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ThemistoclesThemistocles, Part I.
Themistocles, Part I.
The birth of Themistocles was somewhat too obscure to do him honor. His
father, Neocles, was not of the distinguished people of Athens, but of the
township of Phrearrhi, and of the tribe Leontis; and by his mother`s side, as
it is reported, he was base - born.
I am not of the noble Grecian race,
I`m poor Abrotonon, and born in Thrace;
Let the Greek women scorn me, if they please,
I was the mother of Themistocles.
Yet Phanias writes that the mother of Themistocles was not of Thrace, but of
Caria, and that her name was not Abrotonon, but Euterpe; and Neanthes adds
farther that she was of Halicarnassus in Caria. And, as illegitimate children,
including those that were of the half - blood or had but one parent an
Athenian, had to attend at the Cynosarges (a wrestling - place outside the
gates, dedicated to Hercules, who was also of half - blood amongst the gods,
having had a mortal woman for his mother), Themistocles persuaded several of
the young men of high birth to accompany him to anoint and exercise themselves
together at Cynosarges; an ingenious device for destroying the distinction
between the noble and the base - born, and between those of the whole and
those of the half blood of Athens. However, it is certain that he was related
to the house of the Lycomedae; for Simonides records, that he rebuilt the
chapel of Phlya, belonging to that family, and beautified it with pictures and
other ornaments, after it had been burnt by the Persians.
It is confessed by all that from his youth he was of a vehement and
impetuous nature, of a quick apprehension, and a strong and aspiring bent for
action and great affairs. The holidays and intervals in his studies he did not
spend in play or idleness, as other children, but would be always inventing or
arranging some oration or declamation to himself, the subject of which was
generally the excusing or accusing his companions, so that his master would
often say to him, "You, my boy, will be nothing small, but great one way or
other, for good or else for bad." He received reluctantly and carelessly
instructions given him to improve his manners and behavior, or to teach him
any pleasing or graceful accomplishment, but whatever was said to improve him
in sagacity, or in management of affairs, he would give attention to, beyond
one of his years, from confidence in his natural capacities for such things.
And thus afterwards, when in company where people engaged themselves in what
are commonly thought the liberal and elegant amusements, he was obliged to
defend himself against the observations of those who considered themselves
highly accomplished, by the somewhat arrogant retort, that he certainly could
not make use of any stringed instrument, could only, were a small and obscure
city put into his hands, make it great and glorious. Notwithstanding this,
Stesimbrotus says that Themistocles was a hearer of Anaxagoras, and that he
studied natural philosophy under Melissus, contrary to chronology; for
Melissus commanded the Samians in their siege by Pericles, who was much
Themistocles` junior; and with Pericles, also, Anaxagoras was intimate. They,
therefore, might rather be credited, who report, that Themistocles was an
admirer of Mnesiphilus the Phrearrhian, who was neither rhetorician nor
natural philosopher, but a professor of that which was then called wisdom,
consisting in a sort of political shrewdness and practical sagacity, which had
begun and continued, almost like a sect of philosophy, from Solon; but those
who came afterwards, and mixed it with pleadings and legal artifices, and
transformed the practical part of it into a mere art of speaking and an
exercise of words, were generally called sophists. Themistocles resorted to
Mnesiphilus when he had already embarked in politics.
In the first essays of his youth he was not regular nor happily balanced;
he allowed himself to follow mere natural character, which, without the
control of reason and instruction, is apt to hurry, upon either side, into
sudden and violent courses, and very often to break away and determine upon
the worst; as he afterwards owned himself, saying, that the wildest colts make
the best horses, if they only get properly trained and broken in. But those
who upon this fasten stories of their own invention, as of his being disowned
by his father, and that his mother died for grief of her son`s ill fame,
certainly calumniate him; and there are others who relate, on the contrary,
how that to deter him from public business, and to let him see how the vulgar
behave themselves towards their leaders when they have at last no farther use
of them, his father showed him the old galleys as they lay forsaken and cast
about upon the sea - shore.
Yet it is evident that his mind was early imbued with the keenest
interest in public affairs, and the most passionate ambition for distinction.
Eager from the first to obtain the highest place, he unhesitatingly accepted
the hatred of the most powerful and influential leaders in the city, but more
especially of Aristides, the son of Lysimachus, who always opposed him. And
yet all this great enmity between them arose, it appears, from a very boyish
occasion, both being attached to the beautiful Stesilaus of Ceos, as Ariston
the philosopher tells us; ever after which, they took opposite sides, and were
rivals in politics. Not but that the incompatibility of their lives and
manners may seem to have increased the difference, for Aristides was of a mild
nature, and of a nobler sort of character, and, in public matters, acting
always with a view, not to glory or popularity, but to the best interests of
the state consistently with safety and honesty, he was often forced to oppose
Themistocles, and interfere against the increase of his influence, seeing him
stirring up the people to all kinds of enterprises, and introducing various
innovations. For it is said that Themistocles was so transported with the
thoughts of glory, and so inflamed with the passion for great actions, that,
though he was still young when the battle of Marathon was fought against the
Persians, upon the skilful conduct of the general, Miltiades, being everywhere
talked about, he was observed to be thoughtful, and reserved, alone by
himself; he passed the nights without sleep, and avoided all his usual places
of recreation, and to those who wondered at the change, and inquired the
reason of it, he gave the answer, that "the trophy of Miltiades would not let
him sleep." And when others were of opinion that the battle of Marathon would
be an end to the war, Themistocles thought that it was but the beginning of
far greater conflicts, and for these, to the benefit of all Greece, he kept
himself in continual readiness, and his city also in proper training,
foreseeing from far before what would happen.
And, first of all, the Athenians being accustomed to divide amongst
themselves the revenue proceeding from the silver mines at Laurium, he was the
only man that durst propose to the people that this distribution should cease,
and that with the money ships should be built to make war against the
Aeginetans, who were the most flourishing people in all Greece, and by the
number of their ships held the sovereignty of the sea; and Themistocles thus
was more easily able to persuade them, avoiding all mention of danger from
Darius or the Persians who were at a great distance, and their coming very
uncertain, and at that time not much to be feared; but, by a seasonable
employment of the emulation and anger felt by the Athenians against the
Aeginetans, he induced them to preparation. So that with this money an hundred
ships were built, with which they afterwards fought against Xerxes. And,
henceforward, little by little, turning and drawing the city down towards the
sea, in the belief, that, whereas by land they were not a fit match for their
next neighbors, with their ships they might be able to repel the Persians and
command Greece, thus, as Plato says, from steady soldiers he turned them into
mariners and seamen tossed about the sea, and gave occasion for the reproach
against him, that he took away from the Athenians the spear and the shield,
and bound them to the bench and the oar. These measures he carried in the
assembly, against the opposition, as Stesimbrotus relates, of Miltiades; and
whether or no he hereby injured the purity and true balance of government, may
be a question for philosophers, but that the deliverance of Greece came at
that time from the sea, and that these galleys restored Athens again after it
was destroyed, were others wanting, Xerxes himself would be sufficient
evidence, who, though his landforces were still entire, after his defeat at
sea, fled away, and thought himself no longer able to encounter the Greeks;
and, as it seems to me, left Mardonius behind him, not out of any hopes he
could have to bring them into subjection, but to hinder them from pursuing
him.
Themistocles is said to have been eager in the acquisition of riches,
according to some, that he might be the more liberal; for loving to sacrifice
often, and to be splendid in his entertainment of strangers, he required a
plentiful revenue; yet he is accused by others of having been parsimonious and
sordid to that degree that he would sell provisions which were sent to him as
a present. He desired Diphilides, who was a breeder of horses, to give him a
colt, and when he refused it, threatened that in a short time he would turn
his house into a wooden^1 horse, intimating that he would stir up dispute and
litigation between him and some of his relations.
[Footnote 1: Full of people ready for fighting, like the Trojan horse.]
He went beyond all men in the passion for distinction. When he was still
young and unknown in the world, he entreated Epicles of Hermione, who had a
good hand at the lute and was much sought after by the Athenians, to come and
practice at home with him, being ambitious of having people inquire after his
house and frequent his company. When he came to the Olympic games, and was so
splendid in his equipage and entertainments, in his rich tents and furniture,
that he strove to outdo Cimon, he displeased the Greeks, who thought that such
magnificence might be allowed in one who was a young man and of a great family
but was a great piece of insolence in one as yet undistinguished, and without
title or means for making any such display. In a dramatic contest, the play he
paid for won the prize, which was then a matter that excited much emulation;
he put up a tablet in record of it, with the inscription, "Themistocles of
Phrearrhi was at the charge of it; Phrynichus made it; Adimantus was archon."
He was well liked by the common people, would salute every particular citizen
by his own name, and always show himself a just judge in questions of business
between private men; he said to Simonides, the poet of Ceos, who desired
something of him, when he was commander of the army, that was not reasonable,
"Simonides, you would be no good poet if you wrote false measure, nor should I
be a good magistrate if for favor I made false law." And at another time,
laughing at Simonides, he said, that he was a man of little judgment to speak
against the Corinthians, who were inhabitants of a great city, and to have his
own picture drawn so often, having so ill - looking a face.
Gradually growing to be great, and winning the favor of the people, he at
last gained the day with his faction over that of Aristides, and procured his
banishment by ostracism. When the king of Persia was now advancing against
Greece, and the Athenians were in consultation who should be general, and many
withdrew themselves of their own accord, being terrified with the greatness of
the danger, there was one Epicydes, a popular speaker, son to Euphemides, a
man of an eloquent tongue, but of a faint heart, and a slave to riches, who
was desirous of the command, and was looked upon to be in a fair way to carry
it by the number of votes; but Themistocles, fearing that, if the command
should fall into such hands, all would be lost, bought off Epicydes and his
pretensions, it is said, for a sum of money.
When the king of Persia sent messengers into Greece, with an interpreter,
to demand earth and water, as an acknowledgment of subjection, Themistocles,
by the consent of the people, seized upon the interpreter, and put him to
death, for presuming to publish the barbarian orders and decrees in the Greek
language; this is one of the actions he is commended for, as also for what he
did to Arthmius of Zelea, who brought gold from the king of Persia to corrupt
the Greeks, and was, by an order from Themistocles, degraded and
disfranchised, he and his children and his posterity; but that which most of
all redounded to his credit was, that he put an end to all the civil wars of
Greece, composed their differences, and persuaded them to lay aside all enmity
during the war with the Persians; and in this great work, Chileus the Arcadian
was, it is said, of great assistance to him.
Having taken upon himself the command of the Athenian forces, he
immediately endeavored to persuade the citizens to leave the city, and to
embark upon their galleys, and meet with the Persians at a great distance from
Greece; but many being against this, he led a large force, together with the
Lacedaemonians, into Tempe, that in this pass they might maintain the safety
of Thessaly, which had not as yet declared for the king; but when they
returned without performing any thing, and it was known that not only the
Thessalians, but all as far as Boeotia, were going over to Xerxes, then the
Athenians more willingly hearkened to the advice of Themistocles to fight by
sea, and sent him with a fleet to guard the straits of Artemisium.
When the contingents met here, the Greeks would have the Lacedaemonians
to command, and Eurybiades to be their admiral; but the Athenians, who
surpassed all the rest together in number of vessels, would not submit to come
after any other, till Themistocles, perceiving the danger of this contest,
yielded his own command to Eurybiades, and got the Athenians to submit,
extenuating the loss by persuading them, that if in this war they behaved
themselves like men, he would answer for it after that, that the Greeks, of
their own will, would submit to their command. And by this moderation of his,
it is evident that he was the chief means of the deliverance of Greece, and
gained the Athenians the glory of alike surpassing their enemies in valor, and
their confederates in wisdom.
As soon as the Persian armada arrived at Aphetae, Eurybiades was
astonished to see such a vast number of vessels before him, and, being
informed that two hundred more were sailing round behind the island of
Sciathus, he immediately determined to retire farther into Greece, and to sail
back into some part of Peloponnesus, where their land army and their fleet
might join, for he looked upon the Persian forces to be altogether
unassailable by sea. But the Euboeans, fearing that the Greeks would forsake
them, and leave them to the mercy of the enemy, sent Pelagon to confer
privately with Themistocles, taking with him a good sum of money, which, as
Herodotus reports, he accepted and gave to Eurybiades. In this affair none of
his own countrymen opposed him so much as Architeles, captain of the sacred
galley, who, having no money to supply his seamen, was eager to go home; but
Themistocles so incensed the Athenians against him, that they set upon him and
left him not so much as his supper, at which Architeles was much surprised,
and took it very ill; but Themistocles immediately sent him in a chest a
service of provisions, and at the bottom of it a talent of silver, desiring
him to sup to - night, and to - morrow provide for his seamen; if not, he
would report it amongst the Athenians that he had received money from the
enemy. So Phanias the Lesbian tells the story.
Though the fights between the Greeks and Persians in the straits of
Euboea were not so important as to make any final decision of the war, yet the
experience which the Greeks obtained in them was of great advantage; for thus,
by actual trial and in real danger, they found out, that neither number of
ships, nor riches and ornaments, nor boasting shouts, nor barbarous songs of
victory, were any way terrible to men that knew how to fight, and were
resolved to come hand to hand with their enemies; these things they were to
despise, and to come up close and grapple with their foes. This, Pindar
appears to have seen, and says justly enough of the fight at Artemisium, that
"There the sons of Athens set
The stone that freedom stands on yet."
For the first step towards victory undoubtedly is to gain courage. Artemisium
is in Euboea, beyond the city of Histiaea, a sea - beach open to the north;
most nearly opposite to it stands Olizon, in the country which formerly was
under Philoctetes; there is a small temple there, dedicated to Diana, surnamed
of the Dawn, and trees about it, around which again stand pillars of white
marble; and if you rub them with your hand, they send forth both the smell and
color of saffron. On one of the pillars these verses are engraved, -
"With numerous tribes from Asia`s regions brought
The sons of Athens on these waters fought;
Erecting, after they had quelled the Mede,
To Artemis this record of the deed."
There is a place still to be seen upon this shore, where, in the middle of a
great heap of sand, they take out from the bottom a dark powder like ashes, or
something that has passed the fire; and here, it is supposed, the shipwrecks
and bodies of the dead were burnt.
But when news came from Thermopylae to Artemisium, informing them that
king Leonidas was slain, and that Xerxes had made himself master of all the
passages by land, they returned back to the interior of Greece, the Athenians
having the command of the rear, the place of honor and danger, and much elated
by what had been done.
As Themistocles sailed along the coast, he took notice of the harbors and
fit places for the enemies` ships to come to land at, and engraved large
letters in such stones as he found there by chance, as also in others which he
set up on purpose near to the landing - places, or where they were to water;
in which inscriptions he called upon the Ionians to forsake the Medes, if it
were possible, and come over to the Greeks, who were their proper founders and
fathers, and were now hazarding all for their liberties; but, if this could
not be done, at any rate to impede and disturb the Persians in all
engagements. He hoped that these writings would prevail with the Ionians to
revolt, or raise some trouble by making their fidelity doubtful to the
Persians.
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 Boeotia, 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 Troezen,
where they were received with eager good - will by the Troezenians, 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.
[Footnote 2: "While all things else are taken," said the oracle, "within the
boundary of Cecrops and the covert of divine Cithaeron, Zeus grants to Athena
that the wall of wood alone shall remain uncaptured; that shall help thee and
thy children. Stay not for horsemen and an host of men on foot, coming from
the mainland; retire turning thy back; one day yet thou shalt show thy face. O
divine Salamis, but thou shalt slay children of women, either at the
scattering of Demeter or at the gathering."]
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 Piraeus, 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.
[Footnote 3: The Teuthis, loligo, or cuttlefish, is said to have a bone or
cartilage shaped like a sword, and was conceived to have no heart.]
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 Panaetius 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 Aeschylus 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.
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