23rd September 480 BC was the date on which the Persians were defeated by the Greeks at the Battle of Salamis, which was the first great naval battle in history.
The Persians under Xerxes had swept all before them as they expanded their empire, and by 480 BC they were threatening the city states of mainland Greece. It seemed inevitable that the mighty hordes of the Persians would have no problem when it came to the citizen armies of Greece, especially as the latter found it extremely difficult to act in unison.
In August of that year Xerxes defeated the Spartans at Thermopylae and then moved on towards Athens. The Athenian general Themistocles had ordered the city to be evacuated apart from the Acropolis, which was consequently overrun by the Persians.
The Greek generals then squabbled over what to do next, with some wanting to fall back to Corinth and others, particularly Themistocles, wanting to take on the Persian navy. Themistocles eventually got his way, but the bickering went on.
He then took an even bigger gamble and sent a slave to Xerxes with a message to say that Themistocles had changed sides and would help the Persians. The Greeks were ready to run away, according to the message, and all Xerxes had to do was attack now and he would have a massive victory.
Xerxes fell for the ruse, especially as he knew from his own spies that at least part of what he had heard was true – the Greeks were certainly arguing among themselves. However, as the Persian fleet bore down on them, the Greeks now had no option but to stand and fight.
Themistocles also showed his cleverness by luring the Persians into a trap. The strait between the port of Piraeus and the island of Salamis was too narrow for the huge Persian galleys to manoeuvre, but the smaller and lighter Greek vessels were much better suited to the conditions. Themistocles also knew that there was a time of day when the swell in the strait was one that the cumbersome Persian galleys would find even more difficult to deal with than the Greeks, and he launched his counter-attack at this time.
The Greeks were able to get close to the Persian ships and shear off their oars, before turning away and getting into position to ram the disabled galleys.
After seven hours of fighting the Persians had lost 300 of their ships, to only 40 for the Greeks. Xerxes was watching from the land and commented, as one of his ships had a rare victory against a Greek trireme, “My men have become women, my women have become men”. This was because the victorious Persian galley was commanded by Queen Artemisia of Halicarnassus.
Xerxes returned to Persia, leaving his army behind. The following year this was defeated at the Battle of Plataea and the Persian threat to mainland Europe was averted for a further century and a half.
© John Welford
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