Themistocles

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Themistocles ( Greek  Θεμιστοκλῆς , * around 524 BC; † around 459 BC in Magnesia am Meander ) was a statesman and general of Athens during the threat to Greece from the Persians ( Persian Wars ). He became the winner of the Battle of Salamis and is considered a pioneer of Attic democracy .

Lineage and Beginnings

Figure identified with Themistocles

Themistocles was a son of Neocles from the ancient Attic priestly family of the Lykomiden (Lykomidai) , who carried out the mystery cult in Phlya . His mother was not a citizen of Athens, but a Metöke from Arcarnania - thus Themistocles was not “full- blooded ” and was not allowed to participate in the exercises in the ring schools of the Academy and the Lykeion . Most historians assume that Mnesiphilus , who taught philosophy after Solon , was his teacher.

At a young age, Themistocles lived indiscipline and wasteful, so that his father Neocles disinherited him. Furthermore, according to traditional Athenian standards, Themistocles had no prospect of an office in public life. These circumstances began to change, however, and Themistocles went public, over whom he exerted increasing influence: 510 BC. The Athenians drove their last tyrant , Hippias , out of the city. In order to overcome civil war and tyranny in the long run, Kleisthenes created a new constitution, based on ideas from Solon, which included broader layers of the people ( demos ) in political responsibility. Under the sign of equality (isonomia) , Kleisthenes pushed back the influence of the nobility on the popular assembly and placed the election of candidates for the important council of five hundred ( boulé ) in the hands of the demos.

Themistocles as a statesman of Athens

Themistocles had his first role as part of the state administration in the Korkyrai War , for which he was appointed general by the people. In this office he also contributed to the optimization of state security after the end of the Corkyrai War, including the fight against pirates and the humiliation of the Korkyraians. He obtained the necessary material and financial resources by reallocating the income from the silver mines in Greece. As a result, he was able to build 100 ships in a very short time in order to guarantee the safety of the sea and to be able to prove his skills in naval warfare.

Themistocles strove (as, according to Herodotus , Hekataios had already suggested to the Milesian tyrant Aristagoras ) to strengthen the naval power of Greece in order to be able to counter the superiority of the opposing Persians. Probably for the year of office 493 to 492 BC. Elected archon in BC , he operated the expansion of the Athenian port in Piraeus and the construction of two hundred warships, mainly to ward off the expected Persian invasion. For Strategos chosen Themistocles introduced this Athenian fleet in the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. Successful against Xerxes I , whose ships he lured into the Strait of Salamis and almost completely destroyed the Persian fleet, consisting of 1200 warships, with a fleet of just 300 ships. The numerically inferior Themistocles had thus conquered the largest fleet of ships since time immemorial. After the successful end of the war, he was the main driving force behind the establishment of the Attic League , and he used his bonus to expand Athenian power in Greece, especially to demonstrate to Sparta the supremacy of Athens.

Themistocles after 480 BC Chr.

Find to prove the judgment of shards against Themistocles

As a defense against the domestic Greek competitor Sparta , Themistocles had a protective wall built around Athens, which partly consisted of building materials from Athenian chapels and tombs. This measure as well as the accusation that he did not give the Spartan Leonidas I any help in the defense of Thermopylae , and the allegedly unnecessary surrender of Athens to the Persians before the Battle of Salamis, led to his being around 471 BC Was banished from Athens by the shard court , for motives similar to Miltiades the Younger . As a result, Themistocles moved his residence to Argos . The Spartans took advantage of Themistocles' absence and sent envoys to Athens . These let it be known that Themistocles had concluded an alliance with the Persians that included the oppression of Greece, and he was also condemned as a traitor. He then fled to Persia, where, according to Thucydides , he was appointed by King Artaxerxes I as satrap of Lampsakos , Myus and Magnesia on the Meander and thus, in view of his achievements at Salamis - by his opponent at the time - was rewarded after Themistocles wrote to him had offered his friendship and expressed his empathy towards the king of the Persians. Subsequently, Themistocles moved his residence to Magnesia am Meander, as Artaxerxes obtained him a permanent supply of bread, wine and food due to his loyalty and his strategic advice.

After Artaxerxes I. 459 BC After having initiated preparations for war against Greece again, he is said to have offered Themistocles the supreme command of the Persian fleet. The Athenian, who was unwilling to betray his homeland, is said to have committed suicide by poison. Thucydides, on the other hand, claims that Themistocles died of an illness in magnesia. According to Nepos , the bones of Themistocles are said to have been buried in Attica .

The battle of Salamis in particular was the reason why statues were consecrated to Themistocles before he fell from grace . The Hermist of Themistocles from Ostia found in 1939 may have been copied from an older statue.

“It was clear to him that with the Persian attack that was certainly imminent, all resistance on land would be impossible in the long run, that, as Hekataus had said to Aristagoras, there was only one means of maintaining independence: the creation of a Greek sea power. But he also saw that Athens was capable of fulfilling this task, and he recognized the ways that led to the goal. That he was able to put the idea into practice, that he had fought incessantly for more than a decade, until he put down the opposing elements, until he got the masses to go to work, that he had the whole Filled the population with enthusiasm for his idea and carried it away at the decisive moment, so that they dared to give up everything in order to gain everything: that is Themistocles' great historical importance. If old Athens were to perish over it, the foundations of the state might shift; there was no longer any choice. In return, if Athens followed him, there would be a prize at the finish that even the wildest imagination could not have dreamed of in the Greek world a few years earlier. "

- Eduard Meyer

Others

HS Themistocles is the name of a 3100 tonne Elli-class frigate of the Greek Navy , which was built in 1979 in the Netherlands as a Kortenaer-class ship and sold to Greece in 2003.

The librettist and poet Pietro Metastasio wrote his libretto Temistocle in 1736 , which was set to music by Antonio Caldara and others and addresses the war against Xerxes in the form of a gallant love intrigue.

Napoleon I compares himself with Themistocles in the letter to Prince George in which he seeks admission to them before his capture by the British in 1815.

The character of Themistocles is played in the film 300: Rise of an Empire by the Australian actor Sullivan Stapleton .

In the film "Laurence of Arabia", Peter O'Toole uses a quote from Themistocles: "I cannot play the lyre, but I can turn a small village into a powerful state."

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literature

  • Albrecht Behmel : Themistocles. Winner of Salamis and Lord of Magnesia. 2nd Edition. ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-89821-172-X .
  • Wolfgang Blösel : Themistocles with Herodotus. Mirror of Athens in the fifth century. Studies on the history and historiographical construction of the Greek struggle for freedom 480 BC Chr. Steiner, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-515-08533-5 (Historia Individual Writings Volume 183). Reviews: Reinhold Bichler, H-Soz-u-Kult 2005; Bernd Steinbock, BMCR 2006-08-11 (English).
  • Arthur P. Keaveney: The life and journey of Athenian statesman Themistocles (524-460 BC?) As a refugee in Persia . Mellen Press, Lewiston 2003, ISBN 0-7734-6809-9 .

Web links

Commons : Themistocles  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Thukydides 1, 138, 4 ( English translation ). Cornelius Nepos , Themistocles 10, 4. Diodorus 11, 58 ( English translation ). Plutarch , Themistocles 31 ( English translation ).
  2. ↑ Herodotus 5:36 .
  3. ↑ Ancient History . Vol. 4/1. 6th ed. Darmstadt 1965, pp. 290-298.
personal data
SURNAME Themistocles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Θεμιστοκλῆς
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek politician and general
DATE OF BIRTH around 525 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH uncertain: 459 BC Chr.
Place of death Magnesia on the meander