The Battle of Artemisium was a naval battle fought between a Greek fleet under Themistocles and a Persian fleet under Artemisia I of Caria off Euboea in the Aegean Sea during the Greco-Persian Wars. While the battle was inconclusive, the Persians were able to conquer Euboea as a result.
Background[]
During his invasion of Greece in 480 BC, King Xerxes I amassed a huge army and navy, each of which were about 300,000-strong. The Athenian general Themistocles devised a plan to fight off the invasion: the Spartans and their allies would hold the Persian land forces off at the mountain pass of Thermopylae in Malis, while the powerful Athenian fleet would hold the Persians back off the coast of Euboea at Artemisium. An Allied naval fleet of 271 ships was assembled to hold off the Persian fleet's 1,207 ships.
Battle[]
The Persian fleet approached Artemisium towards the end of summer, and the fleet was caught in a gale off the coast of Magnesia, causing the Persians to lose around 400 of their ships. After arriving at Artemisium, the Persians sent 200 ships around the coast of Euboea to trap the Greeks, but they were caught in another storm and shipwrecked. The main action of the battle took place after two days of smaller engagements, during which the Athenian spy Scyllas obtained information on the Persians, and Artemisia I of Caria failed to seduce Themistocles into defecting to the Persians. The two fleets fought all day and, despite the heavier Persian losses, the Athenians were forced to retreat, as they lost half of their fleet in the battle. With news of the defeat at the Battle of Thermopylae, Themistocles decided to withdraw the fleet to Salamis, and Persian attempts to decisively destroy the Allied fleet led to their defeat at the Battle of Salamis.