Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
Battle of Salamis
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
===Achemenid fleet=== [[File:Kybernis north BM B287.jpg|thumb|The [[Lycia]]n dynast [[Kybernis]] (520-480 BCE) led 50 Lycian ships in the Achaemenid fleet.]] [[File:Meeting of the Ionian fleet and the Persian army.jpg|thumb|The Ionian fleet, here seen joining with Persian forces at the [[Bosphorus]] in preparation of the [[European Scythian campaign of Darius I]] in 513 BC, was part of the Achaemenid fleet at Salamis. 19th century illustration.]] According to Herodotus, the Persian fleet initially numbered 1,207 triremes.<ref name = VII89>Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.89.1 VII, 89]</ref> However, by his reckoning they lost approximately a third of these ships in a storm off the coast of [[Magnesia (regional unit)|Magnesia]],<ref>Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.188 VII, 188]</ref> 200 more in a storm off the coast of Euboea,<ref name = VIII14>Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126;query=chapter%3D%231317;layout=;loc=8.13.1 VIII, 14]</ref> and at least 50 ships to Allied action at the Battle of Artemisium.<ref name = VIII14/><ref name = VIII11>Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126;query=chapter%3D%231314;layout=;loc=8.10.1 VIII, 11]</ref> Herodotus claims that these losses were replaced in full,<ref name = VIII66>Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126;query=chapter%3D%231372;layout=;loc=8.65.1 VIII, 60]</ref> but only mentions 120 ships from the Greeks of Thrace and nearby islands as reinforcements.<ref name = VII185>Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.185.1 VII, 185]</ref> [[Aeschylus]], who fought at Salamis, also claims that he faced 1,207 warships there, of which 207 were "fast ships".<ref>Aeschylus, ''The Persians''</ref> [[Diodorus Siculus|Diodorus]]<ref>Diodorus Siculus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0084&layout=&loc=11.3 XI, 3]</ref> and [[Lysias]]<ref>Lysias II, 27</ref> independently claim there were 1,200 ships in the Persian fleet assembled at Doriskos in the spring of 480 BC. The number of 1,207 (for the outset only) is also given by [[Ephorus]],<ref>Ephorus, Universal History</ref> while his teacher [[Isocrates]] claims there were 1,300 at Doriskos and 1,200 at Salamis.<ref>Isocrates, Oration VII, 49</ref><ref>Isocrates, Oration IV, 93</ref> Ctesias gives another number, 1,000 ships,<ref name = ctes>Ctesias, [https://www.livius.org/ct-cz/ctesias/photius_persica2.html Persica] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201009092541/https://www.livius.org/ct-cz/ctesias/photius_persica2.html |date=2020-10-09 }} (from Photius's Epitome)</ref> while [[Plato]], speaking in general terms refers to 1,000 ships and more.<ref>Plato, ''Laws'' III, 699</ref> Herodotus gives a precise list of the ships of the various nations that composed the Achaemenid fleet:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Romm |first1=James |title=Histories |date=2014 |publisher=Hackett Publishing |isbn=9781624661150 |page=381 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JK7xAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA381 |language=en}}</ref> {| class="wikitable" |- !|Nation!!Number <br /> of ships|!!Nation!!Number <br /> of ships|!!Nation!!Number <br /> of ships |- | [[Phoenicia]] || 300 || [[Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt|Egypt]] || 200 || [[Cyprus]] || 150 |- | [[Cilicia]] || 100 || [[Ionia]] || 100 || [[Hellespontine Phrygia]] || 100 |- | [[Caria]] || 70 || [[Aeolis|Aeolia]] || 60 || [[Lycia]] || 50 |- | [[Pamphylia]] || 30 ||[[Dorians|Doria]] || 30 || [[Cyclades]] || 17 |- | '''Total'''||'''1207 ''' || || || || |} The number 1,207 appears very early in the historical record (472 BC), and the Greeks appear to have genuinely believed they faced that many ships. Because of the consistency in the ancient sources, some modern historians are inclined to accept 1,207 as the size of the initial Persian fleet;<ref>Köster (1934)</ref><ref>Holland, p.394</ref><ref name = L93>Lazenby, pp.93–94</ref> others reject this number, with 1,207 being seen as more of a reference to the combined Greek fleet in the [[Iliad]], and generally claim that the Persians could have launched no more than around 600 warships into the Aegean.<ref name = L93/><ref>Green, p.61</ref><ref>Burn, p.331</ref> However, very few appear to accept that there were this many ships at Salamis: most favour a number in the range 600–800.<ref name="Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους 1971">Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους 1971</ref><ref name="Demetrius, 1998">Demetrius, 1998</ref><ref name="Lazenby p.174">Lazenby p.174</ref> This is also the range given by adding the approximate number of Persian ships after Artemisium (~550) to the reinforcements (120) quantified by Herodotus.<ref name = VII185/>
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
Battle of Salamis
(section)
Add topic