Salamis
The Origin of Salamis
While the city-state of Salamis flourished as a port for hundreds of years, it has a mythological origin. Similar to Rome’s foundation story, it is thought that Salamis’ beginning was tied to the Trojan War. Salamis is supposedly founded by the “archer Teucer from the Trojan war” who’s lineage made him a “cousin of the legendary Hector and Paris of Troy” (Holloway). Despite his ties to Troy, he fought against the Trojans in the war and was injured by a rock thrown by Hector. Teucer eventually fled to Cyprus after the death of Ajax—which King Telamon blamed him for—and founded the city that would become the thriving port of Salamis. In reality, Salamis was likely "founded in the middle of the 11th century BC by the inhabitants of the Late Bronze Age town of Enkomi" (Vitas 97).
Details About Salamis
Salamis is an island that lies west of the astu of Athens, just beyond Peiraieus, the main port of Athens. The main city of Salamis supposedly faced west with Bronze Age remains being "reported along the southern coast of the island" (Camp 325). Salamis fell under the power of Athens in the sixth century due to Solon's connection to the island, but "the island was never a deme and seems rather to have been regarded as a possession" (Camp 325). This means that, while the town of Salamis was considered a part of Athens, it was never really considered its own village, but still had some form of citizenship. The island of Salamis is known for its narrow straits that became the site of an important battle during the Persian Wars. The city of Salamis was originally founded with the purpose of being a port, and a small part of the town was built around "its harbor, next to the riverbank Pediaios" (Vitas 98).
Classical Salamis
While we don't have any archeological remains from Classical Salamis, we do know that the Romans built in areas close to those that previously held Greek buildings. There may not be many classical remains, but part of a city-wall from the 11th century was found on the slope of a plateau (Vitas 98). It's likely that the new town in Salamis was built "slightly to another direction, probably towards the harbor" (Vitas 99). Looking at an inscription from a victory monument, it is clear that Salamis had a military fleet around the 4th century BC, which hints at the existence of a military port and possibly a shipyard (Vitas 100). Additionally, there are clues that the Greeks had built a gymnasium and theatre that might have become the same sites where the Romans built their gymnasium and theatre. In one of Isocrates speeches, he tells of dance, music exhibitions, and athletic competitions, which are a "serious indication of the existence of a gymnasium in pre-Hellenistic Salamis" (Vitas 103). Inscriptions found in the city also imply the existence of a political center in Salamis through their descriptions of "self-administrative institutions, such as demos and polis of Salaminians and a boule" (Vitas 105). Overall, Classical Salamis probably mimicked the same structures found in the city center at Athens.
Battle of Salamis
The main historical event that occurred in Salamis was the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE. When the Persians began to invade Attica, the Athenians were faced with a decision: to stay in Athens or to leave. According to Herodotus, a man named Timon suggested they travel to Delphi as supplicants seeking advice from the oracle. The oracle told them:
"Far-seeing Zeus gives you, Tritogeneia, a wall of wood. Only this will stand intact and help you and your children. You should not abide and await the advance of the vast host of horse and foot from the mainland but turn your back and yield. The time will come for you to confront them. Blessed Salamis, you will be the death of mothers' sons either when the seed is scattered or when it is gathered in" (Herodotus 7.141).
Many Athenians assumed this "wall of wood" meant the walls around the Acropolis, yet one man name Themistocles argued that this wall was referring to their fleet of triremes. He argued that the oracle would not have said "Blessed Salamis" but rather "would have said 'Cruel Salamis' if the inhabitants were doomed to die there" (Herodotus 7.143). A majority of the Athenians believed Themistocles and they began to plan for sea battle at Salamis.
The Battle of Salamis was a great victory for the Athenians as they were largely outnumbered by Persian ships. It was Themistocles that suggested they used the narrow straits of Salamis in order to "deprive the Persians of their numerical advantage" (Psaropoulos 304). Themistocles tricked the Persians through a message sent by envoy, telling them that the Greek fleet was preparing to flee the strait at Salamis. Xerxes, the leader of the Persians, then blockaded both exits from the strait, prepared to fight the fleeing Greek fleet. Instead of maintaining the blockade as "Artemisia, queen of Halikarnassos and Xerxes's most trusted naval advisor, told him to wait," he decided to fight at a disadvantage within the strait after seeing the Korinthian fleet pretend to flee (Psaropoulos 306). The Greeks were then able to win the battle as the larger Persian boats had a more difficult time maneuvering within the narrow strait. The Battle of Salamis became a turning point for the Greeks according to Thucydides who wrote:
"we took to our ships with our whole citizen body and joined in the battle of Salamis, which prevented the Persians from sailing on against the Peloponnese and destroying it city by city- since you could not have helped each other against that number of ships. The best witness to this is Xerxes himself: once defeated at sea he realized that his power was diminished and quickly retreated with the bulk of his army" (Thucydides 1.73).
Salamis and its Overall Importance to Athens
After the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE, Salamis began to symbolize Athens' victory and strength. The Athenians built several monuments to celebrate and immortalize their victories, and also offering dedications to the Gods. They began by dedicating captured Phoenician triremes to the God Poseidon at the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Sounion so that "the cliff-top temenos at Sounion displayed a proud trophy of the victory that Poseidon had helped the Greeks to win" (Shear 231). Additionally, the Athenians built a trophy on Salamis as a reminder of their imperative victory during the Persian Wars. This trophy is no longer in existence but it was supposedly "located on the long narrow peninsula called Kynosoura that projects northeastward from the island at the entrance to the straits" (Shear 14). This means that a monument to their victory was the first thing you would see upon entering and leaving the straits of Salamis where this battle took place. This battle was of such importance to the overall Athenian view of their own strength and power that the exit from the Akropolis- the heart of the city of Athens- potentially framed Salamis. Some historians argue that "Mnesikles designed the building to face and to view the island and mountains of Salamis" (Papadopoulos 345). This means that when Athenians were leaving the sacred space of the Akropolis in Athens, they were looking towards Salamis and the trophy of victory that resided on Kynosoura.
Works Cited
Camp, John M. The Archaeology of Athens. Yale University Press, 2001.
Herodotus. The Histories. Translated by Robin Waterfield, Oxford University Press, 2008.
Holloway, April. “The Ancient Ruins of Salamis, the Once Thriving Port City of Cyprus.” Ancient Origins, Ancient Origins, 24 Aug. 2020, www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/ancient-ruins-salamis-once-thriving-port-city-cyprus-002870.
Papadopoulos, John K. and Martin-Mcauliffe,Samantha L. “Framing Victory: Salamis, the Athenian Acropolis, and the Agora.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 71, no. 3, 2012, pp. 332–361. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jsah.2012.71.3.332. Accessed 11 Apr. 2021.
Psaropoulos, John. “Salamis After Twenty-Five Centuries.” Sewanee Review, vol. 129, no. 2, Spring 2021, pp. 297–311. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1353/sew.2021.0021.
Shear, T. Leslie. Trophies of Victory: Public Building in Periklean Athens. Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, 2016.
Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War . Translated by Martin Hammond, Oxford University Press, 2009.
Vitas, Dimitris. “Tracing Hellenistic Salamis.” Cypriot Cultural Details: Proceedings of the 10th Annual Meeting of Young Researchers in Cypriot Archaeology, edited by Iosif Hadjikyriakos and Mia Gaia Trentin, Oxbow Books, 2015, pp. 97–110. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt198945j.9. Accessed 11 Apr. 2021.