Greece defeats Persia, once and for all
Xerxes seethes as his navy is crushed by vastly outnumbered Greek forces
25 September 480 BC
Daylighton 25 September 480 BC. As the Persian fleet sailed into the straits of Salamis, they heard the sound of their Greek opponents singing their battle hymn: “O sons of the Greeks, go, / Liberate your country, liberate / Your children, your women, the seats of your fathers’ gods, / And the tombs of your forebears: now is the struggle for all things.”
The battle of Salamis, fought between the invading fleet of the Persian ruler Xerxes and his allied Greek adversaries, has gone down as one of the most famous naval engagements in history. For Xerxes, this was the moment when he would crush Greek resistance and cement his control of the enemy mainland. But as the Persian ships sailed into the narrow straits, they were doing precisely what the Athenian general, Themistocles, wanted.
What followed was chaos. At first the Greek ships appeared to retreat from the Persians, as if afraid. In reality, however, the Persians’ overwhelming numbers worked against them. As one Persian line crashed inevitably into the next, some of their captains began to panic, and eventually morale cracked completely. Watching from his throne on Mount Egaleo, Xerxes looked on in impotent fury as his fleet fell back in disarray, the Greeks surging forward and singing in triumph. As the historian Herodotus recorded, many of the Persians could not swim, so the seas foamed with the bodies of drowning men.
Salamis is commonly seen as the turning point in the Persian Wars. Indeed, for generations of writers, it was a decisive moment in world history: the moment when the free cities of the Greeks definitely escaped the Persian yoke. This is probably an exaggeration. But had events in September 480 turned out otherwise, it is tempting to wonder how different our world might be.