Themistocles (ca. 528 BC-462 BC) was a leader in the Athenian democracy during the Persian War[?]. Themistocles favored the expansion of the navy to meet the Persian threat and persuaded the Athenians to spend the surplus generated by their silver mines on building new ships - the Athenian navy grew from 70 to 200 ships.
Themistocles was ostracized at the end of the 470s. After living for some time at Argos he was driven by Spartan pressure to the Persian empire, where Artaxerxes I made him governor of Magnesia.
All Wikipedia text
is available under the
terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
Search Encyclopedia
Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!