When The Greeks Saved The World: The Battle Of Salamis

This post marks the kick-off of my new history series. I want to make history appealing to everyone and will work to make the series as inspiring as possible. Leave your feedback if you would like some changes, have a suggestion or something else!

The Battle of Salamis

Only to a few will Salamis sound familiar. It’s not as a famous battle as it’s Thermopylae, Gettysburg or Stalingrad, but it’s, nevertheless, one of the most important in history.

In Ancient Greece, it was the decisive naval clash between the Greek city-states and the mighty Persian Empire. It was where the Persian expansion into Greece was finally halted, and a battle where as much as the course of Western Civilization was decided.

It owes its name to the Straits of Salamis, the passage, in the sea off Athens, where the battle took place.

Prelude To The Battle

Let’s put ourselves in the boots of the Greeks. You have the biggest empire in the world knocking on your door (Persian Archaemenid Empire, in purple), willing to send all its best troops and biggest armies all the way just to crush you. To make sure things go well, the mighty King of Persia himself comes to lead the attack.

Worst for the Greeks, they had never been a united. There was never a Greek Empire or anything like it – it was all city-states which, occasionally, united one with the other. But there was not any kind of centralized power. What drew them together were a similar culture and the same threat: hundreds of thousands of Persians soldiers, all waiting for their chance.

Ten years prior to the battle, the first Persian invasion had failed with the Athenian-led victory at Marathon. This time, however, things were going to be different. The Persians amassed a huge army and navy and were, for the first time, going to launch an all-out attack to Greece. Meanwhile, also for the first time, the Greeks decided to join forces and fight together as a whole bigger army. Spartans were given charge of the land forces, while Athenians would command at sea.

The Start of The Second Persian Invasion

Things were going terrible for the Greeks. Leonidas’ epic last-stand with the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, no matter how inspiring, had failed. The same day, off the coast of Mycale, the united navy had also suffered an important setback and had to flee. The Persians kept advancing, all the way to Athens, destroying cities and subjugating the population.

Odds were against the Greeks – really against. But they had two things to rely on: a smart and brave leader on Themistocles and the big advantage of fighting at home. They knew the seas, the straits and would use this knowledge as a decisive factor.

Why Battle At Salamis?

With all wars there’s a why. The Persians fought because they wanted to conquer Greece. After being humiliated at Marathon ten years prior, they wanted revenge. They didn’t like the republicanism, democracy and distinct culture the fathers of civilization had. They were fighting to show who the big guys and the bosses were.

The Greeks, on the other hand, wanted to stay independent. There are few feelings as strong as fighting for your own freedom. The Greeks were fighting for their cities, their families, their culture and their legacy. If they failed, it would all be over.

I believe the latter to be a much bigger motivation. History has proven me wrong hundreds of times, but I still believe that the feeling of fighting for your own freedom will bring in the best of you out.

Had the Persians been more diplomatic – namely, had the Persians not burned Athens before the battle and killed and raped thousands of Greeks-, things could have gone different for them. But no – they were these evil-looking, destroying-friendly and very naïve guys. All this made Greeks fight back strong and united, as what waited for them if they didn’t was only destruction.

And the Greeks were wise. They had big rivalries and some even hated each other, but they all knew that they were fighting for a bigger cause, one that could postpone all the differences between them. So they, heads down, assigned the army to who best commanded, the navy to who best sailed and made sure that, no matter what or from where the leader came from, they would follow his path.

The Battle of Salamis

I’m not going to dig much into detail here, just an overview of what went on. The magic of Salamis lies not in the battle itself, which was epic on its own right, but on the consequences it had for the history of humanity.

The set-up of the battle was simple: Persians and Greeks were docking at either of side of the Straits. The Persians off the coast of Piraeus (the sacked Athens port) and the Greeks were off the ports in Salamis.  Both were waiting for the other to fire the first shot.

But Themistocles had an idea: let’s send a messenger to the Xerxes, the Persian King, and tell him that the Athenians are switching sides. “Both together, we will crush the rest of the forces, so you should attack NOW.” It’s hard to know if Xerxes believed that stupidity, but his forces DID attack. His army was tired and wanted to wait at least one more day, but the stubborn ruler pushed forward: NOW.

The next morning, what Xerxes did was to sail directly into the trap. And the rest is history: the Persians, tired and confused with the information, just sailed where the Greeks were expecting them. With little place to maneuver and no place to escape, the three times bigger Persian fleet was crushed by the Greeks in a matter of hours.

Aftermath and Implications

Had the Greeks lost in Salamis and we would be living in a completely different world. Historians believe, and I agree, that a Persian victory at the Straits would have gone as far as to dramatically alter the growth of Western Civilization as we know it.

This view is based on the premise that much of modern western society, such as philosophy, science, personal freedom and democracy are all rooted in the legacy of Ancient Greece. If Greece was conquered and subjugated by the Persians, then the wars of Alexander, the ultimate counter-attack of the Greek world against Persia, would have never been possible – a campaign which later on spread Hellenistic culture from Greece to Persia, India, Egypt and beyond.

What We Can Take From This

The heroics of the Greeks are inspiring. Fighting for their Fatherland they gave the massive Persian Empire a lesson of dignity and showed who had real guts. It didn’t matter how outnumbered they were, the Greeks defended their home and stayed independent. They gave the world a lesson of how, no matter the odds against, victory is always possible.

As to end, I want to share the battle hymn the Greeks sang while heading for the battle:

Forward, sons of the Greeks,
Liberate the fatherland,
Liberate your children, your women,
The altars of the gods of your fathers
And the graves of your forebears:
Now is the fight for everything.

Now it’s your turn to fight for everything. No matter what it is and what the odds against you are, fight until you succeed. Make your dreams real!

Photo credit: Japonkskee.

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