The Battle of Salamis: The Debates Before Battle

Question 1

What was the Greek position before Salamis? (2)

Answer 1

• The Peloponnesians had retreated to defend the Isthmus of Corinth, abandoning central Greece and Athens to the Persians
• The other Greeks had followed suit, moving their navy to the straits of Salamis

Question 2

What was the Persian position before Salamis? (3)

Answer 2

• Xerxes had moved through Boeotia and Attica, overrunning the cities who had not yet surrendered
• He finally captured Athens, burning its sacred temples and occupying the Acropolis after killing the priests
• He then prepared for a further incursion into the Peloponnese to crush the last remaining Greeks

Question 3

According to Herodotus, what did the Greek commanders do on the eve of the battle at Salamis? What did they centre on?

Answer 3

• They held a series of war councils

- On the question of whether to keep the navy at Salamis or move it closer to the fortified Isthmus

Question 4

What did Xerxes’ pre-Salamis war councils concern?

Answer 4

• The question of whether engaging the Greeks at sea would be a viable tactic

Question 5

Though Herodotus provides a detailed account at the debates before Salamis on the eve of battle, there are two issues with the reliability of these passages. What are they?

Answer 5

• His informants - those he would have interviewed to gain his information would at the time only have been young soldiers who could not have known exactly what was said at the generals’ meetings
• He also altogether presents the Peloponnesians, particularly the Corinthians, as either cowardly, foolish, or both