Salamis, Battle of

Salamis, Battle of ( 480 BC )
A naval battle fought in the Aegean Sea during the Greek-Persian wars. Themistocles , the Greek commander, lured the Persian fleet of Xerxes , the Persian king, into the narrow waters between the island of Salamis and the mainland. The outnumbered but nimbler and expertly handled Greek triremes took full advantage of the confusion engendered by the confined space to win a victory that offset the earlier reverses at Thermopylae and Artemisium.