Salamis, 480 BC

Weeks after the glorious disaster at Thermopylae and heavy but inconclusive fighting at sea off Artemisium, with Athens now in barbarian hands and the Acropolis burned, the Greeks dramatically halted the Persian invasion of 480 BC. They brought the 600-strong Persian fleet to battle with their 350 triremes in the confined waters of the straits of Salamis and, through a combination of superior tactics and fighting spirit, won a crushing victory. This drove the Persian navy out of the western Aegean and enabled the Hellenic Alliance to combine its manpower in sufficient force to destroy the mass.