Latest / The History of Greece: Philosophy, Empire, and Endless Reinvention — Fexingo History / Themistocles and the Wooden Walls: Salamis Decoded
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Athens and Sparta, the Peloponnesian War, the rise of Thebes, but there's one moment that really set the stage for all of it — the moment Athens bet everything on its navy. And that's the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE. Luna: The one where Themistocles tricked the Persians into a narrow strait? Lucas: Exactly. But the story starts even before the battle, with the oracle at Delphi. When the Persians were marching south after Thermopylae, the Athenians sent envoys to ask the Pythia what to do. The response was terrifying: 'Zeus grants to Athena a wall of wood, which alone shall remain unconquered.' And then a second line: 'Divine Salamis, you will bring death to women's sons.' Luna: Wait — so the oracle said Salamis would bring death? That sounds like a warning to stay away. Lucas: Exactly. Many Athenians thought the 'wooden wall' meant the Acropolis, which was ringed with wooden palisades. Others thought it meant a fleet. Themistocles argued — brilliantly — that the wooden wall was the ships, and that 'divine Salamis' would bring death to the enemy, not the Greeks. He managed to get the assembly to decree that Athens would be evacuated, women and children sent to Troezen and Salamis, and the men would fight at sea. Luna: That must have been an incredibly hard sell. Abandon your city, your homes, your temples, and trust the sea? Lucas: Absolutely. And it wasn't just the Athenians. The Greek alliance was shaky. The Peloponnesians wanted to fall back to the Isthmus of Corinth, build a wall there, and fight on land. Themistocles knew that if the fleet dispersed, the Persians would pick them off one by one. So he pulled a dirty trick. He sent a trusted slave, Sicinnus, to the Persian camp with a fake message: 'Themistocles is secretly on your side. The Greeks are about to flee. If you attack now, you can catch them.' Luna: So he baited Xerxes into engaging in the strait. Lucas: Yes. Xerxes took the bait. He sent his Egyptian squadron to block the western exit of the strait, and his main fleet sailed in during the night. By dawn, the Greeks — who had been arguing about whether to stay — found themselves surrounded. There was no choice but to fight. And the narrow waters of the strait neutralized the Persians' numerical advantage. Their ships couldn't maneuver. They had about 1,200 vessels, the Greeks maybe 370. But in those tight spaces, it was a brawl. Luna: And the Greek triremes were heavier, right? Built for ramming? Lucas: Exactly. Triremes were designed to ram with a bronze-clad prow. But more importantly, the Greek crews were more experienced, and they fought with a cohesion the Persians lacked. The Persians had many contingents from subject peoples — Phoenicians, Egyptians, Cilicians, Ionians — and they didn't trust each other. The battle started with a collision. The Athenian commander on the right wing, a guy named Ameinias, rammed a Phoenician ship. And then it was chaos. Luna: I've read that the Persians' own ships got in each other's way, that the rear ranks pushed forward and caused pileups. Lucas: Exactly what Herodotus describes. The Persian ships in the rear, trying to get into the fight, crashed into their own front line. And then something remarkable happened. The Greek forces, instead of giving way, advanced. The Athenians under Themistocles, the Aeginetans under Polycritus, the Corinthians under Adeimantus — they pressed forward. But Adeimantus almost fled. According to Herodotus, just as the Corinthians were about to sail away, a mysterious ship — thought to be a divine apparition — hailed them and said the Greeks were winning. They turned back. Luna: Wait — that sounds like a convenient story to cover for a retreat. Lucas: It could be. The Corinthians later claimed they fought bravely, and Herodotus reports both versions. But what's not disputed is the key moment: the Persian admiral Ariabignes, brother of Xerxes, died early in the battle. His ship was rammed by the Athenians, and he drowned. That took the heart out of the Persian command. Xerxes, watching from a throne on the shore near Mount Aigaleos, saw his fleet disintegrate. Luna: And Artemisia? The Carian queen who fought for Xerxes? I've heard she escaped by ramming an ally. Lucas: That's the story. Artemisia commanded five ships and was one of Xerxes' most trusted advisors. At one point, her ship was being chased by an Athenian trireme. To escape, she rammed a Persian ship — a Calyndian vessel — and sank it. The Athenian captain thought she was a Greek ally and broke off pursuit. Xerxes supposedly said, 'My men have become women, my women men.' Though Herodotus isn't sure he actually said that. Luna: Brutal. But very clever. Lucas: The battle ended by late afternoon. The Greeks had sunk about 200 Persian ships, losing only 40 of their own. The survivors fled to Phaleron. Xerxes, fearing the Greeks might sail to the Hellespont and destroy his bridge, left for Asia with most of his army. He left Mardonius with the elite troops to try again the next year — but that ended at Plataea. Salamis was the turning point. And it cemented Themistocles as the savior of Greece. Luna: Quick honest thing — a handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds making this many of these. We don't run ads, so it's just people who enjoy the show, keeping it alive. Lucas: Yeah, it's been that way since the beginning. And it means we can spend time on stories like this — the real nuts and bolts of what happened, not just the famous names. So, back to Themistocles — after Salamis, his star rose, but it didn't last. Luna: Didn't he get ostracized eventually? Lucas: Yes. In the 470s, Themistocles was ostracized — sent into exile for ten years. Then the Spartans accused him of conspiring with the Persians, and he was forced to flee. He ended up at the court of Artaxerxes, Xerxes' son, and was given a governorship in Asia Minor. He died there, still speaking Greek, still a citizen of nowhere. Luna: A tragic end for the man who saved Greece. Lucas: It is. But his legacy is the Athenian navy — the fleet that became the foundation of the Delian League, and eventually the Athenian Empire. Without Salamis, there would have been no Golden Age. So maybe the wooden wall really was the ships.