Themistocles

The Benefits and Dangers of Powerful Statesmen

Mark Rioux
The legacy of the classical Greeks has been handed down through their poetry, history and
philosophy has arguably contributed more to Western civilization than any other people. Yet in 480 B.C.
Greeks faced the treat of the great Persian Empire, an empire that had swept those before it and crushed
the Greek city-states of Asia Minor. This threat would be combated in the fashion of Greek legends, with
individuals striving above and beyond the common man to save mainland Greece and none would do
more than the Athenian Themistocles. But one must be reminded that this is a Greek story, and as such is
a cautionary tale as much as it is heroic one, a warning that with the benefits of a powerful statesman also
arises dangers, a motif that holds true today just as it did 2000 years ago across the city-states of Greece.
The beginning of Themistocles rise of power does not begin with his birth, but rather with the
birth of Athenian democracy. In fact if it werent for Cleisthenes, who established that all free men of
Athens now became citizens, Themistocles would have never been able to come to power having been
born of a non-Athenian and possibly non-Greek mother. Fortunately Athens was proving to be a land
fertile for the development of all men, not just those of royal virtue, making it unlike any other place in
Greece. Just comparing the two heroes of the Persian War, Athenss Themistocles and Spartas Leonidas,
as they are introduced by the historian Herodotus shows evidence of this. Leonidas son of
Anaxandridas, the son of Leon son of Eurykratidesson of Hyllos, who was the son of Herakles
(Herodotus 7.204) Herodotus shows that the hero of Sparta can and must trace his linage back to great
Herakles, known in the Romans as Hercules. This royal linage does not come through with Themistocles
who is simply introduced as his name was Themistokles, and he was called the son of Neokles
(Herodotus 7.143) showing that a man who fought at Marathon and at the age of 30 became the highest
level magistrate in the city-state (Archon Eponymous) required no such linage. It is only in a democracy
that a statesman can come to power under his own accord without the assistance and even in
Themistocless case against the nobility. Themistocles owes Athens and its newly formed democracy for
his rise to power just as much as Athens would later owe Themistocles for Athens survival and eventual
rise to power.
Although democracy allowed for all those citizens the chance to become predominate members
of society it was limited by the need to adjust and play to the new workings of government. It is here that
Themistocles flourished becoming the proverbial man of the people, gathering support of the newly
empowered class as well as garnering the support of the poor. With this popularity he won the election to
Archon Eponymous, a chief judicial and civil magistrate. It is with this new office and power that
Themistocles foresight is first seen as he immediately begins work on promoting the major theme of his
career, the creation and advancement of Athenian naval power. At first the advancement starts small, with
the creation of a new port at Piraeus and the retrofitting of any existing one at Phalerum. However in 483
B.C. Athens discovered a massive seam of silver in their mines at Larium (Plutarch, Themistocles 4)
providing a sudden influx of money to Athens. Originally that silver was to be used to pay each citizen
ten drachmas. Themistocles stepped in the foresight that a Persians attack on Greece would require a
strong navy to combat the powerful Persian navy. He was required to turn to the more proximate war with
the neighboring city-state of Aegina to justify the strengthening of the navy. It can be seen that after the
Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. a hubris had swept over the Athenians towards the Persians. Convincing

the people of the local threat to the Athens allowed Themistocles motion to pass, even though it was not
on the level that he had hoped. (Plutarch, Themistocles 4) Standing against him was his longtime rival
Aristides, a man of nobility. Themistocless push towards the sea proved to be the height of tension
between the two to the point that in 482 B.C. Themistocles, with his large backing of the common people,
succeeded in ostracizing Aristides. It was now that Themistocles preparations were shown to their true
intentions as Athens became aware that the Persian preparations for the invasion of mainland Greece
which had motivated the construction of the fleet Themistocles desired. With this foresight Themistocles
became the foremost statesman in Athens in the build up to the Second Persian invasion. (Plutarch,
Themistocles 5)
Beginning in 481 B.C. Themistocles begins to show that his excellence in statesmanship goes
above simply moving that masses into action but extends to international relations and military planning.
Despite arguing for Athenian command of the Greek Allied Navy, seeing as they brought the largest
contingent of triremes, Corinth and Aegina refused to submit to Athenian command. Themistocles,
realizing the need for an allied fleet, pragmatically backed down, allowing for Eurybiades, a Spartan, to
be the official head of the fleet, Herodotus however that in the end, it was Themistocles who was the true
leader of this navy. (Herodotus 8.4) It is after this play however that Themistocles pulls the highlight of
his career, he goes even beyond the legendary Pericles in not only getting the Athenians to abandon their
farmlands, but the city of Athens herself. As it would later be written in the book Persian Fire 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. (Holland Pages 251-255) This move is by far the most telling testimony to
Themistocles power of the people and the trust they were willing to put into him, trust he does not
abandon. When the allied fleet his planning to retreat into the Peloponnesian water Themistocles knew
that should the fleets return to their prospective cities there would never be another allied fleet to
challenge the Persians. In knowing this he sent a servant to the Persian King Xerxes stating that Athens
was willing to medize and that the Greek fleet, racketed by infighting, was preparing to escape. Playing to
Xerxess desire to crush the Greeks once and for all the Persian navy sailed forth, entering the Straights of
Salamis, and committing themselves to a battle that would go down in history as the turning point of the
second Persian invasion, and more so the Greco-Persian wars overall. Considering that is was
Themistocless stratagem that created the Athenian fleet and brought about the Battle of Salamis it
becomes easy to see why Plutarch says that Themistocles is thought to have been the man most
instrumental in achieving the salvation of Hellas (Plutarch, Themistocles 4 and 7)
After the war it is the leadership of Themistocles that brings about the rise of the Athenian
Empire, as an economic and naval powerhouse. He begins the overseeing of the reconstruction of Athens
this time bringing increased fortification to the city. (Plutarch, Themistocles 19) The Spartans, claiming
they feared the Persians gaining a fortification on the Greek mainland, but undoubtedly feeling the
growing power of Athens, objected to this. Themistocles, in yet another deceptive maneuver spurred on
the fortifications construction whilst simultaneously urging the Spartans to send emissaries to Athens
where he claimed no such fortifications where under construction. By the time the emissaries arrived the
walls were completed, Themistocles had successfully outthought the Spartans once again and prevented

them from attacking Athens to stop its refortification. (Diodorus XI 39-40) With the construction of these
walls completed Themistocles returned to his naval policy, attempting to wedge Athens in as the dominate
naval power within the Aegean. (Diodorus XI 41) In 478 B.C. the Delian League is formed, bringing all
the naval powers of the Aegean Islands and Ionia under Athenian leadership. Themistocles brought on tax
breaks for both traders and artisans, bringing trade and people into the city and anchoring Athens as the
mercantile center of the Aegean and Mediterranean. And he would cement the idea of naval supremacy
by urging the Athenians to construction no less than 20 triremes a year, and expensive and telling practice.
In the end it would be Themistocles creation of the Athenian Navy that would create the Athenian Empire
and his walls in collimation with the fleet that would allow Athens to challenge the military might of
Sparta under the Periclian Strategy of the Peloponnesian War.
With all of Themistocles achievements it is easy to see that he was certainly a great statesman,
able to take the revolutionary idea of democracy and harness the power that comes with it, focusing it
against imperial ambition and then utilizing it to create the most prosperous city-state and first Greek
empire. However one must not be disillusioned to see this powerful statesman as a paragon of freedom
and democratic virtue. It very well may have been that Themistocless vices made just as great as his
virtues did. The desire to move to the see brought about a second democratic revolution of Athens, one in
which it was no longer the landed who truly held power through their ability to fight as hoplites in the
field. The Athenian triremes were manned by thousands of the common folk of the city-state, those very
same people which Themistocles drew his power from. Had Themistocles been a man of nobility it is
quite possible he would have pushed for Athens becoming a land power, as it was Athenian hoplites that
defeated the Persians handedly at the Battle of Marathon, and later their skirmishers that would defeat the
renowned Spartan hoplites at the Battle of Sphacteria. Furthermore there is some speculation
Themistocles deception that lead to the Battle at Salamis served a double deed, both luring the Persian
fleet into attack in Greek favored waters but also covering the Athenians and more so Themistocles
should the battle turn out poorly for the Greeks, as Themistocles will go on to show he has little trouble
living within a medized world.
Beyond the what ifs however there is the mans imperial ambition, the fact that he could channel
the power of the Athenian democracy against an imposing empire just to turn and create an empire of
their own after the threat had passed. And whilst ambition is not a bad thing for any state nor statesman,
when Themistocles moves to suggest secretly that the Athenian navy destroy allied fleets whilst in port in
order to secure complete Athenian naval dominance shows just how far he was willing to go. In fact after
the Battle of Salamis Themistocles takes the victorious Athenian fleet and pillages Greek island citystates, both those who had joined the Persians and those had not. His ambition surpassed all men, as
Plutarch would write, and with this came his anxiety for recognition for his deeds. He would go to build a
sanctuary of Artemis outside of his estate, engraved with the words Of Good Counsel, which at the time
was clearly seen at his showing his contribution to Greece. However this ambition and desire for glory
would, as would occur with Imperial Athens some years later, prove to be his downfall. He finally moved
to say that the people of Athens should remember what they owed him, and if theres one voters dont like
hearing is what they owe their politicians. This would eventually lead to his ostracism in 471 B.C. where
he would flee to the city-state of Argos, however his enemies where many and far flung and the Spartans
would move to accuse Themistocles complicity in Pausanias, a Spartan generals, treason. This accusation
would later be discredited by Plutarch and Thucydides but not before Themistocles fled and found home
ironically in the Persian Empire. King Artaxerxes would become very impressed by the former Athenian

statesman, giving him a council seat and governorship of the providence of Magnesia. In fact Thucydides
a position no Hellene had ever possessed before or since. Themistocles leadership was recognized by
all just as has his ability utilize that statesmanship to gain power under even rival banners.
In the end it is seen that tyranny allows but a few to grow, it creates an infertile soil for which only those
blessed but their births can truly grow and flower. However democracy is rich soil in which all may grow
to the best of their abilities. Though undoubtedly some grow higher than others at which point they can
begin to block out the sun from others, inhibiting and dominating other even in the fertile soil of
democracy.