March 18, 2011

Themistocles created a weapon, a trireme. It is used to ram and enemies ship. Themistocles couldn’t win without it. It could do a lot of damage and they were very expensive, but worth it. In the year 483 B.C. the Athenian’s discovered silver. Themistocles wanted to spend the money on ships, but he knew it would be a hard proposal to sell. Themistocles convinced the Athenians to grow the greatest naval force.   Themistocles was not raised up to be an aristocrat but because of the democracy government he was given the opportunity to raise himself up and become the leader of Athens. Died in 486 B.C. Xerxes was the son who then took over. The Persians couldn’t let small regional states beat them. Persians gathered everyone in their empire. They established one of the greatest forces the worlds ever seen. In 483 B.C. the Persians than set out and were confident of victory. When the Greek’s realized that the Persians were invading again they gripped in terror. They turned to their gods and sent messages to people that were oracle that could communicate with their gods and interoperate things.  Delphi was the best oracle. High in the Greek mountains, Delphi can be found. Here the Greek’s would come to discover their future. People came all over the world to consult Delphi. People asked questions about their private lives and things about their future. Now they wanted to know what they could do to save their selves. Delphi’s response was not what they wanted to here. It seemed that even the gods had deserted them. Themistocles refused to not fight back he felt he was prepared. Themistocles had a different idea and insisted that the oracle had a different interpretation. He wanted to fight the Persians on sea. He ordered the evacuation of Athens for the first time in history. The Athenians shall send their cities and wives to Troy. They needed to evacuate. Salamis was an island right next to Athens. He wanted every man, woman, and child to leave their homes and go into exile. The Persians marched in and stood upon the Athenian acropolis and burnt it. They burnt the temples to the ground. This would have been a devastating and humiliating sight to the people of Athens. They wondered if they would ever be able to go home again. The Persians have four times as many ships as the Greeks do. The Greeks are outnumbered 4 to 1. Themistocles sticks to his gut; his plan is to fight in a narrow body of water in the straits of Salamis. The Greek’s are afraid and the Persians were confident. Themistocles sent a Greek sailor over to the Persian leader and told him that he had information for him. He said that the Greek’s didn’t know what to do and if he fought in the narrow body of water in the straits of Salamis that they would be able to kill them. Than the Persians rowed in and thought that they had no chance of losing. The Greeks forces smashed into the corner of the Persians. At the end of the battle the Persians had lost over 200 ships and for the Greek’s it was a stunning victory. It broke the Persian navy. They could no longer guarantee the protection of their kings nor the ability to feed their navy. In practical terms the battle was over and the Greek’s had won. The Greeks had better weapons and a better strategy and more motivation. Themistocles triumph was complete. He brought them victory at sea and his instincts were proven right. He had defeated the greatest empire in the world. After the years of conflict this was a big turning point of Athens. The Athenians are at the head of a naval conspiracy. The Athenians founded an alliance of Greek stinks that was supposed to keep the Persians in check. In 450 B.C. the Dalian League had become Athens Empire.  They also gave economic power. They became a city of a vase trading network. They made many things to help their economy and became the center of trade. Themistocles now found himself under attack. Something he couldn’t understand, he reacts in a crude way and reminds the boaters what they owed him. They ostracized at the man who led them to their greatest victory. He never recovered from his humiliation and died in exile in Persia.