The battle of Salamina was a naval confrontation that took place on September 20, 480 BC. C. in the Saronic Gulf near the island of Salamina, present territory of the Hellenic Republic of Greece.

This consists of the third battle of the second medical war and in it the following forces faced each other:

• Persian fleet : made up of about 400 ships led by various admirals, while the Persian emperor Xerxes I watched them from a nearby promontory.
• Greek fleet : made up of about 300 triremes, so called because the ships were propelled by rowers seated in 3 rows. Most of the ships were contributed by Athens and were led by the Athenian Themistocles.

The Greeks won a naval victory that allowed them to destroy the bulk of the Persian fleet and prevent them from occupying all of Hellas .

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Development of the battle of Salamis

After the Persians managed to defeat the defenders of Thermopylae ; Themistocles, the commander of the Greek fleet, ordered a retreat to the south. The Greek triremes were located in the Saronic Gulf, in waters near the island of Salamis. Battle of Salamis causes and consequences

Meanwhile, the Persian army was entering Athens , looting and burning a city that had already been abandoned by most of its inhabitants. The few that remained were killed by the invaders.

When the Persian fleet entered the Saronic Gulf, Themistocles moved part of his ships simulating a retreat . In this way he attracted the Persian ships, which were heavier than the Greek ones, into shallow waters. The Greek ships carried out a swift enveloping maneuver , surrounding the Persian vessels and attacking them from the flanks. The bronze spurs of the Greek triremes embedded themselves with force in the hulls of the enemy ships, opening gaps impossible to cover. Thus, the water flooded the damaged ships, which began to sink.

After losing about 200 ships, the Persians withdrew in a disorderly way, leaving victory for the Greeks , who only lost 40 ships.

You are reading the summary of the Battle of Salamis.

Causes and consequences of the battle of Salamis

Causes

The causes of the battle of Salamis were the following:

• The desire of the Persian emperor Xerxes I to subdue the Greek city-states and extend his dominions over the Balkan peninsula.
• The victory won by the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae , which allowed them to occupy the regions of Boeotia and Attica, and sack and burn Athens.
• The decision of the Greeks not to give up and keep fighting for the independence and freedom of Hellas.

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Consequences

The main consequences of the Battle of Salamis were the following:

• The Persians were unable to cross the Isthmus of Corinth and invade the Peloponnese region.
• Xerxes feared that the Greek fleet would take advantage of the victory to attack the Strait of Dardanelles and thus cut off its supply routes, so he decided to return to Persia with part of his forces, leaving an army under General Mardonius in Hellas. who ordered to defeat the Greeks.
• The Athenians recovered their city and prepared for a decisive battle against the invaders.
• The Spartans crossed the Isthmus of Corinth and reached Attica , where they joined forces with those of the Athenians. Shortly after, an army made up of troops from almost all Greek cities achieved a decisive victory at the Battle of Plataea (479 BC), in which Mardonius died. Around the same time, a Greek fleet destroyed what was left of the Persian army at the Battle of Micala . These two defeats forced the Persians to give up the war and return to Asia. Battle of Salamis causes and consequences

Importance of the battle of Salamis

The triumphs obtained by the Greeks in Salamis, Plataea and Micala, prevented the Persians from conquering Hellas and integrating it into an Asian Empire that Xerxes wanted to transform into a universal one. In this way, the advance of the Persians towards the West was halted, and their civilization began a slow decline.

Athens and Sparta emerged strengthened from the war against Persia and lived through a period of splendor, but the competition between the two polis and mutual mistrust led to the Peloponnesian war .

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