The sailors of Ameinias charged behind the hoplites with crowbars and axes and started to destroy the enemy ’ s prow emblem . The Phoenicians tried to surrender but the angered Athenians slew them without second thought . No mercy for the sacrilegious manslayers ! The Phoenician ship ’ s prow emblem fell into the sea , with a splashing sound as if breaking the grip of fear that held tight the hearts of Greeks , demonstrating in this way that the enemy could not break them psychologically .
The Athenians who had suffered the anguish of their initial inability to prevent the enemy from ravaging their land gave way to their indignation by rowing as ever before . Each ship with its ram had become an instrument of vengeance . The Athenians taking advantage of the enemy ’ s overcrowding , the favorable currents and the vindictive ferocity of their marines began to have the upper hand against their Phoenician opponents . Many ships of the second and third Phoenician battle line after seeing the Athenian marines killing the enemy crews without taking prisoners , panicked and wrecked their vessels on shore of Perama in order to avoid engaging them .
The Persian Admiral seeing the Phoenicians collapsing ordered his reserves to advance . This resulted in more confusion as the ships , due to overcrowding mixed up their oars , thereby giving opportunities to the Greek shipmasters to ram them . Infuriated with anger , Ariabignis tried to bring order into the chaos but as he had no maritime experience , like most Persians , he made the situation worse . Ariabignis suddenly spotted the trireme of Themistocles and ordered his navigator to ram it . He thought that if he killed the Athenian Admiral he would reverse the situation in favor of the Persians .
But Araibignes planned without thinking of the ubiquitous Ameinias , who attacked and rammed the Persian flagship first . Undaunted the Persian Prince ordered his men to seize the ship of Ameinias . He personally led the attack holding in his arms his rich gilded weapons , true to the Persian martial traditions but Ameinias and his sub commander Lykomidis succeeded in stabbing him at a place not covered by his armor and killed him . The death of their leader broke the morale of the Asians and was a key factor to victory .
The next morning the Greeks prepared to fight again . This time Psyttalia island was guarded by the Athenians . The fleet was sailing in a sea covered with corpses and broken wood . But there was no enemy on the horizon . They arrived until the moored cargo ships to be used in the assault which Xerxes was preparing against Salamis but they did not find anyone . Only then realized the size of their victory . The ships were shaken from the joyful cries of a relieved people .
On a trireme from the Attic demos of Elefsina , one marine from the ancient Royal Codridae clan lifted his helmet and looked around . His name was Aeschylus and in his play ‘ The Persians ‘ he left us the most shocking testimony of that terrible day . These people looked at the future with hope and simply wanted only to rebuild their lives . Today we know that with their blood they gave Western Civilization its right to exist !
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