Battle of Salamis

Dawn over the Saronic Gulf revealed lines of hulls tucked against Salamis’ rocky shore and a larger Persian fleet spreading from Phaleron toward the narrows. Themistocles had written letters, played for time, and arranged a trap. If the Persians crowded into the strait, their numbers would collapse into each other; in that crush, Greek triremes could strike and back water into new angles [2][4].

Aeschylus, who fought there, later put Persian strength at “a thousand ships… and seven twice five-score of the swiftest,” a total of 1,207 [4]. Plutarch transmits both the Persian count and the Athenian role—about 180 ships from Athens, decks crowded with 18 fighters each [4]. The color of the morning was martial: scarlet pennants and dark hulls; the sound was a rising paian as oars caught the sea and the first rams bit home.

Place drove the result. Salamis lies off the Piraeus, its channels confined by the Attic coast and the island’s curve. In those narrows, Persian commands could not reach all their squadrons at once; Greek helmsmen could. The paean’s rhythm met the creak of oarlocks as crews executed diekplous and periplous maneuvers—breaking lines, circling flanks, shearing oars. Themistocles’ “wooden walls” found their proof in physics [2].

Herodotus supplies the strategic logic: Athens could not defend Attica by land; it could by sea. Artemisium had tested the concept; Salamis affirmed it. The battle unfolded in a theater visible from the slopes above the Piraeus and the island’s villages. The bronze rams that Laurion silver had bought tore into cedar and cypress; the waters churned with shattered oars and men clinging to wreckage [1][2][4][17].

Leadership mattered within the geometry. Athenian contingents maneuvered aggressively; allied contingents held line. Persian commanders struggled to coordinate in smoke and spray. The Persian king watched from Aegaleos; Greek commanders worked at sea-level, reading wakes. By noon, the melee’s tide ran one way: toward Persian rout and Greek control of the straits. The Athenians rowed back to Salamis, decks spattered, oars spent.

Salamis did not end the war, but it broke Persia’s naval spearhead. The road back to Asia ran across the Hellespont, and without seaborn protection the Persian army’s position in Attica and Boeotia became precarious. Athens won the right to survive and the confidence to lead at sea. The humming sheds of the Piraeus would be busy for decades [2][4][17].