Battle of Salamis
The Battle of Salamis was a naval battle between the Greek city-states and Persia, fought in September, 480 BC off Salamis, a small island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens, Greece.
| Table of contents |
|
2 The Battle 3 Aftermath |
| Battle of Salamis | |
|---|---|
| Conflict | Persian Wars |
| Date | September, 480 BC |
| Place | Off of Salamis, Greece |
| Result | Greek victory |
| Combatants | |
| Greek city-states | Persia |
| Commanders | |
| Eurybiades of Sparta Themistocles of Athens Adeimantus of Corinth Aristides of Athens | Xerxes I |
| Strength | |
| 371 ships | 700 ships? |
| Casualties | |
| Unknown | Unknown |
The Greeks had 371 triremes and penteconters (smaller fifty-oared ships), under the overall command of Themistocles, but much of the actual fighting was handled by the Spartan Eurybiades. There were 180 ships from Athens, 40 from Corinth, 30 from Aegina, 20 from Chalcis, 20 from Megara, 16 from Sparta, 15 from Sicyon, 10 from Epidaurus, 7 from Eretria, 7 from Ambracia, 5 from Troezen, 4 from Naxos, 3 from Leucas, 3 from Hermione, 2 from Styra, 2 from Cythnus, 2 from Ceos, 2 from Melos, one from Siphnus, one from Seriphus, and one from Croton.
The much larger Persian fleet consisted of about 700 ships, far fewer than they had had at the beginning of the war, as they had lost many ships due to storms in the Aegean Sea and at Artemisium. The Persians, led by Xerxes I, decided to attack the Athenian fleet off the coast of the island, and were so confident of their victory that Xerxes watched the battle on a throne from the shore.
Eurybiades and the Spartans still wanted to at least fight the battle closer to Corinth, so that they could retreat to the mainland in case of a defeat. Themistocles convinced him to fight at Salamis. Themistocles then sent an informer, a slave named Sicinnus, to Xerxes to make the Persian king believe that the Greeks had in fact not been able to agree on a location for battle, and would be retreating during the night. Xerxes believed Sicinnus and had his fleet blockade the exits of the gulf, which also served to block any of the Spartans if they were still planning to escape. The Persians searched the gulf throughout the night while the Greeks remained on the island, asleep; Aristides, formerly an opponent of Themistocles, now allied with the Athenian commander to strengthen the Greek force.
The next morning the Persians were exhausted from preparing for battle all night, but they attacked the Greek fleet as soon as it appeared. The Greeks pretended to retreat, drawing the Persians into the narrowest part of the gulf. As at Artemisium, the much larger Persian fleet could not manoeuvre in the gulf, and a smaller contingent of Athenian and Aeginan triremes flanked the Persian navy. The lighter triremes sunk about 200 of the Persian ships. Aristides also took another small contingent and recaptured Psyttaleia, a nearby island that the Persians had occupied a few days earlier. One of the more notable Persian allies captured by the Greeks was Artemisia, the tyrant of Halicarnassus. Herodotus says the Persians suffered many more casualties than the Greeks because the Persians did not know how to swim; one of the Persian casualties was a brother of Xerxes.
The victory of the Greeks marked the turning point in the Persian Wars. Xerxes and most of his army returned to Persia, leaving Mardonius and a small force to attempt to control the conquered areas of Greece. Mardonius recaptured Athens, but the Greek city-states joined together once more to fight him at the simultaneous battles of Plataea and Mycale in 479 BC.
The Athenian playwright Aeschylus, who may have participated in the battle, wrote a play about it in 472 BC (The Persians).The Battle
Aftermath
