Xerxes has so far proven himself successful in his mission to capture Athens and conquer Greece, albeit at a cost; twenty-thousand soldiers and several close family members had been slaughtered at the narrow pass of Thermopylae by Leonidas's allied Greek force, and his navy had taken further damage off the coast at Artemisium. Despite this, central Greece had now fallen to Xerxes, and Athens itself lay in rubble. The only thing standing in Xerxes's way of the Peloponnese now was what remained of Themistocles's fleet from Artemisium.

Everything lay on the line now. The key decisive battle of the Second Persian Invasion of Greece would take place off the coast of Athens, by the small island of Salamis.

Check out my previous post on the Persian sack of Athens

ARTEMISIA’S ADVICE

Xerxes’ fleet sailed for Athens. By this point, it’s likely that his forces were even larger than before the battles at Thermopylae and Artemisium, since more Greek states were defecting to Persia and supplying Xerxes with more men. Conveying with the bulk of his army at the ruins of Athens, Xerxes asked his general, Mardonius, to ask the army commanders how they thought they should all engage the remaining Greek forces, with all agreeing that an engagement at sea would quickly end the war.

Only one disagreed: the Queen of Halicarnassus, Artemisia. She argued that Greek ships compared to Persian ships in a fight were equivalent to men taking on women, and that Xerxes had already accomplished his goal: all of Greece north of the Peloponnese was his, and Athens - his primary target - had been laid to waste. She argued in favour of either waiting out the remaining forces, especially since they had next to no supplies while at Salamis, or simply marching into the Peloponnese. While these words upset many of the commanders present, Xerxes was pleased with her, but still decided that following the majority vote would be preferable. Since he was not present at Artemisia, he believed that his lack of presence caused his navy to not fight at their best, so this time he would be present at Salamis.

FORTIFYING THE ISTHMUS

While Xerxes led his navy to Salamis, the Greeks were gripped with fear. The Peloponnesians present on the island were especially afraid; defeat there would leave them stranded while their homeland burnt. Xerxes’s land army, however, would not be able to reach the Peloponnese so easily; the Isthmus of Corinth, from coast to coast, had been entirely blocked off with a seven kilometre-long wall. Since hearing of Leonidas’s death, his younger brother, Kleombrotus, had taken command and marched an army to the Isthmus, along with other Peloponnesians, where they built the wall, out of stone, wood and sandbags, and destroyed a nearby road that connected the south to the north, again slowing down any advances the Persians might make southwards.

THEMISTOCLES AND EURYBIADES DISCUSS STRATEGY

When the wall was completed, word of its construction reached Eurybiades and Themistocles’s fleet. A meeting was again convened, and a divide ensued; Eurybiades and the Peloponnesians argued that withdrawing to the Peloponnese would mean all Greeks would be together as one, strengthening their chances of engaging and winning against the Persians. Themistocles and the Athenians, however, disagreed; Themistocles persuaded his men to stay at Salamis. He referred to the Oracle they had received before which referred to the “Wooden Wall”, claiming it to be their wooden ships, and which called Salamis “divine”, and not something like “terrible”, which he used to say that them being at Salamis was the way they were going to overcome this threat. He thus declared that Athens, unguarded by men, shall be left in the hands of their patron-goddess, Athena. All military-aged men of Athens were aboard Themistocles’s ships - his Wooden Wall - with their pay increasing for their services to come at Salamis, while taking the women, children and elderly as refugees to Troezen, where they were taken great care of and given several privileges. (Off Salamis was erected a monument, after the battle, called “Dog’s Tomb”, as a soldier’s dog, fearing being abandoned, leapt into the sea to swim alongside the trireme he had boarded, only to be washed up on Salamis itself, where he later died.)

The Peloponnesian viewpoint, however, was the most popular. While Eurybiades of Sparta still remained in overall command, given Sparta’s renown, he was rather irresolute when in the heat of battle, whereas Themistocles could keep a cool head when things got rough. Verbally beaten, Themistocles slipped away at night and sent one of his men, his own son’s personal attendant called Sicinnus, on a boat to Xerxes’s camp. Sicinnus, pretending to be a defector, told Xerxes that Themistocles was becoming sympathetic to Persia, and that the Greeks were in panic, insisting that engaging them now would stop them from fleeing to their homes and putting up stout resistance.

When Themistocles told Eurybiades that Athens as a nation was now his two-hundred ships, Eurybiades feared that Themistocles could take this to mean that he might abandon Greece altogether and settle elsewhere, abandoning the rest of the navy. And when an owl - the symbol of Athena - flew overhead and perched itself on Themistocles’s flagship, many Greeks were convinced further to follow Themistocles and stay at Salamis. When, however, Xerxes could be seen ashore and when his huge armada came into view, Themistocles’s words left the minds of the Greeks.

[ABOVE: Kybernis of Lydia led 50 of his own ships at the battle of Salamis]

Believing Sicinnus, Xerxes ordered for two contingents of his navy to put to sea during the night; the first contingent - the western flank - sailed for Salamis, while the second contingent, made up of his Egyptians, blocked the entire channel up to Athens’s port, Piraeus. He also ordered for a detachment of soldiers to be sent to the isle of Psyttaleia, a small island between Attica and Salamis, to catch any Greek ships that might beach there during the battle and kill their occupants. His main fleet was organised by nationality, so commands between neighbouring ships would reach each vessel with more ease.

ARISTIDES

[ABOVE: A Greek Ionian soldier under Persian command depicted on Xerxes's tomb]

The Greek commanders remained locked in arguments among one another, unaware that they were now surrounded. While they quarrelled, a man named Aristides crossed over to Salamis from the isle of Aegina. Having been ostracised from Athens before, he was no friend to them, or indeed to Themistocles, but the current circumstances made him overlook this, and he met in private with Themistocles. Aristides knew that the Peloponnesian contingents of his fleet wanted to retreat back to their homeland, but knew that the Persians had now surrounded Salamis entirely, and told Themistocles to go tell his men about this. Themistocles, however, was worried the Greeks wouldn’t believe him, and so asked Aristides to tell them himself. Most indeed did not believe him, and arguments resumed again. It’s here that some deserters under their commander, Panaetius, narrowly brought their ship into Salamis, and described in detail how the Persians were deployed. With them being Ionian, Themistocles knew that his plan had worked, for he had previously left engraved messages on rock faces following the battle at Artemisium attempting to convince Greeks under Persian rule to fight for them instead. It was this detailed account that won the Greeks over. This ship and its crew, plus an earlier ship that defected from Persia, brought the Greek fleet up to 380 vessels. The Greeks now knew that battle at Salamis was the only option, and prepared to line up for battle.

THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS

[ABOVE: A modern view of the straits of Salamis, showing how the Greek (blue) and Persian (red) navies were deployed]

Come daybreak, all men were assembled and their orders were given. The Greek’s left wing was held by the Athenians and Spartans, while the Aeginetans and Megarians formed up on the right, since their experience at sea would make them less likely to route and more likely to catch any fellow Greeks fleeing for the safety of the isle of Salamis. Themistocles didn’t point his ships in the right direction directly towards the enemy until the day’s breeze was in his favour. Being lower, the Greek ships weren’t affected by these winds, but the taller Persian ships’ sterns were.  It is said that Themistocles addressed the troops before battle with a rousing speech. While it hasn’t been recorded word-for-word, he is said to have contrasted all the worst and best aspects of temperament and human nature, encouraging his men to choose the better of the two, and then sent them to their ships. Boarded, the navy sailed straight for the Persians, as Xerxes would watch the battle atop a golden throne, attended to by servants and scribes who detailed the battle for him. Writing years later, Aeschylus claimed that as the Persians approached, they heard the Greeks chanting their battle hymn:

O sons of the Greeks, go,
Liberate your country, liberate
Your children, your women, the seats of your fathers' gods,
And the tombs of your forebears: now is the struggle for all things.

[ABOVE: A drawing of a Greek trireme, drawn in 1984 and published by F. Mitchell]

No sooner than had the Greeks set off, the Persians charged.

Charged by the Persians so suddenly, most of the Greek fleet attempted to pull back. However, an Athenian commander on the left wing continued the charge. Getting his ship entangled in combat, the rest of the Greeks also charged forward to aid. Phoenicians, expert sailors, made up Persia’s western wing, and thus faced the Athenians head-on. Ionians on Persia’s east wing faced off against the Peloponnesians. Some of these Ionians had heeded Themistocles’s message he left inscribed on rocks following his withdrawal from Artemisium, telling them to fight below their best capabilities to help their fellow Greek cause.

[ABOVE: The movement of ships at the battle]

The fights very beginning stage wasn’t overly brilliant for the Greeks; Adeimantus, commander of the Corinithians, was struck with fear and fled before the fight even started. Seeing their flagship withdraw, the rest of the Corinthian fleet - forty ships in total - followed him, keen to turn him back around. They reached Adeimantus on Salamis, convincing him to turn round and rejoin the fight. While he would eventually be won round to them, he would never join the fight, as by the time he joined the Greek navy, the battle would be over.

Themistocles, meanwhile, commanded his men brilliantly, as his contingent fought in a highly disciplined and structured order, while the larger Persian navy became entangled in itself in such narrow spaces, eventually loosing their battle plan. Yet they fought bravely, having their king watching them from the Attic coast. Even Queen Artemisia - who had previously advised Xerxes not to engage the Greeks - fought well in the fight, as her ship was being pursued by an Athenian ship and she became blocked off by her fellow ships. With the Athenians ships closing in, she turned about very quickly and rammed one of the ships with great force, sinking it. Seeing this, the other Athenian ship, fearing the skill he had just seen and not knowing if it was a fellow Greek defector because of it, turned and fled from her. Xerxes’s attention was even brought to Artemisia by one of his entourage, who recognised her ship’s insignia. Xerxes, however, could see the rest of his fleet was not faring so well, and is said to have uttered:

My men have turned into women and my women into men!

[ABOVE: Artemisia commanding the Carian contingent of the Persian fleet, shooting arrows at her enemy, painted by Wilhelm von Kaulbach, 19th century]

Artemisia was eventually chased from the battle. Pursuit of her was a priority for some, since a reward of ten-thousand drachma was offered for anyone who could capture her, since she was not only a prominent figurehead in Xerxes’s navy, but it also annoyed the Greeks that a woman was attacking them so effectively.

One of Xerxes’s own brothers, Ariabignes, even died during the mêlée, as well as several other prominent Persian men. Themistocles lost far less; not only were less of his ships being sunk, but those that did had men on board who knew how to swim. It was here that the first row of Persian ships began to flee, or at least attempted to; with the navy being watched by their king, the ranks behind the first were eager to reach the frontlines and prove themselves, but in racing forward too soon, they blocked off the line of retreat for the front line, who became entangled, stuck, and were soon rammed by Greek and Persian ships alike in the confusion.

[ABOVE: The Death of Ariabignes, Xerxes's brother, as illustrated in a modern version of Plutarch's "Lives for Boys and Girls", c.1910]

Deep in the middle of the fight, the Persian admiral’s ship went down, and he was killed. Chaos among the Persian ranks ensued as even more troops attempted to retreat. The Athenians noticed this, pursued and caught them, whereafter they either rammed the enemy ships into destruction or sailed directly against them, pulling in their oars before they made contact so as to shear off the enemy’s own oars, leaving them dead in the water.

Cypriot ships fought alongside the Phoenician ships against the Athenians, but when they fled, the stoutly-holding out Cicilian, Pamphylian and Lycian ships quickly followed suit. The other Persian wing was holding out to a stalemate, but when the Athenians turned from their pursuit, they charged into the rear of this wing and crushed the enemy, who lost several ships. Overall, forty Greek ships were lost, compared to around two-hundred Persian, with several more being captured.

Another event during the battle involved the Phoenicians. Plenty of their own ships were being sunken, and when they beached and approached Xerxes, they blamed their failure on their fellow Ionians. It was during their complaints to Xerxes, however, that one of his ships rammed a Greek ship and began to sink it, whereupon it was approached by another Greek ship which rammed and sunk the Persian ship, only for the Persian soldiers on board the sinking vessel to start hurling javelins at the enemy ship, killed the Greeks, and boarded their ship instead. Noting this heroic fight hat saved the Ionian detachment, while impressed, Xerxes was also angered greatly at the Phoenicians and pointed the finger of blame at them instead, ordering them decapitated.

Taking heavy casualties, the Persian fleet soon began to withdraw. Those that withdrew to Phalerum, on the western coast of Attica, were cut down by ships from Aegina waiting for them. Athenian vessels were deep in the battle, fighting the hardest and taking down enemy ships whether they were withdrawing or not, and any that escaped them ran straight into the Aeginetans. During this Persian retreat, several ships were captured, and several more sunk. Aristides, meanwhile, took a contingent of Athenian ships with him towards the island of Psyttaleia, where Xerxes had left a contingent of soldiers to mop up any beached Greek ships and their men - they were all killed by Aristides’s hoplites.

XERXES RETREATS TO PERSIA

The battle was over - against all odds, Themistocles had won! The battle clearly showed Athens that their safety would rely on their strong navy, its able commanders and its people’s personal determination. With the fight over, the Greeks pulled back their ships, still functioning or not, back to Salamis to prepare for another fight; they believed Xerxes was not finished, and that either more ships would come for them, or the navy they just beat would regroup and try again. Xerxes, however, was worried that he could become stranded in Europe, and that his huge land bridge across the Hellespont could be destroyed, and so his mind now turned to fleeing. Sending a message back to the empire to tell them of the defeat, the empire was panicked, a state they would remain in until Xerxes returned home.

Phoenicians who had lost their fellow Phoenicians to the punishments of Xerxes fled back to Asia ahead of Xerxes and the Persian navy.

[ABOVE: "The Wrath of Xerxes" following the battle of Salamis, by Wilhelm von Kaulbach, 1868]

MARDONIUS

Xerxes’ general, his brother-in-law and cousin Mardonius, also considered fleeing, but also considered his own safety, since he had convinced Xerxes to invade Greece in the first place, so his thoughts turned to staying, either dying nobly in combat or, perhaps, winning the war. Meeting his king, Mardonius convinced Xerxes to let him lead an army against the Peloponnese; since most of the fighting by the Persians was actually done by non-Persians, the actual Persian contingent was still strong and plenty in number. (Diodorus Siculus claims Mardonius had 400,000 and Herodotus claims 300,000, but these are likely too much, so modern estimates stand between 70,000 and 120,000). Xerxes was pleased with this request, and told Mardonius he would consult his advisors with this offer, inviting Queen Artemisia too, given her good request beforehand to not engage Themistocles’s fleet. When she arrived, Xerxes dismissed the rest of the advisors, asking her what he should do: stay himself in Greece, or let Mardonius lead the Persian land army in Greece while he withdrew to the empire, and Artemisia advised on the latter, saying that Xerxes had already burnt down and thus punished Athens, which was his goal in the first place. Pleased, Xerxes allowed Artemisia to return to the empire with his own children, while he withdrew close behind with what remained of his navy.

THEMISTOCLES PURSUES

The Greek fleet, meanwhile, eventually saw that the Persian land army had remained. Preparing for what they thought would be another naval battle, the Greeks eventually got wind that the Persian fleet had left Greece altogether, and attempted to chase them down. Themistocles argued in favour of chasing them through the Aegean and destroying Xerxes’s bridge. Eurybiades, however, argued that trapping Xerxes in Europe would make him rampage more aggressively through Greece, with nothing left to loose but his life, and also argued that he thought it unlikely that Xerxes would stay, given the great victory they had just won. Eurybiades’s viewpoint won over. Themistocles and the Athenians were still annoyed that the bulk of the enemy was escaping, however, still prepared to sail for the Hellespont and catch up to them, before realising he would not be able to convince enough Greeks to follow him, and so agreed to Eurybiades’s plan. And anyway, after the battle of Salamis, Themistocles knew he didn’t need to prove himself any further. Themistocles sent his personal house-slave Sicinnis once again to Xerxes, who was waiting in Athens to leave for Persia, and told him that Themistocles was not going to pursue him, thus letting him know that his route back home was clear.

With Xerxes ready for a full retreat now, Themistocles rallied his Athenians together and the navy besieged the Cycladic island of Andros, which had previously supplied ships to Xerxes, even after a request from Themistocles to help fund a fleet to fight off the invaders in the first place. Themistocles would even go on to threaten other Aegean islands that had aided the Persians, with such great affect that the isle of Paros and the Euboean city of Karystos gave him a large sum of money, fearing his growing reputation among the Greeks. Themistocles was thus able to extort a sizeable sum of wealth from the isle of Andros without the other Greek commanders knowing about it. Themistocles would fail to take Andros, and thus turned his attention to Karystos, successfully raided their lands and returned to Salamis, where they made offerings to the Gods there and at Delphi.

Meeting back at the Isthmus, Themistocles and his men cast votes to declare who was the most valorous, and Themistocles won. His Greek fleet would return to their various homes straight after, not awarding Themistocles his prize but still having his name on all their lips. He would receive, however, great honours in Sparta itself, alongside Eurybiades; not only did they highly honour and praise him, but gave him the olive-wreath prize, (usually reserved for the victors of great sporting events) a decorated chariot, and a personal escort of the King’s élite three-hundred bodyguard to the Greek state of Tegea as he headed back to Athens. No other Greek up until this point had ever received such admiration by the closed-off state that was Sparta. Themistocles was also highly praised by the people at the next Olympic Games, who collectively ignored the famous athletes to turn their attention to their nation’s hero.

[ABOVE: Themistocles's triumph after Salamis, published in 1900]

MARDONIUS PREPARES

Meanwhile, Mardonius was in Thessaly, choosing and prepping his army to attack the Peloponnese. Among his forces were the Immortals, the Greek-given name for the ten-thousand-strong elite Persian bodyguard (their commander, Hydarnes, went back to Persia with Xerxes, refusing to leave his king’s side), then alongside them picked out all the Medes, Bactrians, Indians, Sacae and of course the native Persian contingent, the largest by far. Other smaller contingents of nationalities were also picked based either on their personal skill or stature.

With Themistocles and his men returning home, Xerxes withdrawing and Mardonius regrouping, Sparta received a Delphic Oracle, which told them to demand reparations for the killing of Leonidas. An envoy reached Xerxes and asked for just that, and Xerxes burst out laughing before pointing to Mardonius and saying:

All right, then, here’s Mardonius. He’ll pay them what they deserve.

It was here that Xerxes finally left for the Hellespont, stealing and consuming local crops along the way, resorting to grass and even tree bark when crops weren’t available, and reaching the edge of Europe in forty-five days time, with his army - a fraction of the original invasion force - falling severely ill on the way, killing several. Xerxes’s bridge had been damaged by storms while he was in Greece, so the army quickly crossed it, and most men returned to Sardis with their king.

[ABOVE: The "Salamina", a modern-day monument to the battle of Salamis on the island itself, sculpted by Achilleas Vasileiou]

Xerxes had fled to Persia, while Mardonius remained with potentially over a hundred thousand men. The Greeks had swung the war back in their favour, but the war was not yet over; With the Peloponnese far more secure, a titanic Spartan-led army would clash with Mardonius on the fields outside the city of Plataea.

NEXT BLOG: THE BATTLE OF PLATAEA, 479 BC: The Final Push

SOURCES

• Herodotus, "Histories"
• Thucydides, "History of the Peloponnesian War"
• Diodorus Siculus, "Library of History"
• Plutarch, "Greek Lives"

YOUTUBE LINKS

(I do NOT own these videos)

"Armies and Tactics: Ancient Greek Navies" by "Kings and Generals"

"Battle of Salamis 480 BC (Persian Invasion of Greece) DOCUMENTARY " by "Kings and Generals"

"Battle of Salamis 480 BC (3D Animated Documentary) Greco-Persian wars" by "Hoc Est Bellum"

"Salamis 480 BC: The Battle for Greece" by "Epic History TV"

MY ANCIENT GREEK HISTORY BLOG PAGE

MY ANCIENT PERSIAN HISTORY BLOG PAGE

MY TWITTER

All feedback - positive and/or critical - is appreciated!
All images used are copyright-free
Don't forget to rate this post and leave a tip if you enjoyed it

Thanks for reading :)