Throne of Xerxes – Mount Egaleo

Xerxes, the Great King of the Persians, had settled with his staff on Mount Egaleo from where he thought he could enjoy his triumph, his victory at Salamis and his dominion over all Greeks. Moreover, he thought that he would be able to oversee the battle from his throne and discern which of his officers would distinguish themselves in battle, so that he could take note of their names and honour them as he saw fit. However, he was soon disappointed. As the Naval Battle began, the first terrible realization both of Xerxes and the other observers was that, due to the extreme confusion that prevailed, it became impossible to distinguish, at the location of the engagement, who was an ally and who was an enemy. The Persians seemed to be fighting in panic, almost blindly. In fact, aware of the fact that their King was on the hill watching them, they tried to distinguish themselves before his eyes through their exploits and they fell into battle with violent passion, which only served to intensify the chaos. Xerxes called a war council and, while he initially proposed to quickly build floating bridges over the straits of Salamis in order to attack the Greeks, he recognized that the Athenian fleet, now in complete control of the region, would not allow such a thing. The Persian King was overwhelmed by the great fear that the Greeks, in their fury, would destroy the bridges of the Hellespont and trap the Persians in Europe. As quickly as possible, Xerxes organised the largest part of his army and hurried north, to cross the Hellespont and return defeated to Asia.