“Here the fate of humanity was decided on the sea, an uncertain and often hostile element. The soil that the soldier waters with his blood, defending it step by step, is gone. Then the decisions were made with great difficulty, successive councils were held without result, the generals made excuses and debated mixed with the refugee civilians of Attica, old men, women, children, in an atmosphere of despair and condemnation, gazing beyond Athens at the Acropolis within in flames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In the middle of this confusion, the situation is saved by the Attic intelligence, not of the man of duty, but of the “multi-engineer”, a worthy descendant of the Homeric Odysseus, Themistocles – a brilliant, fanatical, optimist”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An important role in what we know today about the Naval Battle of Salamis has been played by the “decree of Themistocles”, which has been transmitted to our days, through a copy of it on an inscribed column.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The “Decree of Themistocles”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Greek Epigraphic Museum, “this is an ancient copy of the famous ‘Decree of Themistocles’, which was issued shortly before the naval battle and was known only from references to it in ancient authors. The upper 48 lines of the text are preserved, which is engraved in letters and has the standard form of the resolution”.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the Epigraphic Museum reports, “according to the text, the parliament and the municipality of the city of Athens decided, following a proposal by Themistocles, to evacuate the city, which they entrusted to its patroness, the goddess Athena. Themistocles’ plan provided that the women and children would be transferred to Troizena (s.b. northeastern Peloponnese) and the old men to Salamis, only the treasurers and priestesses of the gods would remain in Athens, while all men of military age would man the two hundred triremes , who had prepared for battle”<\/p>\n\n\n\n This inscription, which was also called the “Decree of Troizena”, was found used as a staircase in a residence in the area of Troizena, came to light in 1959 and particularly occupied the archaeological science, causing a controversy about when it was decided by the Athenians to evacuate the city. their city, with the Persians advancing south, after conquering Thermopylae.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n However the decision was made, the last days before the Greek-Persian conflict unfolded dramatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The descent of Xerxes<\/strong> “After Thermopylae and the crushing defeat of the Greeks, Xerxes decides to exploit his success as quickly as possible. (\u2026) He descends towards Attica, angry at the resistance he found in Thermopylae and destroys everything he finds in front of him. He arrives at the borders of Attica with his army stronger than ever, thanks to the soldiers he collects on his way and above all thanks to the Boeotian cavalry”.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n “After Thermopylae, the Spartans, without giving another battle somewhere in Kopaida as the Athenians had hoped, retreated to the Isthmus, leaving Attica unprotected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00bbThe Allied strategic plan therefore had to be revised and two new key points to support defense and defense had to be found. On land they chose the Isthmus, on the sea Salamis. This plan meant, of course, abandoning Attica, which Themistocles and his associates succeeded by convincing Troizena as well”.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The choice of Themistocles to fight in the waters of Salamis the most crucial battle in the history of the Greeks until then was not accidental as the narrowness of space turned the advantages of the numerous Persian fleet into weaknesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Meanwhile the Persian fleet anchors at Faliro and the meetings of their admirals begin. All agree that the attack should be made immediately because autumn is approaching and only Artemisia, the queen of the Dorians of Asia, asks to postpone the operations”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The trick of Themistocles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Persian admirals failed to see the trap that Themistocles had set for them and believed that they would have before them a prime opportunity to trap and then destroy the Greek fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “But the Greeks are still undecided and are going through moments of anxiety. They discuss, discuss again, and only after the capture of Athens by Xerxes do they seem to finally lose their morale and most of them are preparing for a definitive retreat”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The alliance of the Greeks is divided into two: The Athenians and other city-states support Themistocles’ opinion that the great naval battle should be fought in Salamis, while the Peloponnesians want the naval battle to take place on the Isthmus of Corinth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just then Themistocles “unfolds” his leadership characteristics, his contagiousness and his wit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Then Themistocles makes his famous speech and talks about the cities that will be sacrificed if the allies abandon them, moves the admirals and convinces Eurybiades (s.s. admiral of the Spartans) to fight the naval battle in the waters of Salamis”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After convincing his countrymen, Themistocles would have to lure the Persians into his trap. With this purpose he “used” his children’s sharer and tutor, Sicinnos who came from Asia Minor and spoke Persian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “He allegedly sends him so that the Persians can catch him and learn from his mouth that the Greeks are afraid and do not agree, so that the attack of the Persian fleet will seem easier and his victory will certainly appear”.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Greek triumph<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The signal is given by the ship of the leader of the Greeks, the Spartan Eurybiades. The tragic poet Aeschylus also participates in the naval battle, who through the tragedy of “Perseus” gives a detailed description of what happened in those days. To Aeschylus and the work “Persia” belong the following verses that have reached the present day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u1f6e \u03c0\u03b1\u1fd6\u03b4\u03b5\u03c2 \u1f19\u03bb\u03bb\u03ae\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd, \u1f34\u03c4\u03b5, In English: <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Forward, of the Greeks The astonished and terrified Persians and their allies become entangled in their tumult among themselves, hindered by a light rising wind, and the destruction is great and final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The great king himself (s.s. Xerxes) sat and watched from the height of the land near Athens (s.s. Mt. Aigaleos), which had been conquered and plundered by his huge army. There in the strait he saw 300 Greek ships awaiting the attack of his fleet. One after the other, the Persian ships rowed in only to be rammed by the superior Greeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “In the waters of the strait, one mile wide, only a few ships of the huge Persian fleet were able to simultaneously attack the enemy. When the leading ships tried to retreat under the pressure of the Greek counterattack, they were blocked by their own ships which attacked them from the south. The Greek victory by sea was decisive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Xerxes set out for his country almost immediately, taking a large part of his army with him. The rest passed the winter in Greece, but in the following year the Greeks had the courage and strength to defeat them also by land. The Persian invasion of Greece is over.”<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The favorable breeze<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Themistocles made “the first weather forecast recorded in History”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Themistocles knew the characteristics of the “yearly” winds and also of the sea breeze, the so-called tropaia among the ancients. Aeschylus writes that the morning of the naval battle was sunny, and with this testimony, any other type of weather is excluded except that of the sea breeze and the etesia \u2013 that is, the sea breeze \u2013 which are observed with a clear sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, it is certain that there was a wind, because Herodotus notes that the Corinthian Adeimantus in his panic raised sails and hurried away. I believe Themistocles was a connoisseur of the winds. The sea breeze had probably started the day before and he took it into account, it was a matter of strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Themistocles knew well both the time and the place, and therefore he took care not to line his ships facing the barbarians before the usual time arrived when a strong wind always blows at sea and brings a wave to the straits, for this wind, while it did not harm the Greek ships, which were low and did not protrude much from the sea, would fall on the barbarian ships, which had straight sterns and high decks and were heavy ships, and would deliver them sideways to the Greek ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Archers and losses<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the area of Salamis with a general system of “years” NE winds converge from the plain of Eleusis and also NW from the plain of Megara and due to the convergence a strong wave is created off the coast of Salamis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, apart from spinning the Persian ships, the Persian archers from the decks were unable to successfully target the hoplites and oarsmen of the Greek triremes due to the rocking of the ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, of the 1,207 Persian ships – today most historians believe that there were 600-800 – 200 were lost, as well as a large number of warriors, many of whom drowned in the sea as they did not know how to swim, while the Greeks lost 40 of the 378 triremes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The dance of Sikinnos<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This victory of the Greeks was characterized as the victory that saved Western civilization and its undisputed “father” was of course Themistocles, who did not forget the special contribution, to this triumph, of the faithful of Sikinnos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Themistocles rewarded Sikinnon by making him a citizen of Thespians, which was then considered the innermost city of Greece due to the voluntary participation in the sacrifice of Thermopylae after the three hundred years of Leonidas.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The name of Sikinnos, however, became known to the following generations also for the way he celebrated the Greek triumph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Sikinnos invented the homonymous dance called Sikinnis, which was almost identical to the pentozalin of the Cretans, and was danced on many subsequent centenaries in memory of that great event, which reminds the Greeks of their constant struggle for the Freedom of their Country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The political and strategic acumen of Themistocles, the heroism of the Greeks and the meteorological elements that contributed to the happy outcome of this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,7,2846],"tags":[4706,146,4707,2945,4708],"class_list":["post-15449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-science","category-research","category-wars-battles","tag-battle-of-salamis","tag-greece","tag-greeks","tag-themistocles","tag-xerxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15459,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15449\/revisions\/15459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-156.png\")
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\u1f10\u03bb\u03b5\u03c5\u03b8\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c4\u03b5 \u03c0\u03b1\u03c4\u03c1\u03af\u03b4\u1fbd, \u1f10\u03bb\u03b5\u03c5\u03b8\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c4\u03b5 \u03b4\u1f72
\u03c0\u03b1\u1fd6\u03b4\u03b1\u03c2, \u03b3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u1fd6\u03ba\u03b1\u03c2, \u03b8\u03b5\u1ff6\u03bd \u03c4\u03b5 \u03c0\u03b1\u03c4\u03c1\u1ff4\u03c9\u03bd \u1f15\u03b4\u03b7,
\u03b8\u03ae\u03ba\u03b1\u03c2 \u03c4\u03b5 \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03b3\u03cc\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd\u0387 \u03bd\u1fe6\u03bd \u1f51\u03c0\u1f72\u03c1 \u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd \u1f00\u03b3\u03ce\u03bd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
brave guys! to liberate homeland,
children, wives, and of your father’s gods
liberate the shrines and the ancestors
the graves; now for all things you fight.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-162.png\")
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