Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/209

 137, 138] THEMISTOCLES AT THE PERSIAN COURT 93 a night off the Athenian station, he at length arrived at Ephesus. Themistocles rewarded him with a hberal present ; for he received soon afterwards from his friends the property which they had in their keeping at Athens, and which he had deposited at Argos. He then went up the country in the company of one of the Persians who dwelt on the coast, and sent a letter to Artaxerxes the son of B.C. 465. Xerxes, who had just succeeded to the throne. The letter °'" ^^' '*" was in the following words: — 'I, Themis- , > u i. T 1 r 1 1 •'^'■s letter to the KniP: tocles, have come to you, 1 who of all * Hellenes did your house the greatest injuries so long as I was compelled to defend myself against your father ; but still greater benefits when I was in safety and he in danger during his retreat. And there is a debt of gratitude due to me ' (here he noted how he had forewarned Xerxes at Salamis of the resolution of the Hellenes to withdraw", and how through his influence, as he pretended, they had refrained from breaking down the bridges) ' ' Now I am here, able to do you many other services, and persecuted by the Hellenes for 3^our sake. Let me wait a year, and then I will myself explain why I have come/ The King is said to have been astonished at the boldness 138 of his character, and told him to wait Going to the Court a year as he proposed. In the interval "/ Persia, he acquires , 11- ir • 1 J r the favour of the King he made himseli acquamted, as lar as i. ■', , * ^ ' ana receives great hon- he could, with the Persian language our, but shoiHy after and the manners of the country. When '''^•^• the year was over, he arrived at the court and became a greater man there than any Hellene had ever been before. This was due partly to his previous The greatness of his reputation, and partly to the hope character. His natural ,.,, . . ,., ■,'•• > -J acuteness and foresight: which he inspired in the Kmg s mind his power of persuasion, that he would enslave Hellas to him ; his readiness in an above all, his ability had been tried and e*"ergency. not found wantinsr. For Themistocles was a man whose "• Cp. Herod, viii. 75. ^ Cp. Herod, viii. 108.