m to
improve his mind and develop his powers in oratory. He cared nothing for
accomplishments, but gave ardent attention to the philosophy and
learning of his day. "It is true I cannot play on a flute, or bring
music from the lute," he afterwards said; "all I can do is, if a small
and obscure city were put into my hands, to make it great and glorious."

[Illustration: THE ANCIENT ENTRANCE TO THE STADIUM, ATHENS.]

Of commanding figure, handsome face, keen eyes, proud and erect posture,
sprightly and intellectual aspect, he was one to attract attention in
any community, while his developed powers of oratory gave him the
greatest influence over the speech-loving Athenians. In his eagerness to
win distinction and gain a high place in the state, he cared not what
enemies he might make so that he won a strong party to his support. So
great was his thirst for distinction that the victory of Miltiades at
Marathon threw him into a state of great depression, in which he said,
"The glory of Miltiades will not let me sleep."

Themistocles was not alone ambitious and declamatory. He was far-sighted
as well; and through his power of foreseeing the future he was enabled
to serve Athens even more signally than Miltiades had done. Many there
were who said that there was no need to dread the Persians further, that
the victory at Marathon would end the war. "It is only the beginning of
the war," said Themistocles; "new and greater conflicts will come; if
Athens is to be saved, it must prepare."

We have elsewhere told how he induced the Athenians to build a fleet,
and how this fleet, under his shrewd management, defeated the great
flotilla of Xerxes and saved Greece from ruin and subjection. All that
Themistocles did before and during this war it is not necessary to
state. It will suffice here to say that he had no longer occasion to
lose sleep on account of the glory of Miltiades. He had won a higher
glory of his own; and in the end ambition ruined him, as it had his
great predecessor.

To complete the tale of Themistocles we must take up that of another of
the heroes of Greece, the Spartan Pausanias, the leader of the
victorious army at Plataea. He, too, allowed ambition to destroy him.
After taking the city of Byzantium, he fell in love with Oriental luxury
and grew to despise the humble fare and rigid discipline of Sparta. He
offered to bring all Greece under the domain of Persia if Xerxes would
give him his daughter for wife, a