It was also thought that Pausanias was tampering with the helots, promising them freedom if they helped him become sole monarch of Sparta. The fact that their contribution to the war effort had not been recognized would have loosened any loyalty they may have felt to their masters. If there was one thing that frightened the authorities, it was the prospect of the enslaved peoples of Messenia rising once more in revolt.
Hearing these reports of their admiral’s misconduct the ephors recalled him, but they had insufficient proof to charge him with any offense. Pausanias slipped away on a trireme to the Bosphorus and took command at Byzantium, where he still had some support. The Athenians angrily ejected him, and in 470 the ephors again summoned home their errant regent. But they still had too little hard evidence to convict him—until one of his former lovers came forward. This man showed them an incriminating letter that he had been instructed to deliver to the Great King. He had noticed that all Pausanias’s previous messengers to Xerxes had failed ever to reappear. He undid the latest letter and found the postscript he had expected—an order to put the carrier to death.
Even now the ephors hesitated. No contemporary tells us this, but we may surmise that Pausanias was popular either with the helots or with the Spartiate hoplites with whom he had fought at Plataea—or with both. The Spartan establishment did not want to risk a popular rising.
So a sting was devised. The messenger went as a suppliant to Taenarum (now Cape Matapan), a promontory on Sparta’s southern coast sixty miles or so from the capital. Here a celebrated temple of Poseidon was built inside a cave that was said to lead to the underworld. An oracle enabled petitioners to summon and consult the dead. Taenarum was the chief sacred place for helots and perioeci, where they could seek sanctuary. It was a well-chosen refuge for someone in trouble with the authorities.
Pausanias’s onetime boyfriend took up residence there in a hut. The regent, doubtless a little alarmed when he heard about this, traveled down from Sparta, entered the hut, which had a partition behind which some ephors were hiding, and asked the man what he thought he was doing. In the conversation that followed Pausanias admitted his guilt. He guaranteed the messenger his safety and sent him on his way.
Back in Sparta the ephors now had all the evidence they could require and moved to arrest Pausanias in the street. But when he saw them approaching he guessed from the expression on an ephor’s face what his mission was and another gave him a secret warning sign. He ran to a nearby temple of Athena, goddess of the Brazen House, and sought sanctuary there.
The authorities walled him up and starved him to death. Just before he drew his last breath they pulled him out, hoping to avoid polluting a sacred space with mortality. They were disappointed, for Apollo at Delphi ruled otherwise and laid the Spartans under a curse. Having stolen one body from the goddess’s protection they were told to expiate the sin by giving her a couple in return—in the shape of costly bronze statues.
—
Themistocles became entangled in the downfall of Pausanias. Compromising documents were found among the regent’s possessions, which the ephors handed over to the Athenians. The ecclesia summoned their savior to stand trial for treason and issued a warrant for his arrest. At the time he was based at Argos, where he seems to have been making trouble for the Spartans, traveling around the peninsula and very probably fomenting discontent.
Well-informed as ever, Themistocles learned in advance what was afoot and fled to Corcyra. Still not feeling safe, he traveled north to the backward kingdom of the Molossians, where life had not changed much since the days of Agamemnon and where, as in Homer, guests were sacrosanct. Here he was given asylum, despite the fact that in the past he had angered the ruler, Admetus, by not doing him some favor he had requested. His wife and children joined him from Athens, although the man who arranged their escape was executed for his pains.
Themistocles had to move on, though, for the long arm of Athens would eventually and inevitably reach him wherever he was in the Balkans. The only realistic solution was to head for the Persian Empire, but what kind of reception could the Great King’s nemesis expect to receive? He made his way east cross-country to the Macedonian port of Pydna north of Mount Olympus, where he took ship for Asia. Narrowly escaping an Athenian squadron off Naxos, he arrived at Ephesus. He arranged for cash to be sent to him from friends in Athens and from “secret hoards” at Argos. Money stuck to him like glue and he never appears to have been seriously embarrassed for funds.
Themistocles wrote a letter to the Great King at Susa. This was now Artaxerxes I, third son of Xerxes, for in August 465 his father had been assassinated in exotic and obscure circumstances. Apparently, the commander of the royal bodyguard had hanged the crown prince on Xerxes’ orders. Having killed the son, he then feared that he would get the blame and so killed the father.
According to Thucydides, Themistocles was unabashed. Referring to the supposedly helpful messages he had sent Xerxes just before and after Salamis, he claimed: “For the past you owe me a good turn. For the present, [I am] able to do you great service. It’s because of my friendship for you that I am here, pursued by the Hellenes.”
Artaxerxes bit on the bait and welcomed the Athenian statesman to his court. His defection was a public relations coup and his background briefings on Greek affairs will have been useful, although he had been out of government too long to have any “live” secrets to tell. He was made governor of the wealthy city of Magnesia on the Ionian coast not far from Ephesus, where he died in 459. A surprising fate. Who could have predicted that the architect of Salamis would have ended up as a Persian high official?
—
Taken at face value, the stories of how the two undoubted heroes of the Persian Wars, Pausanias and Themistocles, met their ends are bizarre. These perfectly rational politicians appear to have lost their senses, made grave errors, and followed suicidal or at least eccentric courses of action. But one grand idea, unspoken admittedly, united them and could provide a solution of the mystery.
If there was a lesson to be learned from the Persian Wars it was that Greece had been extremely lucky. The multiplicity of tiny states, prone to ceaseless wrangling, prevented the Hellenes from pursuing a common goal. It was only at the last minute that a precarious unity had been achieved at Salamis. It would hardly be surprising if intelligent men began to wonder how Greece could be integrated into a single powerful state. This might be most readily achieved by encouraging one or other of the leading powers, Athens and Sparta, to establish a hegemony.
Pausanias felt that constitutional reform at home was essential if Sparta was to play an effective international role; and Themistocles foresaw the creation of an Athenian empire among the islands of the Aegean and on the Asian coastline. They both understood the difficulties that lay ahead and realized that Persian military and financial support could offer them a handy shortcut to attain their ends. But to their cost they underestimated the opposition they would arouse from reactionaries at home. They cast the dice and lost.
The Spartan was by far the lesser figure of the two. His contemporaries recognized that Themistocles was the greatest man of the age. He was no traitor, although he would take money from anyone and do business with anyone. The historian Thucydides was a cool judge of men, but he believed that the Athenian statesman transcended his flaws, large and brightly colored as they were. He was
a man who showed the most unmistakable signs of genius; indeed, in this respect he was quite exceptional and has an unparalleled claim on our admiration….Whether we consider the extent of his natural powers, or his speed of action, this extraordinary man outdid everyone else in his ability intuitively to meet an emergency.