What to Do With a Massive Windfall?
After the Battle of Marathon, most Athenians thought the danger had passed. Not Themistocles (524 – 459 BC). In the 480s BC, Athens’ state-owned silver mines struck a rich vein. Many Athenians wanted to divide it. Themistocles, convinced that the Persians would return, wanted to invest it on a bigger navy. He faced strong opposition. A strong navy meant higher taxes, borne mostly by the rich. Simultaneously, it would enhance the political clout of the poorer classes who would row the warships. A land strategy based on hoplites, such as those who had won at Marathon, would cost less. It also would secure the power of the middle and upper classes – the only ones who could afford to equip themselves as hoplites – as Athens’ sole armed protectors. Themistocles got rid of the opposition by, literally, getting rid of them.
Athens had a process called ostracism, whereby citizens could vote each year to exile one man for ten years. Themistocles got his chief opponents ostracized, then got his ship-building program enacted into law. When the Persians launched a massive invasion of Greece, Athens had over 200 triremes – as many as the rest of Greece combined. In 480 BC, Persians under King Xerxes overcame a Spartan force at Thermopylae, then advanced on Athens. Many wanted to fight the Persian army, but Themistocles convinced them it would be futile. Supported by a vague prophecy from the Oracle of Delphi, whom Themistocles bribed, he argued that Athens should put its faith not in the city walls, but in her “wooden walls”: ships. Thus, when the Persians arrived, they found a nearly-deserted Athens, whose citizens had been evacuated to the nearby island of Salamis. They razed Athens’ walls, and torched the city.