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Corinthians At Salamis

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by A_Wanderer (U1760877) on Thursday, 9th March 2006

  
  Herodotus states that the Corinthian commander Adeimantus is against the battle itself at Salamis and then runs away from the battle, to be approached by a mysterious ship outside the temple of Athene Sciras and told of the victory, the Corinthians then return to the battle, just as it finishes.
  
  This account is doctored by Herodotus, saying it is an Athenian story and the Corinthians claim that they made a "significant" contribution to the battle, however in everything I have read about the battle the general assumption appears to be that they paid a small role on the edges of the battle or alternatively did flee to return later as they heard the news of the victory along the shoreline and returned to the allies.
  
  FOr me, neither of these accounts run true, as it doesn't make sense in either time scale or during both H and Aeschylus's accounts have no mention of them in battle, and if they heard along the shore line they would have returned after several hours, not as the battle was just finishing, so this is what I propose.
  
  Both A and H hint at a pincer movement but there is only evidence of one port at Salamis that could have been used for the Triremes at that time, so anyone attempting a pincer movement would have to sail around the island to surmount that sort of attack, which is where I propose the Corinthian fleet ended up, sailing the other way, appearing to be running from the battle, they would have run around the Island to oppose the Persian fleet from the other side. This is even more interesting when you consider there is no mention of any Egyptian vessels, which were clearly with the fleet before the battle, commonly thought to have run, perhaps, instead they were sent in garrison to oppose the Corinthians. Meaning a second battle at Salamis!
  
  This would further explain the sudden re-appearance after the battle as they would be able to take the shorter way back to port, and it would also show Corinthian reasoning for there opinion they fought a critical part in the battle. This may also help to explain the badly damaged part of the Corinthian plate which states the Corinthians killed, and even though a lot of its missing its clear to see they lost a lot more men than they should for there traditional role in the battle.
  
  There are other reasons why a Greek force should appear on the southern front of Salamis, the surprising push towards the advancing Greeks as before and after in all other accounts the Persians while dominant at sea are very cautious in getting into a battle where they were weak and couldn't utilise there numerical advantage especially after the strong resistance put up by the Athenians and Aegean’s, it would be certainly be a very odd decision to send more ships into such a tight area when it was clear there was a big chance of losing, so that would incline the thought that there were some reason to try and break the force there.
  
  The most apparent problem with this is that its not mentioned at all, however that is not surprising. Aeschylus was obviously a playwright, writing about a great Athenian victory that he was personally involved with, therefore any truth will be from his personnel experience and being Athenian he would talk about his part of the battle.
  
  With Herodotus it’s harder to explain as he clearly asked many different people who were personally or family was involved in the battle, surely this would be mentioned? Until you think of the political climate at this point, with Corinth allying them with Sparta in their 30-year alliance, they were considered the enemy now, rather than an ally. Possibly putting an unfounded rumour in rather than the truth, which may have completely denied another part of the battle and losing it to history.
  

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  Posted by Nik (U1777139) on Friday, 10th March 2006

  I had never looked this historic sea battle in such detail and yes now that you mention it strikes me that Corinthians are hardly mentioned though they had quite a strong navy for the standards of those times. I have to agree with you about Athens trying to capitalise on their fundamental contribution to the victory over Perians in order to establish their "Athenian alliance" and expand it as much as possible thus within that effort certainly they had to diminuish the importance of the contribution of other cities. Beyond the political propaganda, even common Athenians (seamen and warriors) that Herodotus mostly spoke with would happily diminuish the role of others (guess how much that of Corinthians who next day were again the antagonist) in order to raise their own 'heroics' - it is a natural thing to occur. It is simply a pity that the works of Corinthian writers who wrote about that battle are not saved at all - we could simply cross verify and have a clearer view.

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  Posted by TonyG (U1830405) on Friday, 10th March 2006

  Interesting theory. My recollection of Herodotus is that he is usually quite good at saying what his sources are. His recounting of events is only as good as his sources and if. as you say, the Athenians put a certain spin on the battle, that is what is recorded.
  
  I last visited Greece over ten years ago, but I recall passing Salamis and being struck by how narrow the channel was for such a major battle. A pincer movement sounds perfectly sensible from a tactical point of view. In fact, if the Persians had any sense, they would have sent some of their fleet round the island too. Perhaps there was a smaller battle round the other side of the island which, if unseen by the Athenians, may well have been ignored.
  

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  Posted by A_Wanderer (U1760877) on Wednesday, 22nd March 2006

  cough cough cough

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