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We are still working through Thucydides, god help us all. It’s interesting to note at this point that the commentary on that last section about the wall believes quite strongly that the whole affair with Themistocles and the Spartans never happened, but was a story made up after the fact as to why the Athenians got to rebuild, and attached another Clever Deed to a man of impressively clever reputation.
So, over in the English translation, the Spartans have decided that they really seriously want to go to war (against Athens), and their allies have voted that this is a grand old plan. So they start looking for an excuse to start up a war. To this end, they send embassies off to Athens to complain about various things, so that they can start a war over whatever complaint the Athenians don’t respond to.
First, they cite an old complicated story about some dudes going to an altar for sanctuary, and being killed anyway; the complaint is that after a series of exiles and so forth, the descendants of those men are now living in Athens again, which is clearly an affront to the goddess. Since one of the descendants is Pericles (a very important politician in Athens at this point), they figure either they get him banished (yay!) or they have a pretext for war (yay!) which also discredits him with his fellow citizens on account of being the “reason” for the war (yay!). Win-win.
The Athenians respond by citing a different old complicated story involving a similar “dragged suppliants from an altar and killed them” incident, over in Sparta; and then also to make up for a (long, complicated) incident where some Spartan, Pausanius, sailed off and tried to scheme with Xerxes.
This is a very long story. It involves all sorts of informers and secret messages and disappearing messages. I will not try to summarize it, but if you’re interested, try looking it up in Thucydides, Book 1, Chapters 128 - 134. Anyway, it ends up with Pausanius fleeing to the altar of a goddess, being locked inside, and thus starving to death. Goddess curses over people at their altars being killed FOR EVERYONE! (A curse for you and a curse for you and a curse for you...)
Which brings us back to Themistocles.
Thucydides, I.135.2-3
What with Pausanius being a traitor to the Persians and all,* the Spartan ambassadors sent word to the Athenians making accusations towards Themistocles as well, since they had discovered [evidence] in the investigation of Pausanius; and they thought the Athenians ought to punish him.
The Athenians were convinced of this (for it so happened that, having been ostracized, he had a house in Argos, but also went visiting through the rest of the Peloponnese), and with the Spartans (who were ready to join in the case) sent men instructed to take him away wherever they should happen to find him.
Thucydides, I.136
But Thucydides, having realized this beforehand, fled from the Peloponnese into Kerkyra, since Kerkyra was indebted to him. But the Kerkyrians said they were afraid to shelter him, since the Athenians and Spartans would hate them, and they sent him away to the land across from them.
Pursued by the men ordered after him, as they went looking for where he’d retreated, he was compelled by his lack of options to lodge with Adematos, king of the Molossians, who was no friend of his. Adematos happened not to be at home, and so Themistocles asked the man’s wife for help; she instructed him to pick up the baby and sit by the hearth.
When Adematos came home not long afterward, Themistocles revealed who he was and said it was not worthy, if any Athenian should speak against him in his time of need, to take revenge on a fleeing man; for under the present bad circumstances he was suffering as a much weaker man than the king; it was honorable for a man to seek revenge on similar men under circumstances of equality. And furthermore, Themistocles had only opposed Adematos when some resources were at stake, not his life; if Adematos should hand him over (speaking of the people chasing him), he’d be robbing Themistocles of his very life.
Thucydides, I.137
Adematos listened, and had him stand up along with his son. (He was sitting there holding the boy, and this is the greatest supplication.) When the Athenians and Spartans arrived shortly afterwards, and said many things, he didn’t cast Themistocles out, but sent him--since he wanted to taken to the king**--by land to the other sea, to Pydna, which belonged to Alexander.
There, a trading ship happened to be going to sea towards Ionia; after he boarded, it was carried away by a winter storm into the midst of the Athenian fleet, which was blockading Naxos. Then (since he had been unrecognized by the men in the ship before) because of his fear he told the captain who he was and how he was fleeing, and said that if the man would not save him, he would say [to his pursuers] that the captain had been bribed to help him; but safety would lie in no one leaving the ship before they sailed on; and he would repay the man (if he obeyed) with an appropriate favor. The captain did these things, and after lying at anchor for a day and night beyond the reach of the fleet, finally arrived at Ephesus.
So Themistocles rewarded that man with money (after it came to him from his friends in Athens and from what he’d stashed in Argos); and as he was taken inland with one of the coastal Persians, he sent a letter to King Artaxerxes son of Xerxes, who’d recently become king. The letter said clearly:
“I, Themistocles, have come before you, I who did more harm to your house than the Greeks, at the time when I was by necessity fending off your father’s attack; but I did even more good for him, when it was safe for me, but getting back was dangerous for him. And the good deed from me was helpful”--writing about sending forewarning to retreat from Salamis, and that the bridges weren’t broken then by his doing, which he was lying about--”and now I am present, having great and good things to offer you, fearing the Greeks on account of your friendship. And I would like to wait one year to explain to you in person for what reasons I’ve come.”
Thucydides, I.138
When the king read this, he marveled at the man’s intelligence, and ordered that it be done in that way. And in the [agreed upon] time Themistocles set to work on learning the Persian language to the extent that he was able, and the customs of the nation; and when he arrived after one year, he was greatly worthy in the estimation of the king to such an extent as no other Greek yet, both through his pre-existing worthiness, and through a hope for Greece, which the king assumed he would enslave, and even more from the fact that he appeared intelligent, and gave proof of that.
In fact, Themistocles had displayed his most reliable power of natural talent and in this particularly was more worthy of wonder compared to other men; for by his natural talent, and neither earlier study of anything nor later study, he was the most excellent for [providing] advice on the spot through the least planning, and best diviner of the future with its many possibilities; and whatever came into his hands, and however he governed it, and of things he was unfamiliar with, no one wanted to stop him from judging it suitably.*** He could even foresee very well what was better or worse in an unclear time. To speak on the whole of his natural capabilities, this man became the mightiest by the shortness of his practice to act without preparation in times of need.
He died from illness; but some people say instead that he killed himself with poison, believing himself to be unable to accomplish for the king what he had promised. In any case, there is a memorial for him in Asian Magnesia, in the marketplace; for he ruled this land, since the king gave Magnesia to him, which produced for him fifty talents a year with bread, and also Lampsakon with wine (for it was reputed to be the best wine land of all), and Myus with barbecue.^
And those who were there say his bones were preserved according to his instructions, and laid to rest secretly in Attica of the Athenians; for it wasn’t legal to bury him there, as he was a fugitive accused of treason. So ends the account of Pausanius the Spartan and Themistocles the Athenian, the most famous men among all their peers in Greece.
---
* Look, you try translating a genitive absolute that’s literally something like “the Pausanius Mede-leaning.” It does not elegant.
** Once again, the unmarked king would be the Persian king, as opposed to the king who’s currently sending him here and there.
*** It probably goes without saying that I had some significant problems with grammar and translation in this section.
^ Okay, the word can also be translated as “fish” or “relish” or “cooked meat” or “other provisions than bread and drink,” but I will damn well translate it as barbecue under the circumstances. Themistocles always had the best parties! Like Catiline!
---
And with that, we're done with Thucydides entirely. Next up is Plutarch, where we'll be covering the whole of the Life Of Themistocles, a much later--and much more focused--account of this particular exciting man.
So, over in the English translation, the Spartans have decided that they really seriously want to go to war (against Athens), and their allies have voted that this is a grand old plan. So they start looking for an excuse to start up a war. To this end, they send embassies off to Athens to complain about various things, so that they can start a war over whatever complaint the Athenians don’t respond to.
First, they cite an old complicated story about some dudes going to an altar for sanctuary, and being killed anyway; the complaint is that after a series of exiles and so forth, the descendants of those men are now living in Athens again, which is clearly an affront to the goddess. Since one of the descendants is Pericles (a very important politician in Athens at this point), they figure either they get him banished (yay!) or they have a pretext for war (yay!) which also discredits him with his fellow citizens on account of being the “reason” for the war (yay!). Win-win.
The Athenians respond by citing a different old complicated story involving a similar “dragged suppliants from an altar and killed them” incident, over in Sparta; and then also to make up for a (long, complicated) incident where some Spartan, Pausanius, sailed off and tried to scheme with Xerxes.
This is a very long story. It involves all sorts of informers and secret messages and disappearing messages. I will not try to summarize it, but if you’re interested, try looking it up in Thucydides, Book 1, Chapters 128 - 134. Anyway, it ends up with Pausanius fleeing to the altar of a goddess, being locked inside, and thus starving to death. Goddess curses over people at their altars being killed FOR EVERYONE! (A curse for you and a curse for you and a curse for you...)
Which brings us back to Themistocles.
Thucydides, I.135.2-3
What with Pausanius being a traitor to the Persians and all,* the Spartan ambassadors sent word to the Athenians making accusations towards Themistocles as well, since they had discovered [evidence] in the investigation of Pausanius; and they thought the Athenians ought to punish him.
The Athenians were convinced of this (for it so happened that, having been ostracized, he had a house in Argos, but also went visiting through the rest of the Peloponnese), and with the Spartans (who were ready to join in the case) sent men instructed to take him away wherever they should happen to find him.
Thucydides, I.136
But Thucydides, having realized this beforehand, fled from the Peloponnese into Kerkyra, since Kerkyra was indebted to him. But the Kerkyrians said they were afraid to shelter him, since the Athenians and Spartans would hate them, and they sent him away to the land across from them.
Pursued by the men ordered after him, as they went looking for where he’d retreated, he was compelled by his lack of options to lodge with Adematos, king of the Molossians, who was no friend of his. Adematos happened not to be at home, and so Themistocles asked the man’s wife for help; she instructed him to pick up the baby and sit by the hearth.
When Adematos came home not long afterward, Themistocles revealed who he was and said it was not worthy, if any Athenian should speak against him in his time of need, to take revenge on a fleeing man; for under the present bad circumstances he was suffering as a much weaker man than the king; it was honorable for a man to seek revenge on similar men under circumstances of equality. And furthermore, Themistocles had only opposed Adematos when some resources were at stake, not his life; if Adematos should hand him over (speaking of the people chasing him), he’d be robbing Themistocles of his very life.
Thucydides, I.137
Adematos listened, and had him stand up along with his son. (He was sitting there holding the boy, and this is the greatest supplication.) When the Athenians and Spartans arrived shortly afterwards, and said many things, he didn’t cast Themistocles out, but sent him--since he wanted to taken to the king**--by land to the other sea, to Pydna, which belonged to Alexander.
There, a trading ship happened to be going to sea towards Ionia; after he boarded, it was carried away by a winter storm into the midst of the Athenian fleet, which was blockading Naxos. Then (since he had been unrecognized by the men in the ship before) because of his fear he told the captain who he was and how he was fleeing, and said that if the man would not save him, he would say [to his pursuers] that the captain had been bribed to help him; but safety would lie in no one leaving the ship before they sailed on; and he would repay the man (if he obeyed) with an appropriate favor. The captain did these things, and after lying at anchor for a day and night beyond the reach of the fleet, finally arrived at Ephesus.
So Themistocles rewarded that man with money (after it came to him from his friends in Athens and from what he’d stashed in Argos); and as he was taken inland with one of the coastal Persians, he sent a letter to King Artaxerxes son of Xerxes, who’d recently become king. The letter said clearly:
“I, Themistocles, have come before you, I who did more harm to your house than the Greeks, at the time when I was by necessity fending off your father’s attack; but I did even more good for him, when it was safe for me, but getting back was dangerous for him. And the good deed from me was helpful”--writing about sending forewarning to retreat from Salamis, and that the bridges weren’t broken then by his doing, which he was lying about--”and now I am present, having great and good things to offer you, fearing the Greeks on account of your friendship. And I would like to wait one year to explain to you in person for what reasons I’ve come.”
Thucydides, I.138
When the king read this, he marveled at the man’s intelligence, and ordered that it be done in that way. And in the [agreed upon] time Themistocles set to work on learning the Persian language to the extent that he was able, and the customs of the nation; and when he arrived after one year, he was greatly worthy in the estimation of the king to such an extent as no other Greek yet, both through his pre-existing worthiness, and through a hope for Greece, which the king assumed he would enslave, and even more from the fact that he appeared intelligent, and gave proof of that.
In fact, Themistocles had displayed his most reliable power of natural talent and in this particularly was more worthy of wonder compared to other men; for by his natural talent, and neither earlier study of anything nor later study, he was the most excellent for [providing] advice on the spot through the least planning, and best diviner of the future with its many possibilities; and whatever came into his hands, and however he governed it, and of things he was unfamiliar with, no one wanted to stop him from judging it suitably.*** He could even foresee very well what was better or worse in an unclear time. To speak on the whole of his natural capabilities, this man became the mightiest by the shortness of his practice to act without preparation in times of need.
He died from illness; but some people say instead that he killed himself with poison, believing himself to be unable to accomplish for the king what he had promised. In any case, there is a memorial for him in Asian Magnesia, in the marketplace; for he ruled this land, since the king gave Magnesia to him, which produced for him fifty talents a year with bread, and also Lampsakon with wine (for it was reputed to be the best wine land of all), and Myus with barbecue.^
And those who were there say his bones were preserved according to his instructions, and laid to rest secretly in Attica of the Athenians; for it wasn’t legal to bury him there, as he was a fugitive accused of treason. So ends the account of Pausanius the Spartan and Themistocles the Athenian, the most famous men among all their peers in Greece.
---
* Look, you try translating a genitive absolute that’s literally something like “the Pausanius Mede-leaning.” It does not elegant.
** Once again, the unmarked king would be the Persian king, as opposed to the king who’s currently sending him here and there.
*** It probably goes without saying that I had some significant problems with grammar and translation in this section.
^ Okay, the word can also be translated as “fish” or “relish” or “cooked meat” or “other provisions than bread and drink,” but I will damn well translate it as barbecue under the circumstances. Themistocles always had the best parties! Like Catiline!
---
And with that, we're done with Thucydides entirely. Next up is Plutarch, where we'll be covering the whole of the Life Of Themistocles, a much later--and much more focused--account of this particular exciting man.