Citizens Lured from Their Homes
September 24, 2014
Plutarch (A.D.
46?–c.A.D. 120). Plutarch’s Lives.
Vol. 12, pp. 13-23 of
The Harvard Classics
When the serpent of
Minerva disappeared from her temple, the priests said that the
goddess had left Athens for the sea. Moreover, the oracles urged
the Athenians to seek safety in their ships. Themistocles prompted
these deceits. Why?
Themistocles
[…]
Now, though Xerxes had already passed
through Doris and invaded the country of Phocis, and was burning and
destroying the cities of the Phocians, yet the Greeks sent them no
relief; and, though the Athenians earnestly desired them to meet the
Persians in Bœotia, before they could come into Attica, as they
themselves had some forward by sea at Artemisium, they gave no ear to
their request, being wholly intent upon Peloponnesus, and resolved to
gather all their forces together within the Isthmus, and to build a
wall from sea to sea in that narrow neck of land; so that the
Athenians were enraged to see themselves betrayed, and at the same
time afflicted and dejected at their own destitution. For to fight
alone against such a numerous army was to no purpose, and the only
expedient now left them was to leave their city and cling to their
ships; which the people were very unwilling to submit to, imagining
that it would signify little now to gain a victory, and not
understanding how there could be deliverance any longer after they
had once forsaken the temples of their gods and exposed the tombs and
monuments of their ancestors to the fury of their enemies.
Themistocles, being
at a loss, and not able to draw the people over to his opinion by any
human reason, set his machines to work, as in a theatre, and employed
prodigies and oracles. The serpent of Minerva, kept in the inner part
of her temple, disappeared; the priests gave it out to the people
that the offerings which were set for it were found untouched, and
declared, by the suggestion of Themistocles, that the goddess had
left the city, and taken her flight before them towards the sea. And
he often urged them with the oracle 2 which
bade them trust to walls of wood, showing them that walls of wood
could signify nothing else but ships; and that the island of Salamis
was termed in it, not miserable or unhappy, but had the epithet of
divine, for that it should one day be associated with a great good
fortune of the Greeks. At length his opinion prevailed, and he
obtained a decree that the city should be committed to the protection
of Minerva, “queen of Athens;” that they who were of age to bear
arms should embark, and that each should see to sending away his
children, women, and slaves where he could. This decree being
confirmed, most of the Athenians removed their parents, wives, and
children to Trœzen, where they were received with eager good-will by
the Trœzenians, who passed a vote that they should be maintained at
the public charge, by a daily payment of two obols to every one, and
leave be given to the children to gather fruit where they pleased,
and schoolmasters paid to instruct them. This vote was proposed by
Nicagoras.
There was no public treasure at that
time in Athens; but the council of Areopagus, as Aristotle says,
distributed to every one that served, eight drachmas, which was a
great help to the manning of the fleet; but Clidemus ascribes this
also to the art of Themistocles. When the Athenians were on their way
down to the haven of Piræus, the shield with the head of Medusa was
missing; and he, under the pretext of searching for it, ransacked all
places, and found among their goods considerable sums of money
concealed, which he applied to the public use; and with this the
soldiers and seamen were well provided for their voyage.
When the whole city of Athens were
going on board, it afforded a spectacle worthy of pity alike and
admiration, to see them thus send away their fathers and children
before them, and, unmoved with their cries and tears, pass over into
the island. But that which stirred compassion most of all was, that
many old men, by reason of their great age, were left behind; and
even the tame domestic animals could not be seen without some pity,
running about the town and howling, as desirous to be carried along
with their masters that had kept them; among which it is reported
that Xanthippus, the father of Pericles, had a dog that would not
endure to stay behind, but leaped into the sea, and swam along by the
galley’s side till he came to the island of Salamis, where he
fainted away and died, and that spot in the island, which is still
called the Dog’s Grave, is said to be his.
Among the great actions of
Themistocles at this crisis, the recall of Aristides was not the
least, for, before the war, he had been ostracized by the party which
Themistocles headed, and was in banishment; but now, perceiving that
the people regretted his absence, and were fearful that he might go
over to the Persians to revenge himself, and thereby ruin the affairs
of Greece, Themistocles proposed a decree that those who were
banished for a time might return again, to give assistance by word
and deed to the cause of Greece with the rest of their
fellow-citizens.
Eurybiades, by
reason of the greatness of Sparta, was admiral of the Greek fleet,
but yet was faint-hearted in time of danger, and willing to weigh
anchor and set soul for the isthmus of Corinth, near which the land
army lay encamped; which Themistocles resisted; and this was the
occasion of the well-known words, when Eurybiades, to check his
impatience, told him that at the Olympic games they that start up
before the rest are lashed; “And they,” replied Themistocles,
“that are left behind are not crowned.” Again, Eurybiades lifting
up his staff as if he were going to strike, Themistocles said,
“Strike if you will, but hear;” Eurybiades, wondering much at his
moderation, desired him to speak, and Themistocles now brought him to
a better understanding. And when one who stood by him told him that
it did not become those who had neither city nor house to lose, to
persuade others to relinquish their habitations and forsake their
countries, Themistocles gave this reply: “We have indeed left our
houses and our walls, base fellow, not thinking it fit to become
slaves for the sake of things that have no life nor soul; and yet our
city is the greatest of all Greece, consisting of two hundred
galleys, which are here to defend you, if you please; but if you run
away and betray us, as you did once before, the Greeks shall soon
hear news of the Athenians possessing as fair a country, and as large
and free a city, as that they have lost.” These expressions of
Themistocles made Eurybiades suspect that if he retreated the
Athenians would fall off from him. When one of Eretria began to
oppose him, he said, “Have you any thing to say of war, that are
like an ink-fish? you have a sword, but no heart.” 3 Some
say that while Themistocles was thus speaking things upon the deck,
an owl was seen flying to the right hand of the fleet, which came and
sate upon the top of the mast; and this happy omen so far disposed
the Greeks to follow his advice, that they presently prepared to
fight. Yet, when the enemy’s fleet was arrived at the haven of
Phalerum, upon the coast of Attica, and with the number of their
ships concealed all the store, and when they saw the king himself in
person come down with his land army to the sea-side, with all his
forces united, then the good counsel of Themistocles was soon
forgotten, and the Peloponnesians cast their eyes again towards the
Isthmus, and took it very ill if any one spoke against their
returning home; and, resolving to depart that night, the pilots had
order what course to steer.
Themistocles, in great distress that
the Greeks should retire, and lose the advantage of the narrow seas
and strait passage, and slip home every one to his own city,
considered with himself, and contrived that stratagem that was
carried out by Sicinnus. This Sicinnus was a Persian captive, but a
great lover of Themistocles, and the attendant of his children. Upon
this occasion, he sent him privately to Xerxes, commanding him to
tell the king, that Themistocles, the admiral of the Athenians,
having espoused his interest, wished to be the first to inform him
that the Greeks were ready to make their escape, and that he
counselled him to hinder their flight, to set upon them while they
were in this confusion and at a distance from their land army, and
hereby destroy all their forces by sea. Xerxes was very joyful at
this message, and received it as from one who wished him all that was
good, and immediately issued instructions to the commanders of his
ships, that they should instantly set out with two hundred galleys to
encompass all the islands, and enclose all the straits and passages,
that none of the Greeks might escape, and that they should afterwards
follow with the rest of their fleet at leisure. This being done,
Aristides, the son of Lysimachus, was the first man that perceived
it, and went to the tent of Themistocles, not out of any friendship,
for he had been formerly banished by his means, as has been related,
but to inform him how they were encompassed by their enemies.
Themistocles, knowing the generosity of Aristides, and much struck by
his visit at that time, imparted to him all that he had transacted by
Sicinnus, and entreated him, that, as he would be more readily
believed among the Greeks, he would make use of his credit to help to
induce them to stay and fight their enemies in the narrow seas.
Aristides applauded Themistocles, and went to the other commanders
and captains of the galleys, and encouraged them to engage; yet they
did not perfectly assent to him, till a gallery of Tenos, which
deserted from the Persians, of which Panætius was commander, came
in, while they were still doubting, and confirmed the news that all
the straits and passages were beset; and then their rage and fury, as
well as their necessity, provoked them all to fight.
As soon as it was day, Xerxes placed
himself high up, to view his fleet, and how it was set in order.
Phanodemus says, he sat upon a promontory above the temple of
Hercules, where the coast of Attica is separated from the island by a
narrow channel; but Acestodorus writes, that it was in the confines
of Megara, upon those hills which are called the Horns, where he sat
in a chair of gold, with many secretaries about him to write down all
that was done.
When Themistocles was about to
sacrifice, close to the admiral’s galley, there were three
prisoners brought to him, fine looking men, and richly dressed in
ornamented clothing and gold, said to be the children of Artayctes
and Sandauce, sister to Xerxes. As soon as the prophet Euphrantides
saw them, and observed that at the same time the fire blazed out from
the offerings with a more than ordinary flame, and that a man sneezed
on the right, which was an intimation of a fortunate event, he took
Themistocles by the hand, and bade him consecrate the three young men
for sacrifice, and offer them up with prayers for victory to Bacchus
the Devourer: so should the Greeks not only save themselves, but also
obtain victory. Themistocles was much disturbed at this strange and
terrible prophecy, but the common people, who, in any difficult
crisis and great exigency, ever look for relief rather to strange and
extravagant than to reasonable means, calling upon Bacchus with one
voice, led the captives to the altar, and compelled the execution of
the sacrifice as the prophet had commanded. This is reported by
Phanias the Lesbian, a philosopher well read in history.
The number of the enemy’s ships the
poet Æschylus gives in his tragedy called the Persians, as on his
certain knowledge, in the following words—
Xerxes, I know, did
into battle lead
One thousand ships; of
more than usual speed
Seven and two hundred.
So is it agreed.”
The Athenians had a hundred and eighty; in every
ship eighteen men fought upon the deck, four of whom were archers and
the rest men-at-arms.
As Themistocles had fixed upon the
most advantageous place, so, with no less sagacity, he chose the best
time of fighting; for he would not run the prows of his galleys
against the Persians, nor begin the fight till the time of day was
come, when there regularly blows in a fresh breeze from the open sea,
and brings in with it a strong swell into the channel; which was no
inconvenience to the Greek ships, which were low-built, and little
above the water, but did much hurt to the Persians, which had high
sterns and lofty decks, and were heavy and cumbrous in their
movements, as it presented them broadside to the quick charges of the
Greeks, who kept their eyes upon the motions of Themistocles, as
their best example, and more particularly because, opposed to his
ship, Ariamenes, admiral to Xerxes, a brave man, and by far the best
and worthiest of the king’s brothers, was seen throwing darts and
shooting arrows from his huge galley, as from the walls of a castle.
Aminias the Decelean and Sosicles the Pedian, who sailed in the same
vessel, upon the ships meeting stem to stem, and transfixing each the
other with their brazen prows, so that they were fastened together,
when Ariamenes attempted to board theirs, ran at him with their
pikes, and thrust him into the sea; his body, as it floated amongst
other shipwrecks, was known to Artemisia, and carried to Xerxes.
It is reported, that, in the middle of
the fight, a great flame rose into the air above the city of Eleusis,
and that sounds and voices were heard through all the Thriasian
plain, as far as the sea, sounding like a number of men accompanying
and escorting the mystic Iacchus, and that a mist seemed to form and
rise from the place from whence sounds came, and, passing forward,
fell upon the galleys. Others believed that they saw apparitions, in
the shape of armed men, reaching out their hands from the island of
Ægina before the Grecian galleys; and supposed they were the Æacidæ,
whom they had invoked to their aid before the battle. The first man
that took a ship was Lycomedes the Athenian, captain of a galley, who
cut down its ensign, and dedicated it to Apollo, the Laurel-crowned.
And as the Persians fought in a narrow arm of the sea, and could
bring but part of their fleet to fight, and fell foul of one another,
the Greeks thus equalled them in strength, and fought with them till
the evening, forced them back, and obtained, as says Simonides, that
noble and famous victory, than which neither amongst the Greeks nor
barbarians was ever known more glorious exploit on the seas; by the
joint valor, indeed, and zeal of all who fought, but by the wisdom
and sagacity of Themistocles.
After this sea-fight, Xerxes, enraged
at his ill-fortune, attempted, by casting great heaps of earth and
stones into the sea, to stop up the channel and to make a dam, upon
which he might lead his land-forces over into the island of Salamis.
Themistocles, being desirous to try
the opinion of Aristides, told him that he proposed to set sail for
the Hellespont, to break the bridge of ships, so as to shut up, he
said, Asia a prisoner within Europe; but Aristides, disliking the
design, said, “We have hitherto fought with an enemy who has
regarded little else but his pleasure and luxury; but if we shut him
up within Greece, and drive him to necessity, he that is master of
such great forces will no longer sit quietly with an umbrella of gold
over his head, looking upon the fight for his pleasure; but in such a
strait will attempt all things; he will be resolute, and appear
himself in person upon all occasions, he will soon correct his
errors, and supply what he has formerly omitted through remissness,
and will be better advised in all things. Therefore, it is noways our
interest, Themistocles,” he said, “to take away the bridge that
is already made, but rather to build another, if it were possible,
that he might make his retreat with the more expedition.” To which
Themistocles answered, “If this be requisite, we must immediately
use all diligence, art, and industry, to rid ourselves of him as soon
as may be;” and to this purpose he found out among the captives one
of the king of Persia’s eunuchs, named Arnaces, whom he sent to the
king, to inform him that the Greeks, being now victorious by sea, had
decreed to sail to the Hellespont, where the boats were fastened
together, and destroy the bridge; but that Themistocles, being
concerned for the king, revealed this to him, that he might hasten
towards the Asiatic seas, and pass over into his own dominions; and
in the mean time would cause delays, and hinder the confederates from
pursuing him. Xerxes no sooner heard this, but, being very much
terrified, he proceeded to retreat out of Greece with all speed. The
prudence of Themistocles and Aristides in this was afterwards more
fully understood at the battle of Platæa, where Mardonius, with a
very small fraction of the forces of Xerxes, put the Greeks in danger
of losing all.
Herodotus writes, that, of all the
cities of Greece, Ægina was held to have performed the best service
in the war; while all single men yielded to Themistocles, though, out
of envy, unwillingly; and when they returned to the entrance of
Peloponnesus, where the several commanders delivered their suffrages
at the altar, to determine who was most worthy, every one gave the
first vote for himself and the second for Themistocles. The
Lacedæmonians carried him with them to Sparta, where, giving the
rewards of valor to Eurybiades, and of wisdom and conduct to
Themistocles, they crowned him with olive, presented him with the
best chariot in the city, and sent three hundred young men to
accompany him to the confines of their country. And at the next
Olympic games, when Themistocles entered the course, the spectators
took no farther notice of those who were contesting the prizes, but
spent the whole day in looking upon him, showing him to the
strangers, admiring him, and applauding him by clapping their hands,
and other expressions of joy, so that he himself, much gratified,
confessed to his friends that he then reaped the fruit of all his
labors for the Greeks.
He was, indeed, by nature, a great
lover of honor, as is evident from the anecdotes recorded of him.
When chosen admiral by the Athenians, he would not quite conclude any
single matter of business, either public or private, but deferred all
till the day they were to set sail, that, by despatching a great
quantity of business all at once, and having to meet a great variety
of people, he might make an appearance of greatness and power.
Viewing the dead bodies cast up by the sea, he perceived bracelets
and necklaces of gold about them, yet passed on, only showing them to
a friend that followed him, saying, “Take you these things, for you
are not Themistocles.” He said to Antiphates, a handsome young man,
who had formerly avoided, but now in his glory courted him, “Time,
young man, has taught us both a lesson.” He said that the Athenians
did not honor him or admire him, but made, as it were, a sort of
planetree of him; sheltered themselves under him in bad weather, and,
as soon as it was fine, plucked his leaves and cut his branches. When
the Seriphian told him that he had not obtained this honor by
himself, but by the greatness of his city, he replied, “You speak
truth; I should never have been famous if I had been of Seriphus; nor
you, had you been of Athens.” When another of the generals, who
thought he had performed considerable service for the Athenians,
boastingly compared his actions with those of Themistocles, he told
him that once upon a time the Day after the Festival found fault with
the Festival: “On you there is nothing but hurry and trouble and
preparation, but, when I come, everybody sits down quietly and enjoys
himself;” which the Festival admitted was true, but “if I had not
come first, you would not have come at all.” “Even so,” he
said, “if Themistocles had not come before, where had you been now?
Laughing at his own son, who got his mother, and, by his mother’s
means, his father also, to indulge him, he told him that he had the
most power of any one in Greece: “For the Athenians command the
rest of Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother commands me, and
you command your mother.” Loving to be singular in all things, when
he had land to sell, he ordered the crier to give notice that there
were good neighbors near it. Of two who made love to his daughter, he
preferred the man of worth to the one who was rich, saying he desired
a man without riches, rather than riches without a man. Such was the
character of his sayings.
After these things, he began to
rebuild and fortify the city of Athens, bribing, as Theopompus
reports, the Lacedæmonian ephors not to be against it, but, as most
relate it, overreaching and deceiving them. For, under pretext of an
embassy, he went to Sparta, where, upon the Lacedæmonians charging
him with rebuilding the walls, and Poliarchus coming on purpose from
Ægina to denounce it, he denied the fact, bidding them to send
people to Athens to see whether it was so or no; by which delay he
got time for the building of the wall, and also placed these
ambassadors in the hands of his countrymen as hostages for him; and
so, when the Lacedæmonians knew the truth, they did him no hurt,
but, suppressing all display of their anger for the present, sent him
away.
Next he proceeded to establish the
harbor of Piræus, observing the great natural advantages of the
locality and desirous to unite the whole city with the sea, and to
reverse, in a manner, the policy of ancient Athenian kings, who,
endeavoring to withdraw their subjects from the sea, and to accustom
them to live, not by sailing about, but by planting and tilling the
earth, spread the story of the dispute between Minerva and Neptune
for the sovereignty of Athens, in which Minerva, by producing to the
judges, an olive tree, was declared to have won; whereas Themistocles
did not only knead up, as Aristophanes says, the port and the city
into one, but made the city absolutely the dependant and the adjunct
of the port, and the land of the sea, which increased the power and
confidence of the people against nobility; the authority coming into
the hands of sailors and boatswains and pilots. Thus it was one of
the orders of the thirty tyrants, that the hustings in the assembly,
which had faced towards the sea, should be turned round towards the
land; implying their opinion that the empire by sea had been the
origin of the democracy, and that the farming population were not so
much opposed to oligarchy.
Themistocles, however, formed yet
higher designs with a view to naval supremacy. For, after the
departure of Xerxes, when the Grecian fleet was arrived at Pagasæ,
where they wintered, Themistocles, in a public oration to the people
of Athens, told them that he had a design to perform something that
would tend greatly to their interests and safety, but was of such a
nature, that it could not be made generally public. The Athenians
ordered him to impart it to Aristides only; and, if he approved of
it, to put it in practice. And when Themistocles had discovered to
him that his design was to burn the Grecian fleet in the haven of
Pagasæ, Aristides, coming out to the people, gave this report of the
stratagem contrived by Themistocles, that no proposal could be more
politic, or more dishonorable; on which the Athenians commanded
Themistocles to think no farther of it.
When the Lacedæmonians proposed, at
the general council of the Amphictyonians, that the representatives
of those cities which were not in the league, nor had fought against
the Persians, should be excluded, Themistocles, fearing that the
Thessalians, with those of Thebes, Argos, and others, being thrown
out of the council, the Lacedæmonians would become wholly masters of
the votes, and do what they pleased, supported the deputies of the
cities, and prevailed with the members then sitting to alter their
opinion in this point, showing them that there were but one and
thirty cities which had partaken in the war, and that most of these,
also, were very small; how intolerable would it be, if the rest of
Greece should be excluded, and the general council should come to be
ruled by two or three great cities. By this, chiefly, he incurred the
displeasure of the Lacedæmonians, whose honors and favors were now
shown to Cimon, with a view to making him the opponent of the state
policy of Themistocles.
He was also burdensome to the
confederates, sailing about the islands and collecting money from
them. Herodotus says, that, requiring money of those of the island of
Andros, he told them that he had brought with him two goddesses,
Persuasion and Force; and they answered him that they had also two
great goddesses, which prohibited them from giving him any money,
Poverty and Impossibility. Timocreon, the Rhodian poet, reprehends
him somewhat bitterly for being wrought upon by money to let some who
were banished return, while abandoning himself, who was his guest and
friend. The verses are these:—
“Pausanias you may
praise, and Xanthippus he be for,
For Leutychidas, a
third; Aristides, I proclaim,
From the sacred Athens
came,
The one true man of
all; for Themistocles Latona doth abhor,
The liar, traitor,
cheat, who, to gain his filthy pay,
Timocreon, his friend,
neglected to restore
To his native Rhodian
shore;
Three silver talents
took, and departed (curses with him) on his way,
Restoring people here,
expelling there, and killing here,
Filling evermore his
purse: and at the Isthmus gave a treat,
To be laughed at, of
cold meat,
Which they ate, and
prayed the gods some one else might give the feast another year.”
But after the sentence and banishment of
Themistocles, Timocreon reviles him yet more immoderately and wildly
in a poem which begins thus:—
“Unto all the Greeks
repair
O Muse, and tell these
verses there,
As is fitting and is
fair.”
The story is, that it was put to the question
whether Timocreon should be banished for siding with the Persians,
and Themistocles gave his vote against him. So when Themistocles was
accused of intriguing with the Medes, Timocreon made these lines upon
him:—
“So now Timocreon,
indeed, is not the sole friend of the Mede,
There are some knaves
besides; nor is it only mine that fails,
But other foxes have
lost tails.—”
When the citizens of Athens began to listen
willingly to those who traduced and reproached him, he was forced,
with somewhat obnoxious frequency, to put them in mind of the great
services he had performed, and ask those who were offended with him
whether they were weary with receiving benefits often from the same
person, so rendering himself more odious. And he yet more provoked
the people by building a temple to Diana with the epithet of
Aristobule, or Diana of Best Counsel; intimating thereby, that he had
given the best counsel, not only to the Athenians, but to all Greece.
He built this temple near his own house, in the district called
Melite, where now the public officers carry out the bodies of such as
are executed, and throw the halters and clothes of those that are
strangled or otherwise put to death. There is to this day a small
figure of Themistocles in the temple of Diana of Best Counsel, which
represents him to be a person, not only of a noble mind, but also of
a most heroic aspect. At length the Athenians banished him, making
use of the ostracism to humble his eminence and authority, as they
ordinarily did with all whom they thought too powerful, or, by their
greatness, disproportionable to the equality thought requisite in a
popular government. For the ostracism was instituted, not so much to
punish the offender, as to mitigate and pacify the violence of the
envious, who delighted to humble eminent men, and who, by fixing this
disgrace upon them, might vent some part of their rancor.
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