actually summoned to Athens to stand trial.[88][89] Perhaps realising he had little hope of surviving this trial, Themistocles fled, first to Kerkyra, and thence to Admetus, king of Molossia.[90][91] Themistocles's flight probably only served to convince his accusers of his guilt, and he was declared a traitor in Athens, his property to be confiscated.[92] Both Diodorus and Plutarch considered that the charges were false, and made solely for the purposes of destroying Themistocles.[88][89] The Spartans sent ambassadors to Admetus, threatening that the whole of Greece would go to war with the Molossians unless they surrendered Themistocles.[91] Admetus, however, allowed Themistocles to escape, giving him a large sum of gold to aid him on his way.[91] Themistocles then fled from Greece, apparently never to return, thus effectively bringing his political career to an end.[91][93]

 

Later life in the Achaemenid Empire, death, and descendants

 

From Molossia, Themistocles apparently fled to Pydna, from where he took a ship for Asia Minor.[92][93] This ship was blown off course by a storm, and ended up at Naxos, which an Athenian fleet was in the process of besieging.[92][93] Desperate to avoid the legal authorities, Themistocles, who had been traveling under an assumed identity, revealed himself to the captain and said that if he did not reach safety he would tell the Athenians that he'd bribed the ship to take him.[92][93] According to Thucydides, who wrote within living memory of the events, the ship eventually landed safely at Ephesus, where Themistocles disembarked.[93] Plutarch has the ship docking at Cyme in Aeolia,[94] and Diodorus has Themistocles making his way to Asia in an undefined manner.[91] Diodorus and Plutarch next recount a similar tale, namely that Themistocles stayed briefly with an acquaintance (Lysitheides or Nicogenes) who was also acquainted with the Persian king, Artaxerxes I.[91][94] Since there was a bounty on Themistocles's head, this acquaintance devised a plan to safely convey Themistocles to the Persian king in the type of covered wagon that the King's concubines travelled in.[91][94] All three chroniclers agree that Themistocles's next move was to contact the Persian king; in Thucydides, this is by letter,[93] while Plutarch and Diodorus have a face-to-face meeting with the king.[91][94] The spirit is, however, the same in all three: Themistocles introduces himself to the king and seeks to enter his service:[93][95]

 

"I, Themistocles, am come to you, who did your house more harm than any of the Hellenes, when I was compelled to defend myself against your father's invasion—harm, however, far surpassed by the good that I did him during his retreat, which brought no danger for me but much for him." (Thucydides)

 

Thucydides and Plutarch say that Themistocles asked for a year's grace to learn the Persian language and customs, after which he would serve the king, and Artaxerxes granted this.[93][97] Plutarch reports that, as might be imagined, Artaxerxes was elated that such a dangerous and illustrious foe had come to serve him.[98]

 

At some point in his travels, Themistocles's wife and children were extricated from Athens by a friend, and joined him in exile.[90] His friends also managed to send him many of his belongings, although up to 100 talents worth of his goods were confiscated by the Athenians.[92] When, after a year, Themistocles returned to the king's court, he appears to have made an immediate impact, and "he attained...very high consideration there, such as no Hellene has ever possessed before or since".[99] Plutarch recounts that "honors he enjoyed were far beyond those paid to other foreigners; nay, he actually took part in the King's hunts and in his household diversions".[97] Themistocles advised the king on his dealings with the Greeks, although it seems that for a long period, the king was distracted by events elsewhere in the empire, and thus Themistocles "lived on for a long time without concern".[99][100] He was made governor of the district of Magnesia on the Maeander River in Asia Minor, and assigned the revenues of three cities: Magnesia (about 50 talents per year—"for bread"); Myus ("for opson"); and Lampsacus ("for wine").[97][99][101] According to Plutarch, Neanthes of Cyzicus and Phanias reported two more, the city of Palaescepsis ("for clothes") and the city of Percote ("for bedding and furniture for his house"), both near Lampsacus.[102]

 

Greek exiles in the Achaemenid Empire

 

Themistocles was one of the several Greeks aristocrats who took refuge in the Achaemenid Empire following reversals at home, other famous ones being Hippias, Demaratos, Gongylos or later Alcibiades.[103] In general, those were generously welcomed by the Achaemenid kings, and received land grants to support them, and ruled on various cities of Asia Minor.[103] Conversely, some Achaemenid satraps were welcomed as exiles in western courts, such as Artabazos II.[104][105]

 

First portraiture of a ruler on coinage

 

Coins are the only contemporary documents remaining from the time of Themistocles.[106] Although many of the first coins of Antiquity illustrated the images of various gods or symbols, the first portraiture of actual rulers only appears in the 5th century BC. Themistocles was probably the first ruler ever to issue coinage with his personal portrait, as he became Achaemenid Governor of Magnesia in 465–459 BC.[110] Themistocles may have been in a unique position in which he could transfer the notion of individual portraiture, already current in the Greek world, and at the same time wield the dynastic power of an Achaemenid dynast who could issue his own coins and illustrate them as he wished.[111] Still, there is some doubt that his coins may have represented Zeus rather than himself.[112]

 

During his lifetime, Themistocles is known to have erected two statues to himself, one in Athens, and the other in Magnesia, which would lend credence to the possibility that he also illustrated himself on his coins.[113] The Themistocles statue in Magnesia was illustrated on the reverse of some of the Magnesian coins of Roman Emperor Antonius Pius in the 2nd century CE.[113]

 

The rulers of Lycia followed towards the end of the 5th century as the most prolific and unambiguous producers of coins displaying the portrait of their rulers.[115][116] From the time of Alexander the Great, portraiture of the issuing ruler would then become a standard, generalized, feature of coinage.[116]

 

Death

 

Themistocles died at Magnesia in 459 BC, at the age of 65, according to Thucydides, from natural causes.[5][99] However, perhaps inevitably, there were also rumours surrounding his death, saying that unwilling to follow the Great King's order to make war on Athens, he committed suicide by taking poison, or drinking bull's blood.[5][99][100][117] Plutarch provides the most evocative version of this story:

 

"But when Egypt revolted with Athenian aid...and Cimon's mastery of the sea forced the King to resist the efforts of the Hellenes and to hinder their hostile growth...messages came down to Themistocles saying that the King commanded him to make good his promises by applying himself to the Hellenic problem; then, neither embittered by anything like anger against his former fellow-citizens, nor lifted up by the great honor and power he was to have in the war, but possibly thinking his task not even approachable, both because Hellas had other great generals at the time, and especially because Cimon was so marvelously successful in his campaigns; yet most of all out of regard for the reputation of his own achievements and the trophies of those early days; having decided that his best course was to put a fitting end to his life, he made a sacrifice to the gods, then called his friends together, gave them a farewell clasp of his hand, and, as the current story goes, drank bull's blood, or as some say, took a quick poison, and so died in Magnesia, in the sixty-fifth year of his life...They say that the King, on learning the cause and the manner of his death, admired the man yet more, and continued to treat his friends and kindred with kindness."[100]

 

It was rumored that after his death, Themistocles's bones were transported to Attica in accordance with his wishes, and buried in his native soil in secret, it being illegal to bury an Athenian traitor in Attica.[99] The Magnesians built a "splendid tomb" in their marketplace for Themistocles, which still stood during the time of Plutarch, and continued to dedicate part of their revenues to the family of Themistocles.[119] Nepos in the 1st century BC wrote about a statue of Themistocles visible in the forum of Magnesia.[120][121] The statue also appears on a coin type of Roman Emperor Antonius Pius minted in Magnesia in the 2nd century CE.[113][114]

 

Succession and descendants

 

Archeptolis, son of Themistocles, became a Governor of Magnesia after his father's death c. 459 BCE.[123][124][125][126] Archeptolis also minted his own silver coinage as he ruled Magnesia, and it is probable that part of his revenues continued to be handed over to the Achaemenids in exchange for the maintenance of their territorial grant.[124][126] Themistocles and his son formed what some authors have called "a Greek dynasty in the Persian Empire".[127]

 

From a second wife, Themistocles also had a daughter named Mnesiptolema, whom he appointed as priestess of the Temple of Dindymene in Magnesia, with the title of "Mother of the Gods".[120] Mnesiptolema would eventually marry her half-brother Archeptolis, homopatric (but not homometric) marriages being permitted in Athens.[128]

 

Themistocles also had several other daughters, named Nicomache, Asia, Italia, Sybaris, and probably Hellas, who married the Greek exile in Persia Gongylos and still had a fief in Persian Anatolia in 399/400 BC as his widow.[120]

 

Themistocles also had three other sons, Diocles, Polyeucteus and Cleophantus, the latter possibly a ruler of Lampsacus.[120] One of the descendants of Cleophantus still issued a decree in Lampsacus around 200 BC mentioning a feast for his own father, also named Themistocles, who had greatly benefited the city.[129] Later, Pausanias wrote that the sons of Themistocles "appear to have returned to Athens", and that they dedicated a painting of Themistocles in the Parthenon and erected a bronze statue to Artemis Leucophryene, the goddess of Magnesia, on the Acropolis.[12][130][131] They may have returned from Asia Minor in old age, after 412 BC, when the Achaemenids took again firm control of the Greek cities of Asia, and they may have been expelled by the Achaemenid satrap Tissaphernes sometime between 412 and 399 BC.[12] In effect, from 414 BC, Darius II had started to resent increasing Athenian power in the Aegean and had Tissaphernes enter into an alliance with Sparta against Athens, which in 412 BC led to the Persian conquest of the greater part of Ionia.[132]

 

Plutarch in the 1st century AD indicates that he met in Athens a lineal descendant of Themistocles (also called Themistocles) who was still being paid revenues from Asia Minor, 600 years after the events in question.[119]

 

Assessments

 

Character

 

It is possible to draw some conclusions about Themistocles's character. Perhaps his most evident trait was his massive ambition; "In his ambition he surpassed all men";[19] "he hankered after public office rather as a man in delirium might crave a cure".[18] He was proud and vain,[31] and anxious for recognition of his deeds.[133] His relationship with power was of a particularly personal nature; while he undoubtedly desired the best for Athens, many of his actions also seem to have been made in self-interest.[18] He also appears to have been corrupt (at least by modern standards), and was known for his fondness of bribes.[22]

 

Yet, set against these negative traits, was an apparently natural brilliance and talent for leadership:[18]

 

"Themistocles was a man who exhibited the most indubitable signs of genius; indeed, in this particular he has a claim on our admiration quite extraordinary and unparalleled. By his own native capacity, alike unformed and unsupplemented by study, he was at once the best judge in those sudden crises which admit of little or of no deliberation, and the best prophet of the future, even to its most distant possibilities. An able theoretical expositor of all that came within the sphere of his practice, he was not without the power of passing an adequate judgment in matters in which he had no experience. He could also excellently divine the good and evil which lay hid in the unseen future. In fine, whether we consider the extent of his natural powers, or the slightness of his application, this extraordinary man must be allowed to have surpassed all others in the faculty of intuitively meeting an emergency."[99]

 

Both Herodotus and Plato record variations of an anecdote in which Themistocles responded with subtle sarcasm to an undistinguished man who complained that the great politician owed his fame merely to the fact that he came from Athens. As Herodotus tells it:

 

"Timodemus of Aphidnae, who was one of Themistocles' enemies but not a man of note, was crazed with envy and spoke bitterly to Themistocles of his visit to Lacedaemon, saying that the honors he had from the Lacedaemonians were paid him for Athens' sake and not for his own. This he kept saying until Themistocles replied, 'This is the truth of the matter: if I had been a man of Belbina I would not have been honored in this way by the Spartans, nor would you, sir, for all you are a man of Athens.' Such was the end of that business."[134]

 

As Plato tells it, the heckler hails from the small island of Seriphus; Themistocles retorts that it is true that he would not have been famous if he had come from that small island, but that the heckler would not have been famous either if he had been born in Athens.[135]

 

Themistocles was undoubtedly intelligent, but also possessed natural cunning; "the workings of his mind [were] infinitely mobile and serpentine".[18] Themistocles was evidently sociable and appears to have enjoyed strong personal loyalty from his friends.[18][90] At any rate, it seems to have been Themistocles's particular mix of virtues and vices that made him such an effective politician.[18]

 

Historical reputation

 

Themistocles died with his reputation in tatters, a traitor to the Athenian people; the "saviour of Greece" had turned into the enemy of liberty.[136] However, his reputation in Athens was rehabilitated by Pericles in the 450s BC, and by the time Herodotus wrote his history, Themistocles was once again seen as a hero.[137] Thucydides evidently held Themistocles in some esteem, and is uncharacteristically flattering in his praise for him (see above).[99] Diodorus also extensively praises Themistocles, going as far as to offer a rationale for the length at which he discusses him: "Now on the subject of the high merits of Themistocles, even if we have dwelt over-long on the subject in this digression, we believed it not seemly that we should leave his great ability unrecorded."[138] Indeed, Diodorus goes so far as to say that

 

"But if any man, putting envy aside, will estimate closely not only the man's natural gifts but also his achievements, he will find that on both counts Themistocles holds first place among all of whom we have record. Therefore, one may well be amazed that the Athenians were willing to rid themselves of a man of such genius."[117]

 

Since Diodorus's history includes such luminaries as Alexander the Great and Hannibal, this is high praise indeed. Plutarch offers a more nuanced view of Themistocles, with more of a critique of Themistocles's character. He does not detract from Themistocles's achievements, but also highlights his failings.[23]

 

Political and military legacy

 

Undoubtedly the greatest achievement of Themistocles's career was his role in the defeat of Xerxes's invasion of Greece. Against overwhelming odds, Greece survived, and classical Greek culture, so influential in Western civilization, was able to develop unabated.[139] Moreover, Themistocles's doctrine of Athenian naval power, and the establishment of Athens as a major power in the Greek world were of enormous consequence during the 5th century BC. In 478 BC, the Hellenic alliance was reconstituted without the Peloponnesian states, into the Delian League, in which Athens was the dominant power.[140] This was essentially a maritime alliance of Athens and her colonies, the Aegean islands, and the Ionian cities. The Delian league took the war to Persia, eventually invading Persian territory and dominating the Aegean.[140] Under the guidance of Pericles, the Delian league gradually evolved into the Athenian Empire, the zenith of Athenian power and influence.[141] Themistocles seems to have deliberately set Athens up as a rival to Sparta in the aftermath of Xerxes's invasion, basing this strategy on Athenian naval power (contrasted with the power of the Spartan army).[20] Tension grew throughout the century between Athens and Sparta, as they competed to be the leading state in Greece.[142] Finally, in 431 BC, this tension erupted into the Peloponnesian War, the first of a series of conflicts that tore Greece apart for the next century; an unforeseen, if indirect, legacy of Themistocles's.[142]

 

Diodorus provides a rhetorical summary that reflects on Themistocles's achievements:

 

"What other man, while Sparta still had the superior strength and the Spartan Eurybiades held the supreme command of the fleet, could by his single-handed efforts have deprived Sparta of that glory? Of what other man have we learned from history that by a single act he caused himself to surpass all the commanders, his city all the other Greek states, and the Greeks the barbarians? In whose term as general have the resources been more inferior and the dangers they faced greater? Who, facing the united might of all Asia, has found himself at the side of his city when its inhabitants had been driven from their homes, and still won the victory?"[138]