Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (1.1882-1883)

THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS.

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In this paper on the Battle of Salamis I propose to discuss chiefly
questions which relate to the positions and movements of the two
hostile fleets before the battle and during its progress, with other
topographical matters, leaving untouched many interesting historical
points which are not directly connected with the topography. Dur-
ing the autumn of 1882 and the spring of 1SS3 I made frequent
excursions to Salamis and to the Attic shores opposite the island,
and thus had the advantage of reading the ancient accounts of the
battle and considering the various modern theories of the positions
and movements of the two fleets amid the scenes of the contest.1
The view of land and water which these memorable scenes present
to-day is essentially the,same as that upon which Xerxes looked
when he took his seat on Alt. Aegaleos on that eventful September
morning in 480 b.c. which decided the fate of Hellas. The barren
island of Psyttaleia, one of the central points in the combat; the

1 Many of the views expressed in this paper upon the possibility of reconciling
the accounts of Aeschylus and Herodotus were the result of an earlier visit to
Athens, and were published in brief notes on Herod. VIII. 76 and 85 in my
Greek Reader in 1871 (pp. 141-143). Since the paper was read in Athens, I
have revised it in the light of several articles on the subject to which I did not
have access when it was first written, especially the following: Loeschke, Ephorus-
studien, I., die Schlacht bei Salamis, in yahrb. d. Phil., 1877, PP- 25 Pusolt
(reply to the last), in Rhein. Mus., 1883, pp. 627 ff.; Sihler, The Battle of Salamis,
in Trans, of Am. Phil. Assoc., 1877, pp. 109 ff. ; Lolling, Meerenge v. Salamis,
in Hist. u. Phil. Aufsdtze, Festgabe an E. Curtius, 18S4. The article of Loeschke
is specially valuable in presenting the view of Aeschylus as the only one to be
accepted ; but he seems to me to be in error in ascribing to Herodotus (unless
his text is changed) a view absolutely irreconcilable with this. He places the
Greek line outside of the straits, facing south, running westward from the so-
called Thieves'1 PJarbor {Qoipwv hijx'i)v), marked c£> on the map, near which he
places the Heracleum. Dr. Sihler's object is chiefly literary, and he agrees with
most scholars in taking for granted the chief point which I have disputed, the
arrangement of the Persian fleet opposite the town of Salamis before the battle.