Battle Of Saamis Essay

There have been many historic battles over the years. Many of these battles have resulted in Golden Ages in the land of the victor. One of these battles was the Battle of Salamis. In the previous battles – Marathon and Thermopylae – Greece had been fighting to keep the Persians out of their land. They were highly outnumbered and should not have even made it past the first battle. However their luck held and thanks to Greek strategy, they were able to turn the tables on the mighty Persian empire. The Battle of Salamis was the final and most important blow against the Persians, and it's success shaped Greece for years to come. By the beginning of the 5th century BC, the Persian Empire, under Darius, was conquering their way through mainland Europe and had dominated Thrace and Macedonia. The next goal was to conquer the group of potentially troublesome rebel states on the western border of the Empire. 1 …show more content…
The battle went on to take a mythical status among the Greeks, but it was merely the beginning battle of a long war with several other major battles. In 486 BC Xerxes became king, and he struck first the Cyclades and then the Greek mainland after victory at Thermopylae in August 480 BC against a token Greek force. At the indecisive naval battle of Thermopylae (also in August 480 BC), the Greeks held off the superior numbers of the Persian fleet but were forced to retreat to the south and aid in the evacuation of Athens and then regroup at the ports of Salamis.2 Greece then, lay open to all who chose, so Persian forces rampaged through the Greek polis or city-states, sacking even the great city of Athens itself. Some 30 Greek polis, however, were getting for a fight at Salamis that they hoped would show Xerxes once and for all that Greece, or at least a large chunk of it, was far from being