‘In Athens, we make our wealth in trade. We sell oil and figs and clay jars from our kilns. We import fish, barley and wheat for our bread. Our life’s blood is in sea salt, dried on the sails of our ships, in the shine of old wood on the docks. The port of Piraeus is what separates us from men of Corinth, or soldiers of Sparta, or the horse-traders of Thessaly. We are seafarers, and we are a sovereign people, as Homer himself described us.’

He paused. His large head sank, as if in prayer, though his eyes stared into the distance.

Xanthippus blinked slowly, watching the man perform. The only sound was the susurration of the breeze and the flutter of robes. Xanthippus thought it was probably his imagination that he could smell the sea. When Themistocles raised his head again, it felt like a sacred moment had passed.

‘What ships do we command now?’ he asked. ‘Miltiades took seventy triremes and the crews and hoplites to man them. Barely two dozen remain to patrol all our waters, to answer any threat that may arise. Yet those of us who marched to Marathon saw the fleets of Persia and their Phoenician allies. We saw sails and oars then, two, three hundred ships, more – all carrying horses and men. Creeping along our coasts unchallenged. Landing where they chose, threatening all we have, all we could ever have. If Aristides will stand and argue for roads and temples, ask him this: What good will they be when the Persians return? Unless you believe the Persians will not, of course – that a Great King who had never known defeat will take the blow we dealt him at Marathon and retire from our affairs! If you believe that, I have a pot to sell you, one Heracles himself used to own.’

He smiled with the crowd, but then became utterly serious, his brows lowering into a thunderous expression.

‘The silver at Laurium is a gift from the earth – and from the gods. None of us expected it – nor have we done much to deserve such wealth. If we vote to split the silver between us, we will each have enough to buy a few baubles – a new roof, a new gate, stones for the road, or a slave. Such things are worth having. Such things will be valued by our enemies when they come! I ask instead that the new silver be added to a common fund, administered by officials of this Assembly to lay down new keels – a fleet the like of which this city has never known. One hundred, two hundred ships, whatever we can build and crew.’

He began to count points on his fingers, his right hand splayed before the left.

‘Employment of craftsmen to build them – with stalls and markets springing up wherever they buy food and tools. Two hundred oarsmen and fifty hoplites to a craft – all young men earning enough to support a new family at home. Can you see it? The city growing in health and wealth and strength? Piece by piece, that wealth will come back into Athens – for food, for bricks, for tiles, for slaves. All I ask … is that we make it into ships first, before all the rest. You will have it back in time. Give it first to the wind and the sea – and it will save us all.’