Themistocles

He made himself hateful to the allies also, by sailing round to the islands and trying to exact money from them. When, for instance, he demanded money of the Andrians, Herodotus[*](Hdt. 8.111) says he made a speech to them and got reply as follows: he said he came escorting two gods, Persuasion and Compulsion; and they replied that they already had two great gods, Penury and Powerlessness, who hindered them from giving him money.

Timocreon, the lyric poet of Rhodes, assailed Themistocles very bitterly in a song, to the effect that for bribes he had secured the restoration of other exiles, but had abandoned him, though a host and a friend, and all for money. The song runs thus:—[*]( No attempt is made in the translations of Timocreon to imitate the meter of the original.)

1. Come, if thou praisest Pausanias, or if Xanthippus,
2. Or if Leotychidas, then I shall praise Aristides,
3. The one best man of all
4. Who came from sacred Athens; since Leto loathes Themistocles,

1. The liar, cheat, and traitor, who, though Timocreon was his host,
2. By knavish moneys was induced not to bring him back
3. Into his native Ialysus,
4. But took three talents of silver and went cruising off,—to perdition,
5. Restoring some exiles unjustly, chasing some away, and slaying some,
6. Gorged with moneys; yet at the
7. Isthmus he played ridiculous host with the stale meats set before his guests;
8. Who ate thereof and prayed Heaven no happy return of the day for Themistocles!

Much more wanton and extravagant was the raillery which Timocreon indulged in against Themistocles after the latter’s own exile and condemnation. Then he composed the song beginning:—

1. O Muse grant that this song
2. Be famed throughout all Hellas,
3. As it is meet and just.

Accordingly, when Themistocles also was accused of Medizing, Timocreon composed these lines upon him:—

1. Not Timocreon alone, then, made compacts with the Medes,
2. But there are other wretches too; not I alone am brushless,
3. There are other foxes too.

And at last, when even his fellow-citizens were led by their jealousy of his greatness to welcome such slanders against him, he was forced to allude to his own achievements when he addressed the Assembly, till he became tiresome thereby, and he once said to the malcontents: Why are ye vexed that the same men should often benefit you? He offended the multitude also by building the temple of Artemis, whom he surnamed Aristoboule, or Best Counsellor, intimating thus that it was he who had given the best counsel to the city and to the Hellenes.

This temple he established near his house in Melite, where now the public officers cast out the bodies of those who have been put to death, and carry forth the garments and the nooses of those who have dispatched themselves by hanging. A portrait-statue of Themistocles stood in this temple of Aristoboule down to my time, from which he appears to have been a man not only of heroic spirit, but also of heroic presence.