Ariadne: Resources for Athenaze

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Chapter15
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The Battle of Salamis

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The primary warship of the Athenians was the trireme, an oared sailing ship with three banks of oars on each side. The Trireme Trust, a joint Greek-British venture to reconstruct an ancient trireme, has many pictures of triremes. Please scroll down to see them.
Nine days after the Spartans' stand at Thermopylae, the Persian army marched down to Athens and attacked the Acropolis in Athens. The defenders fought by rolling rocks down, but the Persians found a precipitous path and snuck up to the the top. There they slaughtered those who did not jump off the cliffs, commit suicide by leaping from the top of hill. Then they took vengeance for the destruction of Sardis by burning the Parthenon and destroying the other shrines and votive gifts there.
At the same time, the Persian navy sailed from Artemesion around Attica to Athens. The Greek fleet had been warned and withdrew into the narrow strait between Salamis and Piraeus. Here, if you compare this picture of Salamis from the east with Athenaze, page 258, you can see the promontory Cynosura and the little island Psyttaleia.

When the Greek sailors saw the Acropolis in flames, they were ready to desert. But Themistocles persuaded them that they should not pass up this chance to fight the Persians when the location gave them such an advantage. He sent a trusted slave to Xerxes to tell him that the Greeks were squabbling, and if he attacked soon, he would win a great victory. Xerxes believed the ruse and watched the battle from this hill (Mount Aegaleos) on Salamis.
When the Greeks had not begun to leave the harbor, the Persians rowed into the narrow strait between the island and the mainland. The Greeks pulled back to lure them. As more and more Persian ships entered, they had no where to maneuver. The Greeks rammed the taller ships and chaos ensued.

The primary warship of the Athenians was the trireme, an oared sailing ship with three banks of oars on each side. The Trireme Trust, a joint Greek-British venture to reconstruct an ancient trireme, has many pictures of triremes.