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The battle of Artemisium in August 480 was an inconclusive naval battle
that was fought on the same three days as the battle of
Thermopylae, and that ended when the
Greek fleet retreated after learning of the Persian victory at Thermopylae (Greco-Persian
Wars). In 490 the Emperor Darius had sent an army across the Aegean to
punish Eretria and Athens for their support of the Ionian Revolt. The
Persians had been defeated at the battle of
Marathon in 490,
and Darius had died before he could launch a fresh invasion. His successor
Xerxes decided to lead a
massive invasion of Greece in person. He also decided not to risk another
expedition across the Aegean, but instead to carry out a massive joint
operation, leading a vast army and fleet along the coasts of Thrace and
Thessaly and south to Athens.
Many Greek communities decided to accommodate the Persians, but a powerful
coalition, led by Sparta and Athens, decided to resist. The Greek allies met at
the Isthmus of Corinth and decided to make a stand at Tempe in Thessaly. It
soon became clear that this position could easily be outflanked, and so they
decided to defend the narrow pass of Thermopylae, at the southern border of
Thessaly. The fleet was to defend the straits between Magnesia and the island
of Euboea, with their
initial base at the beach of Artemisium, near a shrine to Artemis.
According to Herodotus the Persians had 1,207 triremes at the start of their
expedition - 300 from Phoenicia and Palestine, 200 from Egypt, 150 from Cyprus,
100 from Cilicia, 30 from Pamphylia , 50 from Lycia, 30 from the Dorian cities
of Asia, 70 from Caria, 100 from Ionia, 17 from the Aegean islands, 60 from
Aeolia and 100 from the Hellespont. Each ship carried a mix of Persian, Median
and Sacian marines. Herodotus's vast figure of two million fighting men in the
land army is normally dismissed as entirely unrealistic, but the size of the
Persian fleet is perhaps more realistic. The Persians suffered heavy losses
before they ever clashed with the Greeks. As they sailed down the coast of
Magnesia, they anchored between Casthanaea and Cape Sepias. The size of the
Persian fleet acted against them, making it difficult for them to find any
suitable harbours. According to Herodotus on this occasion they were moored
eight-deep all along the beach. Overnight a powerful north-easterly storm hit
the dangerously exposed Persian fleet. 400 warships and an unknown number of
supply ships were lost during the three day storm. Another fifteen ships were
lost when they sailed too far and inadvertently ran into the Greek fleet. If
Herodotus's initial figure is to be believed, these loses brought the Persian
fleet down to just under 800 ships (if all the lost warships were triremes),
assuming none had been lost on the long journey from Asia Minor and along the
coasts of Thrace and Thessaly. However they also received 120 reinforcements
from Thrace, so may have had 920 ships.
According to Herodotus the Greeks had 271 triremes at the start of the battle.
Athens provided 127 ships in her own contingent, with crews from Athens and
Plataea. Corinth provided 40 ships, the Megarians 20, Chalcis provided 20 crews
but the ships came from Athens. The Aeginetans provided 18 ships, the
Sicyonians 12, the Lacedaemonians 10, the Epidaurians 8, the Eretrians 7, the
Troezenians 5, the Styrians 2 and the Ceans 2 triremes and 2 penteconters. The
Opuntian Locrians provided 7 penteconters. The fleet was commanded by the
Spartan Eurybiades son
of Euryclidas, after the other allies refused to follow an Athenian leader. The
Athenian leader Themistocles, who had
played a key part in building up the Athenian fleet, commanded the Athenian
contingent and played a major part in ensuring that the fleet stood and fought.
After the storm the Persians continued south to Aphetae, at the southern tip of
Magnesia. The Greek reaction suggests that they still had an apparently
overwhelming numerical advantage, as both Eurybiades and Adeimantus, commander
of the large Corinthian contingent, decided to withdraw. The Euboeans asked for
time to evacuate their families from the island, but Eurybiades turned them
down. The Euboeans then turned to the Athenian naval leader Themistocles, in
one of the most controversial incidents of the battle (at least to modern
eyes). Themistocles was offered thirty talents of silver to convince the fleet
to stay. He bribed Eurybiades with five talents and Adeimantus with three
talents, keeping the remaining twenty two talents himself. To modern eyes this
looks like corruption, but it was clearly unremarkable behaviour at the time,
and Herodotus says that both of the bribed leaders assumed the money had been
sent from Athens for that purpose.
On the first day of the battle the Persians sent a detachment of 200 ships
around Euboea to cut off the Greek line of retreat. The Greeks were informed of
this move by a deserter, Scyllias of Scione, and attacked the temporarily
weakened main Persian fleet (although if Herodotus's figures are right they
were still outnumbered by two-to-one). The Persians reacted to the Greek attack
by forming into a ring and surrounding them. The Greeks responded by forming a
circle and fighting with their sterns pointing towards the centre. The Greeks
captured 30 ships during the first day of the battle. Their losses aren't
recorded. They intended to sail south that night to destroy the Persian
detachment, but were kept in port by a massive storm that caught the Persians
without shelter and destroyed most of the detachment. On the second day 53
Athenian ships joined the fleet, bringing the total up to over 300. They also
brought news of the Persian disaster, presumably having sailed through the same
seas. The Persians were perhaps down to no more than 560-680 ships, but still
outnumbered the Greeks. There was some fighting on the second day, in which the
Greeks defeated a Cilician contingent in the Persian fleet. On the third day
the Persians attacked at about noon. The Greeks fought in a half-moon
formation. Both sides suffered heavy losses in this fighting. The Greeks just
about held their own, but began to realise that they would probably have to
retreat to avoid heavier losses.
Meanwhile the Persians had outflanked the Greek position at Thermopylae, and
during the day the last Greek rearguard was destroyed. The commanders of the
fleet realised that they needed to retreat from Artemisium, and pulled back to
the straits of Salamis, where they hoped the narrow waters would allow them to
take advantage of their heavier ships. While they were moving south
Themistocles stopped at every source of fresh water and had a message carved
into the rocks asking the Ionian Greeks to desert the Persians. A number of
famous Greeks fought at Artemisium. Amongst them was the Aeschylus, the first
great Athenian writer of tragic plays
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