Description: Map showing the invasion of the Greek mainland by Xerxes I of Persia. A red line indicates his route. The invasion of Xerxes ended with his defeat at the Battle of Salamis. "Just off the coast of Attica, separated from the mainland by a narrow passage of water lies the island of Salamis. Here lay the Greek fleet, awaiting the Persian attack. To hasten on the attack before dissensions should divide the Greek forces, Themistocles resorted to the following stratagem. He sent a messenger to Xerxes representing that he himself was ready to espouse the Persian cause, and that he himself was ready to espouse the Persian cause, and advised an immediate attack upon the Athenian fleet, which he represented as being in no condition to make any formidable resistance. Xerxes was deceived. He ordered an immediate attack. From a lofty throne upon the shore he himself overlooked the scene and watched the result. The Persian fleet was broken to pieces and two hundred of the ships destroyed. The blow was decisive. Xerxes, fearing that treachery might burn or break the Hellespontine bridges, instantly dispatched a hundred ships to protect them; and then, leaving Mardonius with three hundred ships to protect them; and then, leaving Mardonius with three hundred thousand men to retrieve the disaster of Salamis, and effect, as he promised to do, the conquest of the rest of Greece, the monarch set out on this ignominious retreat to Asia.Ó —Myers, 1896
Source: P. V. N. Myers, A General History for Colleges and High Schools (Boston, MA: Ginn & Company, 1896) 132
Map Credit: Courtesy the private collection of Roy Winkelman. |
|
