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The battle
In eager anticipation of a magnificent victory, King
Xerxes positioned himself opposite Salamis with a good view of the small island
of Psyttaleia, where a detachment of Persian troops had been landed during the
night.  But instead of witnessing his fleet's final triumph over the Greeks,
Xerxes saw a naval disaster unfold before his very eyes. The various ethnic
contingents of the Persian fleet were lined up several rows deep across the
narrow channel with the Phoenicians on the right wing, nearest to Xerxes's
position, and the Ionians on the left, nearest to Salamis. As they moved further
into the channel their ships became so compacted and confused that they found it
impossible to keep in formation. The crews were tired and to make matters worse
a strong swell developed, making it even harder for the ships to make headway.
Themistocles had anticipated this and seems to have persuaded the other Greek
commanders to delay engaging the Persians until they were clearly in disorder.
With the Athenian ships leading, the Greeks rowed out from the shore and turned
towards the enemy. On a given signal their fresh crews surged forward and broke
through the Persian lines to ram individual ships as they struggled to maneuver.
The Persians would have been expecting the Greeks to
flee before their superior force, according to the plan worked out the previous
day. But, like all ancient battles, once the action had started it was
impossible to keep to a specific plan, and the captains of the individual ships
were forced to make decisions on the spot. The main decision made by many of
Xerxes's captains was to turn away from the attacking Greeks, causing confusion
as they encountered more of their own ships trying to advance. In the resulting
chaos the Greek captains urged on their much fresher crews and pressed the
attack with great success.
It is impossible to describe the full
course of the in detail. Our main source, the writer Herodotus, offers only a
series of anecdotes about various groups of combatants. It was claimed that 70
Corinthian ships under Adeimantos and fled towards the Bay of Eleusis. It is
likely that this supposed cowardly northward retreat which Herodotus presents as
an Athenian slander against the Corinthians, may have been a
deliberate move to engage the Egyptian squadron and prevent it from attacking
the Greek rear. The Corinthians maintained that their ships did not encounter
the Egyptians but returned to the battle and acquitted themselves as well as any
of the Greeks. One of the most colorful anecdotes concerns Artemisia, the ruler
of Herodotus's home city Alicarnassus, which was subject to the Persians. She
was in command of her own ship and in the front line of the Persian fleet. When
an Athenian trireme bore down on her she tried to escape, but found her path
blocked by other Persian ships. In desperation she ordered her helmsman to ram
one of them, which sank with the loss of all its crew. The pursuing Athenian
captain assumed that Artemisia's ship was on his side and changed course towards
another Persian vessel. Xerxes and his advisors saw the incident and recognized
Artemisia's ship by its ensign, but their belief that she had sunk a Greek
trireme then earned her the king's admiration. Xerxes is also said to have
remarked at this point, 'My men have acted like women and my women like men.'
Another story concerns the Persian soldiers on the
island of Psyttaleia. They were placed there in anticipation of the bulk of the
Greek fleet being driven north and westwards away from the island. Instead they
were isolated from their own ships and left vulnerable to attack from the nearby
shores of Salamis. Right before Xerxes's eyes his elite troops, including three
of his own nephews, were slaughtered by the Athenians.
Along the coast of Salamis, other Persians who managed
to get ashore from their foundering ships were killed or captured. Towards the
end of the day the Persian fleet retreated in confusion to the Bay of Phaleron,
having lost more than 200 ships and having failed in its objective of forcing
the Greeks away from Salamis. The Greeks had lost only about 40 ships and sent
the enemy back to their anchorage in disarray.
Aftermath
Xerxes took the remains of his fleet and much of his
army back to Anatolia, leaving his general Mardonius with a substantial army in
central Greece. The following year a Greek army led by the Spartan king
Pausanias defeated them at Plataea, north of Athens, effectively freeing
mainland Greece from the threat of Persian domination. Themistocles was honored
by the Spartans for his part in the victory, but his own countrymen seem to have
turned against him, eventually forcing him to take refuge with the Persians.
Xerxes's son Artaxerxes I made him governor of Magnesia on the Maeander River,
where he died around 459 BC.
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