Day was breaking at the watchtower on Salamis, at the edge of the peninsula, in Kynosoura across from Athens.

This time without suspense.

Without fear.

"We are the rulers of the sea" said Themistocles, unable to conceal his self-satisfaction.

"But victory on the sea cannot give us back our city" Aristeides answered drily, looking sorrowfully across at the ruined Athens.

"We will take it back. We will rebuild it. Greater. More glorious.

"The Persians still rule the land. You cannot build cities on the sea."

"The sea was the decisive step. The first great blow to the arrogant Persian."

"What will the second be? Will we disembark troops in Faliro?" asked Cimonas, who was standing behind them.

"No. that will be the third step. The second is to take advantage of today's victory and our mastery on the sea."

"Don't talk in riddles and enigmas to impress me. We're not the crowd. Tell us clearly what you're thinking."

"I am thinking we should go on campaign, Aristeides."

"Against Persia?" asked Cimonas in astonishment. He had learned to expect anything and everything from the reckless Themistocles.

"No. On the beaches of Ionia and all the islands in between, to cut off their return. The Persian army will be shut in here, far from its supply bases and reserves. It is our great opportunity to be done with them once and for all.

"Great opportunities like that, Themistocles, are usually seen by small minds. Or by great minds that have become dangerously swollen by a triumph. You mind is not small, but it is probably very swollen. You are a masterful thinker, but you can be carried away by your abilities and end up in catastrophe" Aristeides told him bluntly.

Cimonas started up at the insult to the man whom everyone admitted was the savior of Greece.

But Themistocles was not angry. He did not even reply to the insult.

"It is our chance for glory… Our chance to trap and destroy the whole enemy army" he said simply.

"For glory… isn't the glory you got today enough for you?" Aristeides asked ironically, before going back to his usual serious tone. "If the only thing you want is glory, I don't have anything more to say. But what I want is to get back our city by driving the Persians out of our land. And there isn't a better way to fail in doing that, than by trapping them here."

"Why?" asked Themistocles, honestly puzzled.

"Because everyone knows that a wild beast that loses all hope of getting out alive, will fight fiercely to the end with everything it has. We do not want to annihilate all the Persians. What we want is to force them to leave as soon as possible. That is precisely why we must not only not make their escape difficult, but make it easier if we can."

Themistocles did not speak. He simply thought and listened. In any case, that was the great advantage that had brought him his victory. He always listened to good advice, forgetting his egotism and his stubbornness.

"Yes… Perhaps you are right, Aristeides…" he admitted after a little while. "But…"

"But you want the glory."

"Haste is worse than stupidity sometimes" he said, smiling. "You are right. We must not cut off their retreat. But that is precisely why we must continue to say it as if we were certain to do it. It's a good idea to let all our Persian captives know that as clearly as we can, and then let them go back to their camp to tell their emperor what they have learned here. That the Greeks will cut off all the sea routes very soon…"

Aristeides smiled, understanding the trick. "Sometimes you frighten me, Themistocles. I am afraid I will never manage to beat you in the assembly. One day I might have to ostracize you and exile you to get rid of you…" he said in a cheerful and light-hearted voice, as if he were making some joke to his soldiers.

But neither Themistocles nor Cimonas laughed. Both of them knew that Aristeides' memory was worse than a camel's, and so was his stubbornness.

"If we're going to use your trick, then we have to hurry" said Cimonas to break the awkward silence. "We can't be sure the captives will be alive much longer. Especially now that the soldiers on their side are setting fire to the few buildings that remain standing in the city…"

The three Athenians turned and looked darkly at the new fires burning across from them. The Persians that had survived the massacre had spent the night in contemptible revenge, setting fires to what remained of Athens.

"Yes, victory on the sea could not save our city…" repeated Aristeides with simultaneous rage and sorrow.

"It saved us though."

"You may feel great today, but you are nothing in comparison with your country. Not one of us is so great that he is worth saving at the price of Athens."

"Not one of us, no. But we, her citizens, all her people who have been saved, we can rebuild her gloriously just because we managed to save ourselves" Themistocles told him sharply. "A city is not her buildings or her streets or even her temples. A city is not her lands or the fortunes of her rich citizens, strange as that may seem to you, Aristeides. A city is her people. It is her citizens. And because of our victory on the sea, those are unharmed and no longer in danger."

"For all your pompous rhetoric, the Persians still have our lands. Where will we build this new city? On the water of the sea, perhaps? Is it your purpose that we should become followers of Poseidon? Or do you perhaps want us to live out the rest of our lives in boats, as fishers and oarsmen?"

"You could never accept that, leader of the oligarchs, arrogant aristocrat." Themistocles answered, laughing sarcastically.

"I don't understand. What do you mean?"

"That today's victory was not won by your kind, the supercilious aristocrats born into wealth, but by the poor, the illiterate, the humble and the despised, the worst, as you like to call them. The simple people of the earth and the sea. The fishers and oarsmen. The people of Athens…"

"They are necessary too, I'm not saying they're not."

"At least you admit it."

"Necessary for you, I mean. Necessary for a rabble-rouser demagogue who needs to manipulate the crowd to rule the city just as he likes, without any control!" Aristeides raised his voice in indignation.

"I have never ruled without any control. I have always had the consent of the democratic assembly."

"Exactly. The assembly. The mob you control to ostracize and exile your opponents…" said Aristeides with a bitter note in his voice that was entirely personal.

"But I brought you back. I convinced them to repeal your exile."

"So you could win."

"It was not only me that won. We all won together."

"But before that, you convinced the mob to exile me. You decided that I had to leave the city so you wouldn't have me underfoot and you imposed on the assembly…"

"That's democracy, my friend. The people decide, the same people you call the mob. And their decisions must be respected because they are sacred. Even if they are painful, like exile" Themistocles answered him easily and naturally. Just then, on the day of his great triumph, he could not know that he would hear the same words many years later, and he would remember them until the end of his life.

Cimonas, who had been listening to them without speaking all this time, shook his head sadly. Only a few hours had passed since their magnificent victory, and the two political opponents had already started arguing, mocking and threatening each other again, forgetting the few hours when they had stood united against the enemy.

"Greeks…" he muttered to himself downheartedly. Then, giving a bitter smile, he turned to go. "They'll never change…"


[ 459 B.C. ]

[ "I, Themistocles" ]

The man walked up and down with hesitant steps in the half-dark room which was lit only by the faint, flickering light of oil lamps. He went to the great window on the east side, pushed aside the linen curtain that kept out the heat of the sun during the day, and looked at the view that lay before him, all silver under the full moon. There were fig trees and vineyards next to the great farmhouse, then olive trees and wheatfields, the cut stalks of harvested wheat gleaming in the silver rays.

He let out the stale air he had been holding in his chest and longingly breathed in the warm evening breeze, as the scents of the countryside surrounded him. The scents that were familiar to him from his childhood years. The scents of his country. The heavy, sweet odor of the figs first of all, then the slight sourness of the vines with their maturing grapes, the delicate but piercing tinge of the olive trees and the hot, choking smell of the harvested wheat.

It was all an illusion he stubbornly cultivated here in Magnesia on the coast of Asia, where he had lived for ten years now. He was a journey of months away from Athens and Greece. A sea separated him from his country, a sea that the Athenians had controlled for many years now, thanks to him. The one they had sent away, the one they had condemned for treason and exiled.

In one hand he held the papyrus with the golden border and the imperial seal, and in the other the full cup he had been holding for a long time now without drinking a drop. His mind travelled through images, words, triumphs, praise, accusations, persecution. The first few years after they defeated the Persians had been years of acclamation and increasing power. Then followed accusations and a fall. It was the usual tactic in Greece, and he did not blame anyone. He knew the rules. Before he suffered from them, he had taken advantage of them himself.

"Artemis, my goddess and my protector…" he murmured, looking at the dark forest covering the mountainside opposite. "Guide me, give me strength."

In his life he had enjoyed everything it was possible to enjoy. He had had victories in the beginning. It had all started with that first time when he saved Lambrias in their training. Then he had won distinction in politics, was elected to the position of general, had resolutions voted on in the assembly of the people, created the fleet, made the agreement with Leonidas, led the navy, won victory with his tricks and strategies, and triumphed over the Persians. Immediately after that came the best years of his life. He had held the first place in honor among the Greeks who fought against the Persians, there had been eulogies and the crown of olives was awarded him by the Spartans for his wisdom and bravery in battle. And finally there was his best moment, the height of his glory, when he entered the stadium during the Olympic Games and thousands of spectators from all over Greece had stopped cheering the athletes and applauded him, the hero and savior of their country.

Yes, in his life he had enjoyed everything. And right after that, he had suffered everything. Plots, accusations, condemnation, exile, persecution. The assembly of the people that he himself had supported with all his might against the scorn and oppression of the aristocrats, decided to exile him from the city he had made glorious. Then began his great persecution, the worst period in his life, the merciless pursuit from one end of Greece to the other. He lived every day in fear and with the bitterness of ingratitude, the most painful of all emotions. He was persecuted, humiliated and condemned as a traitor by his own country.

"As a traitor…" he muttered to himself in a heavy voice, and looked at the papyrus in his hand. "I… Themistocles…"

He left Greece by night hidden in a merchant ship to save himself, before the soldiers could arrest him. Because the only helping hand stretched out to him in his time of trouble was the hand of his beloved, whom he had mocked and betrayed. Artemisia, who received him in Halicarnassus. Artemisia, who generously offered him refuge and hospitality worthy of a hero.

"And of a father… The father of our child…" she murmured, and for a moment a faint smile played on her lips.

The memory of the queen filled his mind for a little while. She was a relief and an embrace for his troubled spirit. He could still see her warm eyes and feel her smooth skin, enjoy her delicious body after so many years. But most of all, it was her warm-hearted words that he remembered now, in his sorrow. And even more than that, he remembered their son looking at him from a distance in the stadiums and gymnasiums. He had a strong body and a sharp mind. He's a worthy son, he had thought then, worthy of the mother who raised him. They were a great comfort, both of them, Jason and Artemisia.

"I can't do this…" she told him six months after he came to Halicarnassus, and Themistocles saw what he had never expected to see, tears in her fearless eyes. "I can't keep you here any longer. My legal husband demands that you leave…"

"Where can I go?" he asked, and his surprised mind was unable to find a solution.

But a solution was found, unexpectedly, that same night of perplexity and despair, after he prayed to the goddess Artemis. Later that evening he had a dream which was clearly send by the goddess to give him advice. He saw a great snake wrapped around his belly and gliding towards his throat. But as soon as it touched his face, it became a winged lion that enfolded him in its wings, picked him up and carried him far away in the direction of the sunrise. There, suddenly, a rod appeared like the ones held by messengers, but this one was made of gold and carved with a winged lion at its top, and he supported himself on it. Then he woke up and felt calmer, as if he had been released from the terrible turmoil and anxiety he had felt since hearing Artemisia's words.

The next day he left for Persia to the east. Royal chariots accompanied him and ambassadors from Halicarnassus traveled with him to present his case at the court of Artaxerxes, who ruled the empire after the death of his father, Xerxes.

He was astonished when the emperor greeted him warmly, spoke to him as a friend and presented him to his councilors and his courtiers. He welcomed him in his court and expressed the wish in front of everyone that Ahura Mazda would always give such minds to his enemies that they would send away their most competent leaders in peace and in war.

That was how he became the friend of the king he once defeated and humiliated. He sat at his side at symposia and gave him advice, when he asked, on questions of war, especially war on the sea. And the Persians did have many problems on the sea, since they had never managed to become familiar with it. And he was always his favorite and first on the list of his friends.

"I, Themistocles…"

And later, when many years had passed and the pursuit had died down, he asked to be allowed to withdraw from the Persian court and to live quietly, far away from his country, but also far away from other people, since the things he had lived through could not be experienced by anyone else, even if given the gift of immortality by the gods.

Then large territories were granted to him by his friend, the Great King Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, his enemy. They were located on the coast of Asia near the sea so that he could gaze towards his country from the tops of his hills, the country that had covered him with glory as its hero and condemned him as a traitor.

"I, Themistocles… Glory and shame together" he murmured slowly and sat on the ledge of the open window, filling his lungs with the clear air of morning and the nostalgic scents of the countryside.

He opened the papyrus he held in his hands and read the command of his benefactor, sent officially by ambassador from Persepolis, now the capital of the Persian empire. At its top, in decorative golden letters, was the name of the Great King. Then the imperial emblems, the winged lion and the white hawks crowned with the rays of the god of the sun, the Great Creator. Then the letters forming words which could be counted on the fingers of two hands, but which were heavy as anchors that reach the bottom of the sea in one breath.

And that was where Themistocles the Athenian was now. At the bottom. In his mind was Nemesis, the goddess of punishment. The time had come to pay for the good things he enjoyed from his friendship with the Great King. In the worst way. By really betraying his country. By making war against the fleet he himself had created. The one now commanded by Cimonas, the terror of the sea.

The Great King was asking his friend for help. Egypt had revolted again and the Athenian fleet was sailing to its aid. The king was asking him to make war against the fleet he knew so well. To take up command of the Persian ships and lead them with a steady hand and decisive spirit in the sea battle to victory over the Athenians, since he had no equal anywhere in the world in the art of naval warfare.

"Shall I really become a traitor to my country that bore me and raised me?" he had asked himself when he read the papyrus. "Or shall I become a traitor to my benefactor, who saved my life when everyone was persecuting me and denied me aid?"

It was a terrible dilemma. A terrible impasse. There was no answer. Both choices were the worst choice.

Traitor or ungrateful?

"Aren't those two the same thing?"

Just before the full moon reached the middle of its path, after praying to Artemis for hours, a thought came to his mind with the suddenness and clearness of lightning in the night sky.

"I have reached the age of sixty-five… I have seen many things in my life and experienced much more… My name will go down in history because of the things I have achieved in peace and in war, I, the unimportant son of a simple merchant, the hybrid citizen of a city that at that time was pretentious. Those things are not small…"

All the rest of the night brought images of glory and greatness to his mind.

He saw Artemisio and Salamis, the battles on land and sea and the victories. Then the distinction for bravery, the honorary crown from Sparta, the apotheosis in Olympia.

He looked first to the east, to his savior the Great King, two thousand kilometers away. And then to the west, to his great love, the sea. And beyond that, to his country. Athens. Greece. Crowned by the rosy and golden light of dawn.

"The time has come…" he murmured, smiling in satisfaction. He raised the silver cup he had been holding all night and drank the poison down in one gulp.

⁂

Notes:

- The Panathenaia was an ancient Greek festival in Athens dedicated to the patroness of the city, the goddess Athena. It took place every four years and for the citizens of Athens it was the most important event of the year, but it was not considered to be as important as the Olympic Games.

- The Taurobolion were sacred rituals conducted with sacrifices, which were very common in the ancient world. They were carried out to honor the Great Mother Goddess, the personification of the fertility of the earth, like the Egyptian Isis, the Phrygian Cybele, the Phoenician Astarte and possibly the Greek Dimitra in the Eleusinian mysteries. The Taurobolion was later transferred to Rome, mainly by the emperors Claudius and Hadrian.

- The Fates were three ancient Greek deities who determined the destiny of humans. Lachesis distributed the good and the bad, Clotho spun the thread of life, and Atropos cut it causing death.

- When the ancient Athenians became 18 years old they had to serve as soldiers for two years. In a formal ceremony they presented themselves to the democratic assembly of the city, were registered in the lists of adult citizens, and were given a spear and a shield. This ceremony was often accompanied by theatrical events. Then they climbed up to the Acropolis as armed soldiers and gave the Ephebic Oath holding a shield.

- The Hetaeras of Ancient Greece were a socially accepted institution. Although they were paid for their recreational and erotic services, they were very different from the simple prostitutes of the streets. They usually offered their services at symposia or banquets. The symposia were the prototype of male recreation and sociability. They were not open to reputable women, mothers, wives and daughters. In the symposia the men conversed, ate and drank, usually until they fell over and until dawn. After the philosophical dialogs and the political discussions there were dances, singing and games. They were the main area of activity of the hetaeras, who offered entertainment with conversation, jokes and finally with sexual intercourse, all paid for by the man who organized the symposium.

- Nemesis was an ancient Greek deity and simultaneously the personification of the goddess of justice, who gave everyone the happiness or the unhappiness that he or she deserved. She was the personification of vengeance, like the Furies, but she punished not only crime but also all garrulity and arrogance. The goddess's symbols were the ruler and the bridle. With these symbols she measured human thoughts, emotions and actions and put a limit on the rampant promiscuity of human egotism. Thus the conceit of mortals before the laws and their gross indifference to the common good were kept in check by the activity of Nemesis.

- The Agora of ancient Athens was the open area located next to the Acropolis and to the northwest of it. In ancient times it was the administrative, philosophical, educational, social, political and, above all, the economic center of the city. Its most important buildings were the Parliament, the Pyrtaneum (the seat of government), the Mint and the Court.

- Delphi was a Greek city where the most important oracle of the ancient Greek world was located, the Oracle of Delphi. It was dedicated to the god Apollo. The Pythia was the seeress who fell into a sacred ecstasy and gave her predictions, which were usually ambiguous and enigmatic and required interpretation by the priests of the oracle.

- The two great political parties of ancient Athens were the Democrats who spoke for the simple people and the Oligarchs who spoke for the aristocrats and noblemen. During the years of the Persian wars, Themistocles would become leader of the former and Aristeides leader of the latter.

- The Battle of Marathon, which was fought in August or September of 490 B.C., was a clash between the Greeks (Athenians and Plataeans) and the Persians during the first invasion of Greece by the Persians. Under the command of Datis and Artaphernes, the Persian army of fifty thousand foot soldiers, ten thousand cavalry and five hundred ships invaded Greece and encamped at Marathon about twenty five miles northwest of Athens, where they were met by a force of ten thousand Athenians without cavalry or ships. The battle ended in a decisive victory for the Greeks, owing to the military genius of General Miltiades, and the Persians were forced to go back to Asia in defeat, leaving thousands of dead on the field of battle. When the Olympic Games were revived in 1896, the organizers were searching for a contest that would commemorate the glory of Ancient Greece and Pierre de Coubertin suggested that the Marathon should be included. The distance of 26.23 miles was determined, exactly the distance from Athens to the battleground near Marathon.

- Greece was not a unified state, nor a compact empire. Each of its cities was its own little state, autonomous and unbound, with its own economy, institutions and army. The link that united all of these city states was their common origin, common language and common religion. The feeling that they belonged to the same people.

- Ostracism was a practice in the democracy of Athens that had the purpose of protecting the democratic system. It was used to deliver the Athenians from citizens who had accumulated excessive political power and had become dangerous. Once a year all the Athenians gathered in the assembly and every citizen, according to the tribe to which he belonged, left a piece of a clay vessel on which was written the name of a citizen whom he wished to ostracize. For someone to be ostracized, his name had to be found on more than 6000 of the clay pieces. Initially ostracism from the city lasted ten years, but later it was reduced to five.

- Black Broth was the main food of the warriors of Sparta. The dish consists of pig's blood, salt, vinegar, honey and crumbs of barley bread boiled all together so as to form a watery gruel. It gave strength and energy to the warrior, but it was completely tasteless.

- The Apella was the assembly of the citizens of Sparta, but it was not completely democratic as in Athens. Its democratic nature was significantly limited by the process, which did not allow the citizens to submit a proposal or counter proposal of a law or candidates for election to any office. The Apella was only competent to approve or reject proposals from the Senate, a council of wise old men, and its members were only allowed to speak if approved. Essentially, the wise old men of the Senate made all of the city's critical decisions such as treaties, alliances or declaration of war, and then they asked the Apella to accept or reject their proposals.

- The daily wage of an unskilled worker in Ancient Athens was 1 drachma, which would buy about ten kilos of wheat or a rich meal in a tavern at the market. A skilled worker received 1.5 drachmas as a daily wage and a senior judge received 3 drachmas. A simple, frugal meal with meat cost about half a drachma and a pair of shoes of pig leather, about 8 drachmas.

- Sparta had two equally powerful kings. In the case of a military campaign, one of the kings went out with the Spartan army, while the other remained behind to govern the city and defend it if it was attacked. In war, the king had the powers of a commander in chief over the other generals. He could negotiate a truce and he fought in the first line of the right flank, surrounded by his honorary royal guard of three hundred men. He had the power of life and death over his soldiers, including the citizens.

- The basic warship at that time was called a trireme, so called from the three banks of rows it had, one above the other, on both the right and left sides. It was constructed from fir, oak or pine wood, and was about 130 feet long, 15 feet wide, and six feet high. It also had a central mast with a large sail to take advantage of favorable winds, but for military maneuvers and in sea battles, only the oars were used. The crew consisted of 170 rowers in the thee banks, the petty officer who gave orders, the lookout who guided their course, the signalman who controlled communications, the officers, the soldiers on the deck who protected the ship, the captain who commanded it and the helmsman. The latter was perhaps the most important member of the crew since, with his large double oars, he steered the boat from the stern. The trireme had a raised, curved stern to look like the tail of a fish. To the fore, on its prow, it usually had a statue or emblem with two large eyes painted below it so that it looked like a sea monster, to frighten the enemy. Its most important weapon was the ram, a pointed metal extension about 2 yards long attached to the bottom part of the prow, pointing in the same direction as the line of sailing. The ram weighed about 450 pounds and was made of metal, usually copper or bronze, and was used in the famous ramming technique, i.e. to hit the other ship, open a hole in its wooden side, and sink it.

- The usual travelling speed for a warship of that era was about 2 nautical miles an hour with the sail and 4 with the oars. If the wind was favorable, they could get up to a speed of about 7 nautical miles with a combination of oars and sail. But when they had to attack, the rhythm of rowing increased and, without the sail, the ship could go at 8 miles an hour. For a few yards, just before ramming, the ship could reach a speed of 10 miles an hour with only the oars and in a calm sea, but this exhausted the rowers.

- Ten thousand drachmas corresponded to ten years of wages for a senior public servant or thirty years of wages for an unskilled worker.