News update 29/04/2022 5
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Apr 29, 2022, 9:54:36 AM4/29/22
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Despite his superiority and understandable self-confidence, Themistocles succumbed to the completely unfounded claims of Sparta to hegemony at sea and allowed the appointment of the completely unsuitable and indecisive Eurybiades as commander of the naval forces. But even being his subordinate, he always knew how to induce him to take correct strategic and tactical actions. In a moment of danger, he showed rare generosity, forgiving and calling his worst enemy Aristides out of exile.
Having no combat experience, Themistocles in 480 BC. e. acted for the first time as a naval commander and showed his brilliant abilities, choosing a very well-placed location of his forces, and won a victory at Salamis by attacking from the flanks, extorting at the very beginning the unwillingness of his subordinates to go into battle. In this respect he was superior to all his contemporaries, despite the fact that he occupied only a secondary place; his foresight and prudence in the choice of harbors, their construction, as well as the layout of the fortifications, which provided Athens and Piraeus from attacks from land, deserves admiration.
He overcame the envious resistance of Sparta, regardless of the fact that he acquired a dangerous enemy in the person of this powerful state. With the same selflessness and love, he took care of the good and greatness of his homeland.
In Themistocles one must see the spiritual father of the maritime union - he created the maritime power of Athens and, standing on the true path, achieved remarkable results. Thanks to his insight, he immediately saw in Sparta the main enemy of his homeland, whose influence had to be fought, gathering all his strength, and managed to do this, in contrast to Cimon and the subsequent leaders of Athens, who violated the unity of the maritime union by oppressing individual members and wasting its power on unnecessary adventures. Themistocles' last political success was to resist Spartan influence in central and northern Greece, achieved by him thanks to his diplomatic dexterity.
Shortly after the exile of Themistocles, Aristides died, and Cimon became the leader in Athens. Soon he undertook a campaign against Caristus, the only city on Euboea that did not belong to the maritime alliance, subjugated it and forced him to join the alliance, and the size of the entry fee was appointed by the Athenians. There is reason to believe that the same was done with the island of Andros.
This reception, contrary to the foundations of the maritime union, became common in Athens, which turned from the first among the members of the Delian-Attic union into the ruler of Attica, and, naturally, among the members of the union, who jealously guarded their independence, discontent arose, which soon turned into hatred. The first manifestation of it was the withdrawal from the union of the island of Naxos, which risked such a step, despite the fact that he was alone; the Athenians blocked and conquered it, having committed the first violence against a member of the union.
In 468, Cimon, with an allied fleet of 200 ships, undertook a campaign against the Persians, since Xerxes, apparently, was preparing an army and fleet in Pamphylia for a new attack on Greece. For this campaign, Cimon ordered the construction of triremes wider than usual and with a solid upper deck so that more hoplites could be taken on board. Apparently, he intended to retreat from the tactics of ramming introduced by Themistocles and return to the boarding battle, which showed his ignorance of maritime affairs.
He began operations in the southwestern corner of Asia Minor at the Tropea threshold of the Carian Chersonese and from there moved along the Carian and Lycian coasts to Phaselis. Coastal Greek cities went over to his side without resistance, the rest of the cities had to be conquered. Phaselis, whose inhabitants stubbornly defended themselves at first, yielded rather soon under the influence of negotiations. All cities were compelled to enter into a maritime union; and from them and from the coastal islands, including Rhodes, a fifth department of the union, Carian, was formed, numbering at least 66 members. Thanks to this, the total amount of contributions reached 500 talents.
At the time of the treaty with Phaselis, the Persian army was camped at the mouth of the Eurymedon River in Pamphylia. The Eurymedon was then navigable for flat-bottomed triremes for 60 stadia (10.7 km) as far as Aspendos.
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