Abstract
In this book, well-renowned international scholars discuss topics relating to various aspects of the history of the Battle of Salamis, drawing inspiration from the democratic origins of the great Greek naval victory at Salamis. They present deductions and insights from the battle that can be useful for today, guided by the higher goal of seeking answers for a more prosperous and brighter future for our societies. The book divides their analyses into five parts: (1) The democratic implications of the Battle of Salamis; (2) The strategies that lead to monumental naval victories; (3) The institutional implications of the Battle of Salamis; (4) Various societal aspects of the Athenian democracy; (5) The interconnections between two glorious battles: Thermopylae and Salamis. This book is the first of two edited volumes, both serving as sequels to an international academic conference titled Salamis and Democracy: 2500 Years After that occurred between October 3rd and October 5th, 2020, on the occasion of the 2500th anniversary of the great historical event of the Battle of Salamis, which saved Greek culture and the newly founded democratic regimes throughout the Hellenic world during the Classical period (508–323 BCE).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Medized Greeks were those who sided with the Persians or those Greeks who succumbed to the Persian hegemonic wishes and accepted the rule of the later over them.
- 2.
For the benefit of such considerations in history, see Levy (2015).
- 3.
Grand strategy is the theory of a state (i.e., city-state, nation-state, empire) on how it can ensure security for itself in the environment of a competitive international system in peacetime and wartime alike. Grand strategy can be understood as a state’s response to threats against its security. For an elaboration regarding the definition of grand strategy, see among others, Platias and Koliopoulos (2010, pp. 1–21).
- 4.
The Fathers wanted to create a perfect democratic system of federal governance and they were influenced by the sophisticated political system of the Achaean League (a federal state). See further on this Economou (2020, pp. 196–198) and the references he provides therein.
- 5.
The speech was delivered four and a half months after the Union armies during the American Civil War defeated those of the Confederacy.
- 6.
See Stow (2007) among others on this.
- 7.
For a more extensive analysis, see Platias and Trigkas in this volume.
- 8.
The first invasion took place at Marathon in August/September 490 BCE. For the importance of this battle to world history, the famous English philosopher and political economist John Stuart Mill in an 1846 review of G. Grote’s History of Greece wrote, among others, that
The Battle of Marathon, even as an event in British history, is more important than the Battle of Hastings.
- 9.
For a further discussion regarding this issue, see among others, Kyriazis and Zouboulakis (2004), Tridimas (2013), and Economou and Κyriazis (2019). See also the chapters of Ober, Cartledge, and Zouboulakis in this volume. For the further develo** of specific institutions such as the courts, due to such a process of institutional change, see the paper of Forsdyke in this volume. For a further analysis on how these institutional transfromations affected (in various ways) various social groups of the Athenian society, the reader can consult the papers of Hall, Pritchard, and Lyttkens and Gerding in this volume.
- 10.
Hoplites were the medium income socioeconomic group of citizens in the Greek poleis who were able to finance by themselves the so-called hoplite equipment and thus participate in the hoplite phalanx, that is, heavy infantry citizen militia army. For the hoplites and the phalanx formations, see, among others, Hanson (2009) and Pritchard (2019, pp. 34–52).
- 11.
Some authors such as van Wees (2013) argue that a (small) number of ships from the fleet of 200 triremes preexisted the Themistocles’ naval program. However, we are convinced by Wallinga (1993, pp. 141–142) who writes that “as far as the Athens is concerned there is no reason to suppose that it had more than one or two triremes, if any, before 483.” But this issue does not change the very essence of our argumentation here.
- 12.
See above ftn. 9.
- 13.
Metics were alien residents living in Athens. They relocated in Athens for work purposes. Their majority was originating from other Greek city-states.
- 14.
There is some disagreement among historians as to when exactly the Sack of Miletus play was performed. For various aspects, interpretations, and estimations regarding the exact year that the play was performed, see Rosenbloom (1993) in detail and the references he cites further therein.
- 15.
The Eponymous Archon was the first in hierarchy among the Nine Archons (a body of top elected officials dating back to the pre-Classical aristocratic period) who carried out specific projects and responsibilities. The eponymous archon was also considered the “first” citizen of Athens.
- 16.
For a further analysis regarding how the demos reacted and finally was convinced by its leader, Themistocles, see the chapter of Ober in this volume. For a comment regarding the requirement for good leadership under a democratic regime, see further Bresson in this volume.
- 17.
See above ftn. 9.
According to Loomis (1998) who focused on prices of goods and services as well as the wages in Classical Athens, the wage of a median worker in Athens during the fifth century BCE was between 1 to 1.5 drachmae.
- 18.
For an insightful analysis regarding the logic of the functioning of the political institutions that were developed in democratic Athens and Classical Greece in general, the reader can consult the papers of Cartledge, Holler, and Bresson, respectively, in this volume.
- 19.
For a further analysis of how the demos was taking correct decisions regarding crucial issues under a bounded rationality perspective, see the analysis in the chapter of Economou and Kyriazis in this volume. For a further analysis regarding rational choice in decision-making, see the chapter of Holler.
- 20.
A situation where everyone involved is certain to be successful or gain something.
- 21.
See Platias and Trigkas in this volume.
- 22.
A well known historian, De Ste. Croix (1972, pp. 176, 178), suggests that Themistocles foresaw the war between Athens and Sparta.
- 23.
- 24.
For the strategems that Themistocles implemented so as to bring the victory to the Greeks over the Persians, see further the papers of Platias and Trigkas, and Strauss in this volume. Leonidas, the king of Sparta, had to face also a series of serious strategic dilemmas. See further Berkey on this, in this volume.
- 25.
- 26.
See the papers of Figueira and Lyttkens and Gerding in this volume regarding the issue of manning of the Greek warships at Salamis and later on.
- 27.
For various aspects regarding the policies that Themistocles implemented before and during the Battle of Salamis that led to the Greek victory, the reader can also consult the papers of Strauss, Ober, Cartledge, Figueira, Platias, and Trigkas, and Lyttkens and Gerding in this volume.
- 28.
See analytically the program of the conference and the participants. https://www.des.unipi.gr/el/undergraduate/announcements/item/1841-salamis-democracy-int-conf-2020
- 29.
A decisive victory of the Persians in the Lidyan–Persian war took place in 547 BCE, known as the Battle of Thymbra.
- 30.
- 31.
For further evidence on this, see, among others, the references in the following ftn. 33 and the references that are further provided therein.
- 32.
- 33.
On the issue, see further, among others, Cohen (1992), Morris (1994), Figueira (1998), Amemiya (2007), Ober (2008), Engen (2010), Lyttkens (2013), Bresson (2016), Harris et al. (2016), Economou and Kyriazis (2017, 2019), O’Halloran (2018), Bitros et al. (2020), Economou (2020), Economou et al. (2021a, 2021b), and Halkos et al. (2021). See also the contributions of Ober and Holler in this book.
References
Ancient Authors
Aeschylus. (1926). Persians, Engl. Trnsl. H. W. Smyth, Cambridge. Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd. The Perseus Digital Library.
Diodorus Siculus. (2010). The Persian Wars to the fall of Athens, Books 11-14.34, (480-401 BCE). University of Texas Press.
Herodotus. (1920). The histories, Engl. Trnsl. A. D. Godley. Harvard University Press. The Perseus Digital Library.
Plutarch. (1914). Themisctoles, Engl. Trnsl. B. Perrin. Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. The Perseus Digital Library.
Thucydides, (1928). Histories (The Peloponnesian War), Engl. Trnsl. C. F. Smith. Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press.
Modern Authors
Acton, P. H. (2016). Industry structure and income opportunities for households in classical Athens. In E. M. Harris, D. M. Lewis, & M. Woolmer (Eds.), The ancient Greek economy: Markets, households and City states (pp. 41–65). Cambridge University Press.
Amemiya, T. (2007). Economy and economics in ancient Greece. Routledge.
Arreguín-Toft, I. (2001). How the weak win wars. A theory of asymmetric conflict. International Security, 26(1), 93–128.
Bitros, G. C., Economou, E. M. L., & Kyriazis, N. C. (2020). Democracy and money: Lessons for today from Athens in classical times. Routledge.
Bresson, A. (2016). The making of the ancient Greek economy: Institutions, markets, and growth in the city-states. Princeton University Press.
Cartledge, P. (2018). Democracy: A life, revised edition. Oxford University Press.
Cohen, E. E. (1992). Athenian economy and society: A banking perspective. Princeton University Press.
De Romilly, J. (1994). Pourquoi la Grèce? Le Livre de Poche.
De Ste. Croix. (1972). The origins of the Peloponnesian war. Duckworth.
Economou, E. M. L. (2020). The Achaean Federation in Ancient Greece: History, political and economic organization, warfare and strategy. Springer Verlag.
Economou, E. Μ. L., & Kyriazis, N. C. (2017). The emergence and the evolution of property rights in ancient Greece. Journal of Institutional Economics, 13(1), 53–77.
Economou, E. Μ. L., Kyriazis, N. C., & Kyriazis, N. A. (2021a). Money decentralization under direct democracy procedures. The case of classical Athens. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 14(1), 30. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14010030
Economou, E. Μ. L., Kyriazis, N. A., & Kyriazis, N. C. (2021b). Managing financial risk while performing international commercial transactions. Intertemporal lessons from Athens in classical times. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 14, 509.
Economou, E. M. L., & Κyriazis, N. (2019). Democracy and economy: An inseparable relationship since ancient times to today. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Engen, D. T. (2010). Honor and profit: Athenian trade policy and the economy and society of Greece: 415–3-7 B.C.E. University of Michigan Press.
Fawcett, P. (2016). When I squeeze you with eisphorai: Taxes and tax policy in classical Athens. Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 85(1), 153–199.
Figueira, T. J. (1998). The power of money: Coinage and politics in the Athenian empire. University of Pensylvania Press.
Figueira, T. J. (2021). The Athenian naukraroi and archaic naval warfare. Cadmo, 21, 183–210.
Gilpin, R. (1983). War and change in world politics. Cambridge University Press.
Green, P. (1993). The Greco-Persian wars. University of California Press.
Hale, J. R. (2009). Lords of the sea: The epic story of the Athenian navy and the birth of democracy. Penguin Books.
Halkos, G., Kyriazis, N. C., & Economou, E. M. L. (2021). Plato as a game theorist towards an international trade policy. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 14, 115. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14030115
Hanson, V. D. (2006). A stillborn west: Themistocles at Salamis, 480 BC. In P. E. Tetlock, R. N. Lebow, & G. Parker (Eds.), Unmaking the west: “What if?” Scenarios that rewrite world history (pp. 47–89). University of Michigan.
Hanson, V. D. (2009). The western way of war. Infantry battle in classical Greece (2nd ed.). University of California Press.
Harris, E. M., Lewis, D. M., & Woolmer, M. (2016). The ancient Greek economy: Markets, households and city states. Cambridge University Press.
Hignett, C. (1963). Xerxes invasion of Greece. Clarendon Press.
Holland, T. (2007). Persian fire. The first world empire and the battle for the West. Anchor Books.
Kallet-Marx, L. (1993). Money, expense and naval power in Thucydides’ history 1–5.24. University of California Press.
Kennedy, P. (1987). The rise and the fall of great powers. Random House.
Knorr, K. (1956). The war potential of nations. Princeton University Press.
Kyriazis, N. C., & Zouboulakis, M. (2004). Democracy, sea power and institutional change: An economic analysis of the Athenian naval law. European Journal of Law and Economics, 17, 117–132.
Levy, J. S. (2015). Counterfactuals, causal inference, and historical analysis. Security Studies, 24(3), 378–402.
Loomis, W. T. (1998). Wages, welfare costs and inflation in classical Athens. Michigan University Press.
Lyttkens, C. H. (2013). Economic analysis of institutional change in ancient Greece. Politics, taxation and rational behaviour. Routledge.
Mack, A. (1975). Why big nations lose small wars: The politics of asymmetric conflict. World Politics, 27(2), 175–200.
Morris, I. (1994). The Athenian economy twenty years after. The Ancient Economy, CP, 89, 351–366.
North, D. C. (1990). Institutions, institutional change and economic performance. Cambridge University Press.
North, D. C., & Thomas, R. P. (1973). The rise of the Western world: A new economic history. Cambridge University Press.
North, D. C., Wallis, J. J., Weingast, B. R. (2009). Violence and social orders. A conceptual framework for interpreting recorded human history. Cambridge University Press
O’Halloran, B. (2018). The political economy of classical Athens: A naval perspective. Brill.
Ober, J. (1978). Views of sea power in the fourth-century attic orators. The Ancient World, 1(3), 119–130.
Ober, J. (2008). Democracy and knowledge: Innovation and learning in classical Athens. Princeton University Press.
Platias, A. G. (2002). Grand strategies clashing: Athenian and Spartan strategies in Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian war. Comparative Strategy, 21(5), 377–399.
Platias, A. G. (2020). The grand strategy of Themistocles: How a medium-sized city of Attica defeated the Persian superpower and turned itself into a naval empire. Conference. In: Thermopylae and Salamis: Assessing their importance in the modern world. M. Vardinoyannis Foundation.
Platias, A. G., & Koliopoulos, C. (2010). Thucydides on strategy: Grand strategies in the Peloponnesian war and their relevance today. Columbia University Press.
Pritchard, D. M. (2019). Athenian democracy at war. Cambridge University Press.
Rosenbloom, D. (1993). Shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theater: Phrynichos’s capture of Miletos and the politics of fear in early attic tragedy. Philologus, 137, 159–196.
Rousseau, J. J. ([1762] 2002). The social contract and the first and second discourses. Yale University Press.
Stow, S. (2007). Pericles at Gettysburg and ground zero: Tragedy, patriotism, and public mourning. American Political Science Review, 101(2), 195–208.
Strassler, R. B. (1998). The landmark Thucydides: A comprehensive guide to the Peloponnesian war. Free Press.
Strauss, B. (2005). The Battle of Salamis: The naval encounter that saved Greece-and the Western civilization. Simon & Schuster.
Strauss, B., & Ober, J. (1990). The anatomy of error: Ancient military disasters and their lessons for modern strategists. St Martin’s Press.
Tridimas, G. (2013). Homo oeconomicus in ancient Athens: Silver bonanza and the choice to build a navy. Homo Oeconomicus, 30(4), 435–458.
Van Wees, H. (2013). Ships and silver, taxes and tribute. A fiscal history of archaic Athens. I. B. Tauris.
Wallinga, H. T. (1993). Ships and sea-power before the Great Persian War. The ancestry of the ancient trireme. E. J. Brill.
Wallinga, H. T. (2005). Xerxes’ Greek adventure. The naval perspective. Brill.
Zali, V. (2013). Themistocles’ exhortation before Salamis: On Herodotus 8.83. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, 53, 461–485.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Economou, E.M., Kyriazis, N.C., Platias, A. (2022). Introduction: Democracy and Salamis. In: Economou, E.M., Kyriazis, N.C., Platias, A. (eds) Democracy and Salamis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98431-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98431-1_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-98430-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-98431-1
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)