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"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.
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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?
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