Ancient Greece

Lesson 2: Herodotus and the Persian Wars

The aftermath of Salamis

With his fleet destroyed, Xerxes had no choice but to withdraw to Asia with the major portion of his army.

Herodotus describes Xerxes' cowardice in graphic detail, but it is difficult to see what other course of action would have been available to him.

A large army is not easy to keep supplied and this problem would have been even more acute in ancient times, when the logistics of supply would have depended on animal drawn carts.

Without command of the sea, any army that was too large to support itself by foraging was doomed to starve to death.

We also know that there actually was a revolt in Babylonia a year later in 479 BC. It is possible that Xerxes decided to withdraw most of his forces from Greece in order to be better able to deal with events closer to Persia itself.

A part of the remaining Persian force was left behind in Greece under the command of one Mardonius, however, in order to continue the fight.

Sporadic fighting continued, but with the defeat at Salamis, the course of events had been determined.

A year later, a combined Greek army under the command of the Spartan general caught and destroyed Mardonius' army near Plataea.

Xerxes grand expedition to subjugate the Greeks had come to a sorry end.