# Aspects of History Podcast: Themistocles with Professor Michael Scott

### Themistocles is a name that conjures up many epithets - visionary, outsider, architect of Athens's naval success, and, ultimately, exile. Michael Scott discusses his new biography with the Editor.

Mar 07, 2026

Alongside me on the _[Aspects of History](https://aspectsofhistory.com/)_ podcast this week is _[Professor Michael Scott](https://michaelscottweb.com/)_ of the University of Warwick, academic, author and broadcaster. His _[biography](https://amzn.to/3OOs63h)_ of one of the most compelling and controversial figures of the ancient world in Themistocles observes a fabled city’s political upheaval, Greece’s fight for survival against the invading Persians and that audacious gamble at Salamis.

Listen above or find us and subscribe for more episodes of the _[Aspects of History](https://aspectsofhistory.com/)_ podcast via _[Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/aspects-of-history/id1852809156)_ or _[Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6mLH5mHMlgyB2jDVKqzDO9?si=1a01492c6e194489)_!

Or just read my feature interview below!

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Picture the straits as plumes of smoke rise above the abandoned Acropolis of Athens just a handful of miles away. The Persian armada lies in wait and the King of Kings, Xerxes, watches from the shore. An unlikely Greek alliance wavers on the brink of certain defeat, debating whether to flee and avoid naval engagement but for one man, Themistocles, who will be remembered as the saviour of Greece by nightfall the next day.

Professor Michael Scott, the author of _[Themistocles: The Rise and Fall of Athens’s Naval Mastermind](https://amzn.to/3OOs63h)_

Professor Michael Scott, academic, broadcaster and author of _[Themistocles: The Rise and Fall of Athens’s Naval Mastermind](https://amzn.to/3OOs63h)_, begins on the premise that, while the actions taken by the Athenian in the build-up to the Battle of Salamis immortalised him, there is much more to understand about his life: “Themistocles crops up constantly because he’s associated with one of the most pivotal moments in the ancient world – Greece facing the Persian invasion of 480 BC and securing a stunning, unexpected victory. That victory changed the course of history. But I wanted to understand him as a whole person, not just a name attached to a single victory.”

Son of an Athenian father and a foreign mother, Themistocles was unlikely to have been anywhere near the naval leadership that day had it not been for the proto-democratic upheaval that transformed the city’s political system during his youth. Scott explains: “A _nothos_ – often translated as ‘bastard’ – meant someone both inside and outside Athenian society: one citizen parent, but not two. So he existed on the margins. When Themistocles was 10, a tyrant was assassinated. When he was 16, Athens expelled its final tyrant and embraced Cleisthenes’ revolutionary new political system. Suddenly, the system allowed talented individuals outside the aristocracy to rise.”

This shift in political culture engenders possibility for his rise, but, in the case of the protagonist of Salamis, it can be viewed as a double-edged sword. For the Athenians, there will remain a discomfort with individual dominance and, accordingly, for an ambitious and canny operator like Themistocles, a tightrope to walk.

“Athenian democracy was direct – citizens voted on everything. But they were wary of individuals overshadowing the collective. Between the 490s and 470s, we see a pattern: the people elevate someone who delivers results, and then discard him if he appears too prominent. The system flexes its muscle. In the 480s alone, ostracism is used five times – half its total use in the entire century. That shows how determined the Athenians were to ensure no individual dominated the state.”

A Roman-era bust of Themistocles in "severe style" based on a Greek original - _[Sailko](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Busto_di_temistocle,_da_originale_greco_del_V_secolo_ac,_dal_decumano_presso_il_casamento_del_temistocle.JPG) (CC BY 3.0)_

The first hinge point of Themistocles’ career arrives between the first major defeat for the Persians at Marathon in 490 BC and events at Salamis. Instead of divvying up the windfall of a new silver seam discovered in the mines of Laurion between the citizens, he persuades his fellow Athenians to invest in a state-of-the-art naval fleet and speculate on the fabled city’s ability to dominate trade and hold sway over the Aegean and wider Mediterranean. This proved a decision that would have ramifications down the line.

“It was a pivotal gamble. The Athenians could divide the silver among themselves – or build ships. Themistocles argued for naval supremacy. The new triremes were fast, manoeuvrable, fitted with bronze rams designed to punch through enemy hulls. They were built for close combat in confined waters. At Salamis, Persian numbers counted for less; Athenian manoeuvrability counted for more.”

Mid-way through our conversation then, Scott and I have returned to that opening scene of the drama. That sequence, most famously recorded by Herodotus, sees Themistocles slip out of the dithering allied naval council and slyly send his children’s tutor, the slave Sicinnus, to invite the Persians to surround the Greek fleet they so outnumber in the narrows of Attica. But is this a case of cunning military strategy or a tactic of unpatriotic self-preservation (a question that haunts his reputation and has continued to bug me since studying the passage for my GCSEs – those halcyon days!)?

“It could be read either way. But later in life, when asked to help Persia invade Greece again, Themistocles chooses suicide rather than betrayal. That makes me believe Salamis was genuine strategy, forcing a battle in conditions favourable to Greece before the alliance collapsed.”

_The Battle of Salamis_, by Wilhelm von Kaulbach (1868)

And, as hinted at, just as Themistocles appears to read a critical situation so brilliantly, within a decade of his greatest moment, a misjudgement of ‘the optics’ sees his progression unravelled by the very system through which he has risen: “He builds a temple to Artemis ‘of Good Counsel’ and installs a bust of himself inside. It sends the wrong message and, in 471 BC, he tops the ostracism vote. Analysis of surviving _ostraka_ (shards of broken pottery) shows many written by just a handful of hands – possibly coordination, possibly manipulation. Either way, he’s exiled. Soon after, he’s tried for treason _in absentia_ and sentenced to death. There is no return.”

Seeking refuge among the city-states of Greece is made more or less impossible once the two major powers, Athens and Sparta, are after him. What to do then? ‘Go East’ and reinvent himself again! Yet another curveball in a career distinguished by instances of thinking outside the box, but there will be consequences of this decision.

“Themistocles goes to the very king he defeated. He reinvents himself again – learns Persian, becomes trusted at court, governs Magnesia in south-west Turkey, even mints coins in his own name. It’s an extraordinary third act. When asked to help Persia invade Greece again, he refuses – and takes his own life.”

Accordingly, Scott’s retelling is not one of an uncomplicated sort of heroism that you might find in myths. That final act of loyalty to his native land is not enough for those back in Greece at the time, but, as is Themistocles trademark, it is not long before his luck turns again. Almost as swiftly as the power held by the _demos_ (people) had rejected him, history soon rehabilitates him and continues to do so.

“When he dies, he’s _persona non grata_ in Athens. But, within two decades, Athens builds an empire based on naval power – the very policy he championed. By the 440s, his sons are welcomed back. His portrait hangs in the Parthenon. He becomes a foundational figure of Athens’s Golden Age.”

Amid those narrow straits, which would bestow such advantage in a civilisation’s battle for survival, the role of protagonist Themistocles played remains impossible to ignore. But as time runs out on our conversation, it becomes clear that his life and career in their entirety – and the volatile circumstances that shaped them – demand a closer look. To focus solely on a single 24 hours of an existence as restless, strategic and contradictory as his would be to miss the more profound drama that Scott has related. Salamis made him famous; it did not define him.

_Michael Scott is a professor at the University of Warwick, a broadcaster and the author of_ [Themistocles: The Rise and Fall of Athens’s Naval Mastermind](https://amzn.to/3OOs63h) _._

_Zeb Baker-Smith is a Classics teacher based in Malawi, a freelance journalist and Editor at_ [Aspects of History](https://aspectsofhistory.com/) _.