The Battle of Salamis: The Debates Before Battle

Movements:

The Greeks:

• 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

The Persians:

• 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

War Councils:

The Greeks:

• According to Herodotus, the Greek commanders held a series of war councils on the eve of the battle
• The councils centred on the question of whether to keep the navy at Salamis or move it closer to the fortified Isthmus

The Persians:

• On the other side, Xerxes too held council with his generals on their next plan of action
• Their council centred on the question of whether engaging the Greeks at sea would be a viable tactic

Bias in Herodotus:

Though Herodotus provides a detailed account of the debates on the eve of battle, there are issues with the reliability of these passages

• 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