Greek ships under Themistocles, with Eurybiades in overall command, defeat the Persian fleet in the narrows between Salamis and the Attic coast. Xerxes watches from Mount Aigaleo.
The exact day is not fixed. Ancient calendars and modern reconstructions put the battle somewhere between about 22 and 29 September 480 BC. Many “on this day” lists keep the 22nd.
Themistocles draws the larger Persian force into waters too tight for it to use its numbers. Greek triremes ram and board in the strait. Persia loses far more ships than the Greeks. Xerxes postpones a further land push. Plataea follows the next year.
Commentators often say a Persian win would have changed the path of the Greek city-states and, with them, later Europe. That is an argument, not a measurable fact.
Also on 22 September
- 1912: The submarine Delfin, the Greek navy’s first, arrives at the naval station.
- 1971: The funeral of poet George Seferis turns into a public protest against the junta.
- 1996: Greece holds a general election. PASOK finishes first with 41.4% and stays in government; New Democracy takes 38.1%.
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