... support from the ruling class. By 493 BC, age of 35, he had secured the supreme post of the nine archons as Archon Eponymous. According to Bradley, it was as an archon that Themistocles began the fortification and improvement of the new Piraeus whose three natural harbours would be more efficient than the open bay at Phalerum. Bradley also identifies how Themistocles persuaded the Athenian assembly to use the surplus wealth generated from the recently discovered silver mines at Larium to build more trireme ships to expand the Athenian navy. According to Herodotus, 200 trireme ships were built, Aristotle claims 100 though Bradley believes 130 triremes were constructed from the surplus funds. Themistocles played on the "enmity and the jealousy the people [Athenians] felt towards the Aeginetians" with "no need to terrify the Athenians with the threat of Darius and the Persians" according to Plutarch, to convince Athenian citizens how a ...

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