Sep 29

The day that the Salamis sea battle began

This piece of history will be completely edited later          29 September is the anniversary of the Salamis sea battle which occurred in 480 BC between Iran and the Greek union, and Iran was the winner. The Greek infantry could not resist the Iranian army and all the hopes of the Greek generals was focused on sea battle. Historians have estimated the number of Iranian ships to have been 400 to 700, but most of these ships were not led by Iranians. These ships belonged to Iran subordinates, namely, Phoenicia, Egypt and Ionia, who were not fully faithful to Iran, and the Greek generals knew this.     At that time, though the Red Sea canal to the Nile was built by Darius the Great, but transport of ships from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean through this canal was yet not commonly used because the Persian Gulf naval forces were not familiar with the Mediterranean area. Therefore, the Iranian army command decided to make use of the ships of the foreign provinces in this expedition, in 480 BC, to Greece. These ships, while carrying supplies for the infantry, were also responsible for attack and defense.     On 29 September Xerxes was informed that the Greek had fled from Athens to Salamis Island and were intending to go to Crente area and start defense from there, which was a war deceit. Xerxes commanded the Egyptian ships in his naval force to block their way in the strip between the two islands, but these ships met an unexpected reciprocal attack by the Greek and since this strip had a narrow width and there was not place for maneuver, he retreated, in disorder. The Ionian ships (the Greek occupied areas on the west of Asia Minor and neighbor islands – present Turkey) of the Iran naval force, who were more interested in their common Greek race than Iran, did not take any effective action, and the Phoenician ships could not do much against the trireme ships of Greece, and. . .     Despite this situation, if all the Iranian infantry forces that had conquered Greece had stayed there, the Athenians would not have been able to return to the shore. On that day some of Xerxes advisers proposed that if Xerxes does not return to Iran immediately, the Greek ships may break the mobile bridge (made of boats and chains) which was put up between Asia and Europe and he would be stranded in Europe, therefore he immediately returned to Asia with two thirds of his forces, which was a martial mistake.     Salamis war is a big lesson for big powers who plan to dominate over smaller countries. But not all have taken this lesson, one of them being Philip II, King of Spain in the 16th century, who had underestimated the British naval force, and was defeated, and thus the golden days of the superiority of Spain ended and the turn of England came. In Salamis war and Marathon war, which occurred in September 490 BC, the important role of a naval force was proved. The Battle of Salamis          Translation by Rowshan Lohrasbpour

The historic message of Farhad II to the Roman Empire

This piece of history will be completely edited later          After complete destruction of the successors of Alexander in the East of Mediterranean by Iran and in the West by the newly established Roman Empire, Farhad II, the then king of Iran, from the Parthian dynasty, signed an agreement with China, and on 29 September 115 BC, sent a message to the Roman government, that the territory of Iran is the same territory as of the Achamenians (before Alexander’s invasion) and its capital would be Ctesiphon (on the shores of Tigris), which was built recently, and this territory should remain safe from attack in order to guarantee permanent peace between the two countries, which were now neighbors. Farhad II proposed to the Romans that it is preferable to solve amicably, with mutual discussions, any possible future differences that may arise, instead of going into war.           Translation by Rowshan Lohrasbpour (AmordadNews writer)