History’s Greatest Naval Battles, Ep.1: Salamis

2021-03-22

September 480 BC. Up to 500,000 Persians were rampaging through Greece, having overwhelmed Leonidas and his Spartans at Thermopylae the month before. Several major cities had been taken and destroyed, including - unthinkably - Athens. The Greeks had just one chance left to save southern Greece. Hold the Isthmus of Corinth where the narrow neck of land connecting the Peloponnese offered the only hope of resisting the Persian horde. But to do this, the Greek fleets had to stop the Persians simply...

September 480 BC. Up to 500,000 Persians were rampaging through Greece, having overwhelmed Leonidas and his Spartans at Thermopylae the month before.

Several major cities had been taken and destroyed, including - unthinkably - Athens.

The Greeks had just one chance left to save southern Greece. Hold the Isthmus of Corinth where the narrow neck of land connecting the Peloponnese offered the only hope of resisting the Persian horde.

But to do this, the Greek fleets had to stop the Persians simply sailing around them. Less than 400 Greek triremes met 800 Persian ships at Salamis, in perhaps the most history-changing naval battle of all time. The future of Western Civilisation as we know it would hang on its outcome.

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