Themistocles Won One of History’s Most Decisive Battles
Greece was saved from Persian conquest by Themistocles (524 – 460 BC). He was the creator of Athens’ sea power, and the naval strategist who defeated the Persians at the historically pivotal Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. He was born to an Athenian father and a non Greek concubine, which made Themistocles ineligible for Athenian citizenship, until Cleisthenes’ democratic reforms made all free men citizens. That made Themistocles a lifelong champion of democracy.
In the 480s BC, Athens’ state owned silver mines struck a rich vein, and many Athenians wanted to divvy up the windfall. A few years earlier, in 490 BC, Athens had beaten back a Persian invasion at the Battle of Marathon. Themistocles was convinced that the Persians would be back, so he advocated for investing the new riches on warships.
He faced powerful opposition: a strong navy meant higher taxes borne by the rich, even as it enhanced the political clout of the poorer classes who would row those ships. A land strategy based on hoplites, such as those who had won at Marathon, would cost less. It would also leave the middle and upper classes – the ones who could afford to equip themselves as hoplites – with the prestige of being the city’s sole protectors and bearers of arms. Themistocles maneuvered in the Athenian Assembly to have his opponents banished, then won approval for his ship building program. By 480 BC, when the Persians returned, Athens had over 200 triremes – as many as the rest of Greece, combined – and booming shipyards that were kept busy churning out new warships.
The Persians overcame a Spartan force at Thermopylae, then advanced on and seized a nearly deserted Athens, whose citizens had been evacuated to the nearby island of Salamis. The Persians then razed the city’s walls, and burned Athens to the ground. The decisive battle of the war was fought soon thereafter off Salamis. It almost never took place, and only did because of Themistocles.
After Athens was burned, her Greek allies wavered, and were on the verge of taking their ships and going home. So Themistocles forced a battle. First, he tricked the Persian king into believing he had changed sides. Then, he convinced him to attack the Greek ships in restricted waters with tricky tide and wind patterns that the Greeks knew, but the Persians did not. The Persians lost, and the Greeks won a decisive victory.
Afterwards, Themistocles led a naval expedition that toured the Greek islands, demanding contributions to pay for the war effort. However, his political fortunes declined soon thereafter when the Athenians, who were never big on gratitude, ended up exiling Themistocles. Despite having tricked the Persian king into disaster at Salamis, Themistocles went to Persia, and ended his days governing some Greek cities in Asia Minor for the Persians.