Lega Panellenica contro Persiani, Salamina (480 a.C.) - di Alessandro Barbero

The Persian Wars Context: Marathon and Xerxes' Invasion
📌 The Battle of Salamis, fought off Athens in 480 BC, was the second decisive battle of the Persian Wars, following Marathon ten years earlier.
⚔️ Xerxes, inheriting his father Darius's failure to conquer mainland Greece, launched a massive joint land and sea expedition.
🚢 The Persians built a bridge of boats across the Hellespont and an artificial canal across the Isthmus of Mount Athos to facilitate the large military and fleet movement.

Greek Resistance at Thermopylae and Artemisium
🛡️ The main Greek resistance, led by the two kings of Sparta, centered on holding key geographical choke points, notably the Pass of Thermopylae.
👑 Leonidas, one of the Spartan kings, commanded a small Greek force, famously holding the pass for three days before being outflanked.
🏛️ The timing coincided with the Olympic Games, meaning not all Greek resources were immediately available for the war effort.

The Role of Themistocles and Athenian Naval Power
🌊 Athenian leader Themistocles, considered a populist figure, championed the creation of a large war fleet, providing employment for the poorer masses as rowers.
📊 While ancient historians claim the Persians had 1,200 triremes versus the Greeks' 403, the Greek fleet included ships from Ionian cities, with Artemisia of Halicarnassus commanding a contingent for Xerxes.
🔥 After Thermopylae fell, the Persians marched on Athens, which was evacuated based on an oracle suggesting the city's protection lay in its "wooden wall" (interpreted as the fleet). The few remaining Athenians on the Acropolis were killed when the Persians burned the city.

The Battle of Salamis and Its Aftermath
⚓ The Greek fleet retreated to the Island of Salamis, where they were effectively trapped in a narrow gulf, with Spartan commander Eurybiades initially wanting to retreat to the Peloponnese.
💡 Themistocles used cunning tactics, sending messages to the Ionian Greek sailors in the Persian fleet urging neutrality or defection, aiming to erode Xerxes' trust in his own forces.
🌊 The battle became a naval brawl in confined waters where the superior armor and hoplite soldiers aboard the Greek triremes proved decisive against the lighter-armed Persian crews.
👑 Xerxes, watching from a favorable position, witnessed his fleet's defeat, famously telling Artemisia that his men had become women, and hers had acted like men. The Greek victory secured naval dominance and foiled the invasion.

Historical Legacy and Complexity
🧐 The Persian Wars, particularly Salamis, are foundational myths for Western civilization, built on the narrative of defending democracy against Eastern tyranny.
🎭 The complexity of this narrative is revealed by Themistocles' own later life: after losing power, he defected to Persia and eventually governed a Persian province.
🎭 The legacy of Salamis is also preserved in Aeschylus's tragedy "The Persians," which uniquely narrates the Greek victory from the defeated Persian perspective, including the lamentations of Queen Atossa and the ghost of Darius.

Key Points & Insights
➡️ The Persian invasion failed due to the strategic land holding at Thermopylae combined with the decisive naval victory achieved by the Athenian fleet's construction.
➡️ Themistocles’ populist policy of funding the trireme fleet was crucial, providing both defense and crucial employment for the Athenian poor.
➡️ The ancient Greek worldview was deeply intertwined with divine will and oracles (like the ambiguous prophecy regarding Leonidas and Sparta's fate).
➡️ Aeschylus's tragedy *The Persians* offers a rare ancient example of empathy or "seeing from the other side," framing the Greek triumph through the lens of the vanquished foe.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Feb 12, 2026, 15:50 UTC