LINES VERSUS COLUMNS

Napoleonics, Wars of the Revolution, Renaissance cavalry, Macedonians or Thebans. Whether it is ships, horses or men there is a possibility to arrange them in columns or lines.

The advantage with a column is that it focusses effort at a specific point and also that it is an easier formation for manoeuvre. It is just follow my leader. The column must be led as a whole, however, or the tail can decide to depart while the head takes the strain.

 

The line, however produces a distributed application of force along a front which the enemy must withstand at all points or be engulfed. On the other hand, the elements of the line should be marshalled carefully to maintain a common front or else the formation goes to pieces.

A column will always have a percentage of forces unable to act against the enemy because they have friends in the way, whereas a line uses all its strength so long as they come up against enemies.

Salamis is the Mastadon of ancient sea battles in the age of the trieres. So many ships packed into a small space. A space that funnels the opponents into each other and hinders their escape. The battle that was a long slogging match with a tangled mess of ships fighting a struggle of attrition.

Recived wisdom is that the narrow straits limited the scope for tactics on each side and two masses of ships, the total number of vessels cited by ancient sources must be involved, smashed into each other.

On your marks ! Get set ! ........FIGHT

But is it ?

The most obvious constraint on the battle is the width of the strait. At various points the width from mainland to Salamis is circa 1500 metres. Further up the strait it is split around the island St Georgios and the smaller rocks off the Perama shore. It is easy to fall into the trap of allotting ships to this distance, dividing this number into the total for each side and thus achieve a calculated number of ranks. Calculated from ancient data ... must be true...?

Æschylus and Herodotos both imply the Persians made an offensive move against the Greeks. In any case, the Persian fleet moves from 'between Ceos and Mynichia' to a place inside the strait where the battle took place.

The Greeks had to assemble their battle line before the Persians arrived. They had to launch beached ships and take up anchors and form in their units. They then may have backed water for a while before contact was made.

There is thus no discussion that both fleets moved around a bit. The Persians advanced at least 2 and up tp 4 kilometres - mostly in dark, half-light or mist. The Greeks had to assemble their forces from being beached, advance up tp 3 kilometres and back maybe 1 kilometre before fighting.

The obvious question is, 'column or line?'.  After the above calculation, lines dominate consideration of the battle but if 1600 galleys are to move about in concert are lines a practicable proposition ?

Perfect! ..oh, but they are at anchor in a calm ...

Add to this, the fact that the Persians are moving in the dark or half-light !!!! How on earth could a line be kept in such circumstances ?  The Persians patrolled the entrances to the strait all night - this can not have been in lines. If they tried to maintain station it would be a disaster. They must have rowed - probably at a minimum rate - in columns - probably following a lantern on the stern of the previous ship, to and fro.

My point is that a line of many ships - galleys - needs control to be maintained as any kind of regular formation. Progressing at speed, across disturbed water or around obstacles, or in the dark will lead to a disintegration of the formation ergo the Persian ships were in columns at least as they approached the scene of battle.

"It's Fairyland!" ..Moving in line ahead...

MAPS - PITFALLS

Looking at a lot of accounts of Salamis one is struck by the variability of the topography.
Barry Strauss is not alone in playing fast and loose with the Earth's surface.

I present the fabulous shape-shifting Isle of Psyttaleia as featured in 'Salamis' by Barry Straus. Who has a doctorate in a subjective discipline one assumes.

SALAMIS : MAPS

Easier said than done to get a good map of Salamis battle area.

How reliable is this  re. 480BC ?

 1) Sea level changes. Oft-quoted figure is a relative sea-level rise of 1 fathom since 'antiquity'. As a geologist I am aware this is a debateable figure. Greece is a tectonically active part of the world which means we have to add rising or sinking land-masses.

One calculation of eustatic sea level change - Salamis in red

The site of the battle of Marathon, for example, should by rights, be flooded by now according to the eustatic sea-level change curve ( a kind of base-line for world sea-level changes). BUT because the land has been pushed up at about the same rate then the coastal situation remains similar to what it was 2500 years ago...REF. This means we can never know the exact coastline from 480BC but we must try to get an idea..

Did the sea come up or the land go down ?

2) Human activity in this area where the Greek navy has its main base, there has been unbridled summer-house development and where the recently greatest maritime nation has its main port is unbelievable. One island - Psyttaleia - has become Europe's largest sewage treatment plant and the mainland coastline is obscured by reclaimed ground.

One thing that can be said is that the sea-level change is not catastrophic. A breakwater from antiquity by the ancient Salamis port in Amboulaki bay is still visible in the water rather than high and dry or a long way off the shore-line.

Just to be cruel, the gods have given us a different alphabet from the Greeks so simple web  searches also become more problematic.

Maritime charts are a good and accurate bet, adding depth date - but also including, very accurately all made-ground and obstacles. I want this stuff cleaned off...

Kinosura peninsula complete with deep-water mooring for giant ships and Perama port installation in background.

The solution so far is to use eighteenth century French maps ! These seem to be a good match with sattelite maps and fotos and the engineering tecnicians who supported French fortification science seem to have done a good job with naval charts from the time.

Barbier du Bocage's map of 1785 gives a nice base map.

Notice the north-pointer is the Fleur de Lys..the map was drawn just a few years before Le Revolution.

 Until things obviously awry I will use this base map plus modern depth information.

SALAMIS seanarios

Condensing the possibilities these are the main variants for Salamis.

Next step is to work out which ones give the most enjoyable fights!

Salamis's

There are so many versions of what happened at Salamis ! Every author or scholar must have his 2penn'orth. Researching a scenario for Salamis - inspired by the Melcher painting it turns out to be heavy going. A scenario with up to now 20 variations !

CAPITAN GAMES LAUNCHES GALLEYS

The Spanish company Capitan Games has launched a set of Trireme rules and what seem to be laser-cut wooden kits for ships. They are entitled 'TRIREME COMMANDER'.

The scale of the ships is given as 10mm but no dimensions ascertainable from their website. The ships have optional bits such as rails and prows.

A TRIREME from Capitan

  Details at their website HERE.

Apparently, the rules are best suited to sides of 2 to 4 galleys.... skirmishes then ?

At The Miniatures Page, Capitan say their rules are a modification of Napoleonic gunboat rules which allow for a 'brutal melee of impacting galleys and a crush of warriors on the unstable decks, trying to defeat their enemies with the same weapons that they used as legions or phalanxes.' HERE

Some more details including fotos of rules pages HERE

On the rowed again

Building work, vikings, pottery etc. so much can get in the way even of a mild obsession.

The 'gallies' centre of my brain was reactivated, however, by seeing a picture which I just had to get.

It is a product of the Deutschen Zentralinstitut for Lehmittel of the DDR. There are many of these floating around in auction houses and antique shops in Germany and Denmark but I had not seen this one. The title is 'Seeschlact von Salamis' - the 'Sea Battle of Salamis' - caught my eye immediately!

I have seen many dealing with natural history or technical subjects. Historical ones more often include medieval or stone age people. But this was a find.

These posters were made for use in teaching before the days of PC projectors and when even slide projectors or OHPs were in short supply. This one is 120cm wide and in colour.

The artist was Eric Melcher - no trace on a net search - he was probably a working illustrator rather than a kunstmaler. The detail is worthy of Peter Connolly.


It is difficult to date the poster. Some others I have are from  the 80s. This could be older but I have yet to find a catalogue of the DZL production. In any event, this is something produced before Olympias project was conceived, before Osprey, before digital graphics.

It is, however, based on sound information.

TOPOGRAPHY : The viewer is with a crowd of Athenians on the coast of Salamis - probably on the north side of the end of Cynosaura. One is looking north-west towards Mount Ægalios and St. Georgios Island is visible top left. Full marks to Herr Melcher.

Poster view over battle area at Salamis

BATTLE SITUATION : Interpreting ancient accounts of the battle is as tricky as negotiating the straits with a large fleet.... The poster does show a plausible situation, however, and one favoured by some commentators. The Greek ships are skirting the Pesians on the south side and hemming them up against the mainland. The Persians are crowded in on each other and the Greeks are ramming those easy targets they find at the edge of the mass.

GREEK SHIPS : The Greek ships are based on the Lenormont relief . They are shown with missile screens as per the ancient sources but do not have high bridges running fore-aft - actually accurate! They are given stern canopies a la the Pompeiian friezes. This is a laudable attempt - the Lenormont relief has no stern.

Trieres bow - officer is realistically prone. Apobathra ....possible..?

PERSIAN SHIPS : The Persian ships are based on a mix of Phoenician coins, the Sidonian ships and hippoi from Sargon's palace  frieze and Herodoto's comment that they were higher than the Greeks. The ships are towering over the trieres and have two rows of ports for oars. They bear a moon symbol standard and pygmy god figures which identify them closely as Phoenician - as was a large part of the Persian fleet. They are too massive for what we now know about triremes. But ideas from  the seventies would have difficulty in faulting these.

FIGHTING MEN : The Greeks are mostly hoplite types - rushing to reple boarders, though in one case taking a ladder along to board a behemoth ? The Persians are bowmen and spearmen, many rather scythian -looking.

Doomed Phoenicians on their idol-bearing ship.

ONLOOKERS : The artist has made a touching scene of worried onlookers including fearful children. A brave hoplite stands ready while another is off to deal the coup de grace to some Persian survivors.

The whole scene is full of action and executed in a style which or workmanlike and detailed without being a laborious exercise in rivet-counting as are many Osprey illustrations.

Criticisms using perfect hindsight could include that both sides have masts and sails, that the Greeks have a natty folding-joint system to lower their masts ! and that the Persian ships are too high and too similar. But the impact and drama of the picture makes a powerful impression.

If anyone else has seen this poster or knows more about it I would love to hear from them.