Greek and Persian Wars | Battle in the Straits (Lecture 9)

Lecture 9: While the Spartans and other Greeks fought valiantly at the pass at Thermopylae, the Greek fleet held the Persian line of ships at Artemision. On the third day of fighting, battered but victorious, the Greek fleet escaped in the night, the island of Salamis their ultimate destination. At the same time, Xerxes led his army through Greece and into the evacuated city of Athens; there, he burned the old temples on the Acropolis, finally avenging the Athenian destruction of Sardis two decades earlier. Meanwhile, the Persian armada and the Greek fleets met in the straits of Salamis for what would prove to be the most crucial battle in the entire epic of the Greek and Persian wars. Many Greeks believed the straits to be a deathtrap, but the Athenians were convinced the Persians could be defeated. Though the Persians outnumbered the Greeks three to one, the constricted fighting space (as at Thermopylae) negated the Persian advantage of numbers. Thanks to recorded eyewitness accounts of the battle, it is possible to follow the course of this day-long battle—from the first clash of the fleets at dawn to the final Greek massacre of stranded Persian troops in the evening light.

Recommended Reading:
Green, The Year of Salamis, 480–479 B.C.
Morrison, Coates, and Rankov, The Athenian Trireme: The History and Reconstruction of an Ancient Greek Warship.