Salamis, Battle of

(480 BC) Significant naval battle of the Persian Wars, the first ever recorded.

(Aeschylus served in the battle and wrote The Persians, which is the earliest of his works to survive.) The Greek fleet of some 370 triremes, under the command of Themistocles, lured the Persian fleet of about 800 galleys into the narrow strait between the island of Salamis and the Athenian port of Piraeus. There the highly maneuverable triremes sank about 300 Persian vessels while losing only about 40 of their own. As a result of this battle, Xerxes had to postpone his planned land offensive, giving the Greek city-states time to unite against him.

* * *

▪ ancient Greece-Persia

      (480 BC), battle in the Greco-Persian Wars in which a Greek fleet defeated much larger Persian naval forces in the straits at Salamis, between the island of Salamis and the Athenian port-city of Piraeus. By 480 the Persian king Xerxes (Xerxes I) and his army had overrun much of Greece, and his navy of about 800 galleys bottled up the smaller Greek fleet of about 370 triremes in the Saronic Gulf. The Greek commander, Themistocles, then lured the Persian fleet into the narrow waters of the strait at Salamis, where the massed Persian ships had difficulty maneuvering. The Greek triremes then attacked furiously, ramming or sinking many Persian vessels and boarding others. The Greeks sank about 300 Persian vessels while losing only about 40 of their own. The rest of the Persian fleet was scattered, and as a result Xerxes had to postpone his planned land offensives for a year, a delay that gave the Greek city-states time to unite against him. The Battle of Salamis was the first great naval battle recorded in history.

* * *