The naval battle of Salamis on September 22, 480 BC, is one of the most important historical events of Western civilization and by extension of humanity. If the Greeks lost in Salamis, today’s world would be different. In 480 BC after the overwhelming defeat of the Persians began the “golden age” or otherwise the “glorious fifty years”, 480-430 BC. . The Greeks finished the “Greek miracle” and gave the “lights” to humanity. Everything we know today was done and said without exaggeration in the “golden age”.
After the defeat of the Persians in Salamis, the Greeks honored the great leaders of the victory and gave awards to the Athenians and the Aeginians. They also had to name and honor the most important military leader who contributed to the victory. Each general proposed himself and as a second choice proposed Themistocles. Eventually everyone agreed that Themistocles was the most important general. Themistocles is the most important soldier of mankind, because with his plans for ten years he convinced the Athenians, not so clearly να, to prepare properly for the great attack that would come. He designed and implemented the devastation of an empire and saved humanity from barbarism and darkness. Without Themistocles in 480 BC (and Thales earlier) there would be no Greek Miracle and humanity would be in darkness today.
After the victory of the Athenians in Marathon in 490 BC, Themistocles realized that the Persians did not leave forever, but they would come back stronger and more powerful to subdue Greece as well. A diligent orator persuaded the Athenians not to share the money from the Lavrio deposits, as was customary until then, but to build warships the famous Athenian triremes, in very large numbers by the measures of that time, something like modern anti-missile missiles of our time that the Persians did not have.
Themistocles knew very well the danger from the East and in order to achieve his goals, which were first the proper preparation, he used every means available, even if it was not clean, as he spoke of danger from the Aeginians who were very close to each other and became believed by the Athenians and not for the real danger of the Persians who were far away and the Athenians did not want to listen.
Cleisthenes in 507 BC established the democratic state in Athens with a series of administrative measures and democratic organization of society into tribes, which included all the citizens aristocrats and not from different parts of Athens (cleverly broke the aristocracy and localism).
Along with the parliamentary lot, where any citizen could easily become a member of parliament, Cleisthenes introduced ostracism to protect the democratic state, from any citizen who, if he gained significant political power and enforcement, could inevitably influence his fellow citizens.
Cleisthenes paved the way for Themistocles who, although not from aristocrats, his mother was not Athenian, and according to the old system had no access to power, to participate in the commons of the state, to become the leader of the democrats and soon to became the beginning in 493 BC.
Chief Themistocles soon succeeded in achieving his goal, which was to build war triremes for the Persians, cleverly build the long walls of Athens mocking the Spartans and guarding Athens from every enemy, and at the same time strengthen the democratic state. after the sailors of the warships introduced measures, let them not be Athenians, to be able to vote in the church of the municipality. This measure significantly strengthened Themistocles who “achieved two triangles with one shot”, for the obvious reason that the sailors voted for Themistocles only because of what he had offered them.
When the whole of Persia, the enslaved peoples of Persia and the emperor Xerxes with 1,207 warships arrived at the gates, the danger was now obvious to us. The Nightmare had betrayed Leonidas at Thermopylae. Themistocles persuaded the Athenians to leave Athens, with every sacrifice and favorable oracles of the oracle of Delphi, which he interpreted according to his plans.
At the conference of the Greek generals he also had to convince the other generals and the Spartans who had the undisputed military superiority among the Greeks, the naval battle to take place in the straits of Salamis, something he had planned for 10 years, and not in Corinth or on the high seas they proposed the other generals. The supremacy of the Greeks was the flexibility of the triremes and as a consequence the easy navigation of the enemy ships in a narrow place like Salamis, this was the plan of Themistocles.
Themistocles when in the council of the Greeks “Things got bad for the generals,” he told the Corinthian general, and those who start late do not succeed in the Spartan admiral Evridiadis the famous “fight, but do not listen”. In the meantime, he had been burned by Xerxes, the Athenians have the triremes as their homeland and they will move to lower Italy.
The Greeks lined up in Salamis and waited for the enemy. Themistocles, in order not to miss the opportunity, fearing that the Spartans and the other generals, who saw Athens burning and Xerxes’ fleet in Faliro changing their minds, made sure that we would finish ordering at Xerxes with the educator of Sikinos’s children , who knew the Persian language, that the Greeks intended to leave Salamis soon to escape and it would be an opportunity for the Persians to attack immediately and finish them all together.
The Persian generals with 1,207 ships against about 366 Greeks were sure of the Greek catastrophe and began the attack that Themistocles had been waiting for 10 years. From the Greek ships resounded the paean “Either children of Greeks or, liberate homeland ‘, liberate children, women, gods and fathers, case of ancestors, now in favor of all struggles”.
The naval battle of Salamis ended with the destruction and pursuit of the Persian fleet, 200 Persian ships were destroyed. Xerxes immediately left for Persia defeated by the most important soldier in history Themistocles, who with clever planning of a decade and with excellent execution of his plans managed to defeat a great power in Salamis.
Themistocles designed the naval hegemony of Athens with the creation of the Alliance of Delos.
Themistocles was finally exiled in 471 BC. by his aristocratic political opponents and persecuted by the Spartans and the Athenians throughout Greece.
“The Spartans, either out of envy because he was glorified in Salamis, or out of revenge because he deceived them and built walls against their will in Athens, or to alleviate the shame brought to Sparta by the betrayal of their general Pausanias, about whom they said that he had allied with the Persians, or out of sincerity for the good of the Greeks, they accused Themistocles of being in collusion with Pausanias. the Persians.
Themistocles chose to avoid the court and the death that the Spartans set for Pausanias, he fled to Persia and died, due to illness or suicide according to tradition, of the Persian satrap in Magnesia.
His bones were secretly transported to Piraeus and finally the Athenians made a grave to thank him for his services in Athens and Greece.
Politicians are ultimately judged by the results, which we also sometimes have by chance or without the influence of anyone. But most of the time, planning also plays a key role, something that distinguishes Themistocles today from military schools around the world, and Themistocles knew how to masterfully plan the future of humanity and also masterfully execute his plans.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
According to historians, if the Persians had won in Salamis, the development of Greece would have stopped, and consequently Western civilization would not be what it is today. For this reason, the naval battle of Salamis is considered one of the most important battles in human history. [5]
Themistocles
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Battle of Salamis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Themistocles: The greatest genius of antiquity
Christos Barbagiannidis writes
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If Themistocles did not exist and if he did not plan the catastrophe of the Persians for ten years, we certainly would not have the Parthenon today !!! Nor would Western civilization be as we know it today.
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