Themistocles’s review

Although Themistocles made a huge contribution to the strength of Athens, his reputation in the political arena was not good, and he often used unscrupulous means to achieve his goals. In the early days, he often used bribery and other means to gain political advantage, and even tried to defeat his ally Sparta. He was exiled largely for this reason.

Of course, in terms of military matters, Themistocles may be the first person in human military history who believed that the power of the navy was enough to affect the entire war situation. Under his leadership, Athens grew from scratch and developed Athenian maritime hegemony for the next century.

Before the Battle of the Gulf of Salami, he was able to lead all the Athenians to leave the city of Athens and go to the sea to fight the Persians, which further demonstrated his bravery and courage.

His tragic exile showed the world another side of Athenian democracy. In the end, he did not become an enemy of Athens and even committed suicide, remaining a great statesman in his later years.

After Themistocles was exiled, the political power of Athens was controlled by Aristides, and the power of the aristocracy increased. It was not until Pericles that the civilians regained control of the power. Born into a merchant family. Son of Neocles; although his father was wealthy, he did not belong to the most prominent family in Athens. His mother came from a foreign country and was not a descendant of Athenian citizens. Therefore, Themistocles suffered various discriminations from the children of famous aristocrats when he was a teenager. ; But these discriminations did not make him depressed, but instead became the motivation for him to work hard.

He has been extremely intelligent and eloquent since he was a child. The discrimination of others made him think more diligently, thus developing a calculating and practical character. After schoolwork, he was either thinking about problems or practicing prosecution and defense. For assignments that he thought were of little use, he took a perfunctory approach and did not care about the quality of his grades. In addition, like every Greek man, he exercised and learned martial arts. His teacher was amazed at his unusual perseverance and talent since he was a child, and has been observing him carefully. Finally, the teacher concluded: "This child will definitely become a great person in the future, either bringing benefit or causing trouble." From 493 BC to 492 BC, he served as chief consul, general and other positions. Participated in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) and defeated the invading Persian navy and army. This was also the first war that Themistocles participated in. He learned a lot of the art of commanding war from Miltiades, which prepared the conditions for taking on important responsibilities in the future. When the Athenians returned home, they found that the city they had lived in for generations had been reduced to scorched earth and rubble. Themistocles called on the residents to rebuild Athens and proposed building a coastal wall from Athens to the port of Piraeus. His intention was not entirely to deal with the Persians, but also to prevent the Spartans from coveting Athens. With his political experience and vision, he foresaw that as Persian power gradually withdrew from Europe and the Aegean Sea, Sparta and Athens would compete for dominance in Greece, and there would inevitably be conflicts and even wars. Sure enough, the Spartans responded immediately. They sent a delegation to advise Athens not to rebuild the city walls, let alone build the Great Coastal Wall. The reason is that if it falls into the hands of the Persians, it will become a fortress for the enemy. Themistocles understood the Spartans' intentions. The Spartan army was extremely powerful and used the phalanx as its main combat form, so they did not have city walls. The presence of city walls would hinder the army's actions. The Athenian army was no match for the Spartans. Wouldn't the Spartans be able to march straight in without the city wall? But how to deal with Sparta's demands might lead to the breakdown of the anti-Persian alliance. Themistocles thought over and over again and decided to use a plan.

According to Themistocles' suggestion, the Athenian government "politely" retained the Spartan representatives, but in fact they were used as hostages. Meanwhile, Themistocles set out for Sparta alone. When he arrived there, he did not meet with the Spartan government immediately, using the excuse that he would wait for other members of the delegation to arrive before holding talks. The Athenian government here mobilized all the skilled craftsmen to build the city walls and the Great Coastal Wall day and night. When the project was nearly completed and sufficient to withstand foreign invasion, the remaining members of the delegation were sent to Sparta. Only then did Themistocles tell the Spartans that he believed that Athens building the Great Wall would be beneficial to both Athens itself and other city-states. Because only on the basis of equality of power can we discuss the same interests equally. The Spartan government saw that the deal was done, and the opponent was Themistocles, whom they respected most, so they had no choice but to hide their inner dissatisfaction and let the Athenian representatives return home. After capturing Thermopylae, the Persian army commander marched straight into Greece and attacked the city of Athens. However, the city of Athens was empty, there was nothing. King Xerxes of Persia was furious and ordered the largest and richest city in Greece to be set on fire. In Greece at that time, a prophecy of the Sun God had been circulating: Greece's fate could only be saved by wooden walls! According to this prophecy, some people advocated evacuation of the residents to the mountains. However, Themistocles, the outstanding naval commander of Athens, had his own understanding of the ancient prophecy. He said that the future of Greece lies on the sea, and the wooden walls mentioned by the Sun God refer to large ships. Therefore, he suggested that all women and children take refuge in Trocine in Argos and on the island of Salamis, and that all men take warships and gather in the Gulf of Salamis. People in Athens and other city-states accepted his advice.

Just as the Persian army was heading straight for Athens, the Persian navy also bypassed Euboea, passed Attica, and arrived at Peleius, the outer port of Athens. They responded to each other on land and water, and were so powerful that they swallowed up mountains and rivers and flattened Greece.

Facing the land and sea attack by the Persian army, the Greek combined fleet concentrated in the Gulf of Salami south of Athens was shaken. Everyone has no confidence that this small force alone can defeat the Persian army. People in some city-states planned to sail out of the bay to defend their hometowns. At this critical moment, Themistocles stepped forward and suggested convening a military meeting to discuss combat strategies. At the meeting, Themistocles made an impassioned speech, pointing out that the warships must be concentrated in the Gulf of Salami to engage in a decisive battle with the Persian navy in order to achieve victory. He said that although there were many Persian warships, their hulls were bulky, so the narrow harbor and shallow waters of the Gulf of Salami could fully limit their advantages, and the Persian sailors were not familiar with the water conditions and routes of the bay; on the contrary, the Greek warships It is small in size and maneuverable, making it suitable for fighting in this narrow shallow bay. In addition, sailors fight in their own bays and are familiar with water conditions and routes, so they can give full play to their power. Therefore, Themistocles asserted: "Our fleet fights in a narrow sea and can defeat a large number with a small number. If we withdraw from the Gulf of Salami and fight decisively on open water, all Greece will perish together." Although Themis What Tokeli said made sense, and military meetings were held twice, but everyone still couldn't listen.

Seeing that the fighter plane was about to be lost, Themistocles was extremely anxious. Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind, and he came up with a clever plan: Why not ask the Persians to help? So he called one of his personal guards and gave him a secret letter, asking him to report to the King of Persia that the Greek navy was uneasy and did not dare to fight. They all wanted to escape from the bay. Xerxes was very happy when he saw the secret message, and immediately ordered the bay to be sealed tightly, and no ship was allowed to escape.

In the early morning of September 23, 480 BC, the Persian fleet completed the siege of the Greek fleet. At the west entrance of the bay, 200 Egyptian warships arrived at the designated position on time, blocking the Greek fleet's retreat; at the east entrance of the bay, more than 800 Persian warships lined up in three rows, blocking the sea tightly. Determined to win, Xerxes handed over command to the admiral Alamisia, and set up a tent on a hill near the Gulf of Salami, preparing to watch the battle leisurely. The historian standing next to him, holding a pen and paper in hand, was also preparing to truthfully record the glorious victory of the Persian navy.

While the Greeks were debating whether to fight or flee, a general who had opposed Themistocles suddenly burst in from the door and shouted: "Stop arguing and prepare to fight. ! The Persians have completely surrounded us." After seeing what had happened, everyone decided to obey Themistocles' order and fight the Persian navy in the Gulf of Salami. The course of the war

The Greek combined fleet, which was forced into a desperate situation, quickly deployed its formation under the command of Themistocles: the Corinthian fleet sailed to the west entrance of the Gulf to withstand the Egyptian attack; the main fleet was divided into left and right. The three teams, center and right, were concentrated at the east entrance of the bay to compete with the main Persian force. Originally, the Greek navy only had 358 warships, while the Persian navy had 1,207 warships. However, before the battle began, due to unfamiliarity with the weather and navigation conditions, the Persian navy encountered hurricanes twice during the encirclement operation. 600 warships were blown to pieces in the wind, and half of its combat effectiveness was lost.

After the battle began, the performance advantages and disadvantages of the warships on both sides were quickly revealed. Athens' new three-decker battleship is 40-45 meters long, with 170 oarsmen fixed on the upper, middle and lower decks. Small size, fast speed, strong maneuverability and shallow draft. The old-fashioned Persian warships with sails were large in size, slow in speed, poor in maneuverability, and had a deep draft. Taking advantage of his small and fast ship, Themistocles tactfully directed the Athenian warships to continuously attack the Persian warships in a diagonal direction. He used a copper-clad crossbar about 5 meters long on the bow to first hit the enemy's long ship. The oars broke, then turned the bow and slammed the copper-clad bow into the belly of the Persian warship. The enemy ships were rammed and sunk one by one. After a fierce battle, the Persian forward fleet could not resist and was forced to retreat. The Persian warships that were being added from behind did not know the battle situation. They rushed forward with the sound of flutes and drums. Since there was a favorable wind, the support warships with full sails rushed into the bay and collided head-on with the retreating forward ships, creating a mess. Seeing this, Themistocles took the opportunity to command the entire army to attack in all directions. The Persian fleet was in a dilemma and was knocked to pieces, unable to fight back. Seeing that the defeat was certain, the naval commander Alaysia had no choice but to retreat in embarrassment.

Persian King Xerxes watched the naval battle from beginning to end on the top of the mountain. He helplessly watched the Persian warships sink and sink, and those who were captured were captured. After eight hours of fierce fighting, 200 warships of the Persian fleet were sunk and 50 were captured. Facing the reality of failure, Xerxes had to start thinking about the future of the entire expeditionary force. Firstly, if the navy is defeated, the basic logistics supply of the army will be lost; secondly, the Greek navy may take advantage of the victory and attack the Hellespont Strait (the Dardanelles Strait) to cut off his return. Therefore, he ordered the remaining warships to quickly withdraw to the Hellespont Strait. A few days later, except for leaving a force to continue fighting in Central Greece, Xerxes led the rest of the troops back to Asia Minor.

The Battle of Salami was the decisive battle in the Greco-Persian War, following the Battle of Marathon and the Battle of Thermopylae. From then on, Greece began to switch from defense to offense, and finally drove the Persian army out of the Greek mainland.

Themistocles' heroic and resourceful performance before and after the naval battle made him famous on the Greek Peninsula. In recognition of his achievements, the Greeks awarded him a beautiful chariot and put an olive wreath on his head, which symbolized the highest honor. The next year, the Greek coalition destroyed the army left by Xerxes in Greece at Plataea. At about the same time, they destroyed the remaining Persian navy there at the Cape of Minor Amickal. In 449 BC, the Greek army completely defeated Persia on the island of Cyprus, and the two sides signed a peace treaty, ending the Greco-Persian War that lasted for about half a century.

Ancient Greek civilization is the most important and direct source of European civilization, and the Battle of Salami won everything for the Greeks.

Greece has since entered its heyday in history, with the Athenian Empire, the Parthenon and the "Golden Age" coming!