Battle of Artemision

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Battle of Artemision
Part of: Persian Wars
Places of the battle of Thermopylae and Artemision
Places of the battle of Thermopylae and Artemision
date August 480 BC Chr.
place Mediterranean at Cape Artemision
output Tie, Greek withdrawal
Parties to the conflict

Persian Empire

Greek city-states

Commander

Artemisia I.
Achaimenes

Eurybiadas of Sparta
Themistocles of Athens
Adeimantus of Corinth

Troop strength
1200 ships 324 ships
losses

~ 200
(additional 350 due to storm)

~ 150

The Battle of Artemision (also Sea Battle of Cape Artemision ) took place in August 480 BC. At the same time as the battle of Thermopylae , during the Persian Wars , at Cape Artemision on the Greek island of Evia , between the Persian and a Greek fleet. It is considered to be one of the first well-known sea battles.

Starting position

Due to the Persian march of Xerxes I , Greece , with a numerically far inferior land army, sometimes disagreed on strategy , faced a difficult task. The decision in favor of Greece could only be made at sea, as Themistocles had built up a strong fleet and developed a strategy for naval defense.

Persian force

As with the first Persian campaign, the Persian army took the land route over the Hellespont ; a naval fleet consisting of 1200 ships followed. According to the histories of Herodotus , it is said to have been around 180,000 sailors and marines. The fleet consisted partly of new triremes , the rest of penteconters . The majority came from the following countries:

origin Ships origin Ships origin Ships
 Phenicia   300  Egypt   200  Cyprus   150
 Cilicia  100  Ionia  100  Hellespont  100
 Caria  70  Aeolia  60  Lycia  50

Greek force

The Greek fleet led by Themistocles consisted of 324 ships, most of which were Trieres and were provided by the following cities:

origin Ships origin Ships origin Ships
 Athens   180  Corinth   40  Megara   20th
 Chalkis  20th  Aegina  18th  Sicyon  12
 Sparta  10  Epidaurus  8th  Eretria  7th

The naval battle

The Persian fleet, which during the Anmarsches at the Macedonian -oriented coast came before Magnesia in a severe summer storm. Around a third of the 1200 ships in the fleet went down.

course

While the Spartans under Leonidas took up positions at the Thermopylae Pass, the Greek fleet marched on the Strait of Artemision to cover the land army. In order to prevent the numerically overwhelming Persian fleet from developing to the full, the Greeks positioned themselves in a strait that was covered by the mainland to the west and the island of Evia to the east . The Persians then tried to bypass the island of Evia with a bypass squadron consisting of 200 ships and to attack the Greeks from two sides. The Greeks in turn sent a sub-squadron of 53 ships to meet them. The Persian bypass squadron was almost completely destroyed by a storm. The same storm also capsized several dozen ships in the main Persian fleet as they entered the strait. The Greeks then launched a successful advance and were able to take control of several scattered ships.

After two days, the Persians attacked again. For this main battle, the 53 ships sent by the Greeks against the Persian bypass squadron returned in time and provided important support during the heavy fighting. Although the Greeks were able to maintain the battlefield, they had to retreat after the defeat at the Battle of Thermopylae .

output

The battle ended in a draw. Although the subsequent withdrawal of the Greeks meant that large parts of Greece were exposed to the Persians and Athens was evacuated on the advice of Themistocles , this eventually enabled the Greek victory in the decisive naval battle of Salamis that took place the following month .

reception

While Herodotus is usually followed by the statement that the Persian fleet was doubly superior in number to the Greeks, Hans Delbrück refers to the contradiction that the Persians, despite this stated superiority, did not succeed in defeating the Greek fleet and then the Greeks at Thermopylae to fall in the back. There is an attempt to clarify this fact with the fact that the Persian ships did not understand how to exploit their advantage due to their size and poorly trained crews. However, it is known that the Persian seamen were Greek and Phoenician mercenaries who were considered to be the finest seamen and shipbuilders in the world at the time. Delbrück concludes from this that the fleets must have been equal in number. Herodotus reports that the Greeks expected further support, but that it was too far away to intervene in Artemision. This is another indication that the Greeks had every reason to distance themselves from the enemy and postpone the decision to the next battle. Some historians believe that the Persians did not send more than 600 ships to the Aegean Sea.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Helmut Pemsel: Sea rule. Volume I . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1995, ISBN 3-89350-711-6 , p. 19th f .
  2. ↑ Tom Holland: Persian Fire. The First World Empire and the Battle for the West . Abacus, London 2005, ISBN 978-0-349-11717-1 , pp. 271-281 (English).
  3. ↑ The Histories of Herodotus: Book VIII Chapter 7 (Eng.)
  4. ↑ The Histories of Herodotus: Book VIII, Chapter 14 (Eng.)
  5. ^ Peter Green: The Greco-Persian wars . University of California Press, Berkeley 1996, ISBN 0-520-20313-5 , pp. 61 (English).
  6. ^ John F. Lazenby: The defense of Greece, 490-479 BC Aris & Phillips, Warminster 1993, ISBN 0-85668-591-7 , pp. 93 f . (English).

Coordinates: 39 ° 3 ′ 9.7 ″  N , 23 ° 19 ′ 4.1 ″  E