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THEMISTOCLES.

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Bust of Themistocles.

THE birth of Themistocles was somewhat too obscure 1 to do him honour. His father Neocles was not of the distinguished people of Athens, but a townsman of Phrearrhi, in the tribe Leontis; and by his mother's side, he is said to have been base-born.

I am not of the noble Grecian race,

I'm poor Abrotonon, and born in Thrace;
Let the Greek women scorn me, if they please,
I was the mother of Themistocles.

Though Phanias says that his mother was not of Thrace, but of Caria, and that her name was not Abrotonon, but Euterpe; and Neanthes adds further, that she was of Halicarnassus in Caria. And so, as illegitimate children, including those that were of the halfblood or had but one parent an Athenian, had to attend

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at the Cynosarges, a wrestling-place outside the gates, dedicated to Hercules, who was also of half-blood amongst the gods, having had a mortal woman for his mother, Themistocles persuaded some of the young men of high birth to accompany him to anoint and exercise at Cynosarges; and in this ingenious way destroyed the distinction between the noble and the base-born, and between those of the whole and those of the half-blood of Athens. However, it is certain that he was related to the house of the Lycomidæ *; for Simonides records that he rebuilt the chapel of Phlya belonging to that family, and beautified it with pictures and other ornaments, after it had been burnt by the Persians.

It is confessed by all that from his youth he was of a vehement and impetuous nature, of a quick apprehension, and a strong and aspiring bent for action and state affairs. The holidays and intervals in his studies ne did not spend in play or idleness, as other children, but would be always inventing or arranging some oration or declamation to himself, the subject of which was generally the excusing or accusing his companions. So that his master would often say to him: "You, my boy, will be nothing small; but great one way or other, for good or else for bad." He received reluctantly and carelessly instructions given him to improve his manners and behaviour, or to teach him any pleasing or graceful accomplishment; but whatever was said to

*This was an ancient Attic family to whom an hereditary priesthood belonged; and in their chapel at Phlya there seems to have been an inscription in verse by Simonides, which was extant in his collected works.

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