A Navy Nominally Commanded by a Spartan, but Actually Led by an Athenian
The Persians assembled about 800 warships on the beaches south of Athens, near the island of Salamis. An allied Greek navy of about 375 warships, mostly Athenian, awaited them, guarding the eastern entrance of a strait separating Salamis from mainland Greece. The Greek navy was nominally commanded by the Spartan Eurybiades, but was actually led by Themistocles. Athens’ Greek allies wanted to retreat. Themistocles convinced them to stay by threatening that the Athenians would defect to the Persians if the allies refused to fight. Aware that the allies’ commitment was shaky, Themistocles decided to force a battle as soon as possible. So he sent Xerxes a secret message, claiming friendship, and informing him that the Greeks were demoralized. To bag them, Themistocles advised the Persians to send warships to block the strait’s western exit, then attack from the east. The Greeks would then either surrender, or fight poorly.
Xerxes heeded Themistocles’ advise, and the Greeks panicked when they woke the next day to discover that the Persians had bottled them up in the strait. Themistocles calmed them down, and devised a plan whereby the Greeks retreated far up into the narrows. The Persians sought a battle with their ships on an east-west line facing Salamis. That would have allowed them to attack on a broad front, and take advantage of their numerical superiority to overlap their foes. Themistocles had a counterplan that thwarted the Persians, then crushed them. He drew the Persians into a battle whose lines ran north-south, along the Strait of Salamis’ narrow width. That negated the Persian numerical superiority at the point of contact. It also drew many Persian ships into restricted waters. With their huge navy crammed into a tight space, Themistocles turned his enemy’s numerical advantage into a disadvantage.