THEMIS'TOCLES (Lat., from Gk. eeµurro xA s, Themistokhs) B.C.) . An Athe nian general and statesman, born about B.C. 514, the son of Xeocles, an Athenian citizen of middling station and circumstances. and a Ca rian or Tlr•acian woman. After the battle of Marathon (n-c. 490), when the first in vasion of the Persians had been successfully re sisted, Themistocles, with keen foresight. recog nized that the final decision of the question of supremacy would come on the sea, and that the only way for the Greeks to be victorious was to have a large fleet. He aimed, therefore, at the development of a strong Athenian navy. To this end he persuaded the Athenians to devote the proceeds arising from the working of the silver mines at Laurium, which it was intended to dis tribute among the citizens at large, to the con struction of a strong fleet. He secured the pas sage of a law that a certain number of new triremes should be built every year. From the time of the expulsion of Aristides by ostracism (n.c. 483), Themistocles was at tire head of the politics of Athens. and in u.c. 481 was made archon eponymus. When it was learned that Xerxes was preparing a powerful arma ment wherewith to invade Greece, and the Athenians had been told by the Delphian oracle to defend themselves with the `wooden wall,' it was Themistoeles who interpreted this answer as referring to the ships of Athens. At the battle of A rt emisinni (user. 4S0) Themistocles, who ou, commander of the Athenian fleet, which was the largest in Greece, consented to fight un der the Spartan commander, Ku rybiade+:, but it was only through the former's tact and adroit use of bribes that the Greek commanders were finally induced to make a stand in that place. This engagement was indecisive. In the same year. at Salamis, was fought the battle which shattered the naval power of Xerxes. Ilere again Eurybiades was comma ader-in-ehief, and here again it was owing to the efforts of Themistocles alone that the Greeks were induced not to re treat to the Isthmus of Corinth. but to give bat tle in their present position. lle threatened, if a separation were now made, that the Athenians would take their women and children and sail to Italy, there to found a new home. Finally, he precipitated the contest, by dispatching to Xerxes a secret message to the effect that, if the Persians wished to crush the Greek fleet, they should ad vance to the attack without delay, before the Greeks had an opportunity of fleeing. After the
battle of Salamis Themistocles was the most im portant man in Greece. When the Persians had retreated from Greece and the Athenians under took to restore their city, the Spartans, sending an embassy to Athens. urged the Athenians not to attempt to rebuild the fortifications. Then Themistocles, going on an embassy to Sparta, entertained the Spartans with his false pro fessions, and kept the matter in abeyance till such time as the walls were sufficiently advanced to allow' of their being defended. In B.C. 471 he was ostracized and retired to Argos; and finally, to escape being tried for treason, in which, ac cording to some accounts, he was implicated by the correspondence of Pausanins, he he took himself in B.C. 465, to the Court of Artaxerxes, King of Persia ; hut before he would see the King himself, got permission to wait a year, during which he made himself master of the language and usages of the country. At the end of this time he managed to raise himself so high in the King's favor that, after the Persian fash ion, the town of Magnesia was appointed to sup ply him with bread, Lampsacus with wine, and Myus with other provisions. He lived securely at Magnesia until his death in it.c. 449. Some au thorities assert that he poisoned himself. A monument was erected to Themistocles in the market-place of Alagnesia, and it is said that his bones were secretly taken to Attica. and there burned. Consult: Wecklein, Ueber Themistokles (Munich, 1892) ; Bauer, Themistokles (Merse burg, 1881).
THtNARD, trUnite. Louis JAcQuEs (1777 )857). A French chemist, born at Nogent-sur Seine. He w•as professor of chemistry at the Ecole Polytechnique, at the College de France. and at the University of Paris. From 1810 he was a member of the Institute. His original researches resulted in numerous important contributions to chemistry. Be improved the methods of ultimate organic analysis; investigated the compound ethers or esters; discovered the peroxide of hydro gen. cobalt ultramarine (Thenard's blue), etc. He published: Trail(' de chimie elementaire, thiorique et pratique, which passed through sev eral editions. and, jointly with Gay-Lussac, two volumes of Recherches physieo-ehimiques (1811).