ThemistoklesThemistocles

(527?-460? BCE) An Athenian statesman and military commander.

His visionary leadership prior to the second Persian invasion (480 BCE) induced the Athenians to build a navy capable of withstanding the Persian fleet; his victory over the Persians near the island of Salamis was decisive and, although Athens had been burned, saved Greece from Persian occupation;

When the Persians were mounting their invasion of Greece, the Athenians asked the oracle at Delphi for guidance; the priestess told the Athenians to retreat from Athens and make their stand on the divine isle, Salamis.

The majority of the Greek commanders wanted to leave Salamis and fight the Persians nearer to the isthmus so they would have a place to retreat if the Persians won the sea battle; the Pan-Hellenic forces were commanded by the Spartan, Eurybiades; the Athenians were organized and commanded by Themistokles.

Themistokles warned Eurybiades that if the Greeks withdrew from Salamis the war would be lost for three reasons: 1) the Persians would have the advantage in open water and the seas around Salamis were confining and therefore not advantageous for the superior numbers of the Persian fleet, 2) if the Greeks moved away from Salamis, the various Greek contingents would not fight as a single force and each individual army and navy would flee to their respective homes and be conquered one by one, and 3) Themistokles warned Eurybiades that if the fleet withdrew from Salamis, the entire Athenian contingent (more than half the naval force) would remove to their colony of Siris in Italy and leave the Greeks of the Peloponnesian Peninsula to defend themselves.

Eurybiades saw the tactical logic of Themistokles’ arguments but the other Greeks were not convinced and still wanted to retreat to the open waters near the isthmus to fight; Themistokles put a clever plan into motion that would end all debate and force the Greeks to stand and fight; he sent his servant secretly to the camp of Xerxes and told the king that the Greeks were planning to flee Salamis and, if the Persians acted quickly, they could surprise the Greeks and defeat them; Xerxes accepted the bait and deployed his navy so as to surround Salamis and block all escape routes; as dawn approached, the Greeks took to their ships and the battle was joined.

The Persians made several small conquests but the overall movements of the fleet were disorganized and lacked the discipline of the seasoned Greek sailors who soundly defeated the Persians.

Themistokles was later accused of financial mismanagement and was forced to leave Athens.

• Histories, book 7, chapters 143-144, 173; book 8, chapters 4, 19, 22, 75-83, 92, 108-112 and 123-125