Spartans

The Battle of Mykale

In the spring of 479 BCE, although defeated at Salamis, the Persians were still in control in most of the Ionian cities. Their citizens revolted against this and asked Athens for support. In response, 40 triremes of the remaining Athenian fleet, under command of Xanthippus, sailed from to Delos where… Read more

The Classic Ship | Part 3: The Battle of Salamis

"Each captain drove his ship straight against some other ship... When ... our ships had been crowded in the narrows, ... and each crashed its bronze prow against each of its own line, they splintered their whole bank of oars." In 480 BCE, King Xerxes proceeded to Athens, after his victory at Thermopylae, and his naval forces moved southward for the final stroke. Athens, a young but powerful democracy, and… Read more

Phalanx Warfare Transformed: Innovation in Ancient Greek Warfare 431–331 BCE | Part 2: Leuctra and Gaugamela

Greek and Macedonian warfare continued to develop after Mantinea, exemplified by the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BCE where Theban general Epaminondas devised a new tactic using the deep phalanx to destroy the myth of Spartan superiority, and the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BCE where Alexander the Great employed all the tactical advances developed over the previous one hundred years to defeat Darius' Persian army which was twice the… Read more