Salamis, Battle of

In the Persian Wars, sea battle fought in the Strait of Salamis west of Athens, Greece, in 480 BC between the Greeks and the invading Persians. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Greeks inflicted a crushing defeat on the invading Persians which effectively destroyed their fleet.

After the sack of Athens by the Persians, the commanders of some 370 Greek war galleys then lying off the island of Salamis debated what action they could take; their debate was ended by the appearance of the Persian fleet in the Bay of Phalerum. Tradition says that Themistocles, the Athenian commander of the Greek fleet, sent the Persians a fake message, ostensibly from a spy, warning that the Greek fleet was about to withdraw and that the Persians should blockade the entrance to the Bay of Eleusis. The Persians fell for the ruse and spread their 1,000 ships thinly across the bay. The Persians were so confident they could deal with a mere 370 vessels that they had a throne prepared for their king, Xerxes, on nearby Mount Aegaleus so that he would have a grandstand view from which to watch them crush the Greek fleet. However, the Greeks came out into the bay at full speed, broke the Persian line, and created mayhem in all directions; 500 Persian ships were lost but only 40 Greek galleys. Disgusted at this humiliation, Xerxes returned to Asia leaving a subordinate, Mardonius, to continue the land campaign.