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Battle of Salamis

Themistocles lures the vast Persian fleet into a narrow strait where numbers count for nothing — the naval turning point of the Greco-Persian Wars (480 BCE).

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Phase by phase

1. Prelude · Evening, day before the battle (480 BCE)
   Themistocles
   The Greeks debate; Themistocles argues for the narrowsGreek fleet (Themistocles)
   After the fall of Athens, the Greek allied fleet lay in the bay off Salamis town while the Peloponnesians pressed to withdraw and defend the Isthmus. Themistocles argued that battle in the confined strait would cancel the Persians' numbers. The fleet holds its anchorage in Ambelaki bay on the east coast of Salamis, facing the Attic mainland.
   Ambelaki bay, east coast of Salamis Island · reconstructed · Herodotus VIII.56-63; Wikipedia: Battle of Salamis (prelude)
2. Deception · Night before the battle
   Themistocles
   Themistocles' false message to XerxesGreek fleet (Themistocles)
   Themistocles secretly sent his servant Sicinnus by boat across the strait to Xerxes' camp with a false message: the Greeks were quarrelling and about to flee westward, and Xerxes should block the exits and destroy them. The message travels from Salamis toward the Persian shore near Phaleron/Mount Aigaleos, luring the Persians to commit to the narrows overnight.
   Salamis strait, toward the Persian shore · reconstructed · Herodotus VIII.75; Plutarch, Themistocles 12
3. Persian deployment · Night into pre-dawn
   Xerxes I
   The Persian fleet advances into the strait by nightPersian fleet (Xerxes)
   Believing the Greeks would flee, the Persian fleet rowed out from Phaleron in darkness to seal the strait, advancing north-west into the channel between the mainland and Salamis. The main body pushed toward the narrows off Cape Vavari and Cape Cynosura, pivoting from an east-west blocking line toward a north-south alignment as the channel tightened.
   Salamis strait, advancing from Phaleron toward Cape Cynosura · reconstructed · Herodotus VIII.76; Aeschylus, Persians 353-383; Wikipedia (Persian deployment)
4. Persian deployment · Night, before dawn
   Xerxes I
   Persian troops land on PsyttaleiaPersian fleet (Xerxes)
   Xerxes put around 400 soldiers ashore on the small island of Psyttaleia (modern Lipsokoutali), lying in the middle of the strait's exit, to kill Greek and rescue Persian crews washed onto it during the coming fight. The landing party occupies the island in the channel mouth south-east of Cape Cynosura.
   Psyttaleia island (modern Lipsokoutali), strait exit · reconstructed · Herodotus VIII.76; Aeschylus, Persians 447-453
5. Persian deployment · Night
   Egyptian squadron sent to block the western exitPersian fleet (Xerxes)
   According to Diodorus, an Egyptian squadron was detached to row around the far side of Salamis and seal the north-western Megara channel, the Greeks' alternative escape route into the Bay of Eleusis. The squadron moves off toward the western end of the strait. (Herodotus does not clearly report this; some historians doubt it.)
   Western Megara channel, toward the Bay of Eleusis · reconstructed · Diodorus Siculus XI.17; Wikipedia (disputed Egyptian detachment)
6. Greek deployment · Dawn
   Aristides
   The Greek fleet forms its line at dawnGreek fleet (Themistocles)
   Warned by Aristides that they were now surrounded, the Greeks accepted battle. At first light the fleet rowed out from Ambelaki bay and formed line across the narrows, Athenians on the left/seaward wing facing the Phoenicians, Aeginetans and Spartans on the right, the line anchored between the Salamis shore and Cape Cynosura.
   Salamis strait narrows, off Cape Cynosura · reconstructed · Herodotus VIII.83-85; Aeschylus, Persians 384-401
7. Opening clash · Early morning
   Themistocles
   Backing water, then the first ramGreek fleet (Themistocles)
   As the crowded Persian van pressed forward, the Greeks first backed water as if in fear, drawing the enemy deeper into the narrows, then surged. One ship shot out first — by Athenian tradition Ameinias of Pallene, though Aegina also claimed the honour — and rammed a leading Persian vessel; the whole Greek line then charged the disordered Persian front off Cape Cynosura.
   The narrows off Cape Cynosura / Psyttaleia · reconstructed · Herodotus VIII.84; Aeschylus, Persians 402-421
8. Right flank collapse · Morning
   Ariabignes
   The Phoenician right flank breaks; Ariabignes is killedPersian fleet (Xerxes)
   On the Persian right, next to Mount Aigaleos, the Phoenician squadrons under Ariabignes — a brother of Xerxes and one of the fleet's supreme commanders — were driven back onto their own second and third lines. Ariabignes was killed early: attempting to board a Greek ship, he was struck down and thrown into the sea. The loss of a commander helped unravel the Phoenician wing against the mainland shore.
   Persian right flank, below Mount Aigaleos · reconstructed · Herodotus VIII.89; Plutarch, Themistocles 14; Diodorus XI.18
9. Persian collapse · Late morning
   Xerxes I
   The Persian fleet jams in the narrowsPersian fleet (Xerxes)
   Packed five ranks deep in places, the Persian fleet could not deploy or turn. As the front line was forced back it crashed into the ranks behind; armoured prows smashed into allied hulls and sheared off oar-banks, while the Greeks encircled and rammed them from all sides. The mass of ships choked the channel between Cape Cynosura and the mainland.
   Centre of the strait, off Cape Cynosura · reconstructed · Aeschylus, Persians 413-428; Herodotus VIII.89-90
10. Persian collapse · Midday
    Artemisia I of Caria
    Artemisia rams her way outPersian fleet (Xerxes)
    Queen Artemisia I of Halicarnassus, hemmed in and pursued by the Athenian Ameinias, escaped by ramming and sinking a friendly Calyndian ship ahead of her; the pursuer, thinking her an ally, broke off. Watching from Mount Aigaleos, Xerxes is said to have exclaimed that his men had become women and his women men. Her ships flee south-east toward the strait exit.
    Eastern strait, toward the exit near Psyttaleia · reconstructed · Herodotus VIII.87-88
11. Rout · Afternoon
    Themistocles
    Persian rout; Aeginetans ambush the exit
    The broken Persian fleet fled back toward Phaleron. The Aeginetans lay in wait at the strait's mouth and struck the fleeing ships as the Athenians drove them out; any that broke past one ran into the other. The surviving Persian vessels limped back to the shelter of the army at Phaleron Bay, having lost perhaps 200-300 ships to the Greeks' ~40.
    Strait exit toward Phaleron Bay · reconstructed · Herodotus VIII.91-92; Aeschylus, Persians 422-432
12. Aftermath · Late afternoon
    Aristides
    Aristides storms PsyttaleiaGreek fleet (Themistocles)
    As the battle turned, the Athenian Aristides led a force of hoplites across from Salamis onto Psyttaleia and annihilated the Persian garrison stranded there in full view of Xerxes. The landing closes the day, clearing the island in the strait's mouth.
    Psyttaleia island (modern Lipsokoutali) · reconstructed · Herodotus VIII.95; Aeschylus, Persians 447-471; Plutarch, Aristides 9

Sources

• Herodotus, Histories, Book VIII (primary source, c. 430 BCE)
• Aeschylus, The Persians (472 BCE, eyewitness account)
• Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, Book XI
• Plutarch, Life of Themistocles; Life of Aristides
• Wikipedia: Battle of Salamis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Salamis)
• Livius.org: Salamis (480 BCE) (https://www.livius.org/articles/battle/salamis-480-bce/)
• Britannica: Battle of Salamis (https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Salamis)

On the data

All phase movements are RECONSTRUCTED, not documented — the sole narrative sources are Herodotus (writing ~50 years later) and Aeschylus (eyewitness but poetic/dramatic, in The Persians), supplemented by later Diodorus and Plutarch. No contemporary map, order of battle, or ship-track survives. DEBATED / APPROXIMATE: (1) Fleet sizes — the 1,207 Persian figure from Herodotus/Aeschylus is almost universally rejected; modern estimates are 600-800. (2) The exact orientation and pivot of the fleets (an east-west blocking line rotating to north-south off Cape Vavari) is a modern reconstruction. (3) The Egyptian squadron circling Salamis to block the western Megara channel comes from Diodorus and is doubted by some historians (Herodotus does not clearly report it). (4) The date (29 September) is a modern calculation, not fixed in the sources. (5) Which ship rammed first — Ameinias of Pallene (Athenian) vs an Aeginetan — is disputed in antiquity itself. (6) Coordinates for every phase are plausible placements within the real strait near the anchor, NOT recorded positions; individual ship movements are illustrative of fleet-scale action only. LEAD PORTRAITS: Themistocles, Xerxes, Aristides use classical busts/reliefs; Artemisia and Ariabignes use later history-painting depictions (no ancient portrait of either survives) — flagged accordingly. Ariabignes' image is a crop from a 19th/20th-c. painting of his death at Salamis, not a portrait from life.

Hand-authored from the sources below. Spotted a mistake? Email [email protected].