Greek ships, methods of engagement, movement and command under the Athenian Strategos Themistocles proved to be highly effective during the Greco-Persian Wars (499 to 449 BCE). Relatively small Greek forces successfully delayed the Persian fleet in a series of naval engagements in 480 BCE. Naval conflict culminated in the straits between the port of Piraeus and Salamis Island during the Battle of Salamis (September 480 BCE), when 371 Greek triremes and pentekonters defeated King Xerxes' Persian fleet of over 1,200 ships, that included Phoenician, Egyptian, Cilician and Cypriot contingents. The city of Athens, that had risen to naval supremacy among the Greek poleis was defeated in the Peloponnesian War and lost its fleet against the Peloponnesian League under Lysander in the Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BCE.