Themistocles

Themistocles came from outside the Athenian aristocracy and rose through populist support in the early democracy. Elected archon in 493 BC, he spent years arguing that Athens needed ships, and in 483 BC convinced the city to build 200 triremes. When Persia invaded in 480 BC, he commanded the Athenian navy and used subterfuge to lure the enemy into the Straits of Salamis, where the Greeks won decisively and turned the war. After the threat passed, he ordered Athens re-fortified, enraging Sparta; his arrogance wore thin at home, and in 472 or 471 BC Athens ostracised him. The Spartans accused him of treason in a plot involving their own disgraced general, so he fled - first to Macedon, then across to Asia Minor, where he entered service under the Persian king Artaxerxes I. He governed Magnesia until his death in 459 BC, likely from natural causes, and was later rehabilitated as the architect of Greek survival.