Battle of Salamis: Part 1
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Battle of Salamis: Part 1:
September, 480 BC / -1 DL
Salamis battle map
Cikudes son of was all sore and seasick from his ships's daily exercises when he felt the earthquake and wondered loudly, with the rest of the crew, whom the omen was for. He was sore and sick because he was still new to the sea. His family was mostly farmers, and he had grown up farming on his family farm. He and his younger brother Dion had decided when the war broke out that they had had enough of farming, and would go as far as they could, from the land, far out to sea. And so, they had responded when Themistocles asked for sailors for his fleet.
His family had, like most Athenians, since taken refuge in the city of Troezen. That was so the city could man the most ships as possible without needing to keep a home defense. The Athenian Navy's 180 ships made up most of the 300-strong Allied Greek Navy. They had been told by their leaders that they faced roughly 1200 ships, four times their numbers. They had already done fine against the vast Persian Fleet, despite the 4:1 disadvantage, though, at Artemisium. Their land buddies had lost one, at a pass near Thermopylae, but a famous loss that had lost a huge proportion of enemy Persians and made them delay four days.
If on the sea the odds were vast - 4:1, it was far worse on land. The Greeks had a mere few tens of thousands (40000?) facing, Greek contemporaries say, millions. There's alot of controversy about the Persian Army's actual size, of course, because it might well've overwhelmed the Greek scouts' ability to count, and some authors have liked to exxagerate a tad. but it must've also outnumbered the land forces even worse, or literally half of Greece would not have surrendered before the Persian Army even arrived, given the Persian loss at the last land battle where they also outnumbered the Greeks, Marathon. Nor would the Greeks have chosen to face them on the sea instead of land, given Marathon.
His trireme was pulled up on a beach with the rest of the Greek Fleet. That beach was in the northwestern part of the Strait of Salamis, in the middle right of the above picture. The Athenian part of the fleet was on the north side. The Athenian government had moved to Salamis to be exactly as safe as the Greek Fleet.
Their fleet was admiralled by a Spartan named Eurybiades, even though Athens had the most ships there. He did also get some advice from contingent commanders from various city states, including Athens' own Themistocles, whom Athens and the Popular Party he was part of loved and had every confidence in. Athens might not have been trusted to run the fleet because they were total newbs to the sea, and had no history of important fleet victories until, well, this very battle. Although, BIG, multi-hundred, fleet battles were a novelty to everybody, as far as we know; preceding battles involved less than a hundred triremes, and had, until recently, among the Greeks, been fought without rams, as though they were land battles happening to be fought on the sea.
Cikudes' job, like virtually all their crew except the Trierarch (captain)'s, steersmen, and some Marines, was mostly rowing. They had sails, but it was considered a secondary addition to rowing, and too unreliable for battle. He had also been trained in fighting, both on land and on the sea, but not much. Alot of the sea training had been done on the way to the fleet meeting
His fellow crew walked to the market Salamis and his fellow Athenians had set up for lunch. They ran across two Corinthian crews that were looking angry.
"Cor-inth! Cor-inth! Why not Cor-inth? Why not Cor-inth?" they yelled, in rhythm. The Greek Army was assembled there, because Corinth is an isthmus, meaning it narrows alot. A narrow spot is good in a battle, especially against big odds like the Greeks faced. The Corinthians wanted to unify the land and sea forces in that isthmus good for the land troops, no doubt doubly because it was at their city."
"Themistocles is right," said his trierarch, Alcisthenes, in a sure voice. "Salamis has the same kind of advantage as your Corinth, except on the sea, where it matters to us. Stationing ourselves here, to one side of the Strait here, means the Persians will face the same disadvantage as they will at Corinth and did at Thermopylae at first. And, if the Persian Fleet is defeated, most of the land army will have to go home because it cannot be supplied. You are seamen as much as we are; you know he's right in your head, even if your gut's having some trouble with it being your own city at stake.
"That's only if the Persian Fleet actually decides to stick its head into a trap. The Persian Army had no choice at Thermopylae and has no choice at Corinth, either. And, how long have we been waiting without him taking the bait?"
"All wars take patience to win rather than lose stupidly," Alcisthenes answered. "Though, sometimes it is hard to wait, and this is one of those times, true."
They ate from the many stalls standing in a market near the shore in Salamis.
Much later, a little after four hours after noon, a loud sound of rowing started in the background; speculation started on whom it was, a fleet or a messenger. Then it got too loud to be anything but what they were hoping for and fearing: the Persian Fleet, come to accept battle on their terms.
The Persian Fleet entered arrayed in three lines, all next to each other. The first triremes to enter had blue and red flags. There was muttering that that was the Phoenicians. They were the most famous mariners in the Med then. The idea of facing them in battle at huge odds in their favor did nothing for his nerves. They followed the line of the Strait of Salamis, crawling around northwestwardish from the far end.
By dinnertime, just before sunset, the sea was covered with Persian triremes. He felt even more nervous. He wondered if Themistocles could see the same sight, and how he felt about it. Part of him even wondered if Themistocles was running away or getting ready to give up.
Then the fleet had dinner, right after a messenger in Spartan Naval uniform arrived to summon Trierarch Alcisthenes to a Fleet meeting with the admirals.
When Alcisthenes returned, he summoned the ship's crew, and told them battle would probably be the next day, and to get as much sleep as possible. He told them there'd be a watch posted in case the Persians engaged foolishly at night. Cikudes tried hard to sleep, but was nervous; ongoing rowing noises didn't help; in the end, he only catnapped.
The next morning, he was awakened roughly with the rest of the fleet, at the start of dawn. He awoke, slowly, as usual, and ate breakfast nervously. Then, they went to listen to their Admiral Themistocles, also a the dominant Athenian politician of his day. Cikudes couldn't see much of him, but had no problem hearing him; like all politicians of his day, he was used to talking to crowds without mics.
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"I call on you this day to think of the very best that human nature and fortune, and the very worst. And, I challenge you this day to take your destiny in your very own hands this day and choose the best for your own selves." Then he offered sacrifices to the gods, and they returned to their ships.
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His crew, like all the rest of the entire crews of the Allied Greek Fleet, were hurrying to put out from land in the early gloom. When his reached their trireme
Grace, a handful scrambled on board to stabilize it, handle lines, and get the ship ready to go. Once the crew were counted off and the ship ready, Cikudes and most of the crew pushed their ship off in seat order. Once
Grace was well in the water, they then got on in that order, marines first, as the steersmen held it, and then followed to their steering posts. Cikudes, meanwhile, had his oars ready for the order to start rowing he knew must come soon.
He could see little, because, like most his fellow greenhorns, he was on the bottom of the three rowing decks, called the thalamite deck. Which deck you rowed on was mostly given by seniority, and he had exactly none of that. He could only see a tiny bit of the port side through the rowing frame and oarhole. That means he could only see a bit of the land they were leaving.
Cikudes could hear plenty, though - a thousand and a half ships rowing, chanting, and trumpeting and and throwing weapons at each other all makes a pretty loud noise.
First started the Greek ritual song, their Paean, sung into battle, among other occasions.
"ROW, SLOWLY", he heard his trierarch shout. His crew started rowing. A trumpet sounded, loudly. It was just full dawn outside his porthole, and he could now solidly see the beach outside.
"ROW FAST, TURN STARBOARD, AND FOLLOW THE LINE!" Grace' trierarch projected. "Be careful to follow the fleet with discipline and good line order," he warned.
A few minutes later, Cikudes heard
Grace trierarch Alcisthenes say, loudly, "The admiral has chosen Athenians to face the Phoenicians, the Persian best. He must think highly of us."
"Those Persian duffers can't even stay in line. Maybe we can win this if they can't even be disciplined", he heard, from above him, awhile later. Naval battles depended on staying in disciplined lines from their start for millenia, right until the aircraft carrier . And even today, discipline matters alot. Undisciplined fleets can, even today, be more easily be picked off as individual ships rather than disciplined fleets, same as formations on land.
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