 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|||||
|
 |
 |
Biography of ThemistoclesName: ThemistoclesBirth Date: c. 528 B.C. Death Date: 462 B.C. Place of Birth: N/A Nationality: Greek Gender: Male Occupations: politician, commander Themistocles Themistocles (ca. 528-462 BC), an Athenian political leader, was a brilliant commander and statesman who defeated Persia at sea and made Athens a great power.Themistocles was the son of a middle-class Athenian father and a non-Athenian mother. Ability alone made him influential. He advocated resistance to Persia when some wanted appeasement, and he urged the development of Athens's navy when most trusted in its army. When elected chief magistrate in 493 B.C., he developed Piraeus for the first time as a naval base, and 10 years later, when his rivals had been eliminated by a series of ostracisms, he persuaded Athens to build a hundred warships from the profits of state-owned mines. When Persia invaded in 480 B.C., Athens had the largest navy in Greece. Themistocles insisted on using it fully at Artemisium and at Salamis, although his naval policy meant evacuating Athens and trusting in the "wooden walls" of its …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…Athens displaced Sparta in the command of the allied fleet, and his faith in democracy was put into effect by the rule of Pericles. But Themistocles himself fell out of favor. He was ostracized, probably in 472 B.C., and then exiled and condemned to death on a charge of being in Persia's pay. He made a dramatic escape to Persia, where he was appointed governor of Magnesia in Asia Minor. The Greek historian Thucydides said that Themistocles died a natural death, though some reported suicide. Later a tomb was built at Piraeus in honor of Themistocles's achievements. The salvation of Greece and the stature of Athens give the true measure of his greatness. Further Reading Ancient sources on Themistocles are Herodotus, Thucydides, and Plutarch. A modern source is Charles Hignett's Xerxes' Invasion of Greece (1963), which contains a useful bibliography.Lenardon, Robert J., The saga of Themistocles, London: Thames & Hudson, 1978. |