Themistocles made a number of errors during the war – though they were trivial in comparison to his achievements. It is true he had the bags of evacuating Athenians searched for valuables as they queued to get to Salamis. In one fell swoop, he confiscated the wealth of every rich family in Athens. He did it to pay the rowers of the fleet, who needed vast sums of wages just when the city was effectively bankrupt. However, it earned Themistocles a huge amount of ill will. It is also true that he used the broken tombs from the city cemetery as rubble for a massive new gate and wall. That seems to have been a classic politician’s error – he just didn’t realise how badly that would be received. Finally, the man who saved Athens seems to have been unable to stop telling people how much of their freedom they owed to him personally. In a society that had sent ‘Aristides the Just’ into exile, a man renowned for his integrity and dignity, it should not be a surprise that Themistocles was finally exiled. It is only surprising that it didn’t happen until around 472 BC , some years after Plataea. He lived for a while in Argos, on the Peloponnese. Denied the protection of Athens, he was then accused of corruption and threatened with new trials. He decided to flee to Persia. I have compressed those years.

The last part of the story of Themistocles – how he died – is difficult. There is a persistent legend from the period that is as I’ve described it. Xerxes is said to have welcomed him in delight, crying, ‘I have Themistocles! I have Themistocles!’ From his point of view, of course, Themistocles was the Athenian who had tried to surrender at Salamis – and given good advice about the bridge of ships that may have saved Xerxes’ life. The fact that Xanthippus brought a fleet later on to ravage that coast can only have helped persuade Xerxes that Themistocles had been on his side.

The Persian king gave Themistocles a number of cities as his own. When the boy who had struggled to survive as a child in Athens was finally as rich as any small king, Xerxes is said to have asked him excitedly how he envisioned returning to Athens at the head of an army.