Battle of Salamis: 480 BC Back to "Persian Empire" Chronology During the battle, Xerxes watched from a distance as his men fought the Greeks. His fleet outnumbered the Greek ships three to one, and he expected an easy victory. Though the Greeks were greatly outnumbered by the Persian ships, they had the advantage of their speed and knowledge of the waters and the battle plan. Another practical advantage that the Greeks had was their ability to swim. The Persians could not swim and when their ships were sunk, they drowned because they could not get to shore. Using Themistocles' strategy, the lighter Greek ships rowed out in a circular formation and rammed the front of their ships into the clumsy Persian vessels. At the same time they continuously "threw darts and stones upon the men. The Greek war galleys were specially designed for this kind of fighting- long and slim, packed with rowers below and soldiers on the light upper deck." (Compton's Encyclopedia: Page 27) Using this attack plan, about two hundred ships were sunk, some were captured and the rest fled back to the bases in Asia Minor.

The rest of Xerxes army that was left in Greece was sent to Plataea in 479 BC where they were defeated once again by the Greeks. At the same time the Hellenic league sailed across the Aegean and destroyed the main Persian fleet at Mycale. This victory triggered a revolt in the Greek city-states of Asia Minor. With this the victorious Greeks saved their independence and were filled with a sense of superiority and thus set the stage for the ensuing Golden Age. Bibliography: About the Battle of Salamis - The Persian Wars 600-800 ships Battle of Salamis - Background: Invading Greece in the summer of 480 BC, Persian troops led by Xerxes I were opposed by the forces of an alliance of Greek city-states. Pushing south into Greece, the Persians were supported offshore by a large fleet. In August, the Persian army encountered Greek troops at the pass of Thermopylae while their ships encountered the allied fleet in the Straits of Artemisium. Despite a heroic stand, the Greeks were defeated at the Battle of Thermopylae forcing the fleet to retreat south to aid in the evacuation of Athens.

Assisting in this effort, the fleet then moved to ports on Salamis. Advancing through Boeotia and Attica, Xerxes attacked and burned those cities that offered resistance before occupying Athens. In an effort to continue resistance, the Greek army established a new fortified position on the Isthmus of Corinth with the goal of defending the Peloponnesus. While a strong position, it could be easily outflanked if the Persians embarked their troops and crossed the waters of the Saronic Gulf. To prevent this, some of the allied leaders argued in favor of moving the fleet to the isthmus. Despite this threat, the Athenian leader Themistocles argued for remaining at Salamis. Frustrations at Salamis: Offensively-minded, Themistocles understood that the smaller Greek fleet could negate the Persian advantage in numbers by fighting in the confined waters around the island. As the Athenian navy formed the larger component of the allied fleet, he was able to successfully lobby for remaining. Needing to deal with the Greek fleet before pressing on, Xerxes initially sought to avoid fighting in the narrow waters around the island.

A Greek Trick: Aware of discord among the Greeks, he began moving troops towards the isthmus with the hope that the Peloponnesian contingents would desert Themistocles in order to defend their homelands. This too failed and the Greek fleet remained in place. To promote the belief that the allies were fragmenting, Themistocles began a ruse by sending a servant to Xerxes claiming that Athenians had been wronged and wished to switch sides. He also stated that the Peloponnesians intended to depart that night. Believing this information, Xerxes directed his fleet to block the Straits of Salamis and those of Megara to the west. Moving to Battle: While an Egyptian force moved to cover the Megara channel, the bulk of the Persian fleet took up stations near the Straits of Salamis. In addition, a small infantry force was moved to the island of Psyttaleia. Placing his throne on the slopes of Mount Aigaleos, Xerxes prepared to watch the coming battle. While the night passed without incident, the following morning a group of Corinthian triremes was spotted moving northwest away from the straits.

The Battle of Salamis: Believing that the allied fleet was breaking up, the Persians began moving towards the straits with the Phoenicians on the right, the Ionian Greeks on the left, and other forces in the center. Formed in three ranks, the Persian fleet's formation began to disintegrate as it entered the confined waters of the straits. Opposing them, the allied fleet was deployed with the Athenians on the left, the Spartans on the right, and other allied ships in the center. As the Persians approached, the Greeks slowly backed their triremes, luring the enemy into the tight waters and buying time until the morning wind and tide ( Map ). Turning, the Greeks quickly moved to the attack. Driven back, the first line of Persian triremes were pushed into the second and third lines causing them to foul and for organization to further break down. In addition, the beginning of a rising swell led the top-heavy Persian ships to have difficulty maneuvering. On the Greek left, the Persian admiral Ariabignes was killed early in the fighting leaving the Phoenicians largely leaderless. As the fighting raged, the Phoenicians were the first to break and flee.

Exploiting this gap, the Athenians turned the Persian flank. In the center, a group of Greek ship managed to push through the Persian lines cutting their fleet in two. The situation for the Persians worsened through the day with the Ionian Greeks being the last to flee. Badly beaten, the Persian fleet retreated towards Phalerum with the Greeks in pursuit. In the retreat, Queen Artemisia of Halicarnassus rammed a friendly ship in an effort to escape. Watching from afar, Xerxes believed that she had sunk a Greek vessel and allegedly commented, "My men have become women, and my women men." Aftermath of Salamis: Losses for the Battle of Salamis are not known with certainty, however it is estimated that the Greeks lost around 40 ships while the Persians lost around 200. With the naval battle won, Greek marines crossed and eliminated the Persian troops on Psyttaleia. His fleet largely shattered, Xerxes ordered it north to guard the Hellespont. As the fleet was necessary for the supply of his army, the Persian leader also was forced to retreat with the bulk of his forces.

Intending to finish the conquest of Greece the following year, he left a sizable army in the region under the command of Mardonius. A key turning point of the Persian Wars, the triumph of Salamis was built upon the following year when the Greeks defeated Mardonius at the Battle of Plataea . Selected Sources Battle of Salamis The Battle of Salamis The Battle of Salamis was a naval battle between the Greek city-states and Persia, fought in September, 480 BC in the straits between Piraeus and Salamis, a small island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens, Greece. Background The Athenians had fled to Salamis after the Battle of Thermopylae in August, 480 BC, while the Persians occupied and burned their city. The Greek fleet joined them there in August after the indecisive Battle of Artemisium.

The Spartans wanted to return to the Peloponnese, seal off the Isthmus of Corinth with a wall, and prevent the Persians from defeating them on land, but the Athenian commander Themistocles persuaded them to remain at Salamis, arguing that a wall across the Isthmus was pointless as long as the Persian army could be transported and supplied by the Persian navy. His argument depended on a particular interpretation of the oracle at Delphi, which, in typical Delphic ambiguity, prophesized that Salamis would "bring death to women's sons," but also that the Greeks would be saved by a "wooden wall". Themistocles interpreted the wooden wall as the fleet of ships, and argued that Salamis would bring death to the Persians, not the Greeks. Furthermore some Athenians who chose not to flee Athens, interpreted the prophecy literally, barricaded the entrance to the Acropolis with a wooden wall, and fenced themselves in. The wooden wall was overrun, they were all killed, and the Acropolis was burned down by the Persians.

Preparations The Greeks had 371 triremes and pentekonters (smaller fifty-oared ships), effectively under Themistocles, but nominally led by the Spartan Eurybiades. The Spartans had very few ships to contribute, but they regarded themselves the natural leaders of any joint Greek military expedition, and always insisted that the Spartan general would be given command on such occasions. 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 Troizen, 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 1207 ships, although their original invasion force consisted of many more ships that had since been lost due to storms in the Aegean Sea and at Artemisium. The Persians, led by Xerxes I, decided to meet the Athenian fleet off the coast of Salamis Island, and were so confident of their victory that Xerxes set up a throne on the shore, on the slopes of Mount Aegaleus, to watch the battle in style and record the names of commanders who performed particularly well. Eurybiades and the Spartans continued to argue with Themistocles about the necessity of fighting at Salamis. They still wanted to fight the battle closer to Corinth, so that they could retreat to the mainland in case of a defeat, or withdraw completely and let the Persians attack them by land. Themistocles argued in favor of fighting at Salamis, as the Persian fleet would be able to continually supply their army no matter how many defensive walls Eurybiades built. At one point during the debate, spirits flared so badly that Eurybiades raised his staff of office and threatened to strike Themistocles with it.

Themistocles responded calmly "Strike, but also listen". His eloquence was matched by his cunning. Afraid that he would be overruled by Eurybiades despite the Spartan's total lack of naval expertise, Themistocles 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 stealthily retreating during the night. Xerxes believed Sicinnus and had his fleet blockade the western outlet of the straits, which also served to block any Greek ships who might be planning to escape. Sicinnus was later rewarded with emancipation and Greek citizenship.Artemisia, the queen of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor and an ally of Xerxes, supposedly tried to convince him to wait for the Greeks to surrender, as a battle in the straits of Salamis would be deadly to the large Persian ships, but Xerxes and his chief advisor Mardonius pressed for an attack. Throughout the night the Persian ships searched the gulf for the Greek retreat, while in fact the Greeks remained on their ships, asleep.

During the night Aristides, formerly a political opponent of Themistocles, arrived to report that Themistocles' plan had worked, and he allied with the Athenian commander to strengthen the Greek force. The battle The next morning (possibly September 28, but the exact date is unknown), the Persians were exhausted from searching for the Greeks all night, but they sailed in to the straits anyway to attack the Greek fleet. The Corinthian ships under Adeimantus immediately retreated, drawing the Persians further into the straits after them; although the Athenians later felt this was due to cowardice, the Corinthians had most likely been instructed to feign a retreat by Themistocles. Nevertheless none of the other Greek ships dared to attack, until one Greek trireme quickly rammed the lead Persian ship. At this, the rest of the Greeks joined the attack. 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 Persians tried to turn back, but a strong wind sprang up and trapped them; those that were able to turn around were also trapped by the rest of the Persian fleet that had jammed the strait. The Greek and Persian ships rammed each other and something similar to a land battle ensued. Both sides had marines on their ships (the Greeks with fully armed hoplites), and arrows and javelins also flew across the narrow strait. The chief Persian admiral Ariamenes rammed Themistocles' ship, but in the hand-to-hand combat that followed Ariamenes was killed by a Greek foot soldier. The Battle of Salamis Only about 100 of the heavier Persian triremes could fit into the gulf at a time, and each successive wave was disabled or destroyed by the lighter Greek triremes. At least 200 Persian ships were sunk, including one by Artemisia, who apparently switched sides in the middle of the battle to avoid being captured and ransomed by the Athenians. Aristides also took another small contingent of ships and recaptured Psyttaleia, a nearby island that the Persians had occupied a few days earlier.

It is said that it was the Immortals, the elite Persian Royal Guard, who during the battle had to evacuate to Psyttaleia after their ships sank: they were slaughtered to a man. According to Herodotus, 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. Those Persians who survived and ended up on shore were killed by the Greeks who found them. Xerxes, sitting ashore upon his golden throne, witnessed the horror. He remarked that Artemisia was the only general to show any productive bravery ramming and destroying nine Athenian triremes, saying, "My female general has become a man, and my male generals all become women." Aftermath The victory of the Greeks marked the turning point in the Persian Wars. Xerxes and most of his army retreated to the Hellespont, where Xerxes wanted to march his army back over the bridge of ships he had created before the Greeks arrived to destroy it (although they had in fact decided not to do this). Xerxes 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. Because the Battle of Salamis saved Greece from being absorbed into the Persian Empire, it essentially ensured the emergence of Western civilization as a major force in the world. Many historians have therefore ranked the Battle of Salamis as one of the most decisive military engagements of all time. The Persians Xerxes the Great Cylinder seal and inscription of Cyrus the Great from Babylon I am Cyrus, king of the world, great king, mighty king, king of Babylon, king of the land of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters, son of Cambyses, great king, king of Anshan, grandson of Cyrus, great king, king of Anshan, descendant of Teispes, great king, king of Anshan, progeny of an unending royal line, whose rule Bel and Nabu cherish, whose kingship they desire for their hearts' pleasures. When I, well-disposed, entered Babylon, I established the seat of government in the royal palace amidst jubilation and rejoicing.

Marduk, the great God, caused the big-hearted inhabitants of Babylon to...me. I sought daily to worship him. My numerous troops moved about undisturbed in the midst of Babylon. I did not allow any to terrorize the land of Sumer and Akkad. I kept in view the needs of Babylon and all its sanctuaries to promote their well being. The citizens of Babylon... I lifted their unbecoming yoke. Their dilapidated dwellings I restored. I put an end to their misfortunes. At my deeds Marduk, the great Lord, rejoiced, and to me, Cyrus, the king who worshipped, and to Cambyses, my son, the offspring of my loins, and to all my troops, he graciously gave his blessing, and in good spirit is before him we/glorified/exceedingly his high divinity.... The International History Project, 2004 Edited By: Robert Guisepi The History Of the Ancient Persian Empire From Rise To Fall A history of the Persians including their empire, rulers like Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes as well as their cities, rise and fall Persia, conventional European designation of the country now known as Iran.

This name was in general use in the West until 1935, although the Iranians themselves had long called their country Iran. For convention's sake the name of Persia is here kept for that part of the country's history concerned with the ancient Persian Empire until the Arab conquest in the 7th century AD. An Overview of the The Persian Empire Cyrus the Persian was the greatest conqueror in the history of the ancient Near East. In 550 B.C. he ended Persian vassalage to the Medes by capturing Ecbatana and ousting the Median dynasty. The Medes readily accepted their vigorous new ruler, who soon demonstrated that he deserved to be called "the Great." When King Croesus of Lydia moved across the Hals River in 547 B.C. to pick up some of the pieces of the Median empire, Cyrus defeated him and annexed Lydia, including those Greek cities on the coast of Asia Minor that were under the nominal control of Lydia. Then he turned east, establishing his power as far as the frontier of India. Babylon and its empire was next on his list. Following the death of Cyrus, his son Cambyses conquered Egypt.

The next ruler, Darius I (522-486 B.C.), added the Punjab region in India and Thrace in Europe. He also began a conflict with the Greeks that continued intermittently for more than 150 years until the Persians were conquered by Alexander the Great. Long before this event the Persian nobility had forgotten Cyrus the Great's answer to their suggestion that they "leave this small and barren country of ours" and move to fertile Babylonia: Do so if you wish, but if you do, be ready to find yourselves no longer governors but governed; for soft lands breed soft men; it does not happen that the same land brings forth wonderful crops and good fighting men. ^29 [Footnote 29: Herodotus History 9.122, trans. A. R. Burn, Persia and the West (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1962), p. 61.] Although built upon the Assyrian model, the Persian administrative system was far more efficient and humane. The empire was divided into twenty provinces, or satrapies, each ruled by a governor called a satrap.

To check the satraps, a secretary and a military official representing the "Great King, King of Kings" were installed in every province. Also, special inspectors, "the Eyes and Ears of the King," traveled throughout the realm. Imperial post roads connected the important cities. Along the Royal Road between Sardis and Susa there was a post station every fourteen miles, where the king's couriers could obtain fresh horses, enabling them to cover the 1600-mile route in a week. "Nothing mortal travels so fast as these Persian messengers," wrote Herodotus. "These men will not be hindered..., either by snow, or rain, or heat, or by the darkness of night." ^30 These words were at one time used as the motto of the United States Postal Service. [Footnote 30: Herodotus History 8.88, trans. G. Rawlinson.] The Persian empire was the first to attempt to govern many different racial groups on the principle of equal responsibilities and rights for all peoples. So long as subjects paid their taxes and kept the peace, the king did not interfere with local religion, customs, or trade.

Indeed, Darius was called the "shopkeeper" because he stimulated trade by introducing a uniform system gold and silver coinage on the Lydian model. The humaneness of the Persian rulers may have stemmed from the ethical religion founded by the prophet Zoroaster, who lived in the early sixth century B.C. Zoroaster sought to replace what he called "the lie" - ritualistic, idol-worshiping cults and their Magi priests - with a religion centered on the sole god Ahura-Mazda ("Wise Lord"). This "father of Justice" demanded "good thoughts of the mind, good deeds of the hand, and good words of the tongue" from those who would attain paradise (a Persian word). The new religion made little progress until first Darius and then the Magi adopted it.

The Magi revived many old gods as lesser deities, added much ritual, and replaced monotheism with dualism by transforming what Zoroaster had called the principle or spirit of evil into the powerful god Ahriman (the model for the Jewish Satan), rival of Ahura-Mazda, "between which each man must choose for himself." The complicated evolution of Zoroastrianism is revealed in its holy writ, the Avesta ("The Law"), assembled in its present form between the fourth and sixth centuries A.D. Zoroastrian eschatology - "the doctrine of final things" such as the resurrection of the dead and a last judgment - influenced later Judaism. Following the Muslim conquest of Persia in the seventh century A.D., Zoroastrianism died out in its homeland. It exists today among the Parsees in India. In art the Persians borrowed largely from their predecessors in the Fertile Crescent, particularly the Assyrians. Their most important work was in palace architecture, the best remains of which are at Persepolis. Built on a high terrace, the royal residence was reached by a grand stairway faced with beautiful reliefs.

Instead of the warfare and violence that characterized Assyrian sculpture, these reliefs depict hundreds of soldiers, courtiers, and representatives of twenty-three nations of the empire bringing gifts to the king for the festival of the new year. THE FIRST EMPIRE The Iranian plateau was settled about 1500BC by Aryan tribes, the most important of which were the Medes, who occupied the northwestern portion, and the Persians, who emigrated from Parsua, a land west of Lake Urmia, into the southern region of the plateau, which they named Parsamash or Parsumash. The first prominent leader of the Persians was the warrior chief Hakhamanish, or Achaemenes, who lived about 681BC. The Persians were dominated by the Medes until the accession to the Persian throne in 550 BC of Cyrus the Great. He overthrew the Median rulers, conquered the kingdom of Lydia in 546BC and that of Babylonia in 539BC and established the Persian Empire as the preeminent power of the world. His son and successor, Cambyses II, extended the Persian realm even further by conquering the Egyptians in 525BC.

Darius I, who ascended the throne in 521BC, pushed the Persian borders as far eastward as the Indus River, had a canal constructed from the Nile to the Red Sea, and reorganized the entire empire, earning the title Darius the Great. From 499 to 493BC he engaged in crushing a revolt of the Ionian Greeks living under Persian rule in Asia, and then launched a punitive campaign against the European Greeks for supporting the rebels. His forces were disastrously defeated by the Greeks at the historic Battle of Marathon in 490BC. Darius died while preparing a new expedition against the Greeks; his son and successor, Xerxes I, attempted to fulfill his plan but met defeat in the great sea engagement the Battle of Salam�s in 480BC and in two successive land battles in the following year. The forays of Xerxes were the last notable attempt at expansion of the Persian Empire.

During the reign of Artaxerxes I, the second son of Xerxes, the Egyptians revolted, aided by the Greeks; although the revolt was finally suppressed in 446BC, it signaled the first major assault against, and the beginning of the decline of, the Persian Empire. BACKGROUND Between 560 and 500 BC the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East underwent great political changes. Under Cyrus the Great Persia grew into the largest empire the Near East had ever seen. Centered on the Persian homeland on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf, it stretched from present-day Pakistan in the east to the Balkan Peninsula in the west and from the Persian Gulf in the south to Central Asia in the north. In the same period, a number of small city-states consisting of an urban center and its surrounding territory had developed over a large part of the Greek mainland and the islands of the Aegean Sea. For the most part they were governed by local aristocracies, but the city-state of Athens had already begun a series of changes that would lead to the emergence of democratic government. Politically, the most important was Sparta, on the Peloponnesian peninsula.

It had become the strongest land power in Greece and controlled an alliance of other city-states that extended over much of southern Greece. However, in terms of population, resources, and organization, the Greek states were no match for the immense empire they were to fight. The wars between them had important consequences. Politically, they ended Persia�s expansion to the west and led to its loss of control of the western coast of Asia Minor (present-day Asian Turkey). The struggles deeply affected the Greeks. Sparta and Athens emerged as the leading powers, eventually dominating the Greek world. Athens became the dominant Greek sea power and created an empire that extended over the eastern and northern coasts of the Aegean. Culturally, the wars made the Greeks much more conscious of their identity as a separate, and in their minds, superior people. THE FIRST PHASE OF THE PERSIAN WARS In 521 BC the Persian king Darius I crushed all resistance to his accession to the throne after a brief but bloody civil war. While playing a central role in reorganizing the empire, he also worked to secure and expand its outer borders.

In 513 BC the Persians captured the major Greek islands of Kh�os, S�mos, and L�svos. Also in 513 BC Darius himself crossed over to Europe and conquered the area between the Danube and the Aegean coast to the borders of Macedonia. Many historians believe that these gains were part of the normal process of imperial expansion and that Darius eventually intended the conquest of Greece and the Aegean. In 499 BC his forces attempted to capture the island of N�xos as a first step towards dominating the central Aegean. This attempt failed and it helped to precipitate a revolt of the Ionian Greeks living along the coast of Asia Minor. This revolt, caused by dissatisfaction with economic and political conditions under the Persians, lasted from 499 to 493 BC. The revolt was at first successful but the Ionians were eventually thwarted by a crucial defeat at sea and the immense superiority of Persian numbers and organization. Athens and the lesser mainland state of Eretria had provided naval help to the Ionian rebels during the revolt. This intervention convinced Darius that Greece itself must be subdued to guarantee Persian security in the west.

In 492 BC the Persians launched an expedition to gain control of the central Aegean and to punish Athens and Eretria for assisting the Ionian rebels. After initial successes in northern Greece the Persians moved against Athens but were turned back when most of the ships were lost in a storm. In the summer of 490 BC a second Persian expedition sacked Eretria and then landed at Marathon less than 40 km (25 mi) northeast of Athens. The Athenians had appealed for help to other Greek states and especially to Sparta, but in the deciding battle faced the Persian force almost alone. Due to the strategy of Athenian general Miltiades, the force of about 10,000 Greek infantrymen defeated a much more numerous enemy. The battle showed the decisive superiority of the heavier armored Greek infantry over their Persian opponents in close combat. XERXES� INVASION This failure led Darius to begin preparing a much larger force for a second and final invasion. But rebellion in Egypt and other events delayed matters. In 486 BC Darius died and was succeeded by his son Xerxes I.

After reconquering Egypt Xerxes was ready to take up his father�s plans for Greece. The army he assembled was far larger than any the Greeks had seen before. Estimated in the millions by Greek historian Herodotus, it probably actually consisted of between 200,000 and 300,000 infantry and cavalry and more than 700 warships. The size of this force, the need for steady supplies, and the rugged nature of the Greek landscape led the Persians to develop a strategy that depended on cooperation between the army and the fleet. The army would provide bases for the fleet while the fleet would allow the army to bypass obstacles on land. In the spring of 480 BC the immense expedition set out from Sardis in western Asia Minor. The Greeks were not united in their attitude toward the Persian invasion. Many of the states saw their position as helpless and were ready to surrender. Those determined to resist met in the fall of 481 BC and made an alliance to fight the invasion. In May 480 BC Sparta was given command on land and sea despite the fact that the Athenians provided the majority of ships.

After an initial failure to hold the Persians the Greeks decided to meet the invader on land at Thermopylae and at sea at Artemisium in central Greece. This was the strategic point to meet a combined sea and land attack by much larger forces, as the approaches to it by both land and sea were narrow and difficult and would favor Greek infantry and the heavier and slower Greek ships. The Persian army far outnumbered the Greek force of between 6000 and 7000 infantrymen. After several days of battle by both land and sea the Persians surrounded the Greek position at Thermopylae. Though most of the Greeks escaped, the commander, Spartan king Leonidas I, and most of his fellow Spartans died. The Greek navy was now in a helpless position and withdrew south. The road to central Greece now lay open and Xerxes advanced south, sacking Athens and occupying its territory. The Greek fleet had withdrawn and lay at anchor at Salam�s, an island close to Athens. The Greek leaders were divided on what to do as the Persian fleet took up a position just outside the narrows that separate Salam�s from the Athenian coast.

The Spartans and other southern Greeks advocated withdrawing but the Athenians under the command of their general Themistocles successfully opposed a retreat and prepared to face the Persians. The Greek fleet numbered about 378 warships and faced a Persian force of about the same size. In late September 480 BC, as the Persian fleet attacked through the narrow straits, the Greek ships pretended to scatter at its approach. The Persians, with their ranks thrown into confusion by the narrowness of the straits and the feigned Greek retreat, were decisively defeated by the ramming of the heavier Greek ships. This battle proved decisive for the outcome of the war, destroying any hope that the Persians could continue their combined strategy of attack by land and sea. Their navy had suffered heavily and its morale was broken. Xerxes, afraid that his defeat might be followed by another rebellion of the Ionian Greeks, returned home but left his army behind under his general Mardonius. Mardonius spent the following winter trying to split the Greek coalition by offering the Athenians amnesty if they allied with Persia against Sparta. After this attempt failed Mardonius decided to bring the Greeks to battle in the early spring of 479 BC.

He first recaptured Athens to draw out the Athenians, who pressured the Spartans into helping them fight back. Mardonius then moved his forces north to southern Boeotia (in present-day central Greece) near the town of Plataea. The sides were evenly matched with about 110,000 men. After maneuvers on both sides lasting more than a week the battle was fought and the Persian force was destroyed. This defeat marked the complete failure of the invasion, and the surviving Persians withdrew suffering further heavy losses. By the next year the Greeks were successfully attacking the Persians on their own territory in Asia Minor. VICTORIOUS GREECE The Persians were never again able to threaten another invasion. The Greeks moved to the offensive and over the next decades liberated the islands of the Aegean and large areas along the western and northern coasts from Persian control. The most important direct result of the wars was to establish Athens as the dominant Greek naval power. This gave Athens the opportunity to create an extensive empire over the newly won territories that had no parallel in earlier Greek history.

A new political order emerged among the Greek states centered on the two great powers of Athens and Sparta that was to have a profound effect on later Greek history. Another effect of the wars was to produce the first large scale Greek historical work, the History of Herodotus, written in the second half of the 5th century BC. It serves as the most important source for the events of the wars and for evidence of the wars� effect on the Greek intellect and culture. ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND THE SELEUCIDS Many revolts took place in the next century; the final blow was struck by Alexander the Great, who added the Persian Empire to his own Mediterranean realm by defeating the troops of Darius III in a series of battles between 334 and 331BC. Alexander effected a temporary integration of the Persians into his empire by enlisting large numbers of Persian soldiers in his armies and by causing all his high officers, who were Macedonians, to wed Persian wives. His death in 323BC was followed by a long struggle among his generals for the Persian throne.

The victor in this contest was Seleucus I, who, after conquering the rich kingdom of Babylon in 312BC, annexed thereto all the former Persian realm as far east as the Indus River, as well as Syria and Asia Minor, and founded the Seleucid dynasty. For more than five centuries thereafter, Persia remained a subordinate unit within this great realm, which, after the overthrow of the Seleucids in the 2nd century BC, became the Parthian Empire. THE SASSANIDS In AD 224 Ardashir I, a Persian vassal-king, rebelled against the Parthians, defeated them in the Battle of Hormuz, and founded a new Persian dynasty, that of the Sassanids. He then conquered several minor neighboring kingdoms, invaded India, levying heavy tribute from the rulers of the Punjab, and conquered Armenia. A particularly significant accomplishment of his reign was the establishment of Zoroastrianism as the official religion of Persia. Ardashir was succeeded in 241 by his son Shapur I, who waged two successive wars against the Roman Empire, conquering territories in Mesopotamia and Syria and a large area in Asia Minor.

Between 260 and 263 he lost his conquests to Odenathus, ruler of Palmyra, and ally of Rome. War with Rome was renewed by Narses; his army was almost annihilated by Roman forces in 297, and he was compelled to conclude peace terms whereby the western boundary of Persia was moved from the Euphrates River to the Tigris River and much additional territory was lost. Shapur II (ruled 309-379) regained the lost territories, however, in three successive wars with the Romans. The next ruler of note was Yazdegerd I, who reigned in peace from 399 to 420; he at first allowed the Persian Christians freedom of worship and may even have contemplated becoming a Christian himself, but he later returned to the Zoroastrianism of his forebears and launched a 4-year campaign of ruthless persecution against the Christians. The persecution was continued by his son and successor, Bahram V, who declared war on Rome in 420.

The Romans defeated Bahram in 422; by the terms of the peace treaty the Romans promised toleration for the Zoroastrians within their realm in return for similar treatment of Christians in Persia. Two years later, at the Council of Dad-Ishu, the Eastern church declared its independence of the Western church. Near the end of the 5th century a new enemy, the barbaric Ephthalites, or "White Huns," attacked Persia; they defeated the Persian king Firuz II in 483 and for some years thereafter exacted heavy tribute. In the same year Nestorianism was made the official faith of the Persian Christians. Kavadh I favored the communistic teachings of Mazdak (flourished 5th century), a Zoroastrian high priest, and in 498 was deposed by his orthodox brother Zamasp. With the aid of the Ephthalites, Kavadh was restored to the throne in 501. He fought two inconclusive wars against Rome, and in 523 he withdrew his support of Mazdak and caused a great massacre of Mazdak's followers.

His son and successor, Khosrau I, in two wars with the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, extended his sway to the Black Sea and the Caucasus, becoming the most powerful of all Sassanid kings. He reformed the administration of the empire and restored Zoroastrianism as the state religion. His grandson Khosrau II reigned from 590 to 628; in 602 he began a long war against the Byzantine Empire and by 619 had conquered almost all southwestern Asia Minor and Egypt. Further expansion was prevented by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, who between 622 and 627 drove the Persians back within their original borders. The last of the Sassanid kings was Yazdegerd III, during whose reign (632-651) the Arabs invaded Persia, destroyed all resistance, gradually replaced Zoroastrianism with Islam, and incorporated Persia into the caliphate.

Salamis - Ancient History Encyclopedia Salamis by Mark Cartwright published on 05 May 2013 With defeat at Thermopylae , the inconclusive naval battle at Artemision, and Xerxes ’ Persian army on the rampage, the Greek city -states faced an unprecedented attack, one which threatened their very existence. The tide would turn, though, in September 480 BCE at the Battle of Salamis in the Saronic Gulf, a naval battle which would rank as one of the greatest and most significant in antiquity. Overcoming superior numbers with daring tactics and sheer determination, the allied Greek forces won a freedom which would allow a never-before-seen period of artistic and cultural endeavour which would form the foundations of Western culture for millennia. Context: The Persian Wars By the first years of the 5th century BCE, Persia , under the rule of Darius (r. 522-486 BCE), was already expanding into mainland Europe and had subjugated Thrace and Macedonia. The next objective was to quell once and for all the collection of potentially troublesome rebel states on the western border of the Empire .

In 490 BCE Greek forces led by Athens met the Persians in battle at Marathon and defeated the invaders. The battle would take on mythical status amongst the Greeks, but in reality it was merely the opening overture of a long war with several other battles making up the principal acts. In 486 BCE Xerxes became king, and he invaded first the Cyclades and then the Greek mainland after victory at Thermopylae in August 480 BCE against a token Greek force. At the indecisive naval battle of Artemision (also in August 480 BCE), the Greeks held off the superior numbers of the Persian fleet but were obliged to regroup at Salamis. Remove Ads Advertisement Greece then, lay open to the invaders and Persian forces rampaged through the Greek poleis or city-states, sacking even Athens itself. Some 30 Greek poleis, however, were preparing to fight back and the Battle of Salamis would show Xerxes that Greece, or at least a large chunk of it, was far from being conquered.

The Persian Fleet The vast Persian Empire stretched from the Danube to Egypt and from Ionia to Bactria , and Xerxes was able to draw on a huge reserve of resources to amass a huge invasion force. Ariabignes, the son of Darius, commanded the Ionian, Carian, Achaimene, and Egyptian fleets. Cybernis, the king of Xanthos, led the Lycian fleet of 50 ships. Artemisia, the tyrant of Halicarnassus , led the Dorian fleet of 30 ships and other known commanders included Prexaspes, Megabazus, and Achaimenes. Technically, the Persians, and especially the Phoenicians, were better seamen, but as the fleet was drawn from all parts of the Empire, the motivation and communication levels were perhaps less than their opponents who all spoke the same language and who were fighting not only for their own survival but that of their families and their way of life. The Persian fleet significantly outnumbered the Greeks. The exact number of ships in the Persian fleet is not known.

Herodotus in his Histories (440-430 BCE) compiles precise lists but these are widely thought to be exaggerated and unreliable. Also, his list is for the Persian fleet which originally sailed to Greek waters and by the time of Salamis, many would have been left to guard ports and supply routes or have been lost in storms (especially at Magnesia) and in the Battle of Artemision a month earlier. Nevertheless, below are his figures for triremes - warships with three banks of oars (note the contributions from conquered or pro-Persian Greek cities ): Dorian 30 Cyclades 17 An alternative source - the writer of Greek tragedy Aeschylus - does seem to support Herodotus in his Persae (472 BCE) where he states that the Persian fleet had 1,207 ships compared to the Greek force of only 310. Accounting for losses incurred in the manner described above it is estimated that perhaps around 500 triremes faced the Greeks at Salamis but there is no scholarly consensus on even an approximate figure.

There would also have been many smaller ships such as penteconters (50 oars) and triaconters (30 oars) but Herodotus’ figure of 3000 seems wildly exaggerated. The Greek Fleet The allied Greek fleet was commanded by the Spartan Eurybiades, a surprising choice considering it was Athens who was the great naval power and supplied by far the most ships. The two other senior commanders were Themistocles of Athens and Adeimantus of Corinth . In effect, tactics and strategy were decided by a council of 17 commanders from each of the contributing contingents. However, it is Themistocles, the brilliant naval commander, drawing on his twenty-year experience and flush from the success of Artemision against far superior numbers, who is widely credited with deciding to hold position at Salamis instead of retreating to the isthmus of Corinth and masterminding the Greek victory.

Herodotus’ figures are once again inconsistent, his grand total of 380 triremes making up the Greek fleet is 15 more than the sum of his individual state contributions: Ceos 2 Cythnos 1 The figures for some states are suspiciously similar to those given before the Battle of Artemision, implausibly suggesting either they suffered next to no losses in that conflict or a swift replacement of vessels. Aeschylus states a total figure of 310 and Thucydides 400. In summary, we can only say that the Persian fleet seems to have significantly outnumbered the Greek. The Trireme Both sides had very similar ships - the triremes (triērēis) - which were 40-50 ton wooden warships up to 40 m long. Light, streamlined, and manoeuvrable, they were powered in battle by 170 oarsmen split in three ranks down each side of the ship.

Able to rapidly accelerate, break, zigzag, and turn 360 degrees in just two ships’ lengths, good seamanship could place the vessel to best advantage and employ the principal strategy of naval warfare at that time which was to ram the enemy, making full use of the bronze ram fitted to the prow of the vessel. Triremes also carried a small complement of soldiers, at least 10 hoplites and four archers. The Persians generally carried more - 14 combatants and 30 Medes armed with bow, spear, and sword. These extra troops came into their own when at close quarters with the enemy and in the case of boarding an enemy vessel. Triremes had a weakness in that they could only operate effectively in relatively calm seas with waves less than 1 m high; otherwise, water would enter via the oar-ports and flood the ship. Also, they had to stay close to shore as each night they needed to be beached if the light wood was not to become water-logged, significantly reducing the speed performance of the vessel. In addition, there was very little space on board for provisions and no room to sleep so the crews had no choice but to land each night.

Prior to the battle the Greek ships were beached at several bays on the island of Salamis from Cynosoura to Paloukia. Here too were much of the evacuated populace of Athens and Attica. The Persians, meanwhile, were stationed at the Phaleron Bay, less than 10 km away across the Saronic Gulf and close to the captured Piraeus . Strategies Commanders led from the front and each would have been on his own ship at the heart of the battle. From there, manoeuvres could be signalled to other ships in the fleet using flags and trumpets. However, once the battle got fully underway, naval conflicts became a case of a single ship against a single opponent rather than precisely coordinated manoeuvres. Prior to full engagement between the opposing fleets, there were two principal strategies employed by the more able commanders. The first was sailing around the enemy line (periplous) and the second was smashing through gaps in the enemy line and attacking from their rear flank (diekplous). Both were designed to get one’s ship in a position to ram the weakest point of the enemy - the side or stern quarter.

The objective was to puncture a hole in the enemy vessel or break a sufficient number of their oars to disable the ship. To avoid damaging one’s own oars, crews were drilled to withdraw them in a matter of seconds (usually on only one side of the ship whilst the other side maintained the momentum of the vessel). As a defence against these two tactics, an able commander would ensure one of his flanks was closed off by shallows or coastline and ensure his crews were sufficiently drilled to maintain close order. In open water the ships could be organised in a defensive circle or an arc (more practical with larger fleets) with prows pointing outwards (kyklos). The Battle The actual details of the battle are sketchy and often contradictory between ancient sources. Nevertheless, presenting the most commonly agreed upon elements, the first action of the battle was the defection of two Ionian ships to the allied Greek fleet. Themistocles, perhaps sending messages to the pro-Persian Greek state fleets, had hoped for more such defections but no others occurred. One such ship from Tenos informed the Greeks that the Persians were amassing in the straits, blocking in the Greek fleet.

The Persians had moved into position overnight, hoping to surprise the enemy, but this strategy was unlikely to be successful considering the short distances involved and the noise made by the rowers. There is also the possibility that Themistocles had sent messages to Xerxes intimating the fragile Greek alliance was breaking up and the fleet was about to retreat. Probably, the two fleets aligned along an oblique east-west axis with the Persians close to the mainland shore with both fleets having a friendly shore behind them. Indeed, proximity to the opposite mainland shore would have been avoided by the Greek ships due to Xerxes’ positioning there of a contingent of his archers. On the western (right) wing the Phoenicians faced the Athenians and the Ionians against the Spartans. On the left flank of the Persians were the Carians and Dorians. Behind the main Greek line, the Aegina contingent and some of the Athenian ships waited in reserve. The Corinthians were stationed to the west of the battle lines protecting the passage to Eleusis whilst the pro-Persian Cyprians, Cilicians, and Hellespontines held back to the south, guarding the exit to Piraeus.

According to Diodorus Siculus, Xerxes sent his Egyptian fleet to seal off the straits between Salamis and Megara and engage any Greek ships breaking off from the main fleet. Overlooking from his command post in the early morning, Xerxes would have seen not a fleet about to retreat but the Greeks positioned two-ships deep along a 3 km long curve, perhaps presenting a line of 130 ships against the Persian main front of 150 ships, three ships deep. The Persians advanced, becoming more closely packed as they aligned themselves with the enemy’s narrower front. The Greeks held position, drawing the Persians into an ever tighter confine. Ships began to ram each other and in the tight space they would have struggled to disengage. Then the armed soldiers on board would have come into their own with hoplites and archers fighting on the decks much as in a land battle. With more Persian ships pressing in from the rear and the Corinthians joining from the side, there must have been a chaos of broken ships and drowning men - particularly amongst the Persians who had no shore to retreat to and most probably could not swim.

With more space to manoeuvre, the Greek ships were able to pick off the closely packed Persian vessels which could not retreat because their lines were now several ships deep. By the afternoon, Greek victory was assured and the remaining Persian ships retreated to Asia Minor . The final stage of the battle was the transferral of the Greek hoplite force on Salamis over to the mainland which then made short work of the Persian land forces. Once again the cryptic oracle of Apollo at Delphi had been proved right: ‘only a wooden wall will keep you safe’. As at Artemision, the wooden ships of the combined Greek fleet had, for a second time, rebuffed the Persian advance. The Aftermath Following defeat, Xerxes returned home to his palace at Sousa and left the gifted general Mardonius in charge of the invasion. The Persian position was still strong despite the defeat - they still controlled much of Greece and their large land army was intact. After a series of political negotiations, it became clear that the Persians would not gain victory on land through diplomacy and the two opposing armies met at Plataea in August 479 BCE.

The Greeks, fielding the largest hoplite army ever seen, won the battle and finally ended Xerxes’ ambitions in Greece. About the Author The Battle of Salamis 480 BC – History Bytez The battle of Salamis occurred in September 480 BC, some argue it was on the 22nd others say the 29th, we are unlikely to ever be certain. This was one of the most important engagements between the Persians and the Greeks during the Persian wars and occurred immediately after the defeat of the Spartans (and their allies) at famous battle of Thermopylae. The victory at Salamis was vitally important to the Greek war effort against the Persians because, in essence, it denied the Persian forces naval superiority which dramatically reduced their options regarding the conduct of the remainder of the invasion of Greece. Background: The Persian king Xerxes was invading Greece because the mainland Greeks (particularly the Athenians) had participated in the Ionian Greek rebellion against the Persian Empire. They had already made a tentative strike some years earlier at the battle of Marathon where they were defeated by the Athenians. Xerxes had decided on a full scale invasion of Greece with a massive force of men and ships.

Herodotos, the main source for the events of the invasion, provides what are generally agreed to be fanciful numbers of the Persian forces suggesting that a million Persians and more than 1200 ships were involved in the invasion. Even if Herodotos’ numbers are significantly reduced it should be noted that the Greeks were likely to have been heavily outnumbered by the Persian forces. The battle: The battle itself occurred in the narrows between the island of Salamis and mainland Greece, much like the battle of Thermopylae presented a confined space that favoured smaller forces. The Greek forces were already in the narrow straits, the Persian forces were arrayed at the south end of the straits in the open waters. Themistocles, the general of the Greek forces, was faced with a significant problem, the allies debated the best way forward in the defence of Greece. Themistocles, unwilling to present northern Greece to the Persians and defending at the Isthmus of Corinth, organised for the Persian forces to receive word that the Greek fleet was ready to flee.

Xerxes also wanting to bring the war to a head sent his ships forward into the straits and sent a contingent of Egyptians to the north end of the straits to block any attempts at escape. Greek understanding of the terrain again came to the fore, the massive Persian fleet moved into the straits but were hindered by their numbers getting in each other’s way and creating a disorganised mess. The numerically smaller Greek forces were able to take advantage of the confusion and disarray. The details of the battle are at best vague the Persians were expert sailors with high quality ships (contrary to many commentaries) however like at Thermopylae their marines were far more lightly equipped than the Greek marines. As the ships came together rams sank some vessels sheared the oars off others and others still were boarded with marines fighting for control. The Persian navy was routed, with the ships further fouling each other in their retreat towards Phaelerum. The Greeks won a major victory, as many as half of the Persian ships were destroyed, the Persian forces abandoned Attica, Xerxes with the larger part of his army left Greece and returned to Persia.

The Few forces remaining in Greece stayed under the command of Mardonius, who was later defeated by the Greeks at Plataea and Mycale ending the invasion of Greece.

Question: Who were the Persians defeated by in the sea battle at Salamis in 480BC?
Answer: Greece