Themistocles - Later Life and Death

Later Life and Death

From Molossia, Themistocles apparently fled to Pydna, from where he took a ship for Asia Minor. This ship was blown off course by a storm, and ended up at Naxos, which an Athenian fleet was in the process of besieging. Desperate to avoid identification, Themistocles cajoled the captain of the ship to continue the journey immediately. According to Thucydides, who wrote within living memory of the events, the ship eventually landed safely at Ephesus, where Themistocles disembarked. Plutarch has the ship docking at Cyme in Aeolia, and Diodorus has Themistocles making his way to Asia in an undefined manner. Diodorus and Plutarch next recount a similar tale, namely that Themistocles stayed briefly with an acquaintance (Lysitheides or Nicogenes) who was also acquainted with the Persian king, Artaxerxes I. Since there was a bounty on Themistocles's head, this acquaintance devised a plan to safely convey Themistocles to the Persian king in the type of covered wagon that the King's concubines travelled in. All three chroniclers agree that Themistocles's next move was to contact the Persian king; in Thucydides, this is by letter, while Plutarch and Diodorus have a face-to-face meeting with the king. The spirit is the same in all three however: Themistocles introduces himself to the king and seeks to enter his service.

"I, Themistocles, am come to you, who did your house more harm than any of the Hellenes, when I was compelled to defend myself against your father's invasion - harm, however, far surpassed by the good that I did him during his retreat, which brought no danger for me but much for him." (Thucydides)

Thucydides and Plutarch say that Themistocles asked for a year's grace to learn the Persian language and customs, after which he would serve the king, and Artaxerxes granted this. Plutarch reports that, as might be imagined, Artaxerxes was elated that such a dangerous and illustrious foe had come to serve him.

At some point in his travels, Themistocles's wife and children were extricated from Athens by a friend, and joined him in exile. His friends also managed to send him many of his belongings, although up to 100 talents worth of his goods were confiscated by the Athenians. When, after a year, Themistocles returned to the king's court, he appears to have made an immediate impact, and "he attained...very high consideration there, such as no Hellene has ever possessed before or since". Plutarch recounts that "honors he enjoyed were far beyond those paid to other foreigners; nay, he actually took part in the King's hunts and in his household diversions." Themistocles advised the king on his dealings with the Greeks, though it seems that for a long period, the king was distracted by events elsewhere in the empire, and thus Themistocles "lived on for a long time without concern". He was made governor of the district of Magnesia on the Maeander River in Asia Minor, and assigned the revenues of three cities; Magnesia (about 50 talents per year - "for bread"), Myus ("for meat") and Lampsacus ("for wine"). Neanthes of Cyzicus and Phanias add two more, the city of Palaescepsis ("for clothes") and the city of Percote with bedding and furniture for his house.

Themistocles died at Magnesia in 459 BC, at the age of 65, according to Thucydides, from natural causes. However, perhaps inevitably, there were also rumours surrounding his death; that finding that he could not keep the promises that he had made to the king, he committed suicide by taking poison, or drinking bull's blood. Plutarch provides the most evocative version of this story:

But when Egypt revolted with Athenian aid...and Cimon's mastery of the sea forced the King to resist the efforts of the Hellenes and to hinder their hostile growth...messages came down to Themistocles saying that the King commanded him to make good his promises by applying himself to the Hellenic problem; then, neither embittered by anything like anger against his former fellow-citizens, nor lifted up by the great honor and power he was to have in the war, but possibly thinking his task not even approachable, both because Hellas had other great generals at the time, and especially because Cimon was so marvelously successful in his campaigns; yet most of all out of regard for the reputation of his own achievements and the trophies of those early days; having decided that his best course was to put a fitting end to his life, he made a sacrifice to the gods, then called his friends together, gave them a farewell clasp of his hand, and, as the current story goes, drank bull's blood, or as some say, took a quick poison, and so died in Magnesia, in the sixty-fifth year of his life...They say that the King, on learning the cause and the manner of his death, admired the man yet more, and continued to treat his friends and kindred with kindness.

After his death, Themistocles's bones were transported to Attica on his request, and buried in his native soil in secret, it being illegal to bury an Athenian traitor in Attica. The Magnesians built a "splendid tomb" in their market place for Themistocles, which still stood during the time of Plutarch, and continued to dedicate part of their revenues to the family of Themistocles. Plutarch indicates that he met in Athens a lineal descendant of Themistocles (also called Themistocles) who was still paid these revenues, 600 years after the events in question.