an attempt after such chimerical objects would be discovered by other means. But after Pausanias was put to death, letters and writings being found concerning this matter, which rendered Themistocles suspected, the Lacedæmonians were clamorous against him, and his enemies among his own countrymen accused him; when, being absent from Athens, he made his answer by letters, especially urging in his defence now, what had formerly been the points alleged against him. He wrote to the citizens, in answer to the allegations of his enemies, that he who was always ambitious to govern, and not of a character or a disposition to serve, would never have been likely to sell himself and his country into slavery to a barbarous and hostile nation. However the people, being persuaded by his accusers, sent officers to take him and bring him away to be tried before the Greeks. Themi B.C. 466. But having timely notice of it, he passed over into 24 the island of Corcyra, where the state was under obliga- Flightof tions to him; for being chosen as arbitrator in a differ- stocles, ence between them and the Corinthians, he decided the case by ordering the Corinthians to pay down twenty talents, and to have the town of Leucas considered a joint colony from both cities. From thence he fled into Epirus, and the Athenians and Lacedæmonians still pursuing him, he threw himself upon chances of safety that seemed all but desperate. For he fled for refuge to Admetus, king of the Molossians, who had formerly made some request to the Athenians, when Themistocles was in his authority, and had been disdainfully used and insulted by him, and had let it appear plain enough that could he lay hold of him, he 25 would take his revenge. Yet now in his distress, Themistocles, fearing the recent hatred of his own fellowcitizens more than the old displeasure of the king, put himself at the mercy of this, and became an humble suppliant to Admetus, after a peculiar manner, quite different from any common custom. For taking the king's son, who was then a child, in his arms, he laid himself down at his hearth; this being the most sacred, and only manner of supplication among the Molossians which was not to be refused. And some say that the king's wife Phthia intimated to Themistocles this way of petitioning, and placed her young son with him before the hearth; others, that king Admetus, that he might be under a religious obligation not to deliver him up to his pursuers, prepared and enacted with him a sort of stage-play to this effect. Epicrates of Acharnæ privately conveyed his wife and children out of Athens, and sent them to him hither, for which afterwards Cimon condemned him, and put him to death; so Stesimbrotus relates, and yet somehow, either forgetting this himself, or making Themistocles to be little mindful of it, says presently that he sailed into Sicily, and desired in marriage the daughter of Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, promising to bring the Greeks under his power; and on Hiero refusing him, departed thence into Asia. But it is not probable that such was the fact. For Theophrastus writes in his work on Monarchy, that when Hiero sent race-horses to the Olympic games, and erected a pavilion sumptuously furnished, Themistocles made an oration to the Greeks, inciting them to pull down the tyrant's tent, and not to suffer his horses to run. And Thucydides says that passing over land to the Egean Sea, he took ship at Pydna, not being known to any one on board, till being alarmed on seeing the vessel driven by the winds nea Naxos, which was then besieged by the Athenians, he made himself known to the master and pilot, and partly entreating them, partly threatening that if they went on shore, he would accuse them, and make the Athenians believe that they did not take him in out of ignorance, but that he had bribed them with money from the beginning, he thus compelled them to bear off and stand out to sea, and sail forward towards the coast of Asia. A great part of his estate was privately conveyed away by his friends, and sent after him by sea into Asia, besides which there was discovered and confiscated to the value of a hundred talents, as Theopompus writes; Theophrastus says eighty; though Themistocles was never worth three talents before he was concerned in public affairs. When he arrived at Cyme, and understood that all 26 along the coast there were many laid wait for him, and particularly Ergoteles and Pythodorus, (for the game was worth the hunting for such as were thankful to make money by any means, the king of Persia having offered by public proclamation two hundred talents to him that should take him,) he fled to Ægæ, a petty town of the Eolians, where no one knew him but only his host Nicogenes, who was the richest man in Æolia, and well known to the great men of Inner Asia. Whilst Themistocles lay hid for some days in his house, one night after a sacrifice and supper ensuing, Olbius, the attendant upon Nicogenes's children, fell into a sort of frenzy and fit of inspiration, and cried out in verse, Night shall speak, and night instruct thee, By the voice of night conduct thee. After this Themistocles, going to bed, dreamed that he court. 27 Thucydides and Charon of Lampsacus say that Xerxes Death of was dead, and that Themistocles had the interview with B.C. 465. his son; but Ephorus, Dinon, Clitarchus, Heraclides, and Xerxes, many others, write that he came to Xerxes. The chronological tables better agree with the account of Thucy dides, though neither can their statements be said to be quite set at rest. However, when Themistocles was come to the critical point, he applied himself first to Artabanus, commander of a thousand men, telling him that he was a Greek, and desired to speak with the king about important affairs, concerning which the king was extremely solicitous. Artabanus answered him, "O stranger, the laws of men are different, and one thing is honourable to one man, and to others another; but it is honourable for all to uphold and observe their own laws. It is the habit of the Greeks, we are told, to admire above all things independence and equality; but amongst our many excellent laws, we account this the most excellent, to honour the king, and worship him, as the image of the Great Preserver of the universe. If, then, you shall consent to our laws, and fall down before the king and worship him, you may both see him and speak to him; but if your mind be otherwise, you must make use of others to intercede for you, for it is not the national custom here for the king to give audience to any one that does not fall down before him." Themistocles, hearing this, replied, "Artabanus, I that come hither to increase the power and glory of the king, will not only submit myself to your laws, since so it has pleased the god who exalted the Persian empire to this greatness, but will also cause many more to be worshippers and adorers of the king. Let not this, therefore, be an impediment why I should not communicate to the king what I have to impart. Artabanus asking him, "Who must we tell him that you are? for your words signify you to be no ordinary person," Themistocles answered, "No man, O |