Xerxes I

A military coalition of Greek city-states led by Sparta and known as the Peloponnesian League, also called the Spartan Alliance, is a major force in Greek affairs, forming the nucleus of resistance to the Persian invasions.

League policy, usually decisions on questions of war, peace, or alliance, is determined by federal congresses, summoned by the Spartans when they think fit; each member state has one vote.

A general Greek league against Persia is formed in 481.

Quarrels like that between Athens and Aegina must be set aside and help sought from distant or colonial Greeks such as the Cretans, Syracusans, and Corcyrans, whose extraordinarily large fleet of sixty ships (possibly developed against Adriatic piracy but also—surely—against Corinth) will be a prime asset.

Corcyra, however, waits on events, and Crete stays out altogether, while Syracuse and Sicily, now under the tyranny of Gelo, generally have barbarian enemies of their own to cope with, the Carthaginians.

Command of the army is given to Sparta, …

…that of the navy to Athens.

The combined Greek fleet, which, even without western Greek help, numbers about three hundred and fifty vessels, is thus only about one-third the size of the Persian fleet.

Greek unity, though impressive, is not complete; …

…conspicuous among the “Medizers” is Thebes, whose hostility to Athens over mutual interest in the Plataea district leads to Theban collaboration with Persia, while …

…the neutrality maintained by Argos amounts, in Herodotus's view at least, to Medism.

The strategic and narrow pass of Thermopylae lies between Mount Oeta and the Gulf of Malia's southern shore on the route from Thessaly to Locris.

Its name, meaning “hot gates,” is derived from its hot sulfur springs.

The Spartans have sent their king Leonidas to Thermopylae with a force of four thousand Peloponnesians, including three hundred full Spartan citizens and perhaps a helot contingent as well.

Mycenae, now an independent Dorian city-state, dispatches a contingent to help the Spartans.

Some three thousand central Greeks, including Boeotians from Thespiae and Thebes, join the Peloponnesians.

Leonidas surely knows that the Greeks cannot hold the pass indefinitely, but he also knows that an oracle has said that Sparta will be devastated unless one of its kings is killed.

For three days, Leonidas withstands attacks by the Persians.

However, on the second night, a Greek traitor guides the best Persian troops around the pass behind the Greek army.

Leonidas then orders most of his Peloponnesian and central Greek troops to retreat to the safety of the south, and he and his three hundred Spartans, together with their helots, and eleven hundred Thespian and Theban Boeotians, fight to the last man.

Although the Persians win at Thermopylae, they suffer considerable losses in the battle.

This episode makes a deep impression on the Greek imagination and gives rise to the legend that Spartans never surrender.

Sparta's single-minded dedication to rule by a militarized oligarchy precludes any hope of a political unification of classical Greece, but it performs a great service by its heroic stand at Thermopylae and its subsequent leadership in the Greco-Persian wars.

One hope remains for the beleaguered Greeks.

Themistocles had persuaded the Athenians to evacuate women and children to the Peloponnese and, in the last resort, to retire to Salamis.

If the Persians attack this island citadel, a battle in the narrow sound might yet give a chance to the Greeks, with their armored marines and heavier ships, against the better sailing ships commanded by the Persians.

Persuading the Peloponnesians to join the Athenian fleet, Themistocles then lures Xerxes by a false message, suggesting that he himself is ready to change sides, into ordering an all-out attack on September 29, 480 BCE.

The fleets advance in lines and attempt to cripple their opponents with the rams mounted on their prows; sailors use grappling hooks to board enemy vessels.

Aeschylus fights at Salamis, as does Aristides, recalled to Athens in the face of the invasion, who makes significant contributions to the battle.

The island of Aegina sides with Athens, setting aside the longstanding enmity between the two powers.

The Greeks, outnumbered in their ships by a factor of two to one, envelop the head of the Phoenician column as it emerges from the narrowest part of the strait and destroy it; and though most of the other Asian contingents in the rear escape, Xerxes has lost for good the command of the sea.

Queen Artemisia, the native tyrant of Halicarnassus in Caria and of the nearby island of Cos, shares in the Persian defeat at Salamis, despite her able command of five ships.

Herodotus claims that Xerxes is acting on Artemisia's advice when he decides to retreat from Greece at once rather than to risk another engagement.

Deprived of his seaborne supplies, Xerxes retreats hastily to Persia with about half his forces, leaving Mardonius in command of a land army to subdue Greece.