down upon this securely, and he felt free from all terror and anxiety.  After this he was sent away by Nikogenes, who made use of the following device.  Most barbarian nations, and the Persians especially, are violently jealous in their treatment of women.  They guard not only their wives, but their purchased slaves and concubines, with the greatest care, not permitting them to be seen by any one out of doors, but when they are at home they lock them up, and when they are on a journey they place them in waggons with curtains all round them.  Such a waggon was prepared for Themistokles, and he travelled in it, his escort telling all whom they met that they were conveying a Greek lady from Ionia to one of the king’s courtiers.

XXVII.  Thucydides and Charon of Lampsakus relate that Xerxes was now dead, and that Themistokles gave himself up to his son; but Ephorus, Deinon, Kleitarchus, Herakleides, and many others, say that it was to Xerxes himself that he came.  But the narrative of Thucydides agrees better with the dates, although they are not thoroughly settled.

At this perilous crisis Themistokles first applied to Artabanus, a chiliarch, or officer in command of a regiment of a thousand men, whom he told that he was a Greek, and that he wished to have an interview with the king about matters of the utmost importance, and in which the king was especially interested.  He replied, “Stranger, the customs of different races are different, and each has its own standard of right and wrong; yet among all men it is thought right to honour, admire, and to defend one’s own customs.  Now we are told that you chiefly prize freedom and equality; we on the other hand think it the best of all our laws to honour the king, and to worship him as we should worship the statue of a god that preserves us all.  Wherefore if you are come with the intention of adopting our customs, and of prostrating yourself before the king, you may be permitted to see the king, and speak with him; but if not, you must use some other person to communicate with him; for it is not the custom for the king to converse with any one who does not prostrate himself before him.”  Themistokles, hearing this, said to him, “Artabanus, I am come to increase the glory and power of the king, and will both myself adopt your customs, since the god that has exalted the Persians will have it so, and will also increase the number of those who prostrate themselves before the king.  So let this be no impediment to the interview with him which I desire.”  “Whom of the Greeks,” asked Artabanus, “are we to tell him is come? for you do not seem to have the manners of a man of humble station.”  “No one,” answered Themistokles, “must learn my name before the king himself.”  This is the story which we are told by Phanias.  But Eratosthenes, in his treatise on wealth, tells us also that Themistokles was introduced to Artabanus by an Eretrian lady with whom the latter lived.