Latest / The History of Greece: Philosophy, Empire, and Endless Reinvention — Fexingo History / The Ostracism of Themistocles: Athens Turns on Its Hero
Transcript
- Lucas: So after our episodes on Salamis and the Delian League, I thought we could zoom in on one figure who really embodies the messy side of Athenian democracy: Themistocles. Luna: The guy who won the war, right? Then got kicked out? Lucas: Exactly. Themistocles was the architect of the Athenian navy — the one who convinced the city to spend the silver from the Lavrion mines on triremes instead of handing it out as dividends. That decision saved Greece at Salamis in 480 BCE. Lucas: But within a decade, the Athenians voted to ostracize him. He ended his life as a governor in the Persian Empire, serving the son of the king he'd defeated. Luna: Hold on — ostracism, that's when they literally write someone's name on a pot shard and if enough people vote, they're exiled for ten years? Lucas: Exactly right. And the word comes from ostrakon, the Greek for a piece of pottery. Athenians would scratch a name onto a broken shard of ceramic, and if at least 6,000 votes were cast, the person with the most votes had to leave Athens for ten years. But they didn't lose their property or citizenship — it was a temporary exile. Lucas: It was designed to prevent any one person from becoming too powerful. After the Persian Wars, Themistocles was at the height of his influence, and that made him a target. Luna: Who would vote against the guy who saved them? Lucas: Well, a lot of people. Conservatism kicked in — some Athenians thought he was too ambitious, too willing to challenge the old aristocracy. And there was a rival, Aristides, known as 'the Just', who represented the more traditional, land-based power. Lucas: Ironically, Herodotus tells a story that before the Battle of Salamis, Themistocles and Aristides had to patch up their feud to coordinate the fleet. But once the crisis passed, the rivalry resumed. Luna: So the same people he saved turned on him? Lucas: Pretty much. In 472 or 471 BCE — historians argue about the exact date — the Athenians held an ostracism vote, and Themistocles' name appeared on enough ostraka to send him packing. Archaeologists have actually found some of those shards, with his name scratched onto them. Lucas: He went first to Argos, a rival city in the Peloponnese, and started stirring up anti-Spartan sentiment. That made the Spartans nervous, and they pressured Athens to condemn him for treason. So he fled further east, eventually to the Persian court. Luna: He went to the enemy? The same empire he'd defeated? Lucas: Yes. And the Persian king at the time was Artaxerxes I, Xerxes' son. Themistocles supposedly learned Persian and presented himself as a man who could be useful. The king gave him control of three cities — Magnesia on the Maeander, Myus, and Lampsacus — and he lived out his days as a Persian governor. Lucas: There's a legendary story that he promised to help Artaxerxes conquer Greece, but then he conveniently died before he could follow through. Some scholars think he may have been blackmailed into exile because he had secret dealings with Persia all along. Luna: Wait — so he might have been a Persian agent from the start? Lucas: That's the controversial theory. The historian Thucydides says Themistocles was a brilliant strategist who did what he had to do to survive. But later writers like Plutarch hint at darker motives. The truth is we don't know. What we do know is that the institution of ostracism was used to check the power of popular leaders, and it worked — at least for a while. Lucas: Ostracism itself was used throughout the 5th century. The most famous victim besides Themistocles was Cimon, the son of Miltiades, who was ostracized in 461 BCE for being too pro-Spartan. And then there's Hyperbolus, the last major figure to be ostracized, around 417 BCE — after that, the practice fell out of use. Luna: So it wasn't just about tyrants — it was about anyone who seemed too powerful? Lucas: Exactly. It wasn't a punishment for a crime; it was a political tool. You didn't have to do anything illegal. You just had to be perceived as a threat to the democratic balance. And the vote itself was almost like a popularity contest — or an unpopularity contest. Every year, the assembly would decide whether to hold an ostracism. If they said yes, a date was set, and citizens would scratch a name on an ostrakon and drop it into a jar. Lucas: The whole process was designed to be anonymous and decisive. And it's a powerful reminder that Athenian democracy wasn't just about freedom of speech and assembly — it was also about actively curbing the ambitions of individuals. Luna: So what happened to Themistocles in the end? Did he die in Persia? Lucas: He died in Magnesia, around 459 BCE, of natural causes — or possibly by taking poison, if you believe the dramatic version. His family was allowed to return to Athens and his bones were reportedly brought back and buried in secret, because he was still officially a traitor. Lucas: But his legacy lived on. The navy he built became the backbone of the Athenian empire, and the walls he persuaded Athens to build around the city and down to the Piraeus — the Long Walls — protected the city for decades. Without him, Athens might never have become the dominant power of the 5th century. Luna: It's strange that a city that needed him so much would throw him away. Lucas: That's democracy for you. It can be fickle. And in a way, ostracism was a safeguard against exactly the kind of popularity that could lead to tyranny. Themistocles was a victim of his own success. He made Athens great, but he also made himself indispensable — and that's what scared people. Lucas: Thinking about it, the story of Themistocles is a mirror for how we treat our heroes today. We build them up, then we tear them down, and sometimes they end up in strange places. He went from the savior of Greece to a Persian governor, and that arc tells you a lot about the ancient world's political realities.