Herodotus had no Athenian victories to record after the initial success, and the fact that Themistocles was able to carry his proposal to devote the surplus funds of the state to the building of so large a fleet seems to imply that the Athenians were themselves convinced that a supreme effort was necessary.

Furthermore, after the treason and disgrace of the Spartan general Pausanias, the Spartans tried to implicate Themistocles in the plot ; he was, however, acquitted of these charges.

Thucydides and Plutarch say that Themistocles asked for a year's grace to learn the Persian language and customs, after which he would serve the king, and Artaxerxes granted this.

When, after a year, Themistocles returned to the king's court, he appears to have made an immediate impact, and " he attained ... very high consideration there, such as no Hellene has ever possessed before or since ".

Plutarch indicates that he met in Athens a lineal descendant of Themistocles ( also called Themistocles ) who was still paid these revenues, 600 years after the events in question.

The origins of this sport is claimed to be derived from the Athenians when Themistocles, marching his army against the Persians, chanced upon two cocks fighting and charged his army saying “ Behold, these do not fight for their household gods, for the monuments of their ancestors, for glory, for liberty or the safety of their children, but only because one will not give way to the other .” Inspired, his army defeated the Persians and after ordained by law, cockfighting was annually practiced as " an institution partly religious and partly political at Athens, and continued there for the purpose of improving the seeds of valour in the minds of the Athenian youth ".

Artaxerxes I offered asylum to Themistocles, who was the winner of the Battle of Salamis, after Themistocles was ostracized from Athens and Artaxerxes I gave him Magnesia, Myus and Lampsacus to maintain him in bread, meat and wine, Palaescepsis to provide him with clothes and he gave him Percote with bedding for his house.

These events are commemorated by Timocreon in Fragment 727 ( see below ), composed in 480 BC or just a few years after the Battle of Salamis, though some scholars date it after Themistocles ' fall from grace in Athens in 471 BC.

Soon after the Battle of Salamis the Athenian fleet led by Themistocles extorted money from the city.

As a politician, Themistocles was a populist, having the support of lower class Athenians, and generally being at odds with the Athenian nobility.

If Xerxes could destroy the Allied navy, he would be in a strong position to force an Allied surrender ; conversely by avoiding destruction, or as Themistocles hoped, by destroying the Persian fleet, the Allies could prevent conquest from being completed.

* In 480 BC the Greek officer of state and navy commander Themistocles ordered the evacuation of Athens as a strategic countermeasure to the approaching Persian army, leading to 100, 000 inhabitants being displaced in the late summer.

In the fifth century BC, the exiled Athenian Themistocles came to Persia to offer his services to Artaxerxes, and was given control of Magnesia to support his family.

It is possible that Timocreon was on Andros at this time and he paid Themistocles three talents of silver to restore him to his home town in Rhodes, from which he had been exiled for medizing.

Around the same time, due to encouragement from influential speaker Themistocles, the Athenians also constructed the Long Walls connecting their city to the Piraeus, its port, making it effectively invulnerable to attack by land.

Themistocles thus fled from Greece, and travelled to Asia Minor, where he entered the service of the Persian king Artaxerxes I.

Themistocles can still reasonably be thought of as " the man most instrumental in achieving the salvation of Greece " from the Persian threat, as Plutarch describes him.

It is clear from Herodotus, however, that Themistocles would be the real leader of the fleet.

At this point Themistocles accepted a large bribe from the local people for the fleet to remain at Artemisium, and used some of it to bribe Eurybiades to remain, whilst pocketing the rest.

Aristides had been recalled from exile along with the other ostracised Athenians on the order of Themistocles, so that Athens might be united against the Persians.

Themistocles then fled from Greece, apparently never to return, thus effectively bringing his political career to an end.

From Molossia, Themistocles apparently fled to Pydna, from where he took a ship for Asia Minor.

Themistocles died at Magnesia in 459 BC, at the age of 65, according to Thucydides, from natural causes.

Both Herodotus and Plato record variations of an anecdote in which Themistocles responded with subtle sarcasm to an undistinguished man who complained that the great politician owed his fame merely to the fact that he came from Athens.

:" Timodemus of Aphidnae, who was one of Themistocles ' enemies but not a man of note, was crazed with envy and spoke bitterly to Themistocles of his visit to Lacedaemon, saying that the honors he had from the Lacedaemonians were paid him for Athens ' sake and not for his own.

As Plato tells it, the heckler hails from the small island of Seriphus ; Themistocles retorts that it is true that he would not have been famous if he had come from that small island, but that the heckler would not have been famous either if he had been born in Athens.

Themistocles was evidently sociable and appears to have enjoyed strong personal loyalty from his friends.

* In the film Lawrence of Arabia ( 1962 ) T. E. Lawrence, played by actor Peter O ' Toole, quotes Themistocles saying, " I cannot fiddle, but I can make a great state from a little city.

It is based primarily upon the Life of Themistocles and Life of Aristides from Plutarch.

The Allied fleet now sailed from Artemisium to Salamis to assist with the final evacuation of Athens ; en route Themistocles left inscriptions addressed to the Ionian Greek crews of the Persian fleet on all springs of water that they might stop at, asking them to defect to the Allied cause.

* The Athenian soldier and statesman, Aristides, as well as the former Athenian archon Xanthippus, return from banishment in Aegina to serve under Themistocles against the Persians.

Spiral design altar block from the Tarxien Temples of Malta, uncovered by Themistocles Zammit | Sir Themistocles Zammit

This inference is supported by the date of the building of the 200 triremes for the war against Aegina on the advice of Themistocles, which is given in the Constitution of Athens as 483-482 BC.

Themistocles was born in Athens around 524 BC, the son of Neocles, who was, in the words of Plutarch " no very conspicuous man ".

Plutarch indicates that, on account of his mother's background, Themistocles was considered something of an outsider ; furthermore the family appear to have lived in an immigrant district of Athens, Cynosarges, outside the city walls.

Themistocles grew up in a period of upheaval in Athens.

The new system of government in Athens opened up a wealth of opportunity for men like Themistocles, who previously would have had no access to power.

" Themistocles moved to the Ceramicus, a down-market part of Athens.

Touring the taverns, the markets, the docks, canvassing where no politician had thought to canvas before, making sure never to forget a single voter's name, Themistocles had set his eyes on a radical new constituency " However, he took care to ensure that he did not alienate the nobility of Athens.

Themistocles probably turned 30 in 494 BC, which qualified him to become an archon, the highest magistracies in Athens.

In advancing naval power, Themistocles was probably advocating a course of action he thought essential for the long-term prospects of Athens.

Themistocles, with his power-base firmly established amongst the poor, moved naturally to fill the vacuum left by Miltiades's death, and in that decade became the most influential politician in Athens.

In the run up to the Persian invasion, Themistocles had thus become the foremost politician in Athens.

The Spartans claimed the command of land forces, and since the Greek ( hereafter referred to as " Allied ") fleet would be dominated by Athens, Themistocles tried to claim command of the naval forces.

" His proposals accepted, Themistocles issued orders for the women and children of Athens to be sent to the city of Troezen, safely inside the Peloponnesus.

By delaying in this manner, Themistocles gave the Athenians enough time to fortify the city, and thus ward off any Spartan attack aimed at preventing the re-fortification of Athens.

Themistocles was probably aiming to make Athens the dominant naval power in the Aegean.

Themistocles introduced tax breaks for merchants and artisans, to attract both people and trade to the city, in order to make Athens a great mercantile centre.

Plutarch reports that Themistocles also proposed in secret to destroy the beached ships of the other Allied navies, in order to ensure complete naval dominance, but was overruled by Aristides and the council of Athens.

This he kept saying until Themistocles replied, ' This is the truth of the matter: if I had been a man of Belbina I would not have been honored in this way by the Spartans, nor would you, sir, for all you are a man of Athens.