Sea Battle of Salamis

FYI: With a little imagination, while in Athens, and on a clear day, one can still make out the scene of part of this naval encounter from the Acropolis! Mount Lykavittos is an even better vantage point.

In September of 480 BC the Persians navy had recently suffered the loss of several ships during the sea battle off Artemisio and the accompanying storm.

Simultaneously, landside, the Persians had turned the Spartan 400 and Platean defense at Thermopylae and marched deep into southern Greece.

The Attik Greeks, vastly outnumbered and fearing an encounter on land, evacuated Athens and put all their hopes into a sea battle using their purpose designed navy as a final stratagem. BTW: the English word 'navy'  is a borrowed Greek word: nauv-los. A nauv- archos is an Admiral. A nauv-tilia is a fleet and so on.

As you probably recall, the Persians force of 300,000 men and 1,200 ships went on to sack and occupy Athens with particular emphasis on desecrating the Greek Gods on the Holy Acropolis.

The Persian Navy in a support role, beached their ships at Phaliron, a mere 3 kilometers from the Acropolis (high-city) and visible from it. Incidentally, exactly where many of the the Greek navy's 350 triremes would have been had they not regrouped in nearby Salamis' Ambelakia Bay and the peninsulas of Kynossura and Pounta.

The Athenian Greek stratagem (last hope really) was to force the location of the battle at sea to within the tight constraints of the channel surrounding the island Salamis and the nearby coastline. This way the Persian navarchos could not bring the full strength of his superior numbers to bear.

The naval battle plan put forth by Themistokles was to out maneuver the Persian Navy's heavier ships by use of the smaller and more maneuverable Greek ones which were after all, purpose built for the areas sailing conditions. An added consideration was their entire evacuated Athenian population and remaining army was entrenched in Salamis and of necessity part and parcel of the outcome.

Themistokles plan worked and the Greek Navy was triumphant. Logistically Xerxes was now cut off from quicker supplies by sea and decided to race for home before winter. Before the battle of Salamis was joined however Themistokles sent a trick message to Xerxes via a supposed traitor. The message implied that if battle wasn't joined post haste that the Greek Navy would escape. Probalbly still exultant from his recent heady sacking of Athens, Xerxes and his admirals went for it. Herodotus Book 8 is good for the best account. Below is a snapshot of 4 stages (begining at the top) of the sea battle. I took a display photo from the Athens war museum. The war museum is free and way cool! Be sure and go to this museum!

The above sign says that depictied is the successive phases of the Naval battle of Salamis on 28 or 29th September 450 BC (or prin christou p.x.) The Greeks victory here is considered one of the most important battles of world history.