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Virtue & Power

The second Persian invasion of Greece

Salamis

A naval battle fought in the straits between Attica and the island of Salamis, and the engagement that broke the Persian campaign.

480 BCE · Saronic Gulf, Greece

The forces, and what the figures are worth

The Greek alliance

Themistocles of Athens · Eurybiades of Sparta

Evidence level: Probable

Greek triremes

378

Herodotus 8.48, itemised by city

Herodotus gives a contingent-by-contingent list, which makes it more credible than a round total. Aeschylus gives 310. The discrepancy is small by the standards of ancient naval figures and both are usable.

The Achaemenid fleet

Xerxes I · Ariabignes · Artemisia of Halicarnassus

Evidence level: Disputed

Persian warships at the outset of the campaign

1,207

Herodotus 7.89

Aeschylus, an eyewitness writing eight years after the battle, gives the same total of 1,000 ships with 207 fast vessels, which suggests a shared tradition rather than independent confirmation. Modern estimates for the fleet actually engaged at Salamis are considerably lower, commonly in the range of 600 to 800, after storm losses and detachments.

What happened

After Thermopylae the Greek fleet fell back to Salamis, where the Athenian population had been evacuated. The allied commanders argued about whether to fight there or withdraw to the Isthmus.

Herodotus reports that Themistocles forced the issue by sending a message to Xerxes claiming that the Greeks were about to disperse and that the Persian fleet should block the exits. Whether the message was a stratagem or a genuine offer of defection is not recoverable.

The Persian fleet moved into the straits at night and held position. In the morning the Greeks attacked in confined water where the larger fleet could not deploy its numbers.

Aeschylus, who is likely to have fought in the battle, describes ships jammed together, oars sheared, and the sea filled with wreckage and bodies. The Persian fleet was driven out of the strait with heavy losses.

Tactics

The whole engagement is an argument about sea room. In open water the larger and faster Persian fleet could outflank and outmanoeuvre; in the straits neither was possible, and the heavier, slower Greek ships could ram and board. Getting the enemy to accept battle on unfavourable ground was the decisive act, and it was accomplished before the fighting started.

Consequence

Xerxes withdrew to Asia with a large part of the army, leaving Mardonius in Greece with a picked force. The following year that force was destroyed at Plataea. Salamis also established Athenian naval power as the basis of the city's politics and empire for the next seventy years — the fleet was rowed by the poorest citizens, and their military indispensability became a democratic argument.

Location

Evidence level: Documented

The straits between Salamis and the Attic coast

Modern: Saronic Gulf, Greece

The strait is securely identified. The precise axis of the fighting within it — where the lines formed and which way they faced — is reconstructed differently by different scholars.

Archaeology

Evidence level: Probable

Underwater survey in the strait has recovered material associated with the classical harbour installations at Ambelaki on Salamis. No wreck has been securely identified with the battle: triremes were built of light timber, were designed to swamp rather than sink, and leave little to find.

Open questions

Evidence level: Disputed

Was Themistocles's message a stratagem or a real betrayal?

Herodotus presents it as a ruse. Others in antiquity read it as genuine insurance by a man preparing to change sides. Themistocles's later career, which ended in exile and service at the Persian court, has been used to argue both ways.

Evidence level: Disputed

Where exactly in the strait was the battle fought?

Aeschylus and Herodotus give directions and landmarks that cannot all be reconciled with the modern shoreline. Several reconstructions place the fighting in different parts of the channel; none is established.

Primary sources

  • Aeschylus, Persians lines 337-471

    A tragedy staged in 472 BCE, eight years after the battle, before an audience that had fought in it. The earliest account of any Greek battle, and by a participant.

  • Herodotus, Histories 8.40-97

    The fullest narrative.

  • Plutarch, Life of Themistocles 10-15

    A later biography preserving additional traditions.

How to read the evidence labels

Evidence level: Documented
Supported by a named primary text or by excavated material evidence.
Evidence level: Probable
Supported by strong inference that most specialists accept.
Evidence level: Disputed
Substantial specialist disagreement exists; competing readings are stated.
Evidence level: Literary
Belongs to poetic or mythological construction rather than to history.
Evidence level: Mythological
Belongs to shared religious or mythic tradition rather than to any single text.
Evidence level: Unknown
The available evidence is insufficient to decide.

These labels describe the status of the evidence, not our confidence in a conclusion. A claim marked Literary is not a claim we doubt; it is a claim about what kind of thing a poem is.