The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-10-20
ANNTVERSARY OF
 sALAMIs, THE GREATEST
 ANCIENT NAVAL BATTLE

Y ii t
 Western culture against eastern bar barism-that is the issue now to be de- cided on the battleheIds of Europe, ac- cording to the spokesmen for one war ring nation. History is repeating it. self Just 2,3e4 years ago today, on the Athenan, commander Of the Greek feet used the same argument in ad- dressing his men before the battle of Salamis the greatest of ancient naval conflicts. The Greeks, with only BIO sail were surrounded during the night by the fleet Of xefxess the Persian king, numbering 2. 900 vessels. xerxes, at the head of a million men, had ray aged Greece and had burned Athens. The Athenians had fled to their, ships. and withdrew to the mountainous isl- and of Salamis, now known as Ko- 1uri. The triumphant xerxes sent his navy in pursuit, and from a throne erected for him o1s shore the great king beheld the utter defeat and de- struction of his fleet by the Greeks. By this victory 'scuItured'' Greece was saved ~frorn becoming a province of ..barbarfan" Persia.
 On the morning which was to de- eide the fate of Greece Themistoc1es called his marines together, and, says Herodotus, s'harangued them most teloquently.'' He pointed out that the Persians were .tbarbarians," and that the survival of Greek culture depend- ed upon the issue of the coming bat tie. sHis speech was entirely taken up,'' says Herodotus, Sin contrasting
 better things with worse, exhorting them to choose the best of all those things which depended on the nature and condition of man. z
 Naval battles in those days were not long distance affairs, but hand o-hand lcombats As for the ssbarbariansss, tsderodotus says that ''every one ex- erted himself vigorously, dreadfng xerxes; for each thought that he him self was observed by the king At the beginning of the conflict s.tI1e Greeks began to back water and made for the sflor.e;'' but, "a phantom of "a.
 woman appeared to them. and cheered them on, so that the whole fleet of the Greeks heard her, after she had first reproached them in these words. sDastards how long will you back water?r'' The Creeks fought in good order, in line, but the barbarians were neither properly formed nor did any thing with Judgment
 The heroine of the battle was a Per
 sian woman Arernisias whose exploit
 in sinking ship caused xerxes, to
 remark, My men have become wo-
 men, and my women men, It was de-
 clared by the Greeks, however, that Icraft
 The Greeks suffered but snnalf floss in this battle. while the .ebar-
 barians', went down by thousands
 For as the Greeks knew how to swim tthey whose ships were destroyed, and lwho did not perish in actual conflict lswam safe to salamis; wheras many fof the barbarians not knowing how I to swim perished in the se 1.''
 The Greek commander offered "a ireward of ten thousand drachmas to
 whoever should take Artemtsia alive.
 for they considered it a great indig- 5nity that a woman should war against
 Athens The woman escaped how ever to enjoy the favor of her king. 1 One of the most gallant exploits of the battle was that of a Persian boat crew. They sunk an Athenian ship but were attacked and their own ves- Isel was sunk by another Greek ship but by hurling their javelins they drove the marines from the ship that 4 had sunk them. and boarded and got possession of its"