Decree of Themistocles

If the decree is authentic, the abandonment of Attica was part of a considered strategy aiming to draw the Persians into naval combat at Artemisium or Salamis.

The stone bearing the Themistocles decree (Epigraphical Museum, Athens, EM 13330)[1] was discovered at some point before 1959 by Anargyros Titiris, a local farmer at Troezen, in the northeastern Peloponnese.

It was Resolved by the Council and People: Themistokles, son of Neokles of Phrearroi, proposed: To deliver the City in trust to Athena the Mistress of Athens and all the other gods to guard and ward off the barbarian from the land; and that the Atheni- ans themselves and the foreigners who dwell in Athens shall deposit their children and wives in Troizen .

That the treasurers and priestesses on the Acropolis remain guarding the things of the gods; and the other Athe- nians all, and the foreigners of military age, em- bark on the 200 ships which have been made ready and de- fend against the barbarian their freedom and that of the other Hellenes, with the Lakedaimonians and Co- rinthians and Aiginetans and the others who choose to share the danger.

That the generals also write up lists of the crews of the ships on notice-boards, the Athenians from the service re- gisters and foreigners from those registered with Polemarch.

And when all the companies are made up and allotted to the tri- remes, the Council shall complete the manning of all the 200 ships with the Generals, after sacrificing a propitiatory offering to Zeus Almighty and Athena and Victory and Poseidon the Preserver.

And that all Athenians may be of one mind in the defence against the barbarian, those banished for the ten years shall depart to Salamis and remain there until the People come to a decision about them; and the .

If this was indeed the Greek plan, then Thermopylae and Artemisium, which Herodotus describes as all-out attempts to defeat the Persian invasion, would in fact have been only holding actions intended to give time for the evacuation of Attica and the preparation of the defenses of the isthmus.

[6] Scholars who support the authenticity of the decree point to the last two lines of the famous oracle given to the Athenians: Divine Salamis, you will bring death to women's sons When the corn is scattered, or the harvest gathered in.

[7]The identification of Salamis as the site of slaughter would seem to suggest that a strategy calling for a battle there had already been agreed upon by the Greek commanders, which would indicate that the account supported by the Themistocles decree is correct.

The correlation provided by the oracle's mention of Salamis has been challenged by pointing out that oracles were sometimes altered after the fact;[4] various anachronisms in phrasing have been pointed out, although supporters of the text's authenticity dismiss these, noting that Greek practice was to paraphrase documents rather than copy them verbatim;[8] finally, more serious content issues, ranging from chronologically suspect passages to statements that seem out of place in an official decree to serious conflicts with Herodotus's detailed descriptions of Greek troop dispositions.