Battle of Salamis in Cyprus (450 BC)
The
Battle of Salamis took place around
450 BC near
Salamis in
Cyprus.
In
454 BC the
Athenian-led
Delian League lost a fleet in an unsuccessful attempt to aid an
Egyptian revolt against
Persia. Over the next three years, Athens also failed to capture
Pharsalus in
Thessaly, as well as
Sicyon and
Oeniadae, all of which were allies of the
Spartan-led
Peloponnesian League. In
451 BC Athens concluded a five-year truce with Sparta.
After the truce
Cimon found the opportunity to continue the war against the Persians. He sailed to Cyprus with two hundred
triremes of the confederacy. From there, he sent sixty ships to Egypt to help the Prince Amyrtaeos, who was fighting the Persians at the Nile Delta. Cimon with the remaining ships aided the uprising of the Cypriot Greek city-states against their hegemon and laid siege to the Persian stronghold of
Citium on the south west coast of Cyprus. During the siege Cimon died and the command of the fleet was given to
Anaxicrates, who left Citium to engage the
Phoenician and
Cilician fleet at Salamis of Cyprus. The Greek fleet gained a complete victory on sea and land and rejoining with the sixty ships in Egypt, sailed to Athens.
The Athenians did not take advantage of their victory; instead, they simply returned home, where they found that Sparta had taken over the temple at
Delphi, and that the
Boeotians were beginning to revolt against Athenian rule. This revolt led to the
Battle of Coronea in
447 BC.
* The
Battle of Salamis of
480 BC was a naval battle in the
Greco-Persian Wars near the island of
Salamis near
Athens in
Greece.
* The
Battle of Salamis in Cyprus of
306 BC was a
naval battle between the fleets of
Demetrius I of Macedon and
Ptolemy I of Egypt.
