Introduction to the Naval Battle of Salamis in Hippo

Introduction to the Naval Battle of Salamis in Hippo

The Battle of Salamis was a battle between the fleets of both sides in the Greco-Persian War. A decisive battle in the Gulf of Salamis.

In 480 BC, King Xerxes I of Persia led an army of 100,000 people from 100 ethnic groups and 800 warships, crossed the Hellespont, and launched an expedition to Greece by land and water.

The Greek coalition only had tens of thousands of troops and 400 warships, and they were sealed in the Gulf of Salamis. The Greek fleet formed a two-line formation and suddenly launched an attack. Taking advantage of its small and flexible ships and its ability to maneuver freely in narrow bays, the Greek fleet repeatedly attacked the Persian fleet with boarding battles and ramming battles. After a day of fierce fighting, the Persian fleet was severely damaged and forced to retreat.

The Battle of Salamis laid the foundation of the Athenian maritime empire, but the extremely powerful Persian Empire began to decline.

Background of the Naval Battle of Salamis

The island of Salamis is sandwiched between the Greek Peninsula and the Peloponnese Peninsula, with only a strait separating it from the Greek Peninsula to the east. The Strait of Salamis is winding and narrow, with the widest point being only two kilometers. More than 300 warships of the Greek Navy are anchored in the strait.

At this time, the commander of the Greek coalition was the Spartan nobleman Eurybiades. When he learned that 1,200 Persian warships had gathered in the southeast of the strait, he was shocked and planned to abandon Salami. Island, and retreated to the mainland of the Peloponnese.

Before the Greek army took action, news came that Xerxes sent the Egyptian fleet of the Persian Navy around to the west side of Salamis Island to block the exit of the strait, preparing to catch turtles in a jar. , killing all the Greek coalition forces in one fell swoop.

The naval battle of Salamis

After winning the first battle at Thermopylae, Xerxes I decided to march to Athens. Unexpectedly, all they got was an empty city, and the Athenians had all evacuated. It turned out that at the suggestion of Themistocles, the Athenian military strategist, the Athenian citizens' assembly decided to temporarily avoid the enemy's elite troops and transfer the battlefield to the sea.

At the critical moment of the country, Athens organized adult men into the army and evacuated other residents south to places such as Trizin and Salamis. The Greek combined fleet of about 300 warships, led by Spartan Eulibides and the Athenian commander Themistocles, retreated from Cape Artemisia to the narrow Gulf of Salamis to prepare for the battle. Persian fleet.

The Persian fleet followed and blocked the east and west exits of the Gulf of Salamis. The Greek combined fleet had no way to advance or retreat, further strengthening its determination to unite and fight against the enemy. On September 20, 480 BC, the naval battle of Salamis officially began.

Euribiades followed Themistocles' advice and immediately prepared for war. He sent the Corinthian detachment to guard the western strait, with Spartan warships on the right wing, Athenian warships on the left wing, and other city-state warships in the center, and began to attack the Persian navy.

After Xerxes blocked the Salamis Strait, he first sent 800 vanguard warships in three lines to attack the eastern end of the Salamis Strait. However, Pusitalia Island in the middle of the strait disrupted the Persian army's formation, and the Persian navy had to divide the column into two to attack. In addition, the Persian warships had large and heavy hulls, which made it difficult to operate in the narrow bay. They could not move forward or retreat, so they collided with each other and became chaotic.

On the contrary, Greek warships can shuttle among Persian warships at will, because most Greek warships are trireme warships, and such warships are both fast and flexible.

The Greek coalition seized the opportunity, gave full play to the advantages of their warships, and violently attacked the Persian fleet. Each Athenian warship carried 18 marines. They continuously fired rockets and threw stones at the enemy ships, and the Persian warships turned into a sea of ??fire.

What alarmed the Persians even more was the sturdy construction and special structure of the Athenian ships. The bow of the Athenian warship is inlaid with copper horns, and the hull is equipped with a 5-meter copper-clad crossbar.

The Greeks used copper rams to smash the Persian warships into pieces. When the warships flew close to the Persian warships, the horizontal beams cut off the wooden oars of the enemy ships like sharp knives. The Persian army could only be beaten passively.

After seven or eight hours of fierce fighting, the Battle of Salamis ended. The Greek army won a complete victory, sinking more than 200 Persian warships and capturing more than 50 ships. The Greek fleet lost only 40 warships.

After that, Greece, led by Athens, turned to attack and took the opportunity to expand its maritime power, gradually establishing Athens' hegemony in the Aegean Sea. In 478 BC, the Athenian fleet captured Sestos, an important town on the north shore of the Hellespont Strait, thereby controlling the main route to the Black Sea.

In the same year, Athens united with a group of Greek city-states to form a maritime alliance and seized the coastal areas of Thrace, many islands in the Aegean Sea, and the strategic location of Byzantium.

In 449 BC, the Greek navy severely damaged the Persian army on the east coast of Cyprus, and the two sides agreed to make peace. In the same year, Greece and Persia signed the Peace of Callias in the Persian capital, ending the Greco-Persian War.

The Impact of the Battle of Salamis

The Battle of Salamis was the world's first large-scale battle between oar fleets, and it was also the first time in the history of world naval warfare that a small number of people defeated a large number. A typical example of the weak defeating the strong.

The Naval Battle of Salamis turned the tide of the entire Greco-Persian War; the next year (479 BC), the Greek coalition with the Spartan Legion as the core completely defeated the Persian Army in Plataea .

From then on, the initiative in the war was completely controlled by the Greeks. In the end, not only did the Persians be completely expelled from Europe, but they also liberated the Greek city-states along the coast of Asia Minor that had long been occupied by Persia.

In 449 BC, the two sides signed the Peace of Carias, officially ending the Greco-Persian War that lasted for about half a century.

The victory in the naval battle of Salamis ushered in the golden age of Athens. During this era, the Athenians achieved superiority in maritime power and commerce, and their intellectuals and artists achieved outstanding achievements—laying the foundations of Western civilization.

On the contrary, the Battle of Salamis was the beginning of the decline of the Persian Empire. From then on, the Persians never invaded Greece again. A century after the Battle of Salamis, the Greeks and Macedonians, under the leadership of Alexander the Great, conquered and occupied the languishing Persian empire.