Battle of Salamis

Battle context

The Battle of Salamis was a naval engagement fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by Themistocles and the Spartan commander Eurybiades, and the fleet of the Achaemenid Empire under Xerxes I. The Greek alliance, though outnumbered, secured a victory over the Persian fleet, which fielded a force recorded at 1,207 vessels and included commanders such as Artemisia I of Caria, Ariabignes, Achaemenes, Tetramnestos, and Damasithymos. The Persian defeat at Salamis was a decisive moment in the Second Persian invasion of Greece, checking Achaemenid naval power and undermining Xerxes' capacity to sustain operations in the Greek theater. By defeating the larger Persian fleet, the Greek alliance preserved its ability to contest control of the Aegean and denied Xerxes the naval supremacy that would have been necessary to consolidate an occupation of Greece.