Themistocles was an Athenian statesman and general, born around 524 BCE to a family of only modest standing, who rose to dominate Athenian politics in the years after the Battle of Marathon. As archon in 493/492 BCE he began fortifying the harbor at Piraeus, and in 483/482 BCE he persuaded the Athenian assembly to spend a rich new vein of silver from the state mines at Laurion on building a fleet of triremes rather than distributing it to citizens directly, the decision that gave Athens the navy it needed within a few years. When Xerxes invaded Greece in 480 BCE, Themistocles led the Athenian envoys who consulted the Delphic oracle, and his reading of its second response, that the wooden wall meant the fleet rather than a physical barricade, persuaded Athens to evacuate the city and commit its ships at Salamis. He commanded the Athenian contingent at the resulting battle. His later career was less fortunate: ostracized from Athens around 471 BCE amid growing suspicion of his ambitions, and afterward accused of complicity with the disgraced Spartan regent Pausanias, he fled ultimately to the Persian court, where King Artaxerxes I granted him the governorship of Magnesia on the Maeander. He died there around 459 BCE.
Facts
Disputed
Lifespan or FloruitThe source gives this year as about, its own approximate estimate rather than a fixed date. Manner of DeathAncient tradition offers competing accounts: ordinary illness, poison, and a dramatic suicide by drinking bull's blood rather than fight against the city that had exiled him, the version Plutarch preserves centuries later. No contemporary source settles which, if any, is accurate, and modern historians treat all three as unverifiable rather than choosing among them. Manner of Death DetailPlutarch, writing centuries later, gives suicide by poison as the most dramatic version, drunk rather than fight against the city that had exiled him; other ancient accounts give ordinary illness. No contemporary source settles which, if any, is accurate. 1 Life
Lifespan or FloruitBorn about 524 BCE; died about 459 BCE at Magnesia on the Maeander, in Persian territory. 1 Place of ActivityAthens and the waters around it through 480 BCE; later, in exile, the Persian court and the governorship of Magnesia on the Maeander in Ionia. 1 Office HeldArchon of Athens, 493/492 BCE; strategos (general) of Athens, notably in 480 BCE; later governor of Magnesia on the Maeander under Persian appointment. 1 Origins
Place of Origin Defining MomentArguing before the Athenian assembly, and afterward before the allied commanders at Salamis itself, that Delphi's wooden wall oracle meant the Athenian fleet rather than a physical barricade, the reading that committed Athens to evacuate the city and fight at sea. 1 Learn More
A Fleet Built From Silver, and an Oracle Read as the Sea
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Themistocles was an Athenian statesman and general, born around 524 BCE to a family of only modest standing, who rose to dominate Athenian politics in the years following the Battle of Marathon. As archon in 493 or 492 BCE he began fortifying the harbor at Piraeus, an early sign of the naval orientation that would define his career. In 483 or 482 BCE a rich new vein of silver was struck at the state mines of Laurion, and rather than let it be distributed directly to Athenian citizens, Themistocles persuaded the assembly to spend it building a fleet of triremes, the decision that gave Athens the navy it would need within a few years.
When Xerxes invaded Greece in 480 BCE, Themistocles led the Athenian envoys who consulted the Delphic oracle for guidance. The oracle's second response spoke of a wooden wall that would not fail, an ambiguous phrase open to more than one reading. Themistocles argued before the Athenian assembly, and afterward before the allied commanders gathered at Salamis itself, that the wooden wall meant the fleet he had built rather than a physical barricade around the city.
That reading persuaded Athens to evacuate its population and commit its ships to battle rather than defend the city directly, and Themistocles commanded the Athenian contingent at the resulting Battle of Salamis, the engagement that turned back the Persian invasion at sea. The fleet the Laurion silver had paid for, and the oracle he had persuaded Athens to read as describing it, together decided the campaign that saved the city from the invasion it faced.
Ostracism, Exile at the Persian Court, and a Disputed Death
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
The victory at Salamis did not secure Themistocles' standing at Athens for long. Around 471 BCE, amid growing suspicion of his ambitions, he was ostracized and driven from the city he had done more than any other citizen to save. Ostracism alone did not end his troubles; he was afterward accused of complicity with Pausanias, the Spartan regent whose own dealings with Persia had left him disgraced, a charge that made Themistocles a wanted man in Greece rather than simply an exile from Athens.
He fled ultimately to the Persian court, the very power whose invasion his own strategy had defeated at Salamis. King Artaxerxes I granted him the governorship of Magnesia on the Maeander, a Persian territory in Ionia, where the man who had persuaded Athens to build the fleet that beat Persia lived out his final years as a Persian appointee. He died at Magnesia around 459 BCE.
How he died is not settled in the ancient sources. Plutarch, writing centuries afterward, gives the most dramatic version, suicide by poison, drunk rather than face fighting against the city that had exiled him. Other ancient accounts give ordinary illness instead. No contemporary source survives to settle which, if either, is accurate, and this record states the dispute rather than choosing between them, closing an account of Themistocles' final years that runs from the Athenian assembly he once dominated to a Persian governorship and a death no ancient writer could agree on.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Athens, Cities This source names Athens directly: "directly, the decision that gave Athens the navy it needed within a few years."
This source names Greece directly: "When Xerxes invaded Greece in 480 BCE, Themistocles led the Athenian envoys who consulted the Delphic oracle, and his reading of its second response, that the wooden wall meant the fleet rather than..."
This source names Persians directly: "Themistocles was an Athenian statesman and general, born around 524 BCE to a family of only modest standing, who rose to dominate Athenian politics in the years after the Battle of Marathon."
The Athenian statesman whose reading of the wooden wall as the fleet, argued against the professional interpreters, is the reason this oracle changed the course of the invasion.
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