Artemisium, Battle of
480 BCE
The Battle of Artemisium, or Artemision is a series of naval engagements over three days during the second Persian invasion of Greece.
The battle takes place simultaneously with the more famous land battle at Thermopylae, in August or September 480 BCE, off the coast of Euboea and is fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, including Sparta, Athens, Corinth and others, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I.The Persian invasion is a delayed response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece, which had been ended by the Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon.
King Xerxes hs amassed a huge army and navy, and set out to conquer all of Greece.
The Athenian general Themistocles proposes that the Allied Greeks block the advance of the Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae and simultaneously block the Persian navy at the Straits of Artemisium.
An Allied naval force of 271 triremes is thus dispatched to await the arrival of the Persians.Approaching Artemisium towards the end of summer, the Persian navy is caught in a gale off the coast of Magnesia and loses around a third of their 1200 ships.
After arriving at Artemisium, the Persians send a detachment of 200 ships around the coast of Euboea in an attempt to trap the Greeks, but these are caught in another storm and shipwrecked.
The main action of the battle takes place after two days of smaller engagements.
The two sides fight all day, with roughly equal losses; however the smaller Allied fleet cannot afford the losses.After the engagement, the Allies receive news of the defeat of the Allied army at Thermopylae.
Since their strategy requires both Thermopylae and Artemisium to be held, and given their losses, the Allies decide to withdraw to Salamis.
The Persians overrun Boeotia and capture the now-evacuated Athens.
However, seeking a decisive victory over the Allied fleet, the Persians are later defeated at the Battle of Salamis in late 480 BCE.
Fearing being trapped in Europe, Xerxes withdraws with much of his army to Asia, leaving Mardonius to complete the conquest of Greece.
The following year, however, sees an Allied army decisively defeat the Persians at the Battle of Plataea, thereby ending the Persian invasion.
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The Middle East: 489–478 BCE
Transition and the Rise of Xerxes
Following the Persian defeat at Marathon in 490 BCE, Darius I is deeply committed to avenging the empire’s setback and begins meticulous preparations for a renewed offensive against the Greek city-states. However, these plans are interrupted by his death in 486 BCE, passing the throne to his son Xerxes I.
Xerxes immediately inherits not only his father’s expansive empire but also his intense ambition to subdue Greece. Early in his reign, Xerxes confronts rebellions in Egypt and Babylonia, swiftly suppressing them to reaffirm Persian authority. His decisive actions solidify his position and secure internal stability, setting the stage for a grand campaign against Greece.
Xerxes continues Darius's extensive infrastructural developments, notably completing construction at Persepolis, where monumental architecture epitomizes Persian grandeur and imperial authority. He invests heavily in military and logistical preparations, amassing resources and manpower on an unprecedented scale.
In 480 BCE, Xerxes leads a vast Persian army into Greece, sparking a series of iconic battles—Thermopylae, Artemisium, and Salamis—that profoundly shape the historical trajectory of both Greece and Persia. The Greek resistance, particularly the naval triumph at Salamis, significantly hinders Xerxes’ ambitions, marking a turning point in the Greco-Persian conflicts.
Despite initial successes, the Persian invasion ultimately fails, forcing Xerxes to retreat in 479 BCE. This defeat not only halts Persian expansion westward but also emboldens Greek confidence, laying the foundation for future Greek dominance in the Mediterranean region. The period thus concludes with Persia maintaining its vast territories, yet forced to reassess its ambitions toward Greece, signaling a critical transition in Middle Eastern geopolitics.
The Cypriot kings during Persian king Xerxes' invasion of Greece in 481-480 BCE, like the Ionian Greeks of coastal Anatolia, …
…contribute infantry and naval contingents to the Achaemenid forces.
The huge Achaemenid army is at first successful, conquering Thessaly; …
…the Persian host then moves south into the Balkan peninsula in August, using the one and a half-mile- (two point four kilometer-) long canal dug through the isthmus of Áyion Óros (Mount Athos) on the orders of Xerxes, who thereby avoids taking his fleet around the treacherous cape.
The Persians sack and burn several sanctuaries in the northeast corner of Phocis, including the temple of the oracle of Apollo at Abae, which was one of those consulted by the Lydian king Croesus.
A force of two hundred and seventy-one ships under Themistocles awaits the Persian navy at Artemisium.
Themistocles, serving under a Spartan admiral (since Corinth and Aegina will not serve under an Athenian), conducts the main fleet to the narrow straits north of Euboea.
At sea, a detachment of two hundred Persian ships attempts to surprise the Greek fleet, but the Greeks, forewarned, engage the main Persian navy in an inconclusive battle.
Rounding Euboea, the Persian ships approach en masse down a coast with few beaches, and that night a typical north Aegean storm destroys the Persian squadron while the Greeks are safely in port, inflicting losses that probably, in the end, prove decisive.
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.
The Greek navy is still badly outnumbered despite the Persian naval losses from the storm.
Fighting in a defensive half-moon formation in the Battle of Artemisium, they suffer as well as inflict heavy losses, and they know that they must retire even before they hear that their small holding force on land has been destroyed at Thermopylae.