Themistocles of Athens was the perfect military commander for naval operations. Military historians recognize him as the savior of ancient Greece in the hour of tribulation, during the second major Persian invasion of Greece. Several years before the Persian invasion, he had equipped Athens with a sizeable fleet of warships. He was an Athenian admiral and statesman. His principal military engagements were during the Greco-Persian Wars from 490 to 479 BC, where he participated in the battle of Marathon in 490 BC, the battle of Artemisium in August 480 BC, and the battle of Salamis in September 480 BC.

The Early Life of Themistocles

In 514 BC, he was born in Athens by Neocles and his Thracian wife, a family of modest means. Themistocles’ early years are largely unknown to history; however, there is evidence that he fought at Marathon in 492 BC, where he fought with Miltiades; when Miltiades died in 489 BC, he developed a strong naval policy to counter threats from Aegina and Persia, and persuaded the assembly to employ the windfall of the silver mines at Laurium to finance 100 triremes (warships) from 483 to 482 BC.

The Wars of Themistocles

Themistocles was a major leader of the Greek coalition; he led an Athenian contingent at the indecisive battle of Artemisium, off the northern tip of Evvoia in August 480 BC; Themistocles persuaded the Athenian people to leave their homes for the island of Salamis partly because the Delphic oracle told him to “trust in the wooden walls,” which Themistocles interpreted to mean the Athenian naval fleet. Themistocles tricked Xerxes into ordering an attack through a false message promising Athenian defection if he made an assault; the resultant naval battle off Salamis was a decisive defeat for the Persian Navy and a tactical triumph for Themistocles’ Greek Navy in September 480 BC.

After the Battle of Salamis, Themistocles participated in directing the rebuilding of Athens along with the construction of new city walls, including an extension to the new harbor at Piraeus in 480 to 477 BC; his boastfulness and willingness to enrich himself through his offices by taking bribe

s led to his ostracism in 474 BC; he fled to Persia, where he was well-received, and he later resided in Magnesia; he died there at age 65 years in 449 BC.

The Legacy of Themistocles

Themistocles was a shrewd and far-sighted statesman, and a perceptive, enterprising, and resolute naval strategist and tactician; his pride and greed, probably caused by his humble origins, led to his downfall. Nevertheless, Themistocles almost single-handedly saved Western civilization from certain death at the battle of Salamis because the Persians never dared to face the Greeks in future sea battles.

Related Sources: Lanning, LT. COL. (RET.) Michael Lee AND Bob Rosenburgh; THE BATTLE 100; Sourcebooks: New York, 2003. Holmes, Richard; Battlefield Decisive Conflicts in History; Oxford University Press, 2006. Zimmerman, Dwight Jon; The Book Of War; Tess Press Publications, 2008. Zimmerman, Dwight Jon; The Book Of Weapons; Tess Press Publications, 2009.