Artemisium

A coastal city on the northern tip of the island of Euboea.

Artemisium was the site of the first naval engagement between the Greeks and the Persian invaders in 480 BCE; the Greeks sent their fleet to the waters around Artemisium because of its proximity to the narrow pass at Thermopylae; the intention was to block the Persian army’s path at Thermopylae and, at the same time, keep the Greek war ships close enough to the Greek army so they could coordinate their efforts against the overwhelming Persian forces.

As the Persian army marched on Thermopylae, their navy beached their ships near the town of Sepias and made camp; the next morning, the skies were clear but the seas were rough and the local inhabitants knew that a storm, which they referred to as a Hellespontian, was building in the northern Aegean Sea; the Persians lost four hundred ships in the four day storm.

When the Persians took to the sea again, they sailed south and rounded the Cape of Magnesia; fifteen of the Persian ships were well behind the rest of the fleet and, when they saw the Greek ships at Artemisium, they mistakenly thought they were part of their own fleet; they sailed into the midst of the Greeks and were captured.

The Greeks left Artemisium and sailed for the island of Salamis without engaging the main body of the Persian fleet.

• Histories, book 7, chapters 175-176 and 192-193; book 9, chapter 40