| September 20 |  |
Editor says, what if the Greek City States had lost the Battle of Salamis?
Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
A Persian victory would have hamstrung the development of Ancient Greece, and by extension western civilization, and this has led them to the claim that Salamis is one of the most significant battles in human history.
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In 480 BC, on this day twelve hundred triremes (pictured) of the Achaemenid Navy crushed a naval force a third of the size assembled in the Saronic Gulf near Athens by an Alliance of city-states desperate to defend Greece from a second Persian invasion.
Famous Persian Victory at the Battle of SalamisBut the resulting military conquest was a strategic disaster for the Empire because Greek rebelliousness stymied Persian overlordship. Even before the Battle of Salamis, this outcome was suspected by the struggling adminstrators of the Greek Colonies. Because Persepolis was too far from Greece, and the Persian governance system too loose to exerce effective control over such a distant and hostile geography.
Yet Ionion culture would survive, and eventually re-emerge from the mass revolts of the City States that had been foolishly provoked by the destruction of Athens. But in one sense, Salamis change everything. Supremely overconfident in victory, the Persians set themselves an even loftier ambition: the conquest of India.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Battle of Salamis, Greece, Persian, Greek, Athens. Editor says, in reality approximately a third of the Persian ships were lost in a storm off the coast of Magnesia, 200 more in a storm off the coast of Euboea, and at least 50 ships to Allied action at the Battle of Artemisium.
The article repurposes content from both Heavan Games and also Wikipedia.
~ Persian rule of Greece might not have been a Bad Thing---the Persians, at least, would enforce peace among the _poleis._ The Greeks had many, many gifts, but the gift of working together and getting along---not so much. And without the Peloponnesian War, Greece might have been even greater.
~ It be interesting to see if the Persians had pushed further west, beyond Greece -- and what that would have meant for a potential Roman Empire.
~ If the Greeks continued being Greek (without a major Persian culture-shift), the western colonies might aid the Aegean mainland just like the mainland was aiding the eastern colonies to uprise in modern Turkey, which started the whole mess before Marathon. Persians might chase them all the way to the Pillars of Heracles, getting mixed up with Carthaginians on the way.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
