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Henceforth we see more of the beautiful and the wise, less of the wonderful and vast. What the heroic age is to tradition, the Persian invasion is to history. Remarks on the Effects of War. State of Athens. Interference of Sparta with respect to the Fortifications of Athens. Dexterous Conduct of Themistocles. The New Harbour of the Piraeus.
Eurybiades did all he could to silence him. “Those who begin a race before the signal are scourged,” said the Spartan. “True,” said Themistocles; “but the laggards never win a crown.” Eurybiades raised his leading staff as if to give him a blow. “Strike, but hear me,” said Themistocles; and then he showed such good reason for there meeting the battle that Eurybiades gave way.
There is time to hear this deserter, to confound Adeimantus, and to save Hellas too!” Themistocles tossed his head. The wavering, the doubting frown was gone. He was himself again. What he hoped for, what device lay in that inexhaustible brain of his, Simonides did not know. But the sight itself of this strong, smiling man gave courage.
Rumour ascribed his death to poison, which he took of his own accord, from a consciousness of his inability to perform his promises; but this report, which was current in the time of Thucydides, is rejected by that historian. Aristides died about four years after the banishment of Themistocles.
He induced the Athenians to fortify the three ports of Phalerum, Munychia, and Piræus by a double range of walls. When Athens was thus raised to the station on which it had been the ambition of Themistocles to place it, his star began to sink, though he still continued for some time to enjoy the fruits of his memorable deeds.
Return, therefore, and tell them this, and say that to defend themselves where they are is the only alternative that now remains." In reply to this communication, Themistocles said that nothing could give him greater pleasure than to learn what Aristides had stated. "The movement which the Persians have made," he said, "was in consequence of a communication which I myself sent to them.
His passion for the sex, which even in its excesses tends to refine and to soften, made his only vice. He was the friend of every genius and every art; and, the link between the lavish ostentation of Themistocles and the intellectual grace of Pericles, he conducted, as it were, the insensible transition from the age of warlike glory to that of civil pre-eminence.
The rowers of the Nausicaä ran out their oars, the hundred and seventy blades trailed in the water. Every man took a long breath and fixed his eyes on the admiral standing on the poop. He held a golden goblet set with turquoise, and filled with the blood-red Pramnian wine. Loudly Themistocles prayed.
Having thus secured the city from all danger of an immediate attack, Themistocles pursued his favourite project of rendering Athens the greatest maritime and commercial power of Greece. He erected a town round the harbour of Piraeus, distant between four and five miles from Athens, and enclosed it with a wall as large in extent as the city itself, but of vastly greater height and thickness.
This Sicinnus was a Persian captive, but a great lover of Themistocles, and the attendant of his children.
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