The Battle of Salamis: Themistocles Traps the Persian Fleet

In 480 BCE the allied Greek fleet withdrew to Salamis as Xerxes took Athens and the city burned. Peloponnesian commanders wanted to fall back to the Isthmus of Corinth; Themistocles insisted they fight in the narrow channel, where a larger Persian fleet could not deploy its full strength. When argument failed, he threatened to take the Athenian ships to Italy—and sent a deceptive message that closed the exits overnight. Drawing on Herodotus and Aeschylus, this documentary follows the split in the allied council, Sicinnus’s night crossing, Aristides’ confirmation that the Greeks were surrounded, and the battle in which congestion wrecked Persian ships as surely as rams did. The coalition won the day; Xerxes withdrew much of his army and left Mardonius in Thessaly. Athens had lost its city, but not its people, its ships, or the alliances through which it could keep resisting. Subscribe for more carefully researched documentaries on the ancient world. 00:00 The Withdrawal to Salamis 01:28 After Thermopylae 02:44 Athens Taken 05:21 Sicinnus and the Night Encirclement 07:21 No Way Out 09:04 Rams in the Channel 12:15 Retreat Toward Phaleron 14:20 What Salamis Changed