Themistocles

Of his property, much was secretly abstracted for him by his friends and sent across the sea to Asia; but the sum total of that which was brought to light and confiscated amounted to one hundred talents, according to Theopompus,—Theophrastus says eighty,—and yet Themistocles did not possess the worth of three talents before he entered political life.

After landing at Cyme, and learning that many people on the coast were watching to seize him, and especially Ergoteles and Pythodorus,—for the chase was a lucrative one to such as were fond of getting gain from any and every source, since two hundred talents had been publicly set upon his head by the King,—he fled to Aegae, a little Aeolic citadel. Here no one knew him except his host Nicogenes, the wealthiest man in Aeolia, and well acquainted with the magnates of the interior.

With him he remained in hiding for a few days. During this time, after the dinner which followed a certain sacrifice, Olbius, the paedagogue of the children of Nicogenes, becoming rapt and inspired, lifted up his voice and uttered the following verse:—

1. Night shall speak, and night instruct thee, night shall give thee victory.

then became an eagle as soon as it touched his face, enveloped him with its wings and lifted him on high and bore him a long distance, when there appeared as it were a golden herald’s wand, on which it set him securely down, freed from helpless terror and distress. However that may be, he was sent on his way by Nicogenes, who devised the following scheme for his safety. Most barbarous nations, and the Persians in particular, are savage and harsh in their jealous watchfulness over their women.

Not only their wedded wives, but also their boughten slaves and concubines are strictly guarded, so that they are seen by no outsiders, but live at home in complete seclusion, and even on their journeys are carried in tents closely hung round about with curtains and set upon four-wheeled wagons. Such a vehicle was made ready for Themistocles, and safely ensconced in this he made his journey, while his attendants replied in every case to those who met them with enquiries, that they were conducting a Hellenic woman, fair but frail, to one of the King’s courtiers.

Now Thucydides[*](Thuc. 1.137) and Charon of Lampsacus relate that Xerxes was dead, and that it was his son Artaxerxes with whom Themistocles had his interview; but Ephorus and Dinon and Clitarchus and Heracleides and yet more besides have it that it was Xerxes to whom he came. With the chronological data Thucydides seems to me more in accord, although these are by no means securely established.

Be that as it may, Themistocles, thus at the threshold of the dreadful ordeal, had audience first with Artabanus the Chiliarch, or Grand Vizier, and said that he was a Hellene, and that he desired to have an audience with the King on matters which were of the highest importance and for which the monarch entertained the most lively concern. Whereupon the Chiliarch replied: O Stranger, men’s customs differ; different people honor different practices; but all honor the exaltation and maintenance of their own peculiar ways.