Salamis
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Salamis. All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
an island off the coast of Attica. It lies due west of Athens. It is separated from the mainland by a long crooked, narrow strait. It was the scene of a celebrated naval battle. After a temporary delay at Thermopylae, Xerxes advanced on Athens and set the city on fire. The Athenians removed their women and children to a place of safety and went aboard the fleet that Themistocles had wisely persuaded them to construct. By the shrewdest kind of management he held his fleet and that of his allies together in the strait of Salamis until the Persians, with a mixed fleet from Asia Minor and halfhearted Greek states, had blocked both ends of the strait and rendered flight impossible. The battle took place September 20,480 B. C. It should be understood that the ships of both contestants were propelled by long oars or sweeps working in oarlocks in the ship's sides. The sailors sat on benches under the deck, and bent to their oars in unison. The fighting men were on the deck above the rowers. Fighting was carried on by throwing out grappling hooks and catching the vessel of the enemy. As the vessels drew together a shower of javelins was let fly, and a hand to hand conflict ensued. Dead or alive, the conquered were cast into the sea. Themistocles had chosen his location with judgment. Man for man and ship for ship his forces were superior in quality, and were fighting, moreover, in very desperation, for home, life, and family. The narrowness of the strait permitted the ships of Xerxes to come into action no faster than the Greeks were able to dispose of them. The sea was soon full of abandoned hulls and floating wreckage of all sorts. The athletic Greeks with shouts of victory darted hither and thither spearing clinging Persians, "as men spear tunnies." Terror, bred of disaster, spread through the vast Persian fleet. Hundreds of ships crowded into the narrow passage. They blocked each other's way, entangled their oars, and fell a helpless prey into the hands of the Athenians, the smoke of whose burning homes was not calculated to arouse sentiments of mercy. Nightfall stayed the slaughter. Expecting a victory, not a disaster, Xerxes had led his army to the coast of Attica that none who escaped the javelin and the sea might flee by land. He had caused his throne to be erected on a promontory overlooking the strait. After the battle he made all haste by land and sea for the Hellespont lest the Greek fleet cut off his retreat to Asia. A king sat on the rocky brow Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis; And ships by thousands lay below, And men in nations,--all were his, He counted them at break of day, And when the sun set, where were they? --Byron, Childe Harold.
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
An island of Attica celebrated for a battle fought there between the fleets of the Greeks and Persians, in which the latter suffered defeat. Sallustius, Crispus. A celebrated Latin historian. He wrote a history of the Catilinian conspiracy, and died thirty-five years before the Christian era.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or PITYOUSSA (modern name KOLURI), an irregularly shaped, mountainous island of ancient Greece, off the coast of Attica. Its area is about 30 square miles; chief town Koluri. It had anciently two principal towns, Old and New Salamis. It is remembered chiefly on account of the great naval battle between the Greeks and Persians, which was days after the battle of Thermopylæ, but in which the Persians were entirely defeated.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The battle Aiton's described in 1910 is still told much as it was, though scholars no longer fix it as firmly to September 20, 480 BC easoning ancient sources allow only a date in late September, and estimates range across the last week of the month. What has moved is archaeology rather than narrative: since 2016 Greek underwater excavations in Ampelakia Bay have uncovered remains of the classical harbour and fortifications of the town of Salamis, the base from which the Greek fleet operated, and Greece marked the battle's 2,500th anniversary in 2020. The island Collier's called Koluri in 1921 is now officially Salamina, home to roughly 39,000 people, a large Hellenic Navy base and shipyards, and a commuter ferry run to the Piraeus suburbs easoning a working Athenian suburb rather than the bare mountainous islet the old entries imply.
Written for this edition, 2026.