He was base born on
his mother's side, as the epigram tells us:
"My name's Abrotonon from Thrace,
I boast not old Athenian race;
Yet, humble though my lineage be,
Themistokles was born of me."
Phanias, however, says that the mother of Themistokles was a Carian, not
a Thracian, and that her name was not Abrotonon but Euterpe. Manthes
even tells us that she came from the city of Halikarnassus in Caria. All
base-born Athenians were made to assemble at Kynosarges, a gymnasium
outside the walls sacred to Herakles, who was regarded as base born
among the gods because his mother was a mortal; and Themistokles induced
several youths of noble birth to come to Kynosarges with him and join in
the wrestling there, an ingenious device for destroying the exclusive
privileges of birth. But, for all that, he evidently was of the blood of
Lykomedes; for when the barbarians burned down the temple of the
Initiation at Phlya, which belonged to the whole race of the descendants
of Lykomedes, it was restored by Themistokles, as we are told by
Simonides.
II. He is agreed by all to have been a child of vigorous impulses,
naturally clever, and inclined to take an interest in important affairs
and questions of statesmanship. During his holidays and times of leisure
he did not play and trifle as other children do, but was always found
arranging some speech by himself and thinking it over.
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