The Greco-Persian Wars, Part Five: The Destruction Of Athens
with Victor Davis Hanson via The Daily WireAs Xerxes' victorious legions triumphantly marched into Attica, panic swept the countryside. An estimated quarter million women, children, and elderly fled the region in one of the largest mass migrations of the ancient world. Themistocles decreed Athens must be abandoned. The entire population of the city and its immediate surroundings, some 100,000 souls, evacuated to the rugged island of Salamis where, as historian Victor Davis Hanson writes: “They were gambling that their own seaman, along with the still unconquered Greek allies from the Peloponnese, could wreck the Persian fleet before they all starved—and before the onset of autumn.”
with Victor Davis Hanson via The Daily WireAs Xerxes' victorious legions triumphantly marched into Attica, panic swept the countryside. An estimated quarter million women, children, and elderly fled the region in one of the largest mass migrations of the ancient world. Themistocles decreed Athens must be abandoned. The entire population of the city and its immediate surroundings, some 100,000 souls, evacuated to the rugged island of Salamis where, as historian Victor Davis Hanson writes: “They were gambling that their own seaman, along with the still unconquered Greek allies from the Peloponnese, could wreck the Persian fleet before they all starved—and before the onset of autumn.”
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