La batalla de Salamina

One September morning in the year 480 BC, the waters separating the island of Salamis from Greece were the scene of one of the most momentous naval battles of all time. The two most powerful civilizations of the time were facing each other: the Persians, led by Xerxes, had set out to invade Greece. Barely three hundred boats were in a position to face them. What was at stake, however, was the future of Athens, and it can be said that our present depended on the outcome of that battle. If Greece were defeated, it would see the decline of her brilliant culture and her political institutions fall into oblivion; if he was victorious, on the other hand, an era of political and cultural splendor would open up on his horizon. Salamis is without a doubt the greatest naval battle of antiquity, and also an example of strategies and tactics for posterity. While the Persians were very mediocre navigators and their navy was made up of mercenaries and slaves from very diverse backgrounds, the Greeks were a people who had always based their economy on the sea and their navigation skills were beyond comparison. This factor, "patriotism" and knowledge of the terrain, were of the greatest importance so that the scale of victory would tip towards the Greeks and thus avoid the destruction of this people and this culture of which we are heirs. Hence the importance that Barry Strauss gives to the outcome of this battle. The accessible language, the detailed description of the triremes and combat tactics, as well as the reconstruction of the biographies of some of the characters who took part in the battle (with special attention to Artemisia, perhaps the first woman to captain a combat in history) contribute to give color and an attractiveness to this work that few rehearsals can show off.