No Salamis: Themistocles evacuates Athens and begins a new Athens in Italy. what next

"Obey me instead; but if you don’t do this then we, as we are, will take up the members of our households and we shall betake ourselves to Siris in Italy (the very place which has been ours since antiquity, and even the oracles say that it must be occupied by us); and you, left bereft of such allies, you will remember my words.”

And when Themistocles said that, Eurybiades was won over; for abandoned by the Athenians, the rest would no longer be a match for battle. He chose this opinion for himself, to engage in a sea-battle to the end.
"
From "Tales From Herodotus XVI"

The Athenians? Fleeing to Italy? Abandoning the rest of Hellas and the remaining Greek allies to be overrun and ( likely) wiped out like Athens. Extraordinary as it seems to us today, on the island of Salamis in 480 BC, it was a real possibility. Their was no " Greece" back then, nor the idea of a "united front against the eastern barbarians" that we think of today-thanks to films like 300. Of over 70+ Greek states, less then 30 actually agreed to oppose the Persian onslaught, with many of those being forced to fight by Sparta ( not to mention being very minor.) Many major Greek cities like Thebes, Argos and the kingdom of Macedon and Thessaly actually offered " Earth and water" to the king of kings and fought against their fellow Greeks!

With such a ragtag coalition, its no surprise that following the collapse of resistance at Thermopylae and the bruising the Greek fleet received at the Artemisium straits that the different allies soon argued with each other. Sparta and her peloponnesian allies wanted to fight a utterly hopeless last stand in the isthmus of Corinth-hopeless since the Persians could rolled over any land forces and at the sea the heavier greek ships would have been overwhelmed.

And Athens? if her allies did go for this seemingly suicidal option ( like they so very nearly did?) Themistocles said that he would evacuate the whole city population to Italy. This would make sense. To stay in Greece was foolish since the king of kings was determined to wipe them out. Italy-or rather " greater Greece" as it was known, had strong Athenian roots. What would have happened if the set up a new Athens or new Attica their? Would democracy live on in Western Europe? How would this influence the Romans up north? Could Athens oppose Rome when ( or if) it came knocking? And would the Persians continue expansion in western Europe after successfully crushing Greece? The previous King had already authorized an expedition against Carthage.

In the end, it was the threat of Athens's fleet leaving that finally forced the greek fleet to stay and win at Salamis-but what if that debate had gone differently?
 
You start by making an assumption;very well,but you followed it with a heap of wrong speculations:

1) Sparta and the Isthmus: The Persians have no hope in hell in forcing the Isthmus;the Peloponnesian alliance will close effectively the Isthmus,and protect their left flank with auxilliaries on the Geranian mountain range.

2) Landings in Peloponnese:I know eastern Peloponnese as well as my palm;there are only three places that the Persians can land and the obvious would be to land near the city of Corinth,in order to turn right and outflank the Isthmus;however,they will have Acro-Corinth castle at their rear( a very difficult castle to assault wit space for an army inside) and the Spartan army with its allies in front of them which will have a tragic result for the Persians(within few hours of a battle the landings would be no more than 20000 and there would be a solaughter.The other two places are within a morning and afternoon march the furtherst,catching the Persians in the process reorganising and we would have a slaughter in an other Plataea.The Persians remaining in the Isthmus would have fortified Megara on their back,a very hard nut to crack,plus its western Greek allies who will march east,in a very mountainous terrain on which they are the masters and specialists.
In fact the Persians would have no future there.I believe that after their first reccie they would come to an accomodation of sorts with the Spartans;the Peloponnesian alliance could field a 75000 hoplite army along with thousands of very capable light troops on the field and additional forces to defend the Isthmus,Acro-Corinth and petroling cavalry units down to Argolis peninsular and warn the Spartans of any sightings of a Persian fleet.

3)The real question is the Athenians in Italy;Without a Spartan alliance to oppose them the Athenians would dominate Italy with their navy and land forces;I don't mean conquer,but create another empire that very soon will dominate Southern Italy;I can see many of the Aegean island naval squadrons following the Athenians to Sicily hoping to fight another day.In such a case we will see a rapid expansion of Greek colonies in Southern Italy and a sharp defeat of the Carthagenians in Western Mediterranean along with a quick landing of the Athenians in Ostia.Rome was then a negligable quantity and unable to stop the Athenians-although at that time the romans would be looking for a state whose body of laws to consult and study and as they did OTL,they would turn to the Athenians whose laws had finally constituted the basis of the Law of the Twelve Tables,and they would fall under the spell of the Athenians and their institutions and culture as they indeed did,and please look the influense of Greek in the Latin language,that influence would increase tenfold.
 
Last edited:
Top