In 493 BC, Themistocles initiated the fortification works in Piraeus and later advised the Athenians to take advantage of its natural harbours ' strategic potential instead of using the sandy bay of Phaleron.

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

Perhaps realising he had little hope of surviving this trial, Themistocles fled, first to Kerkyra, and thence to Admetus, king of Molossia.

Diodorus and Plutarch next recount a similar tale, namely that Themistocles stayed briefly with an acquaintance ( Lysitheides or Nicogenes ) who was also acquainted with the Persian king, Artaxerxes I.

Since there was a bounty on Themistocles's head, this acquaintance devised a plan to safely convey Themistocles to the Persian king in the type of covered wagon that the King's concubines travelled in.

The spirit is the same in all three however: Themistocles introduces himself to the king and seeks to enter his service.

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.

In some accounts, Themistocles also ended up visiting the Persian king, following his ostracism and spectacular fall from public favour in Athens.

During the 6th and 5th century BC, Lampsacus was successively dominated by Lydia, Persia, Athens, and Sparta ; Artaxerxes I assigned it to Themistocles with the expectation that the city supply the Persian king with its famous wine.

Other declamations, only known from the excerpts in Photius, were imaginary orations put into the mouth of famous persons -- Demosthenes advocating the recall of Aeschines from banishment, Hypereides supporting the policy of Demosthenes, Themistocles inveighing against the king of Persia, an orator unnamed attacking Epicurus for atheism before Julian at Constantinople.

It starred Richard Egan as the Spartan king Leonidas, Ralph Richardson as Themistocles of Athens and David Farrar as Persian king Xerxes, with Diane Baker as Ellas and Barry Coe as Phylon providing the requisite romantic element in the film.

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.

Due to subterfuge on the part of Themistocles, the Allies lured the Persian fleet into the Straits of Salamis, and the decisive Greek victory there was the turning point in the invasion, which was ended the following year by the defeat of the Persians at the Battle of Plataea.

It was Thucydides's judgement that Themistocles was " a man who exhibited the most indubitable signs of genius ; indeed, in this particular he has a claim on our admiration quite extraordinary and unparalleled ".

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.

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 avoided mentioning Persia, deeming that it was too distant a threat for the Athenians to act on, and instead focused their attention on Aegina.

As Holland has it: " What precise heights of oratory he attained, what stirring and memorable phrases he pronounced, we have no way of knowing ... only by the effect it had on the assembly can we gauge what surely must have been its electric and vivifying quality-for Themistocles ' audacious proposals, when put to the vote, were ratified.

From this point on, Themistocles appears to have been more-or-less in charge of the Allied effort at Artemisium.

Themistocles sent a servant, Sicinnus, to Xerxes, with a message proclaiming that Themistocles was " on king's side and prefers that your affairs prevail, not the Hellenes ".

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.

Either way, the Allies prepared for battle, and Themistocles delivered a speech to the marines before they embarked on the ships.

Furthermore, Plutarch reports that at the next Olympic Games: " Themistocles entered the stadium, the audience neglected the contestants all day long to gaze on him, and pointed him out with admiring applause to visiting strangers, so that he too was delighted, and confessed to his friends that he was now reaping in full measure the harvest of his toils in behalf of Hellas.

Admetus, however, allowed Themistocles to escape, giving him a large sum of gold to aid him on his way.

Plutarch provides the most evocative version of this story: But when Egypt revolted with Athenian aid ... and Cimon's mastery of the sea forced the King to resist the efforts of the Hellenes and to hinder their hostile growth ... messages came down to Themistocles saying that the King commanded him to make good his promises by applying himself to the Hellenic problem ; then, neither embittered by anything like anger against his former fellow-citizens, nor lifted up by the great honor and power he was to have in the war, but possibly thinking his task not even approachable, both because Hellas had other great generals at the time, and especially because Cimon was so marvelously successful in his campaigns ; yet most of all out of regard for the reputation of his own achievements and the trophies of those early days ; having decided that his best course was to put a fitting end to his life, he made a sacrifice to the gods, then called his friends together, gave them a farewell clasp of his hand, and, as the current story goes, drank bull's blood, or as some say, took a quick poison, and so died in Magnesia, in the sixty-fifth year of his life ... They say that the King, on learning the cause and the manner of his death, admired the man yet more, and continued to treat his friends and kindred with kindness.

:" Themistocles was a man who exhibited the most indubitable signs of genius ; indeed, in this particular he has a claim on our admiration quite extraordinary and unparalleled.

Diodorus also extensively praises Themistocles, going as far as to offer a rationale for the length at which he discusses him: " Now on the subject of the high merits of Themistocles, even if we have dwelt over-long on the subject in this digression, we believed it not seemly that we should leave his great ability unrecorded.

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

However, in an early example of his cunning, Themistocles persuaded " well-born " children to exercise with him in Cynosarges, thus breaking down the distinction between " alien and legitimate ".

Plutarch further reports that Themistocles was preoccupied, even as a child, with preparing for public life.

After the death of Themistocles, his nephew, Phrasicles, went to Magnesia, and married, with her brothers ' consent, another daughter, Nicomache, and took charge of her sister Asia, the youngest of all ten children.

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.

Ostracon with inscription: " Themistocles, son of Neocles "

The Spartans sent ambassadors to Admetus, threatening that the whole of Greece would go to war with the Molossians unless they surrendered Themistocles.

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.

Themistocles died with his reputation in tatters, a traitor to the Athenian people ; the " saviour of Greece " had turned into the enemy of liberty.

Plutarch offers a more nuanced view of Themistocles, with more of a critique of Themistocles's character.

Themistocles seems to have deliberately set Athens up as a rival to Sparta in the aftermath of Xerxes's invasion, basing this strategy on Athenian naval power ( contrasted with the power of the Spartan army ).

In order to counter this, and possibly with an eye already at the mounting Persian preparations, in 483 / 2 BC the Athenian statesman Themistocles used his political skills and influence to persuade the Athenian assembly to start the construction of 200 triremes, using the income of the newly discovered silver mines at Laurion.

The Athenians had also been preparing for war with the Persians since the mid-480s BC, and in 482 BC the decision was taken, under the guidance of the Athenian politician Themistocles, to build a massive fleet of triremes that would be necessary for the Greeks to fight the Persians.