Themistocles   

that the wildest colts make the best horses, if they only get properly
trained and broken in. But those who upon this fasten stories of their
own invention, as of his being disowned by his father, and that his
mother died for grief of her son's ill-fame, certainly calumniate
him; and there are others who relate, on the contrary, how that to
deter him from public business, and to let him see how the vulgar
behave themselves towards their leaders when they have at last no
farther use of them, his father showed him the old galleys as they
lay forsaken and cast about upon the sea-shore.
Yet it is evident that his mind was early imbued with the keenest
interest in public affairs, and the most passionate ambition for distinction.
Eager from the first to obtain the highest place, he unhesitatingly
accepted the hatred of the most powerful and influential leaders in
the city, but more especially of Aristides, the son of Lysimachus,
who always opposed him. And yet all this great enmity between them
arose, it appears, from a very boyish occasion, both being attached
to the beautiful Stesilaus of Ceos, as Ariston the philosopher tells
us; ever after which they took opposite sides, and were rivals in
politics. Not but that the incompatibility of their lives and manners
may seem to have increased the difference, for Aristides was of a
mild nature, and of a nobler sort of character, and, in public matters,
acting always with a view, not to glory or popularity, but to the
best interest of the state consistently with safety and honesty, he
was often forced to oppose Themistocles, and interfere against the
increase of his influence, seeing him stirring up the people to all
kinds of enterprises, and introducing various innovations. For it
is said that Themistocles was so transported with the thoughts of
glory and so inflamed with the passion for great actions, that, though
he was still young when the battle of Marathon was fought against
the Persians, upon the skilful conduct of the general, Miltiades,
being everywhere talked about, he was observed to be thoughtful and
reserved, alone by himself; he passed the nights without sleep, and
avoided all his usual places of recreation, and to those who wondered
at the change, and inquired the reason of it, he gave the answer,
that "the trophy of Miltiades would not let him sleep." And when others
were of opinion that the battle of Marathon would be an end to the
war, Themistocles thought that it was but the beginning for far greater
conflicts, and for these, to the benefit of all Greece, he kept himself
in continual readiness, and his city also in proper training, foreseeing
from far before what would happen.
And, first of all, the Athenians being accustomed to divide amongst
themselves the revenue proceeding from the silver mines at Laurium,
he was the only man that durst propose to the people that this distribution
should cease, and that with the money ships should be built to make
war against the Aeginetans, who were the most flourishing people in
all Greece, and by the number of their ships held the sovereignty
of the sea; and Themistocles thus was more easily able to persuade
them, avoiding all mention of danger from Darius or the Persians,
who were at a great distance, and their coming very uncertain, and
at that time not much to be feared; but by a seasonable employment
of the emulation and anger felt by the Athenians against the Aeginetans,
he induced them to preparation. So that with this money an hundred
ships were built, with which they afterwards fought against Xerxes.
And henceforward, little by little, turning and drawing the city down
towards the sea, in the belief that, whereas by land they were not
a fit match for their next neighbours, with their ships they might
be able to repel the Persians and command Greece, thus, as Plato says,
from steady soldiers he turned them into mariners and seamen tossed
about the sea, and gave occasion for the reproach against him, that
he took away from the Athenians the spear and the shield, and bound
them to the bench and the oar. These measures he carried in the assembly,
against the opposition, as Stesimbrotus relates, of Miltiades; and
whether or no be hereby injured the purity and true balance of government
may be a question for philosophers, but that the deliverance of Greece