Themistocles built Athens a 200-ship fleet, then ended up serving Persia
In 483 BC Themistocles talked Athens into building 200 triremes, and three years later his ruse drew the Persian navy into the narrow straits of Salamis, turning the war. Within about a decade Athens ostracised him, and he finished his life as a Persian king's governor.
Born around 524 BC in the Attic deme of Phrearrhii, Themistocles was the son of Neocles, whom Plutarch called no very conspicuous man. His mother's name and homeland are uncertain, and the family seems to have lived in Cynosarges, an immigrant quarter outside the walls, so he was treated as something of an outsider. Even then he was crafty, coaxing well-born boys to train with him there and blurring the line between citizen and alien. One teacher reportedly predicted he would become something great, for good or evil.
He came of age as Cleisthenes' reforms of 510 BC onwards created Athenian democracy, opening doors to men without noble pedigree. Themistocles settled in the humble Ceramicus district, canvassed taverns, markets and docks, and made a point of remembering voters' names. He was also the first Athenian to prepare for public life by practising law, winning popularity as an advocate for ordinary people while taking care not to alienate the aristocracy.
Elected archon in 493 BC, he pushed for naval power again and again. He fought at Marathon in 490 BC, perhaps as one of the ten generals. During Xerxes' invasion he led the Athenian ships at Artemisium and Salamis in 480 BC, and the Persians were finally repelled after their land defeat at Plataea the next year.
Peace brought trouble. His refortification of Athens angered Sparta, and Athenians tired of his arrogance, ostracising him in 472 or 471 BC. Sparta then tied him to the alleged treason of its general Pausanias. After shelter at Pydna from Alexander I of Macedon, he entered the service of Artaxerxes I, who made him governor of Magnesia, where he died in 459 BC. Thucydides judged him a genius, and Plutarch credited him above all others with saving Greece; Athens' later maritime empire rested on his fleet.
Source: Themistocles
