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The Battle of Salamis
All of the countries of the Mediterranean had gAlleys, ships which relied for their speed on banks of oarsmen. The sails were not used in battle. The biggest of these – perhaps 75 m long – had three banks of oars and were called triremes (tri means three). They carried about 200 people, the great majority of whom were oarsmen. Each boat carried a small number of soldiers for hand to hand fighting when ships came close together.
The Greeks, and especially the Athenians (who were the main seagoing city in Greece) were proud of their ships. But the Persians had by far the biggest fleet in the Mediterranean.
They also had the biggest and fastest boats.
The Battle of Salamis is a ‘David and Goliath’ story.
Here the Greeks are tiny David, and the Persians under King Xerxes are gigantic Goliath. The Greeks were outnumbered in ships by three to one and so if they were to win, it had to be through cunning – and the overconfidence of the Persians.
This is what happened. The Persians had sailed over the Aegean Sea and burned the city of Athens. In fear of their lives, the Athenians had fled to the island of Salamis. The Greek fleet tried to beat the Persians, but it was a standoff and so they, too, retreated to Salamis.
Meanwhile, the Spartans wanted to go back to Sparta, where they thought they stood a better chance of keeping the Persians at bay. But the Athenian commander, Themistocles, persuaded them to remain at Salamis. He was able to do this because of the prophecy by the oracle at Delphi which
said that Salamis would “bring death to women’s sons,” but also that the Greeks would be saved by
CITY, STATE AND WAR
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