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a “wooden wall”. Themistocles said that the wooden wall was a fleet of ships, and Salamis would bring death to the Persians, not the Greeks.
King Xerxes expected an easy victory. Xerxes knew that the Greek navy was hiding at Salamis. Themistocles sent out a slave who pretended he had run away from the Greeks. He told Xerxes that the Greeks could not decide what to do and the navy was about to flee. Xerxes wanted to crush the Greek navy once and for all, and so he sent his navy looking for them. They looked all night and were exhausted. But they found no ships because Thermistocles had his ships still in harbour waiting.
The next morning the Persians sailed in to the straits to attack the Greek fleet. Part of the Greek fleet then pretended to retreat, luring the Persians farther into the narrow straits (picture 7).
Then the Greeks attacked. The much larger Persian fleet could not turn in the straits. The Persians tried to
 6 Both sides had marines on their ships (the Greeks had fully armed hoplites). They fought by firing arrows and throwing javelins and by ramming one another’s ships.
turn back, but there were now too many of them jammed into the straits. The Greek and Persian ships rammed each other (picture 6).
At least 200 Persian ships were sunk. But the Persians could not swim, so as each boat sank, the men drowned.
Because the Battle of Salamis saved Greece from becoming part of the Persian empire, it meant that the Persians never conquered Europe. Many historians have therefore called the Battle of Salamis one of the most important battles of all time.
CITY, STATE AND WAR
Salamis
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G 7 The site of the Battle of Salamis. The Greeks trapped the Persians in a narrow channel with no room to turn and flee.
KEY Persi Gree
KEY Persians Greeks
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