How did the Greeks win the Battle of Salamis?

The critical Battle of Salamis was one of the most important events during the Second Persian Invasion of Greece during the Greco-Persian Wars.

This invasion was led by King Xerxes I, who had become the king of Persia in 486 BC.

He was the son of Darius I, who had previously expanded the empire through the conquest of much of the Middle East, Egypt and Asia Minor.

However, Darius' forces were surprisingly defeated by the Greeks at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.

This embarrassing set-back inspired Xerxes to seek revenge against the Greeks once he had taken the throne.

Xerxes' plans for a second invasion were known to the Greeks, and so, the various Greek city-states formed the Hellenic League.

As the most formidable army in the region, Sparta was tasked with providing the overall military leadership for the coalition, while Athens contributed significantly to the naval efforts due to their large navy.

Then, in 480 BC, Xerxes began his invasion but had encountered stiff Greek resistance at the famous land battle at Thermopylae.

Across three days of battle of this conflict, the Spartans and other Greek city-states held back the massive Persian army.

However, the smaller forces of the Greeks were eventually defeated when a local villager betrayed them and showed the Persians a hidden path behind their defensive lines.

The remaining Greeks were forced to retreat, and Xerxes continued his march towards Athens.

Thanks to the additional time that the delay at Thermopylae had provided, it meant that the Athenians had time to organise a response.

So, over the course of about six days, Athens, under the leadership of Themistocles, had evacuated the populace of the city to the nearby island of Salamis.

This left the city defended by a small contingent of soldiers. When Xerxes' army arrived, they easily defeated the defenders, captured Athens, and burned it to the ground.

Aware that the Athenians were sheltering at off the coast of Attica, Xerxes knew that he had to call upon his navy to deal the decisive blow.

As a result, the channel of water between the mainland and the island, known as the straits of Salamis, would become the battleground of the next clash.

Xerxes was so confident that he would win, he decided to watch the battle from a golden throne on a hill overlooking the straits. 

Overall, the Persian fleet numbered about 1000 ships, while the Greek fleet only had 370 ships.

However, the Greek fleet consisted of ships from various city-states, including Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Aegina, and others.

This coalition was able to work effectively together because the crews all spoke the same language and were familiar with the geographical region they were going to fight in.

Despite the fact that they were significantly outnumbered, Themistocles convinced the other Greek leaders that they could still win if they used the narrow straits to their advantage.

To this end, he shared his strategic plan: he explained that if the Greeks could lure the Persian ships into the narrow straits, it would neutralize the numerical advantage of the Persian fleet.

This would potentially allow the more agile Greek triremes to maneuver effectively and pick off the enemy ships one-by-one.

What would make this easier was the fact that the Persian fleet had a number of disadvantages.

The Persian fleet was a made up of ships and crews from a wide range of different nations, including Egypt, Phoenicia, Cyprus, and other regions under Persian control.

This meant that they were not used to working together, and they did not have a common language.

In addition, the had brought with them an array of different ship types and battle strategies that did not necessarily work well with each other.

In contrast, almost all of the Greek ships were the same type, called triremes. These were faster and more manoeuvrable than the Persian ships. 

The main offensive weapon on a trireme was the ram: a large metal-tipped beam that projected from the front of the ship.

When used in battle, the goal was row as fast as possible and then use the ram to puncture enemy ships and sink them.

If the ships didn't sink, then each trireme also carried around 200 men, including oarsmen, sailors and marines, who would then attack the enemy in hand-to-hand combat.

What made the triremes particularly effective was the number of oarsmen it housed.

These men sat on three levels of benches, and they could both turn the ship and increase its speed incredibly quickly.

However, triremes had some key weaknesses. They were required a high degree of training of their crews in order to work well.

If the men did not row in unison or follow orders promptly, then the ships could become immobilized and become sitting ducks for counterattacks.

This is why Athens had spent time training their people how to row and manoeuvre their ships in the years prior to the battle.

Finally, the trireme ship design made it vulnerable to sinking in rough weather, as waves could enter oar-ports, which could subsequently flood and sink the ship.

The exact details of the battle are hard to reconstruct from the surviving sources, as they each focus on different events at various times during the day.

This was the nature of warfare throughout history: individuals only observed a limited area of the conflict.

However, the following summary of the battle provides a probable reconstruction.

The day before the battle, two Ionian Greek ships that had agreed to fight for the Persians deserted and went over to the Greek side.

The information that they shared with the Greeks helped them better understand the Persian positions, but they were still severely outnumbered.

Then, Themistocles enacted his plan, which he hoped would trick the Persians into sailing into the straits.

To achieve this, he sent a message through a personal slave to Xerxes, apparently telling him that the Greeks were going to flee during the coming night and that he should pursue them.

When she heard this, Artemisia I of Caria, the only female commander in Xerxes' fleet, famously advised the Persian king against engaging the Greek navy in the narrow straits.

Ignoring her, Xerxes believed the message and took the bait. He ordered one of the strongest elements of his fleet, the Egyptians, to sail south around Salamis to the western exit of the straights and position themselves in front of the channel to block any ships from escaping.

However, the rumoured escape never happened. As Themistocles had hoped, it had removed the strongest element of Xerxes' forces from the battle.

Also, the Persian king had told his sailors to remain alert all night in preparation for the apparent attempt to feel from the Greeks.

Since it never happened, on the morning of the battle, they were tired from a sleepless night.

Then, at some stage during the night, or in the early hours of the morning, convinced that the Greeks had fled, Xerxes ordered the ships from his Ionian and Phoenician allies to sail into the Salamis Straits to pursue them.

While this was happening, the well-rested Greeks had also been preparing for the attack.

In the early hours of the morning, Themistocles had ordered the Greek fleet to sail out of Salamis harbor and form up in line ahead. 

So, as the Persians entered the narrow area, rather than watching the Greeks fleeing to the west, as had been expected, the Persians saw them lining up in attack formations.

After some quick last-minute repositioning of their ships, the Greeks launched their surprise attack.

Tired and caught off guard, the Persian navy started the battle in a vulnerable position.

As the Greeks had hoped, the larger size of the Persian force did limit their ability to move and, as various ships became immobalised or damaged when they were rammed by the Greeks, they became trapped in an increasingly cramped space.

With more room to manoeuvre, the Greek ships moved quickly to attack and strike their enemies.

As a result, the Persians became 'sitting ducks' and a crushing defeat became a real possibility.

Through the course of the day, the Persian fleet was massacred. While exact numbers are debated, it is estimated that the Persians lost around 200 ships, while the Greeks had very few.

As Xerxes watched the battle unfold from a nearby hill, he was so horrified by what he saw that he ordered a retreat. 

While the Persian ships tried to retreat, they became further entangled with each other.

This made them even easier targets for the Greeks, who picked them off one by one.

By afternoon, Greek victory was certain.

The Greek victory over the Persians in the naval Battle of Salamis had significant consequences for both sides.

For the Greeks, it was a major victory that boosted morale. Themistocles was hailed as a hero. 

Xerxes, on the other hand, it was a humiliating defeat. He was so dismayed by his failure that he personally returned to his capital city of Susa in Persia.

The Persian navy itself retreated to the island of Samos, in Asia Minor, where they began repairing their ships and preparing for the next stage of the war.

However, despite the loss, Xerxes' army still remained undefeated on land. So, the Persian king ordered it to remain in Greece under the command of Mardonius.

As winter set in, Mardonius camped his forces in Thessaly and relied upon the Greek cities who had allied with the Persians to feed and supply his army in preparation for a new attack in the springtime.

Following their victory at Salamis, the Athenians were able to return to the burnt remains of Athens and began the process of rebuilding.

In the next few decades, the Athenian playwright Aeschylus, who personally fought at Salamis, would write an entire play about the battle, called The Persians, to forever remember the remarkable achievements of that day.