Плутарх - Plutarch's Lives - Volume I

XIV. As for the numbers of the Persian fleet, the poet Aeschylus, as though he knew it clearly, writes as follows in his tragedy of the Persae:

The Athenian ships, a hundred and eighty in number, had each eighteen men on deck, four of whom were archers, and the rest heavy–armed soldiers. Themistokles now chose the time for the battle as judiciously as he had chosen the place, and would not bring his triremes into line of battle before the fresh wind off the sea, as is usual in the morning, raised a heavy swell in the straits. This did not damage the low flat ships of the Greeks, but it caught the high–sterned Persian ships, over–weighted as they were with lofty decks, and presented their broadsides to the Greeks, who eagerly attacked them, watching Themistokles because he was their best example, and also because Ariamenes, Xerxes's admiral, and the bravest and best of the king's brothers, attacked him in a huge ship, from which, as if from a castle, he poured darts and arrows upon him.

But Ameinias of Dekeleia and Sokles of Pedia, who were both sailing in the same vessel, met him stem to stem. Each ship crashed into the other with its iron beak, and was torn open. Ariamenes attempted to board the Greek ship, but these two men set upon him with their spears, and drove him into the sea. His body was noticed by Queen Artemisia floating amongst the other wreckage, and was by her brought to Xerxes.

XV. At this period of the battle it is said that a great light was seen to shine from Eleusis, and that a great noise was heard upon the Thriasian plain near the sea, as though multitudes of men were escorting the mystic Iacchus in procession. From the place where these sounds were heard a mist seemed to spread over the sea and envelop the ships. Others thought that they saw spirit–forms of armed men come from Aegina, and hold their hands before the ships of the Greeks. These it was supposed were the Aeakid heroes, to whom prayers for help had been offered just before the battle. The first man to capture a ship was Lykomedes, an Athenian captain, who cut off its ensign and dedicated it to Apollo with the laurel crown at the Temple at Phlyae.

In the narrow straits the Persians were unable to bring more than a part of their fleet into action, and their ships got into each other's way, so that the Greeks could meet them on equal terms, and, although they resisted until evening, completely routed them, winning, as Simonides calls it, that "glorious and famous victory," the greatest exploit ever achieved at sea, which owed its success to the bravery of the sailors and the genius of Themistokles.

XVI. After this naval defeat, Xerxes, enraged at his failure, endeavoured to fill up the strait with earth, and so to make a passage for his land forces to Salamis, to attack the Greeks there. Now Themistokles, in order to try the temper of Aristeides, proposed that the fleet should sail to the Hellespont, and break the bridge of boats there, "in order," said he, "that we may conquer Asia in Europe." But Aristeides disapproved of this measure, saying, "Hitherto we have fought against the Persian king, while he has been at his ease; but if we shut him up in Greece, and drive the chief of so large an army to despair, he will no longer sit quietly under a golden umbrella to look on at his battles, but will strain every nerve and superintend every operation in person, and so will easily retrieve his losses and form better plans for the future."

"Instead of breaking down the existing bridge for him, Themistokles," said he, "we ought rather, if possible, at once to build another, and send the man out of Europe as quickly as possible." "Well then," answered Themistokles, "if you think that our interest lies in that direction, we ought all to consider and contrive to send him out of Greece as fast as we can." When this resolution was adopted, Themistokles sent one of the king's eunuchs, whom he had found among the prisoners, bidding him warn Xerxes that "the Greeks had determined after their victory to sail to the Hellespont and break the bridge, but that Themistokles, out of his regard for the king, advises him to proceed as fast as he can to his own sea, and cross over it, while he (Themistokles) gained time for him by delaying the allied fleet." Xerxes, hearing thus, was much alarmed and retired in all haste. And indeed the battle with Mardonius at Plataea shows us which of the two was right; for the Greeks there could scarcely deal with a small part of the Persian army, and what therefore could they have done with the whole?

XVII. Herodotus tells us that, of Greek States, Aegina received the prize of valour, and that, of the generals, it was awarded to Themistokles, though against the will of the voters. When the armies retired to the Isthmus all the generals laid their votes on the altar there, and each man declared himself to deserve the first prize for valour, and Themistokles to deserve the second. However, the Lacedaemonians brought him home with them to Sparta, and gave Eurybiades the first prize for valour, but Themistokles that for wisdom, a crown of olive–leaves. They also gave him the best chariot in their city, and sent three hundred of their young men to escort him out of the country. It is also related that at the next Olympian games, when Themistokles appeared upon the race–course, all the spectators took no further interest in the contests, but passed the whole day in admiring and applauding him, and in pointing him out to such as were strangers; so that he was delighted, and said to his friends that he had now received his reward for all his labours on behalf of Greece.

XVIII. He was by nature excessively fond of admiration, as we may judge from the stories about him which have been preserved. Once, when he was made admiral of the Athenian fleet, he put off all the necessary business of his office until the day appointed for sailing, in order that he might have a great many dealings with various people all at once, and so appear to be a person of great influence and importance. And when he saw the corpses floating in the sea with gold bracelets and necklaces, he himself passed them by, but pointed them out to a friend who was following, saying, "Do you pick them up and keep them; for you are not Themistokles." A beautiful youth, named Antiphates, regarded him coolly at first, but eventually became submissive to him because of his immense reputation. "Young man," said Themistokles, "it has taken some time, but we have at length both regained our right minds." He used to say that the Athenians neither admired nor respected him, but used him like a plane–tree under which they took shelter in storm, but which in fair weather they lopped and stripped of its leaves. Once when a citizen of Seriphos said to him that he owed his glory, not to himself but to his city, he answered, "Very true; I should not have become a great man if I had been a Seriphian, nor would you if you had been an Athenian." When one of his fellow–generals, who thought that he had done the state good service, was taking a haughty tone, and comparing his exploits with those of Themistokles, he said, "The day after a feast, once upon a time, boasted that it was better than the feast–day itself, because on that day all men are full of anxiety and trouble, while upon the next day every one enjoys what has been prepared at his leisure. But the feast–day answered, 'Very true, only but for me you never would have been at all.' So now," said he, "if I had not come first, where would you all have been now?" His son, who was spoiled by his mother, and by himself to please her, he said was the most powerful person in Greece; for the Athenians ruled the Greeks, he ruled the Athenians, his wife ruled him, and his son ruled his wife. Wishing to be singular in all things, when he put up a plot of ground for sale, he ordered the crier to announce that there were good neighbours next to it. When two men paid their addresses to his daughter, he chose the more agreeable instead of the richer of the two, saying that he preferred a man without money to money without a man. Such was his character, as shown in his talk.