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Themistokles was ostracized in the late 470's, probably in spring 471 or 470; if we are to believe Thucydides, he did not write to Artaxerxes in Persia until 465 at the earliest. In some way or other his stay in Argos and visits to the rest of the Peloponnese, his wanderings in northern Greece, and his delay in Asia Minor must be extended to fill this gap of at least five years. There is evidence of a sort, there are arguments good and bad for the lengthening or shortening of any of these episodes, but none of this evidence or argument is conclusive. Between 470 and 465 no event in Themistokles' life can be securely dated; there is no fixed chronological pattern into which a reconstruction of the political history of Athens and the Peloponnese during these years must fit. Since the reconstruction which I attempt here is itself based on evidence which is far from adequate, plausibility is the most that can be claimed for it or for the chronological scheme which I infer from it.
The total surviving output of the Hesiodic school of Greek Epic is too little, in point of sheer quantity, to afford an insight into social life and outlook comparable with that offered by the Homeric poems. Worse still, it is too heterogeneous a collection to form a meaningful social document.
Groundless assumption in scholarship is generally soon swept away. Seldom does an interpretation which has little to commend it survive as long as that which I here propose to refute.