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THEMISTOCLES' TWO AFTERLIVES*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 September 2015
Extract
‘All political lives…end in failure’, as Enoch Powell said; and Themistocles son of Neocles died twice. His first life ended with his ostracism in the late 470 s, after which he was dead to an Athens enthralled by Cimon; but he would not lie down. This article considers his two afterlives: one which ended about 459 in Magnesia on the Maeander, and the other which commenced in the fifth century but continues to resonate today. The examination, however, will be in reverse order, considering first the Themistocles who at Athens was written into what Tim Whitmarsh would call ‘the archive’, then drawing inferences from that literary afterlife to comment on Athenian politics in Themistocles’ years of ostracism, then exile.
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Footnotes
*
This article originated as a paper at the ‘Classical Owls: the Political Economy of Ancient Athens’ conference at Macquarie University on 1 September 2014. I wish to thank my colleague Ken Sheedy for the invitation to speak, and those present on that occasion for questions and discussion. I owe several valuable points to an anonymous referee. None of the above should be blamed for the faults of this article.
References
1 J. E. Powell, Joseph Chamberlain (London, 1977), 151, a sentiment echoed in the Telegraph obituary of Powell himself (9 February 1998).
2 Thuc. 1.138.4, translation from B. Jowett (ed. and trans.), Thucydides (Oxford, 1881).
3 Ar. Eq. 84. As supposedly Midas and Hannibal also did: Plut. Vit. Flam. 20.9. A. Keaveney, The Life and Journey of Athenian Statesman Themistocles (524–460 b.c?) as a Refugee in Persia (Lewiston, NY, 2003), 95–7, points out that bull's blood is unlikely to kill the drinker.
4 Translation from E. O'Neill and W. J. Oates, The Complete Greek Drama (New York, 1938).
5 Aesch. Pers. 73–4, translation from H W. Smith (ed. and trans.), Aeschylus (London and New York, 1926).
6 Plut. Vit. Them. 31.3, translation from B. Perrin (ed. and trans.), Plutarch's Lives (London and New York, 1914–26).
7 As for example at Hdt. 8.110.1: ‘Thus spoke Themistocles with intent to deceive, and the Athenians obeyed him; since he had always been esteemed wise and now had shown himself to be both wise and prudent, they were ready to obey whatever he said’ (translation from A. D. Godley [ed. and trans.], Herodotus [London and New York, 1924]).
8 Plut. Vit. Them. 29.3.
9 Thuc. 1.138; Plut. Vit. Them. 29.7.
10 Hdt. 8.75.1–2 and 8.110.2–3.
11 Plut. Vit. Them. 19.2–3; Nep. Them. 6; Paus. 1.2; Thuc. 1.93: both starting the job when he was Archon (493/492) and completing it a decade later.
12 Hdt. 7.144.1–2.
13 Thuc. 1.90–1; Nep. Them. 6–7; Isoc. 15 (Antid.).307. See also A. J. Podlecki, The Life of Themistocles (Montreal and London, 1975), 173–83.
14 Lys. 30 (Nicomachus).28. Strange to call him a lawgiver, as Podlecki (n. 13), 82, notes.
15 Lys. 2 (Epitaphios).42, translation from W. R. M. Lamb (ed. and trans.), Lysias (London and New York, 1930).
16 Pl. Meno, 93d, translation from W. R. M. Lamb (ed. and trans.), Plato. Laches. Protagoras. Meno. Euthydemus (Cambridge, MA, and London, 1967). See also Zadorojnyi, A. V., ‘Plutarch's Themistocles and the Poets’, AJPh 127 (2006), 262–3Google Scholar.
17 Since the practice of placing lovers side by side in the line of battle, as the Thebans did in their Sacred Band, is reflected at Xen. Symp. 8.34. The evidence for the formation of the Sacred Band in 378 is summed up by Dover, K. J., ‘The Date of Plato's Symposium’, Phronesis 10 (1965), 12–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Xenophon's Symposium, then, would have been written after 378, and Plato's Symposium before (see ibid., 15).
18 Xen. Mem. 2.6.13, translation from E. C. Marchant (ed. and trans.), Xenophon. Memorabilia. Oeconomicus. Symposium. Apology (Cambridge, MA, and London, 1968); Podlecki (n. 13), 77, glosses this: ‘that is, by providing useful appendages like the walls and the harbour’.
19 Hdt. 8.123–4. A young Ion of Chios, at Laomedon's house in Athens, was once told he was cleverer (δεξιώτερον) than Themistocles (Plut. Vit. Cim. 9.1), who could not play a musical instrument (but who claimed that what he was good at was ‘taking in hand a city that was small and inglorious and making it glorious and great’ [Plut. Vit. Them. 2.3]). If the anecdote is based on a real incident, it would show Themistocles being cited as a paradigm of cleverness, probably before 470 (assuming a date of birth for Ion c.490) – which would corroborate Herodotus’ report of his being thought the wisest (σοφώτατον).
20 Isoc. 8 (Peace).65, translation from G. Norlin (ed. and trans.), Isocrates (London and New York, 1928–9).
21 Arist. Eth. Eud. 3.1233b, translation from H. Rackham (ed. and trans.), Aristotle. Athenian Constitution. Eudemian Ethics. Virtus and Vices (London and Cambridge, MA, 1981).
22 Plut. Vit. Them. 1.1.
23 Ibid., 25.3.
24 Pl. Meno, 93c–93e.
25 Plut. Vit. Arist. 25.6.
26 Plut. De liberis educandis 1c.
27 Plut. Vit. Them. 13.3; see also Plut. Vit. Pel. 21.3 and Plut. Vit. Alc. 9.1.
28 Plut. Vit. Them. 13.5.
29 D. D. Hughes, Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece (London and New York, 1991), 111–15.
30 Ibid., 112.
31 Plut. Vit. Arist. 9.1–2.
32 Hughes (n. 29), 113; cf. Herodotus 8.95.
33 Hughes (n. 29), 114, n. 133. Hughes thinks that Herodotus’ story of the sacrifice of Leon of Troezen by the Persians who captured the Troezenian ship (Hdt. 7.180) was a ‘possible influence on the genesis of the story’ (Hughes [n. 29], 114, n. 135).
34 Plut. Vit. Per. 4.4; Diog. Laert. 2.6 (citing Timon of Phlius).
35 As admiral, see Plut. Vit. Per. 26.3; as Eleatic, see [Arist.] De Melisso, de Xenophane, De Gorgia.
36 Carawan, E. M., ‘Thucydides and Stesimbrotus on the Exile of Themistocles’, Historia 38 (1989), 144Google Scholar; see also Ath. 13.56: ‘his book entitled A Treatise on Themistocles, and Thucydides, and Pericles’.
37 Plut, Vit. Per. 4.4–6.4.
38 Ibid., 26.2–3.
39 Plut. Vit. Them. 1.2.
40 Ibid., 2.4.
41 Hdt. 8.57.1–58.2.
42 ‘Music’ would not be the correct translation in this instance. A better version is something along the lines of ‘the philosophical quality imparted by the Muses’.
43 Zadorojnyi (n. 16), 284. Similarly, T. E. Duff, ‘Plutarch's Themistocles and Camillus’, in N. Humble (ed.), Plutarch's Lives. Parallelism and Purpose (Swansea, 2010), 48, writes that Themistocles’ ambition in his youth ‘leads him to reject what Plutarch calls “character-forming studies”’, citing Plut. Vit. Them. 2.3; but he seems to draw too hard a line between the kinds of studies in the phrase that Plutarch uses: τῶν παιδεύσεων τὰς μὲν ἠθοποιοὺς ἢ πρὸς ἡδονήν τινα καὶ χάριν ἐλευθέριον σπουδαζομένας ὀκνηρῶς καὶ ἀπροθύμως ἐξεμάνθανε (‘those branches [of learning] which aimed at the formation of character, or ministered to any gratification or grace of a liberal sort, he would learn reluctantly and sluggishly’). In this hendiadys, Plutarch is writing about music and polite accomplishments rather than about moral teaching.
44 Plut. Vit. Them. 2.4.
45 Aeschin. 1 (In Tim.).25.
46 Not all, however, are cited as sources for Themistocles’ own activities. The twenty-one authorities are Stesimbrotus (2.3), Herodotus (8.5, 17.1, 21.1), Pindar (8.2), Aristotle (10.4), Cleidemus (10.4), Phanias of Lesbos (13.3, 27.5, 29.7), Aeschylus (14.1), Timocreon of Rhodes (21.2–5), Theophrastus (25.1, 25.3), Thucydides (27.1), Charon of Lampsacus (27.1), Ephorus (27.1), Deinon (27.1), Cleitarchus (27.1), Heraclides (27.1), Eratosthenes (27.5), Neanthes of Cyzicus (29.7), Andocides (32.3), Phylarchus (32.3), Diodorus the Topographer (32.4), and Plato Comicus (32.5). Overall, Plutarch quotes ‘two hundred and fifty Greek authors, eighty of whom are known to us only by name’ (Podlecki [n. 13], 139; see also B. Perrin, Plutarch's ‘Cimon’ and ‘Pericles’ [New York, 1910], 10).
47 Plut. Vit. Them. 2.8.
48 Ibid., 3.4.
49 For Idomeneus, see Ath. 12.45; Idomeneus and Amphicrates: ibid., 13.37: but this reflects ‘Amphikrates’…completely naïve…debt to comic diabole’ (Bicknell, P., ‘Themistokles' Father and Mother’, Historia 31 [1982], 166Google Scholar).
50 For Neanthes, see Ath. 13.37.
51 For Possis and Clearchus, see ibid., 12.45.
52 See T. Whitmarsh, Ancient Greek Literature (Cambridge, 2004), 121: survival of the works of Greek historians as ‘eloquent testimonies to the ongoing value attached by the ancient Greeks to the archiving of the past, which was seen in later times as a crucial repository for cultural memory, even for cultural identity.’
53 Johansson, M., ‘The Inscription from Troizen: A Decree of Themistocles?’, ZPE 137 (2001), 75–8 (quotation from 78)Google Scholar.
54 Philostr. Imag. 2.31 [= 433], translation from A. Fairbanks (ed. and trans.), Philostratus, Imagines. Callistratus, Descriptions (London and New York, 1931). Improbably, Philostratus shoehorns the image which he has seen into a discourse of Greek simplicity versus eastern magnificence, continuing by saying that ‘[Themistocles] addresses some wise discourse to them, I think, trying to change their ways and make them give up their luxury’.
55 McMullin, R. M., ‘Aspects of Medizing: Themistocles, Simonides, and Timocreon of Rhodes’, CJ 97 (2001), 62Google Scholar.
56 He was not the only one, as he himself said: οὐκ ἆρα Τιμοκρέων μόνος / Μήδοισιν ὁρκιατομεῖ· (‘Timocreon is not the only one swearing oaths to the Medes’; Timocreon Fragment 3 [Page, Poetae Melici Graeci]).
57 McMullin (n. 55), 62: ‘It is…a great irony that Themistocles was himself ostracized and then condemned on charges of medizing’.
58 G. L. Cawkwell, ‘The Fall of Themistocles’, in B. F. Harris (ed.), Auckland Classical Essays Presented to E.M. Blaiklock (Auckland, 1970), 39–40.
59 Thuc. 1.135.
60 Plut. Vit. Them. 21.3.
61 C. M. Bowra, Greek Lyric Poetry (Oxford, 1936), 375–6, endorsed by McMullin (n. 55), 57.
62 Cawkwell (n. 58), 45.
63 Thuc. 1.90–1.
64 Plut. Vit. Them. 22.1–3.
65 Thuc. 1.135.
66 Cawkwell (n. 58), 45.
67 Thuc. 1.137.
68 Plut. Vit. Cim. 16.8–17.2; Thuc. 1.102.
69 Thuc. 1.101.
70 Ibid., 5.68.2.
71 Plut. Vit. Them. 22.1–2.
72 J. Travlos, Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Athens (London, 1971), 121.
73 SEG 22.116, with A. G. Woodhead's notes at SEG xxii.43 (in usum liminis refectam; ‘reused as a doorstep’).
74 Plut. Vit. Them. 22.2.
75 Thuc. 1.138.6; but Pausanias writes (1.1.2) that ‘near the largest harbour [i.e. at the Piraeus] is the grave of Themistocles. For it is said that the Athenians repented of their treatment of Themistocles, and that his relations took up his bones and brought them from Magnesia’ (translation from W. H. S. Jones [ed. and trans.], Pausanias. Description of Greece. Books I and II [London and New York, 1918]). This is in some tension with Thucydides’ version, and it is not clear when secrecy about commemorating Themistocles at Athens became redundant; but Pausanias goes on to say that Themistocles’ children set up a painting of Themistocles in the Parthenon (ibid.).
76 Hdt. 6.136.
77 Plut. Vit. Arist. 27.1.
78 Plut. De exil. 602a: ἀπωλόμεθ’ ἄν, εἰ μὴ ἀπωλόμεθα (my own translation).